A case of Carlsberg

Friday morning. The end of a busy week. At Eye for Image, we’re putting the finishing touches on our work due to clients. The phone rings. (Again.) It’s Carlsberg. And the task is urgent: a major acquisition. Calls for a whole new corporate brochure. Has to be done in two weeks.

Our staff member with the most Carlsberg experience is not at his desk. He’s not even in the country. He’s getting dressed for his own wedding. But at Eye for Image, we work in teams, so someone else takes the ball – and we leave for a briefing at Carlsberg within the hour.

Best laid plans
Everything is in place. A thorough briefing. A straightforward task. A clear process. An agreement on tone and style. An accessible contact person.

And it goes perfectly.

And then it changes direction. A different audience. A different tone. A different style – in other words – a near total rewrite.

No problem. Decisions, directions, deadlines – all part and parcel of major corporate change.

We meet with the graphic design team to see how the new words will be brought to life. Getting words and design together calls for cooperation – and compromise. Again, no problem. We’ve all done this before.

Speed, dedication and luck
And the text has to be right in Russian and French too. Translations. “Localizations”. Proof reading. Adjustments to fit in layout.

The deadline – the date the CEO will take the brochures on the road – is just days away. We have to work fast.

For confidentialilty reasons, we can’t go external for translation of some of the text. What to do? We’re a small English-language copywriting firm. But we’re well-connected. And, frankly, we’re lucky. Our staff include native bi-lingual speakers of both Russian and French.

A lot of people involved now: clients, text writers, designers, translators and printers. But we’ve all got the same goal in mind and the same positive attitude, so everyone keeps focused. And life’s curve balls – like seasonal flus, weddings, and public holidays – don’t slow us down.

When the job is done (on time, of course), the brochures head out into the world with Carlsberg’s CEO. We sit down to celebrate another job well done. Guess what we are drinking.