Insights
A philosophical pondering on value, cost, and the sweet simplicity of good ideas.
There’s a moment in every agency-client relationship that I live for and it’s not the contract being signed. It’s not the budget finally being approved (though that does bring a certain champagne-worthy thrill). It’s not even the campaign going live.
No, it’s when we present a beautifully crafted, deceptively simple creative solution to a complex brief—and the client stares at it, eyebrows raised, slightly stunned, and says:
“Why didn’t I think of that?”
That, my friends, is the moment, because what they’re really saying is: “That’s so obvious, so elegant, so perfect… it hurts.” It’s in that moment that I’m quietly delighted because that’s the magic. That’s what they’re paying for—even if they sometimes forget it.
The Price of a Picasso Napkin
You’ve likely heard the story (whether it’s true or not hardly matters—it’s good).
Picasso is sketching in a café. A woman asks him to draw her something. He obliges, dashes off a sketch in 30 seconds, and hands it to her with a hefty price tag. “But it only took you thirty seconds!” she exclaims. “No,” Picasso replies. “It took me forty years.”
Advertising’s a bit like that. Clients sometimes believe they’re buying time. Or pixels. Or words. Or a logo. But what they’re really buying is thinking—years of experience, intuition, pattern recognition, consumer behaviour insight, and the occasional middle-of-the-night epiphany over a crumpled napkin and too much black coffee.
Value vs Cost: The Eternal Tug-of-War
We get it. Budgets always matter. We live in the real world. The lights need to stay on, but when the conversation starts and ends with “What’s your hourly rate?”, it’s a bit like asking what the hourly rate is for curing a headache – “£150 an hour for that??”
Well… it’s not about the hour. It’s about the clarity. The unblocking. The “Aha!” that shifts your brand forward five years in five minutes.
Good agencies don’t just make things look pretty. We solve problems. We spark ideas. We see what you’re too close to see. And we do it with style, purpose, and often—just to keep things lively—a dash of mischief.
So, What Are You Really Paying For? You’re paying for the idea you didn’t know you needed. You’re paying for the thinking behind the tagline that suddenly gives your whole team language they can rally behind. You’re paying for the ad that makes someone feel something. And yes, you’re paying for that glorious, soul-satisfying moment when you say, “It’s so simple. Why didn’t I think of that?”
To which we smile, tip our hats, and say, “You did. You just didn’t know it yet.”
Don’t Hire Us for Our Time. Hire Us for Our Taste, because what looks effortless on the surface is only made possible by everything that came before. The late nights, the failed drafts, the relentless pursuit of clarity over cleverness.
So next time you’re weighing up cost vs value, just remember:
Cheap ideas are rarely simple. And simple ideas are never cheap.
But when you find one?
That’s priceless.
ASHGROVE
REPUTATIONS. BY DESIGN.