01ARTICLE
10 questions to ask before commissioning an ad film
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The story of every ad film project that went sideways points to the same cause: a question nobody asked at the start. Here are ten of them; five for you, five for the studio.
Questions for yourself
1. Where will the film run? Feed, TV or both? The answer changes framing, length and edit.
2. What is the one sentence message? "Our product is high quality" is not a message. "Our chocolate snaps when it breaks" is.
3. How will you measure success? Views, leads or sales? The goal decides the call to action at the end.
4. How many formats do you need? Vertical, horizontal, square. Cheap when said upfront, expensive when asked later. We explain why in the pricing piece.
5. Who signs off? Having the final decision maker in the first meeting deletes three revision rounds in advance.
Questions for the studio
6. Have you done similar work? Look at published work, not a reference folder. Ours is here, with view counts.
7. How many revision rounds, covering what? "Unlimited revisions" means an undefined process. Defined rounds are the healthy version.
8. Who delivers what, when? Storyboard date, first cut date, final date. All three in writing.
9. What do the usage rights cover? Which channels, how long, which countries? Rights discussed later are discussed expensively. Details in the delivery guide.
10. Why this production method? CGI, live action or AI? "Because that is what we do" is not a reason; ask for one that fits your project. For the comparison, read this piece.
If you can answer all ten, you are ready to send a brief: start here.