The cost of creative

The final cost of a creative project is never easy to pin down. From a brand POV, you’re keen to know what you need to budget — surely a price can be put against something an agency does week in, week out? Most agencies however will be unwilling to do this until a fuller dive into the brief and a creative strategy is in place — so they know the most effective way to deliver what you need.

You need something to start from though, so here’s our guide on what that is.

1. Creative strategy & concepts

This is always the hardest one — it depends on:

• Where you’re already at — have you had internal workshops or consumer research panels for example, meaning there’s less discovery needed to get going?
• Are you refreshing or creating something anew?
• To use a classic buzzword — how nimble are you? Can you make and move with decisions fast, or do you know you’ll need to account for various feedback loops and approvals to get to where you need to be.

The simple answer is that you’ll need to account for key people’s day rates. Designers typically range from around £400-£800 per day, for which you should account for the more senior end of this scale to explore this part of your project.

2. Specific assets

Your creative agency should be able to give better estimates on specific items — whether it’s a leaflet or a website, they’ve probably got a range of case studies and estimates to advise. It’s still all depends though:

• For something like a website — how many pages is it? What functionality is needed? How much content do you already have vs. need creating? These are all big factors in end cost.
• For printed items — what finish, quantity and lead time do you need, and do you know this at costing stage? A leaflet with intricate die cuts, printed with Pantone inks, needed before the end of the month will be more expensive than a two-sided flyer with CMYK.

For assets, it’s best