“100% or fire me.” – Alex Bogusky

Whenever a creative rockstar gives a talk, as Alex Bokusky of Crispin Porter + Bogusky did last night at the New Denver Ad Club, someone in the audience invariably asks, “How do you get clients to go along with cool work?”

Bogusky admits that even clients who come to CP+B sometimes want to water down the work. They offer 80% of what he wants. Sometimes 85%. But all creatives know that compromises that dull the edge of good work are exactly what suck the power right out of an ad.

Bogusky insisted that CP+B doesn’t “sell” their work. But he does tell clients to give him 100% of what the agency wants to do, even if it’s risky. Try it out, he says. And fire him if it doesn’t work.

I didn’t take notes, but I think this came after Bogusky talked about walking away from the $150 million Miller account a few weeks ago. The story in the press is that CP+B was frustrated with all of the bureaucratic layers it took to approve work. Not to mention that their work wasn’t helping the brewer’s sales.

Whatever the case, CP+B is still the hottest agency in the world. Their second office opened last year in Boulder, now with 250 people (70% came from Miami) (and not, Bogusky insists, for Colorado's legendary weed).