I hate Fridays

I hate Fridays.Why? For many, it’s their favourite day of the week.

I hate it because for me, it means briefs arriving in my mailbox that are due the following week.

I no longer accept briefs on Friday afternoons. Why? Just because a client doesn’t care about quality, doesn’t mean that I shouldn’t.

Because what quality can you deliver for a brief that arrives at 14:09 on a Friday with the expectation to prepare an offer for Monday?

I would understand if it was an emergency: a PR crisis or a social change like Covid - then we have to do the best we can in the time and work 24/7.

But no…it’s a brief about Christmas.10,000 questions to hundreds of segments - about Christmas promotions, gifts, mindsets, hopes and changes.

Christmas is not an emergency. Santa comes every year, at the same time (if you’ve been good).But every year, around September, we get emergency briefs about Christmas!And every November we get an emergency brief about…anything, because money has to be spend THIS year.

I really cannot understand why people in corporations - who are obsessed with planning and are better at planning than anybody on this planet - why they cannot plan research for the single most important sales event during the year. An event that happens every year at the exact same time???

So, as a person who is not on the client side - my question is (a real question, not rhetorical):

1.   Why are 8/10 briefs emergency briefs when they’re not emergencies?!

2.   Why are we 7/10 briefs sent on a Friday afternoon?

3.   It the expectation, that because “we are paying” everybody should work on the weekend?

4.   Why does it take the client longer to accept the offer, than it takes for the agency to write it?

5.   Why is the time taken to conduct the research shorter that it takes for a client to pay the invoice?

6.   Why can’t planning obsessed corporations plan research for predictable occasions?

I am no diva. I do not mind working on weekends. I also do not mind working fast and waiting on an invoice.But I want to have a good reason for it.

Emergency briefs for non emergency subjects is not a good reason.

If you are a client and have never worked on the side of research or strategic agency, let me tell you what happens when you send briefs on a Friday:

COPY PASTE .

The agency reuses an offer that they’ve presented to a previous client and just changes the logo to yours.It doesn’t mean it will be bad. But there are no guarantees it will be good.

It is a lottery.

Because there is no way a team can customise it, think creatively, innovatively or strategically about it!So, the research you get for the most important time for your business – is utter lottery luck .

We love research. We love knowledge. We love quality.That is why we do not take briefs that come on Friday.

But if you are a client who loves sending briefs on a Friday – on Monday be aware that:

1.  you only had 1 brain working on your brief over the weekend, instead of the 3 or 4 brains you would have had with better timing.

If an agency works on a brief during the week – the whole research and strategy team brainstorm together. On a weekend, only one unlucky, pissed off researcher (who had to miss a date, playing with their kids, sleeping or doing whatever people like to do after work) was working on writing you an offer.

2.   You get the very first idea they come up with – not the best one.

No chance to get to the best, because there is no time to rewrite, to rethink, to improve. And there’s no time for second drafts when you only finish your first one 15 hours before it needs to be sent.

3. No details checked.

There is no chance to check costs and the timing of recruitment. Because in order to do that, you need to know specific criteria, that the researcher only knows after they have decided on the specifics of techniques. And that happened 20-15 hours before offer has to be sent.

 So what you get: COPY PASTE

Maybe good, maybe bad. Not sure. We’ll see. It is a Lottery!We can do research fast – difficult, but doable.But we need time to analyze.

And how much time do we have to do deep, credible, insightful analysis, if there is only 22 days since the day we send the offer till the day we are expected to bring the report? Realistically it means 15-17 days (including all weekends) to do field and analysis.

Do you know what we can do in 15-days? We can just lick the iceberg of knowledge.

This tip is what everyone else already knows, because your competitors also send briefs on a Friday. So their research agency can also only do licking not digging. Licking means - anyone who has common sense and knows how to use Google, how to look and how to talk - can get these basic results. For free – no need to pay for research.

Anything that is valuable, not mediocre and not known by everyone – needs time.

Not much. but ..Enough to dive deep enough to bring insights not “insights”. Enough to bring knowledge – not information. Enough to give strategic recommendations not just PowerPoint presentations.

We do not take briefs like this any more. Not because we want to be disrespectful – but because it is simply unprofessional.

I understand that we are all overwhelmed with work.I understand that research is not the most important thing in a company. But, I also understand, no, I know, that good strategy, good sales, good communication and good design starts with deep knowledge of human psychology and behaviour. Deeper that your competitors have.

 We are proud to bring knowledge that is not obvious, boring information. We are proud that we deliver solutions not research presentations.We love Mondays and we want to work with people who also love they job. People who care. People who understand that good things take time. Time that has to be planned.

With mediocre research – you get mediocre data – with mediocre data – you get mediocre products and mediocre communication. And these make the world a worse place. I do not want to be part of it.

That is why I do not take briefs on Fridays.

Which is why I appreciate so much or clients, who do love Mondays, who do love their work, who do planning, because good things need time.

Thank you, have a good Monday.