Ok you procrastinators, I know you’re out there. It is now December 22nd. You have exactly 3 days before Christmas Day or if you celebrate with family like I do on Christmas Eve, you are down to only two! Yikes…it is time to brave the masses and SHOP!

Don’t panic, I am here to help. Working at an advertising and public relations agency we have a lot of retail clients that are perfect for getting the inside scoop. I compiled a few helpful tips to make your last minute shopping experience a little less painful:

Stop by Hazard Center  in Mission Valley: all you need, all in one stop. Have a book lover in the family? Check out Barnes and Noble where you can find a wide variety of fiction and non-fiction books. Can’t decide what to get your boss? Pick up a Starbucks gift card for him and an Eggnog latte for yourself. (My personal Favorite).

 Tiffany & Co. San Diego in Fashion Valley is doing something they have never done before. I think it is pretty cool too! They are offering “boxed, bowed and ready to go” gift options to make your last minute holiday shopping a snap. Just think of the look on that special someone’s face when they see a gift under the Christmas tree wrapped in that timeless Tiffany blue box.

Tiffany & Co. not your style? Try heading on down to Seaport Village for a little shopping along the waterfront. Can’t find a sitter for the kids? No Problem, Seaport Village offers lots of stuff for the entire family. Free entertainment, street performers, waterfront dining, and don’t forget to take a spin on the 1895 Loof Carousel. With over 50 shops to choose from, you’re sure to find something for everyone in the family. Even your old Aunt Edna who is hard to please. Have a teenage girl in the family? Check out Urban Girl Accessories to find tons of things to choose from for that perfect gift.  Still not convinced? Seaport Village is OPEN Christmas Day from 10am-6pm and is offering free all day parking! What’s better than that?

So, you are done shopping and now you have a ton of gifts to wrap. What now? Try Holiday gift bags. All you need is a the gift bag, some tissue paper and you are done. No wrapping, no tape, no scissors and no gift tags. Fast, easy and efficient.

There you have it. A few helpful tips to get you through your mad dash of last minute holiday shopping. I hope you find everything you are looking for!

What makes a good agency/client relationship?  What is the special sauce that breeds mutual respect, maximum collaboration and truly breakthrough creative advertising, design and PR campaigns?  Although we can’t be sure there is a formula that works every time, this is an age-old conversation that I would imagine is held at every decent agency in the world.

Ours is no different.  We just like to think we have given it serious thought, and maybe, just maybe, have figured out what works for us.  (Clients, feel free to chime in here…)

I was inspired by a blog entry by my friend and colleague David Landis, who owns a successful agency in San Francisco.  He and I had an interesting exchange about this concept after he posted his comments on LinkedIn, and I am glad to learn we think alike.

Indra and I realized long ago that if we have formed expectations about how we wish our client relationships to transpire, we need to say it — loudly and up front.  These go both ways — how we expect our clients to behave, and what they can expect from us.   So now, we list those expectations right in our proposals.  And we talk about them with new clients several times as we get started.  Periodically, we check in on these issues to make we are all on track.

What You Can Expect From Us

• Regular Communication — You’ll always know what’s going on and what to expect next. We will begin regular scheduled meetings with your team to keep everyone on track and up-to-date with current projects. We recommend these meetings be held weekly either by phone conference or in person.

• Honesty/Integrity — We say what we mean and mean what we say. You can count on us to give you our honest opinions and our best work in everything we do.  You’ll get an estimate (which must be authorized before work is started) on any new job, so there will be no surprises when you receive the final invoice.

• Commitment — Your goals and priorities become ours. We are driven by your success and will become an integral part of your team, always reaching for your next big milestone.

• Responsibility/Accountability — We do what we say we’ll do. We’ll do whatever it takes to “deliver the goods” on time and within budget. If deadlines need to be shifted, we’ll let you know ahead of time. When a project is complete, we’ll ask for feedback on its effectiveness, then assess strengths and weaknesses and make adjustments to our strategies and tactics as needed.

What We Expect From Clients

• Partnership — We’re on your side. We want to be true members of your team; included in all your thinking processes and marketing decisions. Our effectiveness depends on us having “the whole story”, so that we truly understand your needs and can work in your best interests.

• Commitment to Deadlines — It takes the whole team to make it happen. In our business, we live and die by deadlines, but it doesn’t happen in a vacuum. We’ll let you know up front what we need from you to achieve our timelines, and then we’ll hold you to it as the project progresses and deadlines approach.

