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Client fired us 3 days before launch and I still don't know if we were right to walk
Back in March I was sitting in a Panera in Columbus with my laptop open at 11pm, three days before a big paid social campaign was supposed to go live for a home goods client. They called an emergency meeting and demanded we swap the whole creative direction to match a competitor's ad they saw that morning, even though our test data showed our version was getting a 4.2% click rate versus their 1.8%. I pushed back, they threatened to pull the contract, and I told them we would not run something our own numbers said would flop, so they fired us on the spot. We lost about $9,500 in work and one referral, but two months later they came back after their new agency burned through their budget with nothing to show. Here is the thing, half my team says I should have just done what the client wanted and kept the money, and the other half says standing your ground is the only way this business works. What would you have done in that room, cave and keep the check or walk and protect the results?
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olivia_perry7d ago
Ngl your team debating this is wild when the client literally crawled back two months later begging. Only thing you lost in that Panera was maybe your appetite. Caving would've kept the check but you'd be the agency that runs ads that flop on purpose, and word gets around fast.
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