In MYPRODUCT2 I detailed how at my first job in advertising industry I managed hundreds of costs and budgets for Cosmorom project, becoming the financial node of Graffiti/BBDO agency for this client.
All this work as an accountant I did for years on Cosmorom account and later on other accounts.
Doing costs implies the following: you are required to know very well all the details regarding these costs, because every detail from the budget line has a corresponding aspect in real project.
The cost making responsibility forced me to learn all the details of the projects and finally contributed in developing my budgeting skills.
2.Task
However, do not believe that the work in the agency involved only important responsibilities like those mentioned above.
Looking back, I asked myself that was my first project when I joined the Customer Service department from Graffiti / BBDO.
3.Action
As I detailed in MYPRODUCT14 in my internship period I noticed that Jennifer Schaffer (the account director on telecom client) had mentioned the need to study the Cosmorom competition’s services and products. So, I immediately went to Connex and Dialog stores, I took all product and service brochures, and during the night I developed a comparative analysis. This analysis was so well executed that it was directly included in the agency’s presentation to Cosmorom.
As a consequence of my proactivity, the first task I was assigned by the account director was to oversee the development of all Cosmorom products and services presentation materials that would be available to customers at the point of sale.
I refer here to leaflets, posters, flyers that present the subscriptions, cards, special offers etc.
Generally in an agency, the development of POSM materials is a project that creative and customer service people run away, because:
-It does not involve a significant creative challenge
– It takes a lot of time to develop texts until they reach the final version
-it implies multiple revisions, text corrections
-it requires very much attention in the dtp area
In other words, it is a project of endurance, attention, without creative capital and because of the volume of work involved (text, images) it is very easy to make mistakes that sometimes are discovered even after the materials are produced.
And the customer service responsible must ensure that the final materials that go into production are without any mistake. It is one of his main responsibilities, maybe even the first one.
4.Results
So for almost three years, I think I participated in the creation of tens or hundreds of presentation materials with Cosmorom’s products, services and offers, many times my work included the final correction of these materials.
This work probably involved hundreds of hours allocated to this project and in order to be sure that the final materials are mistaken, I often did a direct team with my dtp colleagues who were quite nice to let me stay with them for working on final observations, corrections.
5.Key Learnings
The development of POSM materials was my first job responsibility. I can say that this project helped me enormously because:
-I became immediately aware of my direct obligation to go through the final materials going to production and give the final ok.
-I obtained a photographic way of scrolling through the materials and “seeing” text or image errors.
I trust my colleagues and collaborators from marketing / communication. But as long as my responsibility also includes these areas, I kept the habit of finally approving all the materials coming out of the company, because a last introspective review is a supplementary assurance that materials are conformed and correct.
Notification: MYPRODUCT reflects my real professional experience and expertise as well as my subjectivity. I do have a profound respect for all the companies I collaborated to and for all the people I worked with. It is not my intention to approach any sensitive, confidential or offending information related to companies, projects or people. If you the reader deduct or recognise companies, projects or people in my examples, I kindly ask you to respect MYPRODUCT and my professional and ethic approach and to not share any detail, information, situation, name, company.