Spyeoh


 Posted on September 22nd, 2010

Do you ever wonder if you’d make a good spy?

I had that thought today as I stood on a client’s fire escape today, taking recon photos of the street below.

intersection, richmond street, spadina avenue, sunset, toronto, city, life

Almost all creative agencies I’ve been associated with have been the “office is closed until 10 a.m., Monday, earliest” kind. I’m cool with that schedule. But before you “tut-tut”, consider that projects — or missions, as I like to call them — can be real meat grinders sometimes.

But I also know that if I’m a few bob short of a bushel, a dearth in the monetary department, I can start calling around. Told my old (first) client to keep in touch, for example. Hoped they wouldn’t take me up on it quite so early. They did.

Now, at client #2’s office, I definitely feel all espionagy: bound to weighty Non-Disclosure Agreements that apply to every single person I come in contact with (I’m not allowed to talk about it with the guy sitting next to me, apparently).

I’m now regularly crossing corporate borders; one client has offices in 100 countries and 40,000 people on the payroll — I think that makes for a fairly sizeable Doctor Evil outfit. The second client has around 7,500 minions in 5 key strategic countries, averaging 6 offices per country. They’re smaller but they have a cooler name and hipper offices.

By the time I’d signed the NDA, the point where it was okay for me to look at the secret code repository, I’d already had half the project-related files on my USB key for about a day. Now where’s the casino and what’s holding up my dry martini?

Plus I have the uncanny ability to sneak up behind people without them knowing.

What's on your mind?