Why when asking how much something costs the reply is “what’s the budget”? There is no budget, that’s why I’m asking for the costs. To make the budget recommendation! Am I losing it?

Whenever I’ve been asked for ballparks for a video, I come across these two frequent scenarios;

1.
I provide a number only to be told “that’s too high!” So clearly there was a number that was being expected and I destroyed the delusion of whatever the cost the person was expecting. They come back later with revised creative and we repeat the cycle until it works, or the creative dies completely.

2.
I provide a number based on the creative, only to be subjected to radio silence for weeks or months and find out that either the creative stayed the same or got more complicated to execute, while also being told that I have an even lower budget to back production costs into than the ballpark I gave previously, usually about 20 to 30% lower. Oh and I have only a week to ‘make it work’ so there’s almost no time to put it all together. Things get very messy since there’s larger room for error when given a time crunch to hit a number that’s unrealistic.

Version two tends to happen more often, so it gets frustrating to be asked what something costs, only to be ignored or have the request change immediately after putting in the work I just did. It’s easier for me to find the right vendor partners with a solid number, so I can get back to someone with a clear yes or no based on product expectation.

Don’t play fucking games. Tell me the idea/share creative, and I will give you a ballpark to do it right with the best vendors. If the client can’t afford the best, we will figure out an alternative way for less. It’s all about the craft and making the best content possible. I start off by going high with the best to gauge client intent

Because it can be really helpful to have at least a very rough range of the client budget appetite or expectation in order to provide an estimate that’s the right level of fidelity. There’s many ways to skin a cat.

Simplest example: cost for producing a 30 second video, depending on a low/med/high budget, a producer might estimate partnering with a super scrappy production company and bare minimum talent, post, etc vs. an average level prod company vs. a top tier prod company and director. It’s definitely not necessary to have a range ahead of time, but I’ve found it usually helps minimize the amount of back and forth to get it to a place everyone is comfortable with

Whoa, this is really freaky. This is a story about "the new advertising model" I think.

Clients committing a budget means a commitment to making something. If the committment is just to hear some ideas, then they can just say "well this is great, thank you."

Old Advertising was clients knowing they needed to make something. New advertising is just wondering...considering...weighing options...delaying the decision whether to make anything, and what in the hell they need to make.

It's also coming up with "big ideas" without the slightest idea how much or how long or just plain HOW to get them done.

The advice is always a nicer car than one can afford

In a negotiation the first one to name a number loses.

Also there’s usually a cheap way and an expensive way to do things

Omg and that’s why account drives us crazy sometimes. Client always has a range they want to stay within. Always. That’s like me going to a real estate broker and saying, “I want to buy a house in New Jersey. How much is it going to cost me?” Nobody would do that, right? You know how much money you want to spend, roughly what size of a house do you want, what neighborhood, high-end finishes or middle-of-the-road...Producers need the same. We need to know at least a rough Creative and the max budget the Client is willing to spend. I can create ballparks all day long, but it’s a waste of everybody’s time without some kind of basic information. And then you yell at me for spending too many hour on creating an estimate. Yes, if I have to revise it 20 times because of your lack of information, it’s going to cost you time and money. Ok, I’m done. Happy Friday! Lol

@AD I see what you mean but consider it from the creatives perspective...we're supposed to come up with....what? A 360, integrated, digital first, never been done before, ownable, sticky "effort" ....buzzword buzzword....so okay, heres an idea where instagram likes lead to bottles of water or whatever the hell it is....and we dont have the first CLUE how to do it or how long it takes. So we show it to the client, and BEST case scenario they say "how much would it cost?" and the answer comes back, and we hear "oh...well then no."

Take it from someone over 40, it just worked a lot better (meaning more things got MADE and made on time) when we heard "we need two spots, two print ads and a radio spot. They have 1.4 million." That told us what kind of ideas (how many locations, actors, SFX) we could think of. No muss no fuss.

There is ALWAYS a not to exceed from the client side. Account should always have a sense of what that is. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve asked an Account person for the clients not to exceed # and been told there isn’t one. Then I come back with an estimate and the Account person tells me it’s too high. So apparently there WAS a not to exceed # that they didn’t share thus wasting my time and the vendors time. Don’t waste people’s precious time.

“What car should I buy?”
“What’s your budget?”

Depends how specific the “something” is

How long is a piece of string?

OP I am non-account and it DRIVES ME INSANE when account people come to me with no budget! The reason is that budget can totally change the strategy and also I don’t want clients to fall in love with the Ferrari when I accidentally sell it to them because I don’t know their budget.

I suggest admitting to yourself it’s a game of bullshit and just playing it right back at them

I think it depends. I would usually like to know the budget range before kicking off a project to make sure the creatives stay within a world of reason and there’s enough money left over to produce said “thing”.

So it’s pretty important in that respect to know costs. If it’s a fully baked idea, then yes someone should be able to recommend best options/approaches to costs. But it’s not as simple as throwing out a number. A lot of time and effort goes into this, so they likely just want to know what they’re trying to hit so they can figure out how to best approach it and make it work.

Editor1 that's a really simplistic and outdated stance on negotiation. There doesn't have to be a winner and loser, and that mindset automatically creates an adversarial relationship with the other party, which generally means the outcome will be shitty for everyone.

How much is a house?

This is the times. Why waste everyone’s time. Just state rough budget numbers to get to an end result quicker. Can’t buy a Ferrari on a Yugo budget. But both should get you there

Because there is an infinite amount of ways to produce something to fit an infinite budgets. “No Budget” usually means the cheapest shit possible so just say that so we don’t torpedo the project by trying to elevate with higher budget resources.

At my last CD job we had an absolutely awful client who said once, "well if I give you guys a budget, you'll just spend it." Her point was, withhold the number from us so we dont just write something to spend her money. We should be bringing her the least expensive way to do an idea, so she could decide if it was worth it.

It was just mind boggling; we had no idea how to respond.

Editor- agree! If i tell you the idea, what I want, tell me the best way to get it done and how much it costs. Right? Set the baseline. Go from there. Ugh.