It’s one of those moments you’d rather hadn’t happened. It’s when those best laid plans didn’t go to plan. The metaphorical moment when the ship is ready to set sail and the champagne bottle won’t break. Yes we’re talking about the little events in the lives of marketing professionals that turn the well-oiled machine into a temperamental old banger.

These aren’t the sort of events where there’s a finger of blame pointing squarely at one person. They’re normally a combination of circumstances that lead to something that’s critical to marketing success just not happening. Here’s the sorts of things we mean:

• You desperately want to take advantage of a low-cost ad but your agency can’t produce the copy in time
• You’ve gone way over-budget but still haven’t got the deliverable you want
• You need to get a campaign out before you go on holiday, only to discover that your creatives are already on holiday
• You’re under pressure to do something new like a Facebook promotional game, but the skills available are of the old variety
• Your budget has nearly run out and so have your leads so you have to do something
• You’ve just discovered that despite a huge retainer, your agency doesn’t actually have the digital skills it claimed
• Your project deadline is imminent but the deliverables aren’t
• Your final quarter budget has just been slashed, but your showcase event is scheduled for – yep, the last quarter
• You have a great announcement to make about a new office opening in a new territory, but you’ve no idea about the local media
• Your agency has just resigned your account to go to your biggest competitor
• You’ve just been appointed and you want to do something quickly, but the incumbent agencies are all out to impress
• Your parent company has just announced a rebranding, and you have to get all your local offices and materials on brand within a month
• Your CEO has just asked if you could give him some special promotional handouts for a conference he’s speaking at and your in-house team is maxed out
• You want some original ideas because your agency team has just gone a little stale

The list could go on and on, but we know by now that you’re nodding your head slowly with dreaded recognition, or you’re cringing as you remember being stuck in just that situation.

Cringe no more. Feel the fear and face it. The Creative Services Exchange is here to get you out of those fixes. In fact most of the items on this list are based on real-life scenarios that have led to businesses from around the world briefing on the Exchange. The video for the global healthcare company that was having so many production edits it was in danger of becoming bigger budget than Harry Potter. Briefed to the Exchange – delivered by award-winning creatives on-time and on-budget. The technology company that had just won an award and wanted an ad producing to showcase the success – only to register that it was 4th July weekend and no-one was around to do it. The charity that needed to promote a major fundraiser, but without the budget suggested by some suppliers. The leisure company that didn’t want to abandon its great mobile app, but couldn’t find the resources to deliver it with the correct skills and for a sensible budget. The new CMO who had to get a PR campaign off the ground sooner than they could organise a beauty parade.

The Creative Services Exchange gets you out of any sort of marketing fix. All these companies have briefed and got what they wanted on their terms. With an expert global Crowd who’ve seen it all before. Who can be as creative as they like. Who know how to deliver to budget and schedule. Of course, plenty of businesses brief us under less pressured circumstances. But if you’re ready to confess to being in a bit of a hole, then why not get out of it before anyone else notices? Brief now!