Tattoo Projects Born to Blog

March 30, 2007

Getting on the Boat

The Marketing Forum is a month away. We’re getting ready to roll, packing up our biz cards, Listerine breath strips, and getting our teeth whitened. There’s a lot of talking to be done, you know. We’re Boat virgins, but we hear it’s a grueling experience. Meetings strictly regimented, scheduled within an inch of one’s life. We heard about the Boat from our friends Jim Edwards and Karen Benezra at Brandweek. One big fat check later and we were signed up. The word on the street is that the Boat is for serious new biz hunters. No bells and whistles allowed, and we can’t even bring a tattoo artist on board. We’re working on serving wine at our lounge, but no o.k. on that yet. As far as we can tell, there’s only 1/2 hour here and there for sunbathing and gambling. But you know, rules are made to be broken.

March 29, 2007

On the Market

We get a lot of portfolios. There’s no shortage of creative industry professionals soliciting work. We are very keen on new talent, and welcome their inquiries. It’s true that our vibe is slightly Sunset Marquis, and we lean more toward the rock n’ roll side of center. What’s interesting is how so many young’uns assume that professionalism can be thrown out the window when inquiring about a job at Tattoo Projects. Now don’t get me wrong: we like our girls hot, our guys tall, dark and sexy, bourbon in the morning coffee is perfectly acceptable, and we shudder at the phrase, “business casual”. But even New Orleans has a line between acceptable and unacceptable, likewise with Tattoo. For a few thoughts on the subject, check out Your Book is Fine, It’s Your Breath That’s Bad, an article we wrote for our our friends at recruitment firm Talent Zoo.

March 28, 2007

Charlotte ADDY Awards

So we hit the ADDY Awards in Charlotte a couple weeks back. There’s some great talent in the Charlotte area, and we thoroughly enjoyed mixing it up with these crazy folks. Best of Show went to Greenspon Advertising for some fun TV they did for the Charlotte Checkers. Production handled by Charlotte-based Wonderworld. What a kick-ass group of people! Tattoo enjoyed the warm welcome and Southern hospitality. Evidence of how incredibly cool these people are– they actually pulled us in to join them for their Best of Show photograph! What other agency would ever do that, in a million years? Just plain cool, that’s all. Super-cool bunch of people, plus, they’re affiliated with a copywriter we definitely took note of, Patrick McLean, very nice stuff. Lots of love from the Charlotte Ad Club– they even featured our peeps up front for coverage of the event, check out our own Eddie at the show. Nice tatts, not to mention nice pipes.

March 27, 2007

Christmas in March

The holidays are only 9 short months away, and Tattoo is getting ready. You know how crazy it gets those last few months before, with all the shopping and parties and all. We’ve got a doozie planned for you, so we got started early. We don’t want to spoil the surprise– but here are a couple hints: it involves a few bottles of wine and a recording studio. You’ll have to wait for December to find out the rest.

March 26, 2007

Tattoo in Pittsburgh

Three days in Pittsburgh this week. Certainly not for the weather, which is a pitiful 52 degrees compared to 86 in Charlotte. We’re liaising with contributors Tomcat Photography and Big Science. Tomcat is best known for their sexy South Beach Magazine shots; meanwhile, Creativity magazine ranked Big Science among the top ten for best use of original music. As well as being a crazy, insane composer, Big Sci’s Jay Green also does some disturbingly artistic photography with Ceiling of Glass. Don’t let his imaginative works fool you, though– he’s a pussycat. And the Polish doll, Tia, is his girlfriend, who is perfectly fine playing along for her man’s art. We think.

March 25, 2007

What’s shakin’ in Charlotte?

Tattoo is set up below the Mason-Dixon in Charlotte, North Carolina. It’s the perfect place for us: the land of Lynnrd Skynnrd, Jack Daniels, fast cars, and garden-variety rebel spirit. It’s the perfect place for us, no doubt. We selected Charlotte as the home for our business, based on economic development and quality of life. Actually, Vegas ranked at the top of the charts for economic development. But sanity ruled over Celine Dion and roulette, and Charlotte won. Last week, Tattoo headed down to the South End and checked out some of the talent in town. Limerick Studios, Mad Toy Box Films, Hot Sake Creative, Boone-Oakley, Doggett, and a very cool no-name bar & grill. Next up: NoDa.

