We enjoy what we do and we like to have some fun doing it. Our direct services have been developed over four years of passion (whilst holding down other jobs), some bachelor nights and brainstorming sessions until dawn. But we've sanity checked everything (our wives got involved). From experience, we know that there are a few things that contribute to a successful implementation, which include:
a clear and concise brief (or the time to understand)
an appreciation of budgets
direct contacts for decision making
a deadline
an element of creative freedom
a minimum of office politics
If we get all of this, we're in heaven. In practice, three out of six isn't bad.