The little guy is being screwed along every part of the ad production line
From clients to agencies to production companies; along every stage of the ad production process, someone is getting screwed. Here, Darren Woolley details the industry’s worst offenders.
Last year the ANA responded to an investigation by the Department of Justice into agency production practice. The concern was that agencies, and especially the holding companies, were competitively tendering for advertiser commercial productions against the independent production companies in an unfair and biased manner.
Effectively it was claimed that the agencies were lining their own coffers by undercutting the independent production companies by having them tender and then providing competitive services at a lower price, effectively and unfairly squeezing them.
This lack of transparency exists at every level of the production process in some form. All parties, from the advertiser whales down to the smallest minnows, could be more transparent in the process.
Totally agree that the ‘small fish’ are being abused along the process. Not to mention the delayed payment terms that can be crippling for the smaller fish too. The bigger businesses holding onto their cash until breaking point of the little guys.
I think we need new ways to manage the whole production pipeline. There is so much wastage throughout the process that is actually damaging agencies for the long term and then impacting all the suppliers in the chain down the line.
There are some crew that are being cheated of their fair working rights, but to be honest there are some expecting more than a fair deal too, with overtime on pretty big rates and expecting profit share as well. We need to get the balance back.
The industry award rates are actually far lower than some of the crew rates we see in advertising, even before overtime is added. Of course we need to pay good talent what they’re worth and rate cards don’t apply when there is value. We need to be sure there is value though, and the loudest voices complaining about a bum-deal are not always right.
I’m not 100% in agreement about the right to audit – I feel that this is the root of all evil in our industry and perpetuates a time sheet focused model, which in turn pushes out the best talent and inflates the bill to clients and demishes what is left for actual production. I think agencies and production companies should have the right to offer a fair price for fair deliverables and how they resource the job up to them (providing no excesses in the first place and no one is being exploited in the process). Fixed bidding will breed a culture of efficiencies, and follow the practices of Conscious Capitalism (my mantra) – we all should get fair pay for fair work.
The brands who expect ‘transparency’ by way of auditing post-campaign don’t expect to absorb cost overruns either, so it doesn’t go both ways. Let’s aim to buy fairly up front, with clear details on outcomes and let businesses be fairly remunerated for that in order to pay our teams fairly too.
The whole model needs a shift. I’m happy to be vocal on this topic as I feel we need to be protecting the creative talent on the floor and get the best people for the jobs and not just the cheapest rates with inflated time sheets to maximise revenue.
I respect @TrinityP3’s mission to protect brands from excesses and for talent to be respected. I’d like to think we’re on the same page there, but we can do things differently to achieve that outcome.
Some of what he says is true, however he has an vested interest in perpetrating this story, he also appears to have a severe case of the Agency Hater virus, commonly known as “FringeitusAgencyInteruptus”.
The agency principals and their indulged ECDs and others won’t agree to “working three days and being paid for two”, yet they’ll screw others into the ground for that. I’ve personally witnessed this too many times in agencies, where overpaid buffoons are grinding suppliers who actually have talent and experience, while complaining that they cost too much. Clients need to be told – with verifiable proof – what agency principals’ salary packages are, so clients have context in assessing budgets. That’s the kind of transparency that will change everything. Come on clients – demand to see the payroll of your agency and reveal how much the senior management are being paid – from your pockets!
“We’ve got no budget for this job, but there’s loads of bigger projects coming up soon”
I wonder how many of those working at various agencies recognize these familiar lines that “the little guy” receives on a daily basis …
“We’ve received a brief which we’re about to send you, we haven’t had a chance to look through it yet but we wanted to get you across it and get your creative thoughts on what we could do!”
“Thanks for those ideas the client loves the 3nd one, how much would that cost roughly?”
“Can you script it up, prepare a treatment and quote? No, we don’t know how much they want to spend, they haven’t indicated at all”
“We just spoke to the client unfortunately they don’t have anywhere near that amount but DEFINITELY want to do it, what can you do? We really want this to go ahead – is there any way we can squeeze this into this (1/4 of the actual quote) amount?”
“Sorry, I know its the 7th revision (because we lied and did 3 internal revisions before we even showed the client even though what you submitted was ready for client review) – and I know you asked for consolidated feedback from all stakeholders – and yes you’re right you only quoted for 2 revisions, but the account manager was on holidays and only just got back today (what are the chances) and wants these changes made. Yes, I know its back to what you had before. No, there’s no extra money unfortunately. But this HAS to be done, (insert name of account manager) insists. No, it goes live tomorrow and is part of a larger comms piece we’ve been working on, sorry but there is no way around this – we need it by 7am ready for the launch at the absolute latest if you can’t get it done by COB (yes I know its 4:23pm”
“Thanks so much for staying up all night – the client LOVES it! Please send in your invoice and we’ll try and it get it paid as quickly as possible”
“No, it didn’t go out on Friday in the end is why you can’t see it, its going out next week, there was a hold up on something else unrelated. Now just quickly, the CEO has seen it and LOVES it – but he was just wondering if we could change the title of the intro, and also we gave you the wrong logo – I’ve attached the correct one now. Sorry, I know, but its the CEO, so we don’t have a choice”