It was a beautiful, and slightly cool Atlanta afternoon when I walked into the offices of PM Publicidad off of Peachtree St. for my lunch screening with the Hispanic agency. My first impression was – “Everyone is so friendly!”. Little did I know that this was only the beginning of what would become the highlight of my trip.
Julian Schieneman came out to greet me. This is the fellow whom I had been in contact with before my travels, and who helped me set up the screening. A bit of background on me, I am from Venezuela, born and raised, and my first language is Spanish, but enough about me back to the point. Julian came over and introduced himself with a firm handshake and a warm smile, all in Spanish of course . He quickly proceeded to take me on a tour of the agency, and led me back to Patricio Montalbetti’s(partner) office who was not there, so we went into the kitchen area while the conference room became available. My lunch order arrived, and so we quickly set it up and everyone began to pile into the room.
It is worth noting that I am never nervous before a screening, in fact I quite enjoy the thrill of the presentation. This instance was no different except as people began to settle in, get their food, and relax, I noticed that all we were speaking was Spanish, which don’t get me wrong is awesome, but odd because generally I deal with agencies where even though there are Hispanics, we tend to speak English. Nevertheless, I carried on chatting it up as I tend to do, and finally Julian said, “bueno Ramiro, vamos a darle!”(“ok Ramiro, let’s get the show on the road”).
I launched into my presentation and quickly become aware that I was doing the whole thing in Spanish, which while not odd, it certainly was new for me. Fortunately I love my job and know our work extremely well, and so I got thru it with flying colors. “Muy bien, Ramiro, excelente!” everyone was saying. The questions started coming, and the answers flew out of my mouth as easy as could be. Everyone seemed impressed with the work, and very appreciative of my time. Really, I was the one who was thankful for their time.
When all was said and done, Julian brought me back to Patricio’s office where I waited to meet the owner. This is definitely a rare moment for me since most of the time, or at least in my experience the owners are far to busy to meet with me. I waited for a bit, and looked at the pictures around his office of his family, and realized that I felt incredibly comfortable being there. As if I belonged. Finally Patricio walked in with Julian, I reached out my hand for a shake only to be met with a warm hug, and a smile. Right then and there I knew that we would work with this agency. Something special had just happened, and I felt great about the trip, and in particular about the screening with PM.
Long story short, as I was in the security line at Hartfield airport, getting ready to come home. My phone rang, and Julian’s friendly voice asked if I could bid out a job for them. I told him I would get on it, as soon as I got back to the office on Monday. We bid out the job, which we lost because Cox felt more comfortable using an existing vendor to do the work, Patricio also told me that our bid had won financially, which was great to know, but not so great for getting the work. Without hesitation, I told Patricio that we would do a test to prove that not only could we do the work as well if not better than our competitor, but clearly we could do it for less money as our bid had proven. We did the test yes… and since then we have completed 5 commercial spots for Cox Cable using the spokes-character “Digi”, and not only was it a blast for us to work on, but it was the beggining of an amazing relationship with a bunch of folks from across the country, that will endure the test of time.
For us at Hinge Digital, relationships are far more important than anything else, and the corner-stone of our culture at the studio. We love to share our talents with people, but when those talents transcend the work, and it truly becomes about relationships, and friendship, then and only then I believe the work takes on new heights.
Check out the work below, so you can judge for yourself, and see what a great relationship and passionate business partner can bring to your campaign.
We look forward to building that relationship with you.