First impressions

So, I’ve been in my new post for 3 months now and it’s really been an eye opener in many aspects.

One thing in particular has caught me by surprise and it is the relative cost of campaigns. Some of the clients have house policy of media vs. production costs and it does make sense in traditional medias, where the media it self is valuable.

However, it does create a challenge when you apply it to digital, since the media is much cheaper. What I’ve noticed is that in many cases it is expected that everything is included in the given budget. Photography, illustration, animation, video and sound. And usually clients are shocked when it becomes clear that those are separate costs.

In advertising agency no client expects that these things are included in the agency cost. Having been involved in many large productions (in our local scale) and knowing how much is spent on that, it does seem quite distorted.

Clients are used to expensive photo shoots and film productions with the ad agency and, for arguments sake a photograph costing 25.000 is still doable, but building a service with rich media content or a business model… “15.000?… seems unreasonable. Yes, we are determined to revolutionize our industry, but 15.000? You must be joking”.

Also it seems that right now clients are willing to pay for media and production, but not planning. In many cases that’s because they’ve already paid the agency for that. Why should they pay for it again? Well, my opinion is that if it’s working, there’s no need. But if what’s been done so far isn’t working, someone should think about it and come up with something that does work. And they should be rewarded for it.

Until next time.