CHRISTMAS CREEP (Part 3)
The Nightmare Before Christmas
Deadlines! Who needs ‘em?
They are the ultimate driver for everything we do in commercial life and at this time of year the ultimate deadline is Christmas. Having been in Brand and Market Communications for almost 4 decades it hasn’t escaped our attention that during December the deadline condition is amplified – creeping into the already exaggerated operational tension to create almost total panic! From the very start of the Advent season a form of terror sets in. It feels as if our partners, suppliers, even our clients, invent projects that seem to have appeared on schedules when the previous week they weren’t there. Budgets have to be spent (or we’ll lose them), when for the rest of the year budget management is always an unshakeable mantra. Diaries have spaces that need to be filled in an impractical attempt to continue the facade of ‘busy’, right up to the bitter end.