Eating Lower on the Food Chain

By Bruce Olive / May 28, 2010 / No Comments

We were talking at dinner the other night about the two floating islands of plastic in the Pacific and the Atlantic Gyres and how the plastic has slowly entered our food chain, bringing with it possible severe health consequences. Another big thanks to the chemical companies busy “bringing good things to life.”

With that in mind, the recommendation of the medical community is to eat lower on the food chain. You don’t have to give up meat and fish entirely, but it’s best to limit your intake and learn how to enjoy other sources of protein. Because the higher up the food chain you go, the greater the concentration of these toxins…little fish being eaten by bigger fish, and so on. However much we like to eat things high up on the food chain, they are actually not very good for us. So over a lifetime eating more beans than sizzling steaks or tuna will prove to be the better and healthier choice.

What’s this got to do with marketing?

Well, anyone who’s been in this business (or any business with corporations for clients) for any length of time will tell you that big corporate clients, high up on the food chain, are great to have. They bring lots of revenue, the ratio of production and creative to media is huge and the clients are generally sophisticated and used to working with an agency. It is tasty, juicy work compared to smaller clients, like start-ups and industrials, who are generally further down the food chain. These smaller clients are more like a big pot of beans than a great big tuna steak. Not to say you don’t get some tasty work out of these relationships, but the process takes longer and is generally less profitable, with lots of continuous stirring so they don’t burn. On the plus side, we’ve ended up making more lifetime friends with some of our smaller clients than we ever have with the big boys.

Another plus is that you can lose a small client with very little impact to your firm. Lose a big client and you are going to have to let go of staff and make all kinds of adjustments until you recover the business. Big clients can keep you up at night, and yet I can’t remember losing sleep over a small client. I care about them as much as a big client, but the risks are just that much lower.

As our industry continues to evolve, as larger clients continue to take media and other plumb and profitable assignments off the table, perhaps learning to eat lower on the business food chain can actually have long term health benefits - both financially and physically. Sure, there’s less salt, less fat and less sugar, but there are also a lot fewer hangovers and headaches, and a greatly reduced risk of business stroke and heart attack. Sounds like a plan to me….