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Anonymous User
Bowl Leader
Vita Coco ad. Who is responsible for this nonsense?
This is my story. Think and act
Enthusiast
Her loss 🔥🔥🔥
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How hard is it to get into Apple Marcom?
Mentor
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That sucks so much. What an ahole.
AICP guidelines on cancellation should be your first resource. You could even ask them for that language.
But as agencies we’re producing on behalf of our clients — the “on behalf of” = reason why they pay. They pay us to book the shoot, but it’s their bank account that gets charged for it. We don’t own the footage; they do.
All of my client OOP estimates say “we follow AICP guidelines for payment and cancellation terms”. If a client isn’t willing to do that-don’t do production for them. I’m serious. It’s a huge risk to the agency and could bankrupt you. Let them contract directly with production companies and take that risk on then.
Mentor
AICP guidelines spell this all out. This is an unbelievable request on the part of your client. They will also get such a bad reputation that no one will take your calls. No prod co or ANYONE will trust them or you. So bad for business. And it sounds like you should bring this up with the C-suits bc your agency will be on the hook for cancelled costs.
Lot of would be lawyers on this thread. Speaking of which, I cannot see any possible circumstance where you want to handle this without legal guidance. Yikes.
This why so many vendors pushed back against sequential liability clauses. If a client decides to walk away mid-pre-production, the agency can say “too bad” and punt the production company’s complaints to the client. The vendor incurs all the costs and the agency rarely any of the liability, based on the contracts I’ve seen.
Mentor
The contract is between the prod co and the agency on behalf of the agency’s client. The agency pays 50% up front and usually has to wait for the client to reimburse. And who knows how long this will take? So it’s the agency that is out of pocket, not the client. And really, who wants to spend time and money on litigation? It’s a no win for prod co and agency.
I would also assume your client MSA and insurance contract has language to use. Do you have in house counsel?
This is so frustrating. I would craft and email and allow csuite to take the risk. Ask ChatGPT to research all aspects for you to make the best argument and help you to cover off on all aspects.
I don’t have legal wording or counsel but perhaps a recommendation with this client or future clients.
Sometimes clients genuinely don’t understand the backend / agency life and what’s involved and the contracts we sign with other parties, even if it is common sense.
The below are just some forms or transparency and education for the client and ways to manage expectations and mitigate financial implications.
Agency Workflow / Campaign Process:
How - created a one page overview of key actions and supported with an appendix with each department R&R. Not overly detailed but explaining what it is and why it’s needed.
Why - To educate, be transparent and manage expectations with clients and visibility of the work / resources involved at each stage or team.
Budget Presentations:
How - Setup or have a summary of variable and fixed costs. Try not to squirrel and merge costs. Just be transparent with line items.
Why - this will help the client to see beyond bulk sections or total amounts. It makes it easier to have conversations when the client understands the costs better. They will know hard costs that have to be paid for materials and probably open negotiation on the internal resource / time to the campaign at its current stage.
Cancellation Policies:
How - consider a scale approach for a project / campaign. Whereby it’s a time to execute x completion. The closer you get to go live the higher the cancellation policy. Eg 120 days - 30% / 60 days - 50% / 30 days - 85% / 14 days - 100%.
Obviously this needs to be tied to suppliers and partners clauses. Also ensure you have a summary of what is completed at each of these stages.
Why - client will see transparency (and fairness) by not assuming they are paying a full campaign if it never sees the light of day. They will now know when to make decisions to cancel earlier and what the financial implications are beyond a certain time or period in the project.
You can definitely reference AICP guidelines and because the contract is between client and agency, then agency and production company, any agreement made with the client would need to be communicated in the contract with the production company, and you'd be hard pressed to find a production company that would agree to that. Ie. No one will do the job for them.
Yes consult your Counsel on the response. Many blue chip clients and really any with a cost consultant don’t adhere to AICP cancellation policy. So that may not be relevant in the discussion. Also need to consider if you will or will not be acting as their agent in the MSA and ownership in the instance of cancellation, etc. So much more than the simple response “here is AICP cancellation” to consider. Good luck. Clients know it’s desperate times out there and are pushing for more and more unsustainable risks that fall on the agency from 120 day payment terms to full responsibility for IP infringement even on client supplied materials and SAG claims that are not the result of agency negligences. It definitely doesn’t make doing business or trusted partnerships any easier.