Company made mess of my advert...

[Jamster123]

We were approached by a very high end magazine, with an offer to have an advert in the next edition.

Due to the reputation of the magazine and the clientele it attracts, I jumped on it.

They made us a proof about 2 days before print, it wasn't great but with time restrictions I didn't have much time to change.

So it goes to print.... they make a complete arse of our logo, somethings corrupt and half the logo is missing in the magazine. The logo was fine in the proof. The text is lost from logo completely.

I called immediately and expressed my concern of how bad it was and actually quite embarrassing for my company, and very amateur looking compared to the rest of the magazine.

Ive had zero job leads from it, in fact I have had 3 existing clients tell me how they have noticed the advert, and all mentioned how they messed up my logo.

They offered to put my advert on the home page of their website for a while, which they did. Albeit it a very low res logo with some crap text. Im actually surprised this quality was allowed on their site/magazine.


Now chasing me for £600. Should I pay? Im thinking no.

[hornetrider]

I'm thinking no as well.

[toohangry]

I absolutely wouldn't pay either and would insist on either a properly prepared advert in the next edition or an apology and a credit note. Or both.

[foxsasha]

We run a number of full page mag adverts in multiple magazines and if we find any significant discrepancies between what we submit and what they print then we don't pay. The advert they ran for you will have had a negative effect so if anything they should be offering compensation in the form of wavering the invoice for the first advert and offering a second, correct, placement free of charge. That's not going to happen but no invoice for the first and 50% discount on a second advert based on you paying full price for a third and the agreement to potentially run the ad for longer should you see positive results is the road I would be going down.

[Alapeno]

I'd definitely be disputing this and have had to on occasion with respectable publications. I would give them chance to fix it without going straight to a refund though, usually by coming to an agreement on ad space in future issues.

The biggest thing you have going for you is that they sent you a proof that looked fine and was signed off by you, which is exactly what should have been in the mag. There's no excuse on their part really.

Speaking from experience, one thing that may benefit you in future is to get a proper designer to do the ad for you beforehand. The publications, no matter how 'respectable', really don't care (or have the time to care) what they put out in terms of design.

[foxsasha]

Indeed, magazine designed adverts stand out a mile as they tend to look like the office newbie had a stab at them in MS Paint.

[technodup]

It's a pretty mental payment model from them tbh, normally payment would be prior to publication. Any magazine taking payment after publication is opening themselves up to all sorts of complaints about not getting any business etc and people withholding cash.

Which turns out to be an advantage for you. It's either don't pay, or do pay and request something very specific in the next issue. Without knowing what magazine it is I can't really elaborate but it chances are it would be a lot more productive than spunking £600 on an advert.

Or I have a more ghetto way of getting in it for nothing. Give me the £600 and I'll show you.

[JustinP1]

Jamster123 said:

Now chasing me for £600. Should I pay? Im thinking no.

I've been in the same position, twice actually years ago.

Both times I didn't pay.

You've got to play out the endgame here. You don't pay, they threaten, threaten and take you to court.

In their evidence they supply the advert looking a mess.....? Right.

It's unlikely to happen. The one argument they could bring forward is that you accepted the advertising on their home page as recompense instead.

I still wouldn't pay. In a more general comment, I've found the business model for this kind of print media is based upon getting advertising revenue and getting as many registered copies in front of disinterested people and into their bins as possible - thus getting figures for advertising revenue.

[eps]

I'd be minded not to pay, but in the interest of goodwill would ask to have a correct advert in the magazine and then pay the amount.

[MitchT]

As a designer I'd be horrified if some artwork I'd prepared had become corrupt and was compromised in the way it portrayed the client's business. I'm not self employed but if I was I'd be too embarrassed to consider invoicing for the work. Now, the OP is dealing with the publication, not the designer, but it appears that the ad was prepared by someone within the publication so the same would apply. If they had any shame they wouldn't ask to be paid for it or would be offering to run it a second time, FOC, with the issue resolved.

[TheEnd]

It wouldn't surprise me if the editor would happily run the advert again properly, but it's the ad telesales guy/girl who wants their commission.

If I were running a company like that, on first hearing that the advert was messed up I'd be offering to run it again without needing to be asked.

[Jamster123]

Thanks for responses.

I had another copy of the latest magazine through our door today.

Seems one of my competitors caught wind of my advert in the last edition and now have theirs in there too. No doubt they will have had a laugh at our st advert.

Having thought about things, I think its genuinely a good advertising place for us. All the big names advertise in it.

It would be silly for me to burn my bridges with them, so Instead Ill speak to them next week and suggest they redo our advert, perhaps with me/my designer tackling the artwork.

[der1]

Take it this was in H&IS ?