What Agency Charges are on the rise and which ones are suffering?
It seems that every few years the advertising and design industry goes through a change in charging methodologies. One minute, clients except PDF fees. The next day there is a complaint about finicky charges.
So what are the current trends in 2010?
According to our 2010 Rates Report, below are some charges that seem to be winning and a few that are starting to fade. Any charge code containing the word “strategy” is on the uptake. Clients expect ideas and strategic thought in your work and so they should. Our value in the industry is linked to our strategy whether it is a creative idea or execution. Therefore Strategy Planner, Digital Strategist and Creative Strategy work well. Digital is also a buzz word. As this channel floods our market, clients are expecting these charges to appear in most of our work. We already mentioned Digital Strategist – but Digital Producer, Digital Designer and Technical Direction are high on the list. What is technical direction you may ask? When you have a complicated website or digital project, there needs to be a strong technical lead that ensures the elements are tied into together logically, to specification and branding. This can be a jigsaw puzzle and takes a high level of skill which, in most cases, demands a higher hourly rate. We cannot forget the role of Social Media strategy either which, to be honest, has no set hourly rate just yet. How do you measure the value of social media tactics such as positive branding on twitter?
What are the charge codes that are diminishing or holding less value?
Colour lasers have been disappearing slowly as the industry has become more digital. They started to decline in $ value and now are often included under disbursements. Other studio based charges such as ISDN or Digital transfers have been diminishing as we now have easy ways to transmit and upload high resolution files. Quickcut would also be a great example of a charge that has been lowered over the last few years. Where previously you may charge up to $380 for a large format colour ad, the industry is much more regulated and differences between colour and mono are becoming less important.
In summary we can conclude that very execution based fees relating to old media are starting to drop off whilst any new media charges or strategic fees are winning. Do you have a strategy in place for your business to ensure your revenue streams are protected? For more information on creative rates and trends, check out our 2010 Rates Report.
