“You Get What You Pay For…”

Let’s Talk About ‘Worth’ In Creative Costings

Balancing The Incoming With The Outgoing

We’ve all said it at some point or another.

Maybe you’ve bought a cheap pair of socks, and put your toes straight through the seam (cue loads of swearing and a balled-up pair of socks getting lashed in the bin).

“Damn it!!... Well… you get what you pay for.”

Or maybe you’ve had a really, really good meal… so good that it’s hard to put a value on how it has melted your tastebuds into a state of euphoria… and the bill comes, and it’s pricey, for sure, but you think:

“You know what, that was worth it. You really get what you pay for here!”

We all feel it, as we go through life - that real urge to balance outgoing with incoming. What we give with what we receive. Angry at those poor quality headphones you bought yesterday? Well, you didn’t pay much for them - so it’s no big deal. Still in love with your Armani shades after all these years, and not a scratch on them? Well, they weren’t cheap - but you get what you pay for.

The concept of worth is one we hold close to our hearts - for good reason. It’s a validating concept - because if we don’t achieve ‘worth’ in our daily actions and transactions, we feel like we’re being undervalued. Taken for a ride. Ripped off. On a deep and meaningful level, this can subtly affect our own self-worth, our thoughts on whether we are ‘successful’, our confidence and vanity levels… but, on the day-to-day surface level, it’s just a fundamental vitality. “You’ve gotta get what you pay for”. Because, if you don’t - well, something ain’t right.

So it’s easy to understand why people, and organisations, get a bit cagey when it comes to the pricing of creative projects. You want a 5 minute tutorial video for the rollout of a brand new training system - so why have the 5 creative agencies you’ve spoken to given you a different price for this service? Or, even worse, a full set of different prices all coming from just one agency…? Surely the same resources go into making a video, no matter who makes it or where it is made… right?

In my experience, creative costing - trying to put a price on the end-to-end conception and creation of a product - is an area of confusion and caution for a lot of clients - and I can totally understand why. So I thought I’d try and offer some clarity. After all, working for digital innovation agency mobedia, I figure I’m well-placed to share some wisdom.

Confusion Number 1: This Stuff Is Bespoke

First of all, I completely get it. Having an explanatory video made is not the same as buying a pair of socks, and it’s a trite comparison. But it does help illustrate one of the key issues that causes confusion for many clients when requesting a creative price-up:

Socks aren’t bespoke.

Yeah, okay, you can get socks in different sizes. And somewhere down the line, a designer has spent time on the design of each sock. The material. The shape. How sweat-absorbant it is. But the product you end up with is not bespoke to you. It doesn’t take into account what shoes you intend to wear with them. How much walking you’re going to do. The weird shape of your little toe (you never did figure out why it was so much longer than the others…)

A sock is not bespoke. So you can get a cheap one, and take a chance that it might rip, or it might not. Pairs of socks are plentiful - you can buy a pack of five, and if one pair rips, you’ve got four left over and you still don’t feel hard done by.

Creative Projects are bespoke.

Training videos aren’t produced in a factory - they’re produced by people, from start to finish - people using their brains and their skills and their expert knowledge and gut. The big difference here is that it’s really hard to put a price on these activities. With a sock being produced, you can cost each stage of the production, delivery and sale process - how much it costs for the machine to stitch one piece of material to another, or how much it costs to ship for selling. With the creative process, sure, you can cost some parts - like software costs, or footage costs… but how you cost somebody’s thoughts, or expertise on a subject? More to the point - how do you cost something like that in a way that a client can understand, relate to, and feel is worth it?

Confusion Number 2: There’s A LOT Involved In The Creative Process

Not that there isn’t in making a sock, mind you.

But it seems that, in the big wide world that goes on outside of a creative agency, people don’t have a clue how much goes into a project. You want some socks? Go to a shop, pick them up, walk to the till, pay, go home and put them on.

You want a bespoke video?

The process looks something like this (just some of the pre-production stages, never mind production and delivery)

… and that’s not even a complete outline. It’s just rough.

The overwhelming feedback is that clients don’t really have a great idea on how much goes into a project. So they’re more likely to come at the whole process with a lower budget in mind - and, as a result, are confused / shocked when a realistic quote comes at them, and it’s higher than they anticipated.

Quality Ain’t Cheap...

-- that’s not to say it has to be totally pricey, either. And this is where all those different quotation prices come in. ‘Creative Consultancy’ is about figuring out what you want - and what you want to put in to get your output. If you have a low budget - that’s fine; creation can be done on a shoestring. But it will be costed appropriately - because, just like there are so many hours in a day, there are only so many hours in a project, depending on the budget.

There are many areas to consider when costing - especially for bespoke work. Those considerations often depend on which end of the budget-spectrum the client sits - are they asking for PowerPoint… or Pixar?

• What assets can the client provide us that we may be able to utilise (e.g. imagery, motion capture, ideas, scripts)? Or are we creating from scratch?
• How much creative direction is needed from our team (i.e. does the client already know what they want, or is it a blank canvas)?
• How elaborate and custom does the piece need to be?
• Do we have existing templates and transitions within our production software/processes at mobedia to keep and therefore costs at a minimum?
• What is the purpose of the project?

In short; we compare our responsibilities within the responsibilities of the client within the production process. If a client wishes to work at a lower budget, these are the areas where we find some manoeuvrability.

But this is why, essentially, we end up seeing some confusion. One business can easily say to another: “We got XX project done for YY amount at mobedia, so they should do the same for you!” -- well, unless the project is literally identical, that just isn’t going to happen. That’s… kind of the way bespoke works.

We’re Not The Only Ones

Of course, mobedia isn’t the only creative agency out there. But wherever a client goes, they will always be faced with the same variation in quotes, depending on the final quality required. For example, Wistia recently paired up with Sandwich, a video production company, to do a little test in this area. Wistia gave Sandwich the challenge of creating some ads at three different price points - a $1K, a $10K and a $100K…

https://twitter.com/wistia/status/1039899516382666752/video/1

Yeah. You kind of… get the point.

So What Am I Saying?

I’m saying - there’s more to creative consultancy and product outcome than there is to a pair of socks. All are helpful, useful… should fit your requirements perfectly… should last for longer than a week… shouldn’t have holes in…

I guess it’s important that creative agencies are upfront about their costs, and what is involved in the process, for every budget, big or small. And I guess it’s important that customers and potential clients come prepared with an open mind, understanding that the creative process has pretty much invisible values and actions that can’t always be priced up neatly, but contribute to the overall polish of the final product.

My point is this - you get what you pay for in life. With socks or with creativity. If you want to go cheap - fine! But tailor your outcome expectations to match your inputs. With the creative process, the outcome is usually a lot more ‘wowzers!!!’ if you’re a little more open with your budget ideas in the first place.

Think fine dining. Think ‘trust the chef!’.

Don’t think socks.

People get afraid or defensive when talking money, investment or costs. Think more if them as creative freedoms.

Think of you desired outcomes, who are your audience, the channels you are reaching them on and more importantly:

HOW DO I ENTERTAIN THEM, HOW DO I WANT THEM TO FEEL?

That’s a good starting place when deciding what is is realistic or where you should be aiming with a project.

Cheers Spence