NO #@%$!#% REASON.
True story. I know this producer – works for a great little film company in Pittsburgh – who has found an interesting way to compete for business against companies from the big production Meccas like New York, Chicago and Los Angeles. The company simply adds a line item to its bidding worksheet called: “NFR.”
Don’t bother looking for it on the AICP forms your agencies share with you as part of their production estimating process; you won’t find it (unless you’re working with a certain production company out of Pittsburgh). It stands for “No Fucking Reason,” and it’s there solely because if this great little film company doesn’t add it to the bottom line, they stand no chance of getting projects from those “precious type” agencies who seem to revel in the trendy and the spiffy and the boffo, no matter the cost to their clients. To quote my producer friend at the film company: “If I don’t add $75,000 to my bid, some of these agencies just don’t take me seriously.”
In all fairness, I must tell you that this was not conveyed to me with any sort of predatory glee. It was matter of fact, and with not a small amount of regret actually. In truth, it bothers them to have to add the NFR. But all is fair in love and war and commercial production. So they employ the NFR in order to allow their great little film company to compete in an environment in which certain agencies in certain markets simply feel some strange obligation to spend too much for broadcast production.
I guess it’s like my wife’s next pair of shoes: if they’re not expensive beyond all logic and reason, if they don’t have a certain name slapped on and if they’re not purchased in a certain store, then they can’t possibly be the real deal.
Current estimates have web marketing outpacing broadcast advertising by 2010. Personally, we feel that this is a very conservative estimate. And is it any wonder? The tracking of ROI in the web/brand response world is light years ahead of what can be garnered through traditional integrated means. And while there are still irresponsible agencies out there in the web-marketing world including their own versions of an “NFR” on their client estimates, at least the measurability and accountability of web-based solutions make it more difficult to rationalize. And get away with.
It all comes down to ROI – whether you’re doing a landing page promotion or an email marketing campaign or a full-blown integrated program that includes traditional broadcast strategies. And in this day and age, there’s “NFR” not to make ROI – and being a responsible resource partner – the foundation upon which the future of our business is built.