Who should pay?
Many commercials and big brand marketing projects get created via this workflow: a brand hires a creative agency to develop creative. The creative agency hires a production company to produce the deliverables. The production company hires freelancers to create the work. This pipeline of brand to agency to production company to freelancer carries a set of issues. Namely, if someone changes their mind, who pays for it?
A few years ago, I was on the production company side of this workflow. The freelancers we brought on made assets that we delivered to the agency, who then delivered them to the brand. Then the brand changed their mind. After days and days of the agency’s creative development, and days after the brand approved the concept, someone high up at the brand came in late and changed their mind.
Who should pay for this?
It wasn’t a huge ask, but a few assets needed to be remade. Should the brand pay for this? The agency wasn’t compelled to make them pay for it, because they were trying to win an account. Should the agency pay for it? The agency didn’t want to pay for it—they tried to pass on the cost to the production company (me). It wasn’t fair for the production company to pay for it, because the brand changed their mind. I told the agency this, and they asked me to see if the freelancer would “do it as a favor.”
Ultimately, if a freelancer is completing an extra round for free, they’re the ones paying for the brand’s changed mind. How is this fair? They have the least to gain by paying for it, in descending order, starting from the top.
I’m happy to report that I got the agency to cover the freelancer’s costs (but unfortunately, not mine for figuring out that headache). Some lessons I learned that could help mitigate this in the future are as follows:
Get really clear about rounds, revisions, and creative direction on the front end with your brand clients, or with your agency clients is key. If there’s any confusion, you’re probably going to lose to more experienced negotiators who work up the chain from you.
It’s smart to add in an extra round or two with your freelancer, just in case things get weird. If you don’t use them, they’ll be stoked, and if you need them, you’ve got them.
Each party is only incentivized to keep their hiring party happy. The freelancer doesn’t care about what the brand thinks, because that’s not their client. The production company is their client.
If all else fails, send them this blog (that would be gutsy!) Or, just explain how the freelancer has the least to gain from these trickle-down decisions.
