We all know the DIY hero

Everyone knows that person. The unstoppable DIY enthusiast who builds, saws, and screws together entire projects with nothing but enthusiasm, a toolbox, and the firm belief that “it can’t be that hard.”

They spend hours crafting a birdhouse with a feeder attached. After a trip to the hardware store, a small fortune in materials, and a few whispered swear words, they proudly hold up something you could buy for € 18,95.

But they made it themselves. With their own hands. With a jigsaw, a dual-bevel mitre saw, three types of drill bits and a coat of varnish. Hung up and ready. Done!

Their motto? “If you want it done right, do it yourself.”

The Corporate DIY Department

Companies often approach communication the same way. We’ll just do it internally, says the office DIYer. A campaign concept over lunch. A few lines of copy written between meetings with ChatGPT. A photo snapped on a phone, thrown into a template. A Canva here, a tutorial there, an online course somewhere in between.

And the result? A communication birdhouse that… is it even straight? The opening might be slightly oversized for the bird it’s meant to attract. Waterproof? Hard to say. Time will tell.

Even agencies aren’t immune

Even agencies fall into the trap. A digital performance agency lands a big client. The client grows. “A radio campaign? Sure, we can do that!” they say, thinking: how hard can it be?

Three rounds of rewrites and one polite-but-firm rejection later, the truth stands quietly in the corner. Too many hours on the timesheets, not enough craft in the final product. It’s not exactly the kind of work you turn into an industry case study.

The creative director turns down the radio whenever the ad break starts. The client says they “sort of liked it in the end,” and next year they go into pitch. And no one saw it coming.

You don’t have to do everything yourself

There’s no shame in not doing everything yourself. “If you want it done right, do it yourself” works perfectly when building a garden shed in early retirement. Not when you want to do marketing and communication properly.