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Pricing for Working with a Brand
Hey everyone. Long time lurker of info, first time poster. Would love some sage advice with pricing a project that I have in the works.
I recently started doing food videography with a food/cocktail blogger. We are creating fast-paced videos similar to Tasty/Delish-style food videos. They started off just for fun, but some brands are loving our videos. We got an offer from a beverage company that wants 3 new recipe videos incorporating their product(s), 15-30 seconds each and they want them all completed by the end of the year. They want us to use their fonts, logo, style, etc. for a separate version of the edits that they will use for YouTube video ads and possibly other platforms. No TV, just web. The videos are to be a collaboration between her blog and the brand, so the overall look and feel will be a hybrid with both of their names/logos incorporated and tagged in the posts.
Because these are a bit more work with further reach than we are used to, we have been wracking our brains about how to price these. To recap, they want three 15- to 30-second recipe videos all made before the new year. Each recipe has to be developed by the blogger, tested/made at least twice, photographed, and written about in one of her blog posts, plus social media sharing and starring in the video (as the hand model), and my job is to film and edit the video(s). And now the brand is throwing the ad network stuff our way, which is new territory for us both.
So any recommendations on how to price and ranges? We are going to itemize everything so the client can see what all they are paying for instead of one big flat fee. Good idea? Storyboarding, product/ingredient purchases, camera time, edit time, her time on camera, her blog posts, social sharing, etc. I feel like we have a good grasp on what the video + blog post are worth, it’s the ad network part that we’re not sure how to price.
This is our first huge project so would love some input on this so we can price things fair for us and the brand.
Thanks,
Chris -
4 Replies
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I will let others address your primary questions. But as to:
[Chris Henry] “We are going to itemize everything so the client can see what all they are paying for instead of one big flat fee. Good idea?”
NO. Bad idea. What I’ve had the best success with is showing pricing per process segment while listing the parts that make up the price, but NOT an individual cost for each item.
For example our broad categories are:
I. Pre-production, planning & writing
II. Field or studio shooting & related expenses
III. Audio (broken out as a separate item depending on whether or not VO talent is used)
IV. Post-Production (editing & motion graphics)
V .(in ‘olden’ times when this was still a consideration) Duplication and Distribution
VI. Travel expenses (incl. meals)When you start listing things individually you are implying that it’s OK for them to say that they will take care of some of the items. “Hey… instead of $15 per person for lunch we just bring in McDonalds?” or “My nephew is into this also so we can use his lighting equipment and save that expense.” or “Instead of this mileage charge how about we all just go in my car?” You get the idea. At least that’s my two cents on the topic.
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Hey Nick,
Thanks for getting back to me. You’re right about breaking up the itemization into categories rather than saying what everything costs. I guess I was being too specific. I was just going charge for preproduction, filming and post production. These processes won’t take too much time or money. I just want to be more competitive with pricing so we aren’t underpaid for the work. I am sure they want good, fast and cheap so they need to pick two.
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Nick is EXACTLY right here.
If you want to itemize everything for your own organizational and billing needs, continue to do so, but don’t present that data to the clients that way. Not only will the things Nick warned you about come to pass; you’re also giving away to much “secret sauce” to possible competition.
They are more hassle – bill a little extra to cover it. Your hourly and day rates are minimums, nobody said they were maximums.
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