The Hunch…

The Hunch:

If you’re in business it’s bound to happen. You come up with an idea and something in your gut tells you it’s the perfect course of action…BUT… everyone around you isn’t as excited as you are about it. You go over it a couple more times and you sell it the best way you can, but the key people aren’t buying it. And when the ‘key people‘ is the important client, it’s especially challenging. We’ve certainly had our share of ‘Hunches‘ at SA’s Video Production Division, sometimes a client will catch the vision and sometimes they don’t.  If not, then we usually just resign ourselves and proceed to plan B, which is usually a more conventional approach that the client is comfortable with. But sometimes, it’s really hard to give up, and that’s when it helps if you are willing to, as an old buddy used to say, “put your money where your mouth is.”
A couple of years ago, we approached a client of ours with the idea of shooting in a commercial in New York.  Since they are known for their New York Style Pizza, this hunch actually made sense.  But there was that cost thing, and the client just wasn’t convinced it would pay off. After failing to sell the idea I had practically given up, but then it hit me!  Just shoot the darn commercial and then show it to them.  The more I thought about it, the more excited I got.  Now all I had to do was figure out how to do it without losing a lot of money…if they didn’t go for it.

It took about a month of planning, but we got it shot, edited it, did a minor color correction and then invited the client over to take a look…..I’ll never forget that feeling; a cross between sheer exhilaration and stark terror as the seconds ticked by… Thankfully, they loved it!  And more importantly, it became the most successful commercial they’d every run.

So what’s the bottom line?  Sometimes you’ve just got to forget about the bottom line and go with your gut. Will it always work?  No, but it’s just possible that the challenges you face with some ideas can be a sign that you just may be onto something.