Turned down a $10,000 marketing deal

[Brad Gosse]

A client approaches me with a $10k marketing budget for his new video game.
I ask the client for a demo account to play the game.
I think it sucks so I send it to TeddyP who works with me. He also has no interest.

2 schools of thought here.

Drug dealer mentality: If I don't take his money someone else will.
Ethical mentality: Tell the client I can't work with him because we can't endorse the product.

Anyway we have chosen to not work with this client therefore passing on $10k in revenue. For me it's simple, I don't want an unhappy client so I just say no.

What would you do?

[Loren Woirhaye]

well, if the product doesn't turn you on at all, I'd tell the
client that. Explain why you don't want to take the job
for the game in it's present form. While the client may
not like hearing his game sucks, it's the kind of feedback
he needs if he's going to succeed in business.

Ask him if he has other projects in the pipeline - perhaps
one of those might really turn you on.

As a general rule I don't write or work with clients if I feel
he product is lame, has no market or bores the hell out
of me.

[Wesley Cash]

Well I guess it depends how much $$$ you already have in the bank in the first place.

10k looks like a million dollars if you are struggling or broke.

But if you already have money you get to have the 2 luxury words of "options" and "leverage" and you can pretty much do what you feel is right in the long-run.

So me at this point i'd take it! and try to find somethin good about it! lol

[JayXtreme]

Ditch the project

$10k is peanuts, really. If you want to get stuck, promoting something that you don't fully sync with...

Peace

Jay

[Brad Gosse]

Originally Posted by Wesley Cash

Well I guess it depends how much $$$ you already have in the bank in the first place.

10k looks like a million dollars if you are struggling or broke.

But if you already have money you get to have the 2 luxury words of "options" and "leverage" and you can pretty much do what you feel is right in the long-run.

So me at this point i'd take it! and try to find somethin good about it! lol

Perspective does play a role. I can afford to turn down $10k but on the other hand I can think of about a dozen ways to spend my cut

I also know from experience that a $10k headache is not worth having in the end. Clients expect results and if they don't see any they will ask you why. Then do you explain you knew all along they had a dud?

[Brad Gosse]

Originally Posted by Clearview

It sucks to the two of you, but the real question is... does it not suck to enough people to make it worthwhile? Has anyone done any testing to see if the game's target audience thinks it sucks too? Just playing devil's advocate here, I totally understand where you're coming from though.

I guess as the marketer I can't get behind it without understanding the benefits. The budget is too small for a focus group so we had to be our own focus group.

I agree the product may have merit to some. We just can't put ourselves in that shoe

[darrin_cooper]

Well, you may not want to do the project, however, you should provide an analytic strategic product comparison plan that the person can purchase, so that they can understand the benchmarks of the product, where it lacks, and where it succeeds.

Then, at least the product owner can go back to the drawing board, or take the consulting advice provided & make changes OR scrap your decisions and go with someone else.

You would accept payment only if client agrees with the analysis. Therefore, you get to keep a client and provide an alternative consulting service, and if all works out, you may offer to do the marketing.

Everything doesn't have to be a negative. It's just providing an alternative.

[Brad Gosse]

Originally Posted by darrin_cooper

Well, you may not want to do the project, however, you should provide an analytic strategic product comparison plan that the person can purchase, so that they can understand the benchmarks of the product, where it lacks, and where it succeeds.

Then, at least the product owner can go back to the drawing board, or take the consulting advice provided & make changes OR scrap your decisions and go with someone else.

You would accept payment only if client agrees with the analysis. Therefore, you get to keep a client and provide an alternative consulting service, and if all works out, you may offer to do the marketing.

Everything doesn't have to be a negative. It's just providing an alternative.

GREAT Idea

Where were you during our brainstorming sessions? LOL

[Marhelper]

That is tempting but you have to follow your inner instinct.

[Jill Carpenter]

Do you want to date a girl with crooked teeth just because her daddy is rich? Tell the daddy to fix his girls teeth and maybe you'd then like to date her.

[Brad Gosse]

Originally Posted by avenuegirl

Do you want to date a girl with crooked teeth just because her daddy is rich? Tell the daddy to fix his girls teeth and maybe you'd then like to date her.

Depends how she looks in tight jeans

[Charleskidd]

Well it depends on what kind of credibility you built for yourself. If you take the 10k it will lower your credibility if the product is garbage.

[cabetan]

Originally Posted by darrin_cooper

Well, you may not want to do the project, however, you should provide an analytic strategic product comparison plan that the person can purchase, so that they can understand the benchmarks of the product, where it lacks, and where it succeeds.

Then, at least the product owner can go back to the drawing board, or take the consulting advice provided & make changes OR scrap your decisions and go with someone else.

You would accept payment only if client agrees with the analysis. Therefore, you get to keep a client and provide an alternative consulting service, and if all works out, you may offer to do the marketing.

Everything doesn't have to be a negative. It's just providing an alternative.

That is thinking with an entrepreneural spirit, I think we all can learn from it. Thanks, Darrin.

As for Brad, we wouldn't expect any less, good choice you'll sleep better knowing you did the right thing.

[Oscar D]

I think you made the right choice.

The way I see it is you could of either chosen to have $ 10k deposited into your account and promote a product that you do not really support or you can make the choice to turn down the offer and protect the reputation of your company.

By the looks of it, you made the second choice and turned it down. I think that you made a smart move there are you possible have just saved your company the hassle of having to promote something that is not up to scratch and therefore protecting yourself and your companies reputation in the market place.

Good decision

[Louise Green]

Fair play to you!!

I would have done exactly the same thing, it isn't worth the hassle and potential trouble it could cause just for a couple of weeks worth of revenue.

[tomw]

Originally Posted by Brad Gosse

A client approaches me with a $10k marketing budget for his new video game.

Wow! I don't think even Obama himself could flog a video game with such a low marketing budget!

I think you did the right thing - regardless of your admirably ethical decision.

Tom

[Brad Gosse]

Originally Posted by tomw

Wow! I don't think even Obama himself could flog a video game with such a low marketing budget!

I think you did the right thing - regardless of your admirably ethical decision.

Tom

Agreed this was a small startup budget but my company specializes in this kind of thing. Small budgets, viral campaigns and big returns.

[TeddyP]

The game was....it was bad.

10k included money we would have had to spend to promote it...so it makes it even less appealing.

I guess a good question is - How much money would it take for you to promote something you thought was a horrible product?

If we had been offered 50k or 100k - would that make a difference? Honestly, 100k would have probably made me find something about the game I found endearing.

[n7 Studios]

Isn't the whole idea of the job to take a challenging product and market it as an absolute winner?

I understand what you and others are saying here - if the product's no good, then it may struggle to sell or prove popular, and could damage your reputation as a result.

But you haven't made the video game - you'll have made the marketing and promotion to shift and sell the game, and if that looks great and gets results, then you've done what you and the client wanted.

I think on the whole you're right though - if it doesn't feel right, don't go for it. Just wondering if there are any positives to take from the potential

[Brad Gosse]

Originally Posted by TeddyP

The game was....it was bad.

10k included money we would have had to spend to promote it...so it makes it even less appealing.

I guess a good question is - How much money would it take for you to promote something you thought was a horrible product?

If we had been offered 50k or 100k - would that make a difference? Honestly, 100k would have probably made me find something about the game I found endearing.

$100k would have allowed a decent focus group budget. We could have found users that liked the game and interviewed them.

Brad

[Miguel Oliveira]

Probably would have turned him down. But for the 10K, I would hope to like the game more and give it a second, third and maybe fourth try before deciding I didn't like it

[tomw]

Originally Posted by Brad Gosse

Agreed this was a small startup budget but my company specializes in this kind of thing. Small budgets, viral campaigns and big returns.

Big returns how? If you work to a clients budget then you normally levy the agency fee from within that budget. Or do do have SLAs that include PPR and invest agency CF in media spend or some other form of time or resource collateral/equity aggregation?

If not...you should really look into it if your have confidence in your staff abilities to deliver the goods and of course your marketing strategies.



Tom

[Brad Gosse]

Originally Posted by tomw

Big returns how? If you work to a clients budget then you normally levy the agency fee from within that budget. Or do do have SLAs that include PPR and invest agency CF in media spend or some other form of time or resource collateral/equity aggregation?

If not...you should really look into it if your have confidence in your staff abilities to deliver the goods and of course your marketing strategies.



Tom

Holy acronyms Batman!!

We take our fee from the top of every spend no matter how small but mostly we find ways to deliver results with non traditional methods we employ.

Results usually brings more marketing dollars from the client.

[tomw]

Originally Posted by Brad Gosse

Holy acronyms Batman!!

We take our fee from the top of every spend no matter how small but mostly we find ways to deliver results with non traditional methods we employ.

Results usually brings more marketing dollars from the client.

Haha! Sorry Brad. Chewin' the fat with a fellow agency owner I slipped into "board-speak!" as opposed to my normal "Warrior-speak" when I'm here.



I'll translate...

...or do do have (S)ervice (L)evel (A)greementss that include (P)roportional (P)rofit (R)eciprocity and invest agency (C)ash (F)low...

It's a well worn approach that is often used by Advertising/Marketing agencies when getting involved with startups because of the uncertainty of actually getting paid. By definition, there is a real element of risk and so an agency may prefer to take an "interest" in helping them succeed.

Trust me, taking an equity stake can often prove to be *very* lucrative.

Tom