Agency

In Which Berry Pitches His Idea to the Client

still Sunday, still mother's day

The four men were seated around the sticky laminate-top table of a Tim Horton's in deep Mississauga. The Atrabax clients almost exclusively lived in neighbouring Oakville -- home of sprawling houses, in-ground pools and nothing whatsoever that one could walk to -- and this constituted the furthest they would consider driving to meet Berry for his urgently requested 'facetime.'

Berry wished he'd had time to go home, shower and change before meeting them, but they'd insisted it had to be immediately.

"Look, Berry," began Charles, who always took the lead. "I appreciate how seriously you're taking this, but I have a tee-off scheduled for 1 pm. If we could..."

"And my wife doesn't like me working on weekends," added Suneel. "I told her I was popping over to the mall to exchange her present. Between us, the Instapot I got her didn't go over very well this morning," he grimaced.

Roland said nothing. He simply stirred his five sugar, three cream Extra Large coffee and waited for Berry to get to the point.

"I have some great news," announced Berry in his best sales voice, "And a unique opportunity."

His feet prickled with sweat as they usually did when he was under pressure. He felt the flipflops grow slippery. With false confidence, he continued:

"Early numbers--" (there were none) "--show that the warrior campaign is doing extremely well. Shares and comments are already through the roof, and it already shows signs of going viral."

The client(s) nodded interestedly. The word 'Viral' is the holy grail of contemporary marketing, right behind the baseless desire to 'Own' occasions.

Berry took their enthusiasm and played to it. "Now, I know you weren't sure about this. Thierry's wife had her concerns, and those were fair enough. But I think we find ourselves here with an entree into a social zeitgeist that Theirry's wife nor we could possibly have predicted.

"The Agency is so excited about it, in fact, that we've put our best social people on it this morning. They've been looking for a way to AMPLIFY the impact of the messaging in the market. Really solidify our position. Take OWNERSHIP of this 'woman as warrior' message. And they've come up with something..." he paused for effect, "...rather special, I think."

He then outlined for the client an opportunity to sponsor an upcoming event in Brantford, Ontario. A celebration of an actual historical warrior woman.  Not only would this underline their campaign messaging, he explained neatly, but it would also give them a chance to make a large, public financial contribution to the Indigenous community.

Everyone around the table looked to Charles.

"How much are we talking?" Charles asked.

Berry took his moon shot.

"Say, a hundred k?"

Charles looked at him skeptically, then reached for his BMW keys.

"Better make it two hundred thousand. We don't want to look stingy. But I want signage at the event. Big banners with our logo."

And just like that (after an endless relay of phone calls and emails between accounting people), the Agency's Atrabax fund safety limit was raised by 200k.