March 24, 2007

Marketing Forum

The Marketing & eMarketing Forums March Supplier e-Newsletter

I Just Got a Manicure – Can I Put That On My Timesheet?
A few things for clients to consider about billable hours and the creative biz
By Buffy McCoy Kelly
Creative Director/Owner, Tattoo Projects

Since the Stone Age of David Ogilvy, Mary Wells Lawrence, and Darren Stevens, the advertising industry has churned out ideas – and timesheets. In order to get the ideas, it is de rigueur for clients to exchange vows with their agency, plan a long and strategic future, and then start paying. And paying. And going to meetings. And paying. The cocktails, the hobnobbing, the relationship-thing. It’s a fabulous enterprise in the marketing world. But wouldn’t it be nice if you could just buy really great, strategic ideas, as you needed them? Better yet, with a set price tag, instead of those labyrinthine billable hours? For clients who wonder the same thing, here’s some food for thought.

Some of the most creative writing agencies do is on their timesheets. When I started out as a young creative at a major agency, one of my very first lessons was “How To Fill Out A Timesheet.”  Timesheets, I was lectured, was the way we made our money. This was shocking to me, because I had been lead to believe we made our money from creating great ideas that got results for our clients. But I was just a dumb kid.

One thing’s for sure – the staff working on your business may not know your demographic, your business goals, the ROI on your last campaign, or even your CEO’s name — but they do know how to round up in 15 minute increments on your job number. For further information on this topic, google Shona Seifert and Thomas Early.

Your agency’s shorts should be flapping in the breeze, right alongside yours. For most agencies, there is a comfort level with the billable hour. It provides an easy metric for measuring and deconstructing fees. Clearly, it doesn’t always reflect the value of the work being done, but it’s predictable and familiar. And for a client who wants an agency that does predictable and familiar work, well, that would be a perfect fit.

More sure-footed agencies are willing to base their compensation on performance. Or to have the knowledge and cajonès to tell you exactly how much a job is going to cost, and to adhere to that down to the penny. Advertising is a valuable commodity for advancing your brand; when an agency knows their worth, and is willing to have skin in the game, the game heats up pretty quickly.

I’ll have the cake, please. When you hire an agency, what are you paying for, anyway? You’re paying for ideas and knowledge. Not time. Creative is a commodity. As a client, you should get the luxury of only paying for the final work. Sometimes, the idea pops out of nowhere, in a smidge of a billable hour. But that doesn’t mean that’s how much it’s worth. Or it could be squeezed out painfully slow, like a 12-lb baby. That doesn’t make the idea worth more money.

I like to think of the whole thing in terms of cake. When you go to a restaurant and order, you just pay for the cake. Not an hourly rate for the time it took to mix, bake, and frost. Or for the chef to take a break and play xBox and have PBR while the thing is in the oven.

Clients should have the experience of feeling the same way about their creative work. You should get to order the cake.

Hey, it’s on your dime. In “The Art of Creativity¨, Psychology Today notes, “research suggests that creative people make more mistakes than their less imaginative peers. They are no less proficient-it’s just that they make more attempts than most others. They spin out more ideas, come up with more possibilities, and generate more schemes. They win some; they lose some.¨ Which is perfectly fine — unless you’re paying by the hour.

“You have to have a coyote inside you.” These words of wisdom about creativity from Chuck Jones, the animator who created Wile E. Coyote, are especially true of the people doing your advertising and marketing. Either you have it, or you don’t. No amount of billable hours can change that.

March 23, 2007

Ray Gun

Of all the projects we’re doing right now, this one is the very best. Maybe because it’s one of our most unique, most notable pieces of work. And the one that’s most like birthing a 14-lb baby.

If I Had a Ray Gun is a kids’ book from Tattoo Projects, coming to Amazon.com and a bookstore near you soon. We’re happy to be working with artist/illustrator Laith Bahrani. His work is dramatic, funny, strange, and disarming. Especially cool is the interesting Low Morale work he created, which was picked up by MTV. We like his RadioHead “Creep” animation. Also of note is a new animation project, “Everloving”- music by Moby. It’s wicked cool.

Abalooba spot!

March 22, 2007

Premium Commercials to go with my Premium TV, please.

Circuit City is currently running a promotion that gets the buyer a Sony HD TV 40″ or larger, installation, HD digital cable, and a home theatre system, at a discount. Cool– where do I sign? With the fabulousness of HD, big screens, and surround-sound in our living rooms, it makes you wonder: why can’t we pick our commercial packages, just like we pick our Direct TV? I’d gladly pay a premium for only the good commercials with my Spongebob. Well-lit, professionally-directed, strategic concepts and high quality creative. Why not? I don’t know about you, but I don’t want to see those homemade car dealership commercials 50″ wide and in HD. I’m thinking an extra $10 or $15 a month would be a worthwhile upgrade, for the discerning consumer. What do you think?