Cummins @ SXSW: Screw fuck no, say shit yeah

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FullSizeRender.jpgNick Cummins, creative director at The Royals, is covering SXSW exclusively for Campaign Brief until March 17.

SXSW: Screw fuck no, say shit yeah

Last year one of my highlights was Michael Nieling’s “How to say Fuck No to client and have them love you”. Michael is the Creative Director and owner of Ocupop. He is an interesting cat and started life as a pro snowboarder. After pretending he could build a website for a snowboard brand he then went to the library to work out how. He has gone on to build an agency his own way. You get the feeling that because he hasn’t grown up in agencies he hasn’t picked up any of our bad habits.

Ocupop has a few rules which is where the “Fuck no” comes in. They don’t give clients options. They only deal with key decision makers. They don’t deal with committees. And they don’t do work for Architects because they are arseholes. Michael believes that as everything has become amateurised we need to stake our claim as experts and say “Fuck no” more often.

That was last year. This year “Screw fuck no, say shit yeah” was all about jumping in. Ocupop has done free work for a lifetime supply of burritos, they have started their own solar related company, a shoe company and have an Hawaiian organic beef farm. They have also taken equity instead of payment in a tax company that specialises in artists and musicians. If you say no nothing will happen, says Nieling. If you say yes all sorts of bad shit might happen but you can just bail on those.

He loves saying shit yeah and helping people out who have limited resources. But when people say they have no money his response is we will do whatever you want for free, just so long as we have as long as we want to do it. If people ask you to discount, his advice is do it but ask for something in-kind. An introduction to another client, a testimonial or a lifetime supply of burritos.

Check out http://ocupop.com/.