Shitty agency behaviour
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- Projectile
Share your stories.
- Projectile1
I was working for a company, and someone in marketing had contacted an agency, who sent some design samples. They chose one, and it got signed off all the way to the top.
They then sent the artwork to the in-house team (me) and asked for it to be adapted into various formats. The image was watermarked, and so we had to buy it off Getty. Contacted them, and they wanted £8,000 for the image! And that's not even for exclusive rights!
Basically, on top of being paid to do the initial design concepts, the agency put the chosen image on Getty and were selling it for an insane amount, knowing it had been signed off. Total dick move, but I have to say I did admire the brains and balls! And it's not like I was working for a charity, they were cunts.
Oh and the image wasn't even high res! They literally took a 1080p image and scaled it up in Photoshop!!
- Did the client specifically ask for a photo from Getty ?
It happens often.gonzalle - sorry, was unclear. The image used in the design was quite specific, so it had to be that imageProjectile
- Did the client specifically ask for a photo from Getty ?
- Projectile0
Another one, same agency I think. I was working for the same company.
The marketing dept. came to us with a document they had gotten made, that contained a set of icons on an infographic. Nice design, decent icons. Great.
The icons represented the 10 key areas of our business, so of course everyone wanted them in a different format - a home page image, linking to the infographic. An email image, promoting the infographic, etc. etc.
They then sent an email stating that, according to the contract, they held the rights to said icons, and demanded royalties every time we used/referred to this infographic. So even though it was work we commissioned, they snuck in some legal jumbo that Karen from Marketing didn't understand, and are now demanding thousands for their use!
...and Karen from Marketing kept on going back to the cunts, because budget stuff wasn't her problem. This is how they get away with it - big companies where there's a disconnect like that. All Karen needs to do is get something nice looking in front of her boss - someone else has to worry about the cost.
What are your thoughts on designers holding the rights to work?
In my opinion, if someone commissions something, it's theirs.- nope - copyright remains with the creator, unless specifically signed over and paid for.hans_glib
- I think between this and the other story you had procurement problems at that company =) They needed a producer.zarkonite
- How much of a hassle would it be to redesign in house or outsource those icons as a replacement?CyBrainX
- monoboy5
Won a pitch for a fairly high profile client. During the project kick-off meeting with the CEO she said they preferred another agency's design over ours but chose us because we were cheaper. And then asked me to 'just copy their design'.
I refused. Explained why and she complained to my boss who then threatened me with the sack if we lost the account.
When your entire family live on your monthly paycheck, that shit gets stressful.
Anyway, I told a friend at the competing agency in question after I quit and it caused a proper shit storm.
- ugh I've been asked this so many times!!
I just create something similar but my own. If they complain, then I tell them I'm protecting them from a lawsuitProjectile - the old "oh no no no, you don't ever wanna do that!! They'll be watching us now"Projectile
- when i worked for a web design company, the marketing agency stole our logo pitch.trooperbill
- Name the clientcannonball1978
- @monoboy kudos for standing up for something!Krassy
- That sounds more self-righteous than it was. I quit long after this. I delivered a new design, agency got paid.monoboy
- ^ yet further showing good character. Bravo!Krassy
- ugh I've been asked this so many times!!
- monoboy4
I also worked for a D&AD pencil winning boutique place many years ago and the boss offered to design my wedding stationery as a gift. I was delighted of course.
Until I found out the fucker marked up the print by 25%.
What a cunt.
- mekk0
Clueless company (us) had an Agency that had no idea about magento, they outsourced their coding to another agency that was clueless and they outsourced it to India, which ended up in disaster.
It was one agency that is listed constantly in Germany's top 100 SEO/SEA partners. Have seen this behavior in most agencies, so stay woke.
- Continuity1
I work in advertising.
Perhaps the better statement would be, 'Decent agency behaviour. Share your stories.', because 99.9% of ad agency behaviour is breathtakingly shitty. To their staff, and to their clients.
- trooperbill-1
"we dont work on a time and materials basis, we work on deliverables" - "make sure your time sheets are up to date because it affects client profitability."
"we dont buy links" - "set your budget to £80 per link so the outreach team know how much they have to spend"
- utopian4
I don't know where to start.
- grafician2
if you didn't worked for a shitty agency at one point, are you even a respected creative?
- btw, none of the shitty agencies or shitty people working in the industry "survived" more than a few yearsgrafician
- are you sure about that?SlashPeckham
- *checks on past shitty managers*
Nope, still around.zarkonite