• Clearly Defined Goals – Hazy goals equal hazy results. Before we begin any new creative project, we’ll ask you to approve a creative brief. This document is our “road map” to effective advertising—defining our purpose, target audience, challenges, goals, tone and support. We believe that by thinking things through in this way at the outset, we create the greatest possibility for results that achieve your goals.

• Honest Feedback — We need to hear how we’re doing. Of course, we love to hear when we’re hitting home runs, but we also need to know when we’ve missed the mark. Your constructive criticism will allow us to adapt to your style and to tailor our efforts to better suit you.

How healthy — good communications at a marketing communications agency.

Imagine that.

R-E-S-P-E-C-T

No doubt, this time of year most offices are being inundated with the usual barrage of candied, chocolate coated and nut-rolled holiday gift confections.

So for our holiday gift, we decided to give something different.

And we decided to make it ourselves.

After all, each project we work on here at BG has our own hand-crafted touch—there’s no reason our holiday gift should be any different.

Using water-based organic matsui inks and organic cotton bags from terratote the team screenprinted a series of five bags. One for each area of BG’s expertise—advertising, public relations, media, interactive and design. And each with it’s very own representative icon created by art director Nik Helgaas.

Right here at BG we burned the screen printing screens using photo emulsion and printed each bag with our own little hands. It was a little stinky at times (thanks to the screen cleaner) but overall lots of fun and a true team effort.

To finish, the bags were tied together with hemp rope and an accompanying note and hand or rush delivered to each recipient. Thanks to all involved!

Oh, and don’t forget to keep an eye on your inbox for our holiday e-card. It features Jon and Indra in tacky Christmas sweaters (not to be missed!).

It’s getting very tiring to pretend here in San Diego; the fake snow, the scarves and sweaters making us sweat, Christmas trees from dirt lots and Target Garden Centers. It’s time to stop pretending and embrace San Diego’s true holiday spirit.

So while we don our flip flops, tanks and T’s, so will Seaport Village’s Santa Clause, because you know, nobody likes rockin’ all that red fur in 70 degree weather. Even Santa needs a break. He’ll make his arrival to Seaport Village this Sunday, 12/14 by sailboat on the San Diego Harbor. Then he’ll pose in his board shorts on his giant surfboard and wave for free pictures with the kiddies from 12 - 4 p.m.

So if you’re from out of town, or you’re a local and want to rub it in to the out-of-towners, grab a free picture this Sunday then go online to http://blog.seaportvillage.com to send it to your cold family out in the Northeast. They’ll reek of jealousy!

I know, awkward question. Now the age-old question “What is your budget?” doesn’t seem so uncomfortable.

Believe it or not, we don’t ask the budget question so we know how many kegs we can buy for the Holiday party (we’ve been saving money for Holiday booze since March). Understanding a client’s budget not only saves time, it leads to a stronger strategic plan.

Here are three (of 100) reasons to share your budget up front:

1. We will recommend the best strategies and tactics to meet objectives within the budget. When we plan a program with an open-ended budget (i.e. the client says “they don’t know what their budget is” or “they need us to recommend what it should be”) the client, inevitably, treats the plan like a Chinese menu — not necessarily selecting the items we would recommend with a limited budget.

2. We need some guidelines. Keep in mind that we are creative AND strategic. We can think of a million and one ways to promote your brand - keep us grounded. Don’t worry, you will still get creative solutions. Just more realistic ones.

3. It’s hard to get excited about the more affordable campaign that fits within your budget when we originally suggested that you buy out the halftime show at the Super Bowl (Remember, we didn’t have any budget parameters so opportunities were endless!)

Keep avoiding “How much do you weigh?” and “Why do you always smell like pickles?” but certainly be prepared to answer the budget question.

Either you’re already following the Bailey Gardiner troops on Twitter, or you’re tired of hearing about it. Chances are if you know what it is and you’re tired of it, you’re not on it. So to simplify the trial and error process, here are a few steps to get you started. I promise it will take no more than 10 minutes. Need some convincing? Here’s 12 reasons to join Twitter.

1. Go to http://www.twitter.com. Enter your chosen user name, and I recommend making it something easily recognizable. So, if for example your name is Jon Bailey, I’d recommend using the name “JonBailey.”

2. Let twitter search your contacts to start you out with some familiar faces to follow. Spare your friends and skip the invite to those in your address book who aren’t already on Twitter. It’s like AA, they’ll get there when they’re ready.

3. Now you have an official account and it asks you, “What are you doing?” Don’t answer that. Nobody cares what you’re doing. Give us something good, like a helpful link, a comedic realization, a timely piece of news.

4. Write something! First note that your name is no longer “jonbailey”. It’s now, “@jonbailey” and I’m “@lizzied.” So if you want to say something to someone in particular, you write just that, “Hey @lizzied, nice blog post - look I’m on twitter!” Remember, you only have 140 characters per post.

5. Follow and be followed. What does it all mean? The great thing about twitter is that you don’t get littered with info you don’t want. You pick who you want to receive info from (follow) and others choose to follow you. So everything you post is visible to only those who follow you and those who search you. Use the search tool to find people talking about your interests. Find people in your industry and look at who they’re following and who is following them - go ahead and snag a few of them for your own. If you want to be followed, just write some interesting things and consider your key words if you want people with common interests to find you. Chances are once you follow someone, they’ll return the favor.

6. Try a direct message. Being that anyone can find you and read what you’re posting on the World Wide Web, if you want to say something private, follow this format, “d jonbailey Don’t tell jamieortiz that I put all her office supplies in jell-o molds.” Because of the “d” no one but @jonbailey will get that message.

7. If you’re unlike me and you sometimes leave your computer, consider clicking the “settings” tab, followed by the “devices” tab to set your twitter account to your phone. You’ll only receive direct messages to your phone, but you’ll be able to twitter your messages through text message.

8. And my best tip of advice for getting started: Go to http://www.twhirl.org and download the time-saving platform that feeds your twitter feeds into an Instant Message-like platform, eliminating the time it will take you to continually check the twitter website.

Now you’re tweeting, but you’re a novice. In the words of @samirb, “Once you set up a twitter account, remember there’s a short learning curve, like going from a PC to a Mac.”

Have no fear, I’ll be back with some best practices in a following post.

What questions do you have? Don’t ask me what that picture is, you’ll figure it out on Twitter.

I love Thanksgiving. And I hate it too. The chill in the air, the family, the pies. Awesome. The cooking, the cleaning, the quickness of the meal. The cleaning. Did I mention that already? Oh yeah, anyway, the thing is that I think this year there’s a lot to be grateful for. Really. I know the economy is in the tank and our 401ks look like crap, but if you’re reading this then you probably a) have a roof over your head, b) have a computer so you can connect to the world and c) will have a decent meal tomorrow. I’ll bet you could make a pretty good list of what you have to be grateful for, if you think about. I’ve been thinking about it and I am DAMN grateful.

Meanwhile, in Twitterville, some pretty terrific people (who I don’t know) are trying to raise $10,000 in 48 hours to build a classroom in Tanzania. The project is called Tweetsgiving and you can get involved here. When you set out to do good, the Internet makes it a whole lot easier. Tweet what you’re thankful for, give a little money and you might not only change the life of a child in Tanzania but make someone’s day a little brighter (of course they have to be reading Twitter, but isn’t almost everyone? Yet?). That’s pretty easy. And awfully nice.

So, back here at BG, here’s a quick list of things I am grateful for - all agency/work related:

All the new additions to our staff - your thinking, creativity and excitement are fantastic. And our pre-2008 staff ain’t chopped liver either. You all rock.

Our clients - who pay us to do great work on their behalf. Thank you is insufficient. How about a pie? A cocktail?

All the new colleagues we’ve met - especially the ones who are leading the way on social media and digital marketing. Your knowledge sharing is inspiring.

Our consultants - Nancy, Jason, Bob, David and Simon - who have helped us be smarter and better at what we do.

The new opportunities that keep coming our way. The universe has heard us and is responding in a big way.

So, if you’re feeling grumbly about the world, remember this: ‘The Pilgrims made seven times more graves than huts. No Americans have been more impoverished than these who, nevertheless, set aside a day of thanksgiving.’ Now, get out there and have a great(ful) and delicious Thanksgiving!

It’s hard not to get stuck in the day to day chaos of the economy and all the factors that go into the mix.  I find myself looking at each market change under a microscope, wondering what it means to my clients.  Which is why I’m relieved to have some retrospective, bigger picture data about the housing industry.

A little over a week ago, the National Association of Realtors released their 2008 home buyer and home seller survey results.  The results reveal broad trends that shed light on where we’re moving within the industry.  Here are some stats I found interesting:

• 87% of people who researched their home purchase online also used a real estate agent
• First-time home buyers have increased significantly due to tax credit and improvements to the FHA loan program
• Percentage of buyers who purchased a home in foreclosure increased 600%
• 41% of buyers said commuting costs were “very important”
• 90% of buyers said environmental features were important to them

Although this survey is industry-specific, it also shows marketing trends that can be applied to clients across the board.  For the quick marketing bullets and charts, check out this blogpost.

A couple of months ago while the agency went through a brand redesign and web redo, our Executive Creative Director sprang a doozy on us. “I know this may sound a little weird,” he began, “but I want to put a Love page on our site.” Huh? As he explained it, every agency on the planet lists its past client experience. What about the clients you want to work with? The clients you would LOVE to work with?

Thus the Love List was born. We selected a few of the brands we love the most. The ones we would climb mountains to work with.  He figured, maybe it won’t work. But what if it did?

And you know what? It did.

A couple of weeks ago we got an email from the interim CMO at Aptera, a very cool new car concept being born right here in San Diego, that is on our list. Someone at Aptera is plugged into the Internet, cause they found us. And they’re coming to the agency this week. Isn’t that cool?

Often marketers ask their existing (or potential new) agency how much things cost, and that is one of the hardest questions to answer.  What does good creative advertising, design, public relations, social media, interactive marketing cost?  We end up in these stand-offs, playing the game of “you first, no you first” and everyone walks away from the table frustrated.

Fact is, good marketing is not cheap.  Just like anything else in life, you get what you pay for — and quality has its price.  We have the good fortune of working with some incredibly high quality clients whose products are synonymous with the finest in their categories — Tiffany & Co., Brookfield  Homes, the Setai San Diego Hotel, The Mark — the list goes on and on.  If you would not skrimp when purchasing the best solataire diamond money can buy (yes, it comes in a little blue box) then why would you cheat yourself with low quality marketing?

Most agencies like us price themselves fairly — you can check around and see our fees are all pretty comparable. After all, we are in San Diego and although we’d all love to get away with Manhattan agency pricing, there’s a reason we’re not there.  And a reason why we don’t charge those kind of fees.

But here’s the thing I really don’t understand.  Since creativity costs money, and good creative requires a decent budget, why ask agencies to produce champagne campaigns on a beer bottle budget?

Now, I think we’re pretty darn good at wringing every last morsel of power from each dollar of our client’s budgets.  We painstakingly take into account every opportunity to provide the lowest costs we can, so that these savings can be passed on to the client — resulting in more dollars to spend on their marketing impact.   We negotiate with media and vendors to provide fair and reasonable bids, and pass that savings on to our clients.

It’s our job to manage the budgets efficiently and productively, and we excel in this area.  Even when costs must be cut, we partner with our clients to figure out how and where to eliminate dollars in a way that still supports the brand efforts most effectively.

In this current economy, we have had a couple of clients tell us of their need to reduce marketing spending.  Go figure.  Although it’s not fun for either party, what’s been rewarding is our clients’ approach to our partnership with them.  They ask for our opinion and participation in the budgeting process, allowing us to help them identify cost cuts that make sense for them and are not knee-jerk, arbitrary measures.

So, if you are finding yourself in the uncomfortable position of cutting marketing budgets, here’s a couple of things to consider as part of your process:

• Use your agency partner as just that — a partner.  Have them help you decide the best places to cut.  If they are truly the trustworthy and credible resource you have hoped you hired, then they can be trusted to help you decide how to manage a smaller budget.  And without self-serving motivations.
• Determine what things in your budget are nice-to-haves, and what are must-haves.  Prioritizing your line items based on what will bring you the most sales or revenue is going to help your decision process.
• Consider shifting dollars from broad, far-reaching campaigns to ones that are more directed and targeted.  These should allow you to measure results more effectively, and prove up ROI.
• Take it more slowly.  Maybe that “big bang” campaign is no longer possible, but you can still use the creative materials and launch on a multi-phased schedule.
• Don’t throw the baby out with the bathwater.  Just because the budget may be smaller, it may not be smart to stop programs completely — especially if you have invested dollars in creating programs upfront.
• Don’t compromise quality for quantity.  It doesn’t work with cars or clothes, and it won’t work in marketing either.

Creativity DOES cost money.  But that money can be spent effectively, efficiently and productively if the client and their agency talks openly and plans together in partnership.

These economic times will change — they always do.  But creativity never goes out of style.