letters

Great ideas

Yesterday, I had the chance to read the October issue from beginning to end. It was very pleasurable to me as an independent creator of original ideas that marketers use to communicate. I particularly liked the Changing Channels article, as my associates and I are creating programs that interest the media buying agencies at this time. Congratulations to you and your team for producing a journal so useful to people like myself. Keep up the good work.
David Hoffman
Thehoffmancollection.com

Thank you! I received your special report on Interactive Marketing via email [PROMO Special Report]. I teach advertising and Internet publishing courses, and I like to post links to relevant information on my class Web site. I'd like to link to this article for my students.
Jacquie Lamer
Northwest Missouri State

Just rewards?

I truly enjoyed your intro to PROMO's September issue on premiums and incentives. Rather than sugar coat it, you gave it the proper perspective regarding existing employees working harder because they're doing the tasks normally delegated to larger staffs.

I'm freelancing for an agency here with a person who was let go (along with 40 others) from a failed agency. This agency booked her for the summer, but she wants a permanent job. However, when she networks with employed friends they tell her how lucky she is getting paid by the hour — they're working nights and weekends for free.

One of Chicago's largest agencies is so notorious for squeezing employees, even freelancers don't like working there. There are people out of work who won't even apply there. (I won't reveal which.)

I'm pitching a large project in Minneapolis and the art director and I would normally have no problem price-wise with the competing agencies. We charge less than half what agencies bill us out at. But in these times we're concerned, because agency employees working all hours of the night are in essence giving employers free work — 12-hours at an eight-hour billing rate. The good news for us is, like Spider-Man, they aren't at maximum performance levels.

Can it get any scarier? Thanks for your perspective.
Steve Smith
Chicago

EDITOR'S NOTE:

Have a comment, a gripe or a follow up to something you've read in PROMO? Write to us — we're glad to get your feedback and share it with other readers. E-mail to kjoyce@primediabusiness.com or fax 203-358-5834.

Readers liked our coverage of branded entertainment and interactive marketing in October, while we touched a nerve with another with our comments on employee rewards in the September issue