Commercial Licensing Help

Hi all,

I was after some advice, or just some direction.

I've been approached by a company who want to commission me to take some photos to be used as part of a year-long UK campaign that will encompass TV advertising, social media, local billboards and leaflets. They're looking for around 15 photos in total. My photos won’t be the only ones used in the campaign.

This would be my first paid gig as I am relatively new to the industry and while I have a good idea of what my Creative Fee would be, I am after some help from those who have licensed their photography in the past for similar use.

I'm going to try and find out what their overall marketing budget is and go from there - i have read that a good way to work out licensing fees is to use a sliding scale of a % of the total media spend, which makes sense I guess as you wouldn't charge a fee of 25% per image to someone who has a budget of £500 and then the same to someone who has a budget of £500,000. Additionally, would you provide them a license cost per image, or as a total?

Does anyone have any experience with this that may guide me on my way. It would be greatly appreciated.

ta

Cal.

From time to time there have been similar questions asked, I find, quality guidance on pricing is actually difficult, without all the information that you have: and it's presumptive that you’d not be inclined to share all the details.

Finding out as much as you can about the budget and also the company, their previous clients and vendors and their people, are important: especially important is ferreting out who are the decision makers.

. . . would you provide them a license cost per image, or as a total?

Probably total.

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I've been approached by a company who want to commission me to take some photos to be used as part of a year-long UK campaign that will encompass TV advertising, social media, local billboards and leaflets.

Not sure how you mean the verb “commission” – I’d first assume that UK is the same as AUS, in which case you’re (legally) stating that you’d be paid an agreed price to create and supply images, irrespective of use. Then if used, there would be a Usage Rights Fee payable, which, as I mentioned, I’d bunch all into one fee for all the images that they want to use.

This Usage Rights Fee, you could quantum on their overall budget, additionally I’d be inclined to factor in “how long” and “how many” – what I mean is, the fee would be higher if the campaign goes for 12 months but they want rights to publish you images beyond 12 months. The “how many” might not necessarily be quantified, but if you’d want more if they were expecting to make 100 billboards around the OK and not so much if it were only 10 in London (as an example) so sussing out those expectations is more homework.

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On the other hand – (and take this as a most serious considered bit of advice) you stated this is your first paid gig – then IMO there’s a lot of credence in setting a fee that you know they will pay and get your work out there: especially when so many people are not working, and there are very few Photographers working at all.

WW

Thank you William for your quick reply.

You are correct re: the verb usage. So I aim to charge them a Creative Fee for me doing the work in taking the photos to fit with the brief and editing, etc. I’d then add in the Usage Fee/License Fee on top so if they decide not to use any of my photos, they would still need to pay me for doing the work as agreed.

What I planned to do was not quantify the 'how many' and I don't think I need to quantify the how long [though I will] because this campaign will only run until the end of 2021 because of the nature of the project. I will stipulate in the agreement that the use of these images are for this campaign only and any additional use for other campaigns in the future (though it's unlikely that will happen) will be subject to an additional license fee. Does that sound about right?

My main concern comes from your last point. This campaign is something I would love to be involved with - it's very close to my heart and when they got in touch I couldn't believe it. It would be fantastic for me to be able to use this an example of my work for future clients and so I am really torn between going low to utilise this opportunity and going it at the rate I think it fair for my work and potentially not being selected. I'm in a privileged position I guess as this is not my job; so I don't rely on the income. However, I also don't want to undervalue my work.

But my main issue is: I'm not even sure what is considered 'low' and although I have zero experience in being comissioned, I really don't want to give the company the impression I have no idea what I'm doing when it comes to the maths by going in super high.

I did use this calculator which gave a figure of £4.7k for a 2-year EU-wide campaign on the platforms they want to use... which seems insanely expensive.

AOP usage calculator for photographers

If i go to the company I ask what their budget is because that will effect the % I charge for licensing, would that be considered familiar practice or would they wonder why the hell I worked like that, do you think? I know thats an impossible question to answer... ha!

I'm in a privileged position I guess as this is not my job; so I don't rely on the income.

That places an entirely different perspective to the implied premise of the question you originally asked: "I am after some help from those who have licensed their photography in the past for similar use."

In essence and in simple terms you have to establish how much it is worth to you to be involved in the project and have your work credited and in addition to those two factors, what remuneration you find acceptable.

Bottom line in this situation is, you have almost absolute control in any negotiation process, provided you are a reasonably skilled negotiator.

I also don't want to undervalue my work.

Bluntly: if you haven't done any, then the bar of the value of your work has not been set in the market place yet: it may be set in your opinion, that's OK, but from their buying viewpoint - you're a new Batsman, with no runs on the board yet.

Money (payment in money) is not the only form of "value"

WW

Doing it on a percentage of ad budget doesn't seem right. It could be a shot on a one page brochure, or a 200 page catalog. It is obviously a much smaller part of the latter, but you would price it on a specific fraction of the cost. Pricing based on the number of copies produced would seem more obvious to me.

If it is the only shot on a one page brochure, I might (randomly) guess 10%.

One page of a 200 page catalog, maybe 0.03%. (Maybe a few shots per page.)