Canadian Ad Agency Finds Dallas Partner-Sir Speedy!

July 28, 2008 · Filed Under Case Studies 

A leading Canadian agency, Juniper Park, needed someone in the Dallas, TX area to help them complete an eleventh-hour project. A clients’ account team was flying to Dallas in less than 24 hours to rehearse a formal presentation to a multi-million dollar prospect account that evening, and local Canadian partners were not able to produce the bound presentation/leave-behind materials prior to their departure! The actual presentation was to follow the morning after their arrival in Dallas so there was no time for overnight shipping; the job had to be produced in Dallas.

Compounding the problem were several design elements that made the task anything but quick and easy. The entire presentation was a non-standard paper size; the cover stock needed to be 1/16th of an inch thick; the client had stipulated a silver, double-wire-o binding which is not carried by local suppliers in anything but black 11”.

Her internet search for Dallas area printers turned up numerous results but response was immediately lacking. The first two printers didn’t want to tackle the project because of the odd size and the challenges associated with that. Sir Speedy Walnut Hill was the 3rd, and last, call placed, and the task had found its challenger!

All that was left was to receive the promised job files by noon the following day, produce the presentations and have them delivered to a destination 10 miles away by 5:15PM the same day.

Solution

A quick trip to Clampitt Paper Company to select the cover stock and order the paper for the interior pages to be cut from parent sheets. For the cover, owner Don Clampitt suggested a 200pt. Finch. Coincidentally, Clampitt Paper is branching into the sale of a Xante digital printer that specializes in printing directly onto substrates as thick as, well, 200pt. stock! The machine had just recently been installed so a call was issued to muster all of the appropriate staff members and get the job output. To make things a little more difficult, the cover became a 2-sided element at the last minute. No problem for Don Clampitt and his band of heroes. Covers finished in approximately one hour.

The boys in his cutting room turned out the cut sheets for the interior pages in just a couple of hours, so with covers completed the next task was to output the interior color pages.The plan was to print the interior pages on a recently installed Canon ImagePRESS 6000 but other jobs, some regularly scheduled maintenance, and other events conspired to make that unworkable. Partner Preston Crum scooped up the paper and files and headed to IKON’s regional office to use their demo 6000, kicked out the 16 copies of the presentation and headed back to the production facility.

At the same time, partner Phillip Crum was picking up a coil of wire-o for the binding. Off-the-shelf wire only comes in 11” lengths and we needed 13” so lengths that size would have to be cut from a coil. The preferred color, silver, is special order and takes 3-5 days so the client settled for black, and the coil was acquired.

Covers produced, interior pages printed, and binding wire in-hand, all elements were finally gathered in one place at Sir Speedy Walnut Hill. Partner Tyler Crum married the covers with interiors, quickly cut the books to their final size (9.5” x 13”) and headed for our sister-facility, Sir Speedy Addison, to complete the wire-o binding. A torrential afternoon, Texas thunderstorm ensued about 20 minutes prior to his departure and added yet two more logistical challenges to finishing the race: keeping the job dry and tackling rain-slowed, congested, Dallas afternoon rush hour traffic.

Word came that the account team was running late and wouldn’t arrive at the hotel until 6-6:15PM so we had another hour of breathing room.

Tyler soon encountered what proved to be the last of the unanticipated hurdles. The binding machine will only handle a book measuring up to 11” so he and the other resourceful staffers at Sir Speedy improvised and used the paper cutter to apply even pressure to the coils to close them up!

Tyler and Phillip stayed in touch via cell every 15 minutes and Phillip supplied all parties involved with email updates from 3:30PM until the job was dropped off at the front desk of the hotel at 6:25PM! And we still beat the account team to the hotel!

One final touch, that 16th copy was overnited to Canada as a little surprise so that the client could see the quality of the final product.

Conclusion

The client was elated and said, “Well…I must say I’m impressed!!! I so appreciate you stepping up to the plate, finding a creative solution for our covers, running all over Dallas, and pulling a 911 delivery in a torrential downpour all in an effort to meet the needs of our client!…WELL DONE AND THANK YOU! “

The account team was extremely relieved that their materials were ready, in fact, the materials were in their rooms when they checked in.

“Your commitment to deliver (in record time!) allowed some very stressed account folks to breath a sigh of relief as they set off to the airport!”

Their rehearsal was scheduled to begin less than 45 minutes after their arrival.

Lead contact on the account summed it all up by saying, “When we come up for air I would like to gain an understanding of your full capabilities. It would be an asset for me to have such a dedicated resource in Dallas”.

Tags: ,

Phillip Crum is the Chief Idea Officer of MarketingMeasure and is committed to the idea of helping small business owners do a better job of finding their next customer or client. He and his two sons also own a Sir Speedy Printing franchise and employ those additional capabilities in the overall marketing services menu of offerings. Phillip can be reached at 214-213-7445, or pcrum@MarketingMeasure.com

Copyright © 2006-2008 Phillip Crum | Email This Post Email This Post | JobSearchDocs

Comments

Comments are closed.