A Winter Dream(2)

“Where are you getting the ‘safely, on time, on budget’ part?” Bob asked.

Simon squirmed a little. “It’s implied.”

Bob nodded slowly, the way people do when they have no idea what you’re talking about but really don’t care to hear an explanation.

Rupert stepped in. “Let’s face it, for the business person, travel is exhausting, a necessary evil, a means to an end. Our end is getting them there so they can do what they really went to do.”

Crickets.

Murdock glanced at his two employees, then sat up in his seat. “There’s no zing,” he said bluntly.

After a moment Rupert said, “That’s just our first concept.” He nodded to Judd.

Judd stood. “Like Rupert said, travel is a necessary evil, getting from A to B. So I created a play on that principle.”

Dick Murdock Travel

From A to Z

More crickets.

Judd continued, “From Arizona to Zimbabwe, from Alaskan Cruises to the San Diego Zoo, from the Amazon to Zambia.”

“Where’s Zambia?” Bob asked Marcia facetiously.

Murdock said nothing. Worse. He looked annoyed.

“Too much like the amazon.com logo,” Marcia said. “From A to Z. It’s been done.”

Judd looked blindsided. “We’ve created a television spot,” he said meekly.

“Don’t bother,” Murdock said. “I’m not sure we’re broadcasting on the same frequency.” He turned to Rupert. “Unlike you, we don’t think of our business as a ‘necessary evil.’ From what I’ve heard so far, you’d think we were torturing our clients for a price.”

“That’s certainly not the message we intended to convey,” Simon said.

“Intent is irrelevant, it’s what’s perceived that matters. And that’s what I heard,” Murdock said. “Travel is evil.” He turned to my dad. “Is that the best you’ve got?”

I could only imagine what was going through my father’s mind. Mayday, Mayday, we’re going down. Pulling the eject cord. My dad looked at Simon, who looked more angry than dejected. Then he turned to Rupert. “Is that our best?”

Rupert glanced at my father, then said, “Actually, we have one more concept we want to show you. It’s a bit unconventional.”

“Unconventional?” Murdock said.

For Rupert, “unconventional” was a polite way of saying “out there.” Three days earlier I had had a dream of a suitcase bouncing around with excitement. The words came to me, Pack your bags!

Rupert turned to me. “J.J., show Mr. Murdock your idea.”

Truthfully, I hadn’t planned on sharing my idea. When I had shared my dream with Simon, he gave me that “nice try, kid, now get me some coffee” look. Every eye in the room fell on me. I lifted my portfolio and walked to the front of the conference room. I cleared my throat.

“I’m kind of new at this, so bear with me.”

“Nowhere to go but up,” Murdock said.

Simon’s jaw tightened.

“When I think of travel, I think of having fun—seeing exciting places, seeing people I care about. I think of the excitement and anticipation of getting ready. When I went to Italy a few months ago, I spent six months preparing for just ten days. So, to me, travel is more than just the time away from home, it’s the anticipation leading up to it . . . like Christmas. The fun of Christmas is the preparation, the secrets and wrapping and decorating. So I came up with this.”

Dick Murdock Travel

Pack Your Bags!

The slogan was inset over a cartoon drawing of a travel trunk plastered with colorful stickers from different countries.

Marcia nodded encouragingly. “Pack your bags.”

Bob also nodded. “I like that. I like the trunk. It’s iconic. We could use it on brochures, TV commercials, tour signage, Facebook, even luggage tags.” He looked at me. “What about electronic media?”

“Like Rupert said, my idea is a bit unconventional,” I said. “But when the competition zigs, you should zag. Since almost all travel commercials are really just video travel brochures, in order to stand out, I think we should create a campaign with a decidedly unique look—something different than what your competition is doing or has ever done. I envisioned our Pack Your Bags travel trunk reproduced in clay animation excitedly bouncing around. Then it falls open and something representative of one of your destination pops out, like the Eiffel Tower, or Big Ben . . .”

“. . . a pyramid for our Egypt tours,” Bob said, catching the vision.

“Or a gong for China,” said Marcia. “Or a panda.”

“No one’s done it before,” Bob said to Murdock.