Yep – mini Tic Tacs.
It all began when we started the agency almost exactly three years ago.
We had just opened our doors. We didn’t have one client. It was day two. While Danny [Brooke-Taylor] was out choosing cushions, and Andy [Nairn] was researching authentic military ribbon producers, I made up my mind that Lucky Generals would have the best goddam snacks on the planet. The kind of snacks that really made people want to come and hang out at ours. (Well, it beat trying to come up with an original and distinctive proposition statement – that stuff is hard!)
So we got Curly Wurlies, Popchips, Gails’ Cheesy Puffs and a little-known innovation – teeny tiny individual packs of Tic Tacs. They are so cute and silly that you can’t help but smile. And what’s not to like, when each Tic Tac is only 1.9 calories and there are only eight of them per pack? Yes, girls – guilt-free pleasure really does exist.
We have kept a whole tray of them on our coffee table since that day and, you know what, they just lighten the mood. People always eat them and, above all, they take little supplies of them when they leave. In fact, we once had a client in the agency for a credentials meeting who emptied the whole tray into her Mulberry bag to take home for her children.
If there is a bigger point to be made about these mini delights, it is that little gestures of generosity go a long way. From a new-business perspective and, above all, from a hiring perspective, your office is your home. If you are informal and hospitable and you keep a sense of humour about you, people are more likely to want to spend time with you.
So while you would probably expect a company with a clear military theme to be talking tactics with clients all day long, you will be far more likely to find us talking Tic Tacs over at Lucky Generals.
Helen Calcraft is a founding partner of Lucky Generals.