Seven years with one client.

In 2018 we made a set of branch videos for a member-owned credit union in Minnesota. We are still working with them. Somewhere past the hundredth project we stopped counting.

Nobody plans a seven-year relationship. You get there by being easy to work with a hundred times in a row. A few things make that possible.

Treat their deadline as the real one

Marketing teams work to dates that cannot move. A seasonal campaign that misses the season is worthless. Screens for a branch opening are needed the week of the opening. If you hit those dates consistently, you become the safe choice, and the safe choice gets asked again.

Deliver every format without being asked

Almost everything we make for them goes out three times: widescreen, square and vertical. And because they run two brands, most of it is produced twice over. That is six files where a brief might have said one.

Sending all of them the first time removes a whole round of email. It sounds small. Over seven years it is not.

Get the first version close

Every project runs the same way: a clear brief, a timeline both sides agree to, a storyboard where it is needed, and quick turnaround on changes. The measure we care about is how often work comes back approved first time. Mostly, it does.

The sign it is working

These days their team messages us the way you would message a colleague. No briefing document, no formal scope. Just what they need and when. That only happens once enough shared context has built up that it does not need restating.

That is the relationship worth aiming for, and it is built one delivered deadline at a time.