Creative block

• This time of the year is slow. The last of the avocados are nearly packed. Starfruit have exited for a while. Usually we advertise papayas or do general ads.
  
  I always like to ask our VP of Sales about what product to feature in next week's ad. That way, just in case I haven't heard about a shortage or unprecedented volume, I advertise what we most want to sell.
  
  Yesterday the VP of Sales sprang a new one on me. He wanted to advertise Uniq Fruit. It's from Jamaica and is a cross of a tangerine and a grapefruit. Everything you don't like about a grapefruit is gone in a Uniq Fruit.
  
  I should be more prepared. Unfortunately, we haven't advertised it in years. And when we did advertise it, we used illustrations which I am loathed to go back to.
  
  I did several mock ups. Nothing was hitting a creative groove. With a deadline of noon today, I was feeling the pressure. I finally went with a beach scene with the simple phrase 'go tropical'. Here are the runners - up.
  
  I've been asked several times what the costs are in putting together any campaign. This is what's nice about knowing PhotoShop and the entire Adobe suite, the cost is my time and effort paired with the cost of stock photography. True, I'll get freelance help occasionally but usually I can do it myself.
  
  The mock up ads that I do cost nothing in terms of stock photography. You download comps from the sight. True the mock up has some annoying trademarking that you have to work around but I can usually explain it and move on in the decisionmaking process with my upper management.
  
  To complete the ad, I had to
• Lighten the sky (originally it looked like a storm pending)
• Turn one of the Uniq Fruit a little more authentic yellow
• Change out a Uniq Fruit for one with more of a neck.
• Lighten the clouds (lightening the sky had little effect on the clouds since I changed the color balance not the brightness)
• Took the label from the original Uniq Fruit and put it on the newly photographed version. Embossed it to give it a more realistic effect.
• Fill in the background, the original photograph was more square than rectangle. To get the trees just right I had to fill in the sides.
• Draw the copy rectange, fill in the headlin and copy, pluck a logo in and the job was done.
  
  I know several of you work with ad agencies and know what I know. Those of you who still work at AT&T know the prices I'm quoting are actually low.
  
  It would take an agency at least two weeks to turn an ad around. And the cost is around $2,500 where the artwork is available. $5,000+ is it's all new creative. And that price doesn't include the stock photography.
  
  How can you ignite your marketing under those terms.