Chapter 260 - 260 Searching for Solutions

260 Searching for Solutions

“So, you’re saying that Ace wants another spin on the marketing message and plan even after it was already approved by the Ashford committee?” I asked to make sure that I understood correctly.

“That’s right. I thought he approved it but apparently, he only thought that it was just passable to use to get approval from the committee, but he doesn’t think that the plan is good or detailed enough for actual implementation,” Julianna replied before biting down hard on her lower lip.

I could sense her frustration and I was sure that I understood how she felt. Being told by Ace that her work wasn’t good enough must have been quite tough for her. Not having much experience on marketing, I wasn’t sure how much help I could offer but that didn’t mean that I wasn’t willing to give it my best shot.

“What do you want us to do?” Jeremy asked while getting straight to the point.

“You two are supposed to be good at coming up with creative ideas, right? Come up with a few ideas for us. We don’t have much time, so we’ll be having a team meeting every day until we get this right,” Julianna said before heaving a sigh.

“So, we present to you our ideas every day until we settle on something that should work?” Jeremy asked.

“Yup, I can’t think of another way. Don’t worry, you two won’t be the only ones trying to crack this. In fact, everyone on the team will be working on this partially if not fully,” Julianna explained.

It seemed like she didn’t expect much from the two of us and perhaps that was for the best. After the meeting, Jeremy and I spent time together in a small meeting room racking our brains on what might work.

“I don’t think we’re getting anywhere with this…” I muttered after hours had gone by without much progress.

.....

Our lack of progress came as no surprise to me at all. I wasn’t unrealistically optimistic that two people from creatives could suddenly come up with a great marketing message or plan that would work at the competition level to impress both the judges and the audience.

“You’re right. I don’t think anything that we have down hasn’t been explored by Julianna and her team before…” Jeremy agreed.

I sighed without holding back as I tipped my head back and stared up at the white ceiling above. Being stuck without any ideas like this just felt like déjà vu. I glanced over at Jeremy who was staring intensely at his laptop screen.

The following day, we attended the marketing team meeting with Julianna and presented some of the ideas that we thought of. I knew from the start that our ideas would get outright rejected so it didn’t come as a surprise when that was exact what happened.

“I’m not sorry to say this. Your ideas are just not going to cut it. It’s too traditional and there’s nothing unique about the approach. That being said, no one here seems to have an idea that works. Better luck to us all tomorrow. Hopefully by then, one of us will have something that might work…” Julianna said before letting out a depressing sigh.

The meeting was a short one without much progress. Time was ticking by and there was a high risk that the project could be delayed because of this. Julianna was so on edge that she began biting on her nails, a habit that she rarely showed in front of other people.

“Well, I guess that was expected…” Jeremy said followed by a yawn.

We had left the meeting room and was headed to a smaller meeting room where we could put our minds together and come up with some fresh and hopefully unique ideas. Jeremy looked tired and he had dark circles under his eyes which made me wonder what time he went to bed last night. He must have tried his hardest to research something that might work. Clearly, he hasn’t found the answer yet and neither have I.

After around three hours of just going around in circles without any breakthrough ideas, I started to feel very pessimistic about the task on our hands. How can two clueless people figure a genius idea out of this?

“Jeremy…” I called his name to get his attention.

“What?” he replied without even looking my way.

His eyes were glued to the screen of his laptop and I could tell that he was scrolling through some research. I just felt like we needed to change our approach instead of wasting more time doing the same thing.

The source of this content is no//vel//bin[./]net'

“Should we go check out your treasure trove to see if we can get some ideas down there?” I suggested hopefully.

Jeremy finally turned to face me but instead of immediately agreeing, he had a doubtful look on his face as he seemed to ponder my suggestion in his head.

“I can’t think of anything anymore, so I suggest we go down there to find some inspiration. What do you think?” I asked.

“Are you going to go down there to look at Ace’s past works?” Jeremy asked.

“Yes…” I replied truthfully.

“Ace never worked in marketing directly so I’m not sure if they’ll be anything marketing-related down there,” Jeremy pointed out.

He might be right but…

“It’s worth checking. Even if he didn’t work in marketing directly, I am sure that he was somehow involved in how his commercials were marketed and presented to the public. Plus, anything would probably be better than just sitting around here and banging our heads on the table,” I countered with an argument of my own.

“Maybe you’re right. Well, it doesn’t hurt to check…” Jeremy said in agreement as he stood up from his seat.

…

Being down here in the company archive reminded me that I haven’t gotten the chance to come down here since the last time that Jeremy brought me here. I remember thinking that I would find time to come down here to spend time going through all of Ace’s past works and just taking it all in like the crazy fan girl that I was. I never got around to doing that and it had completely slipped my mind.

–To be continued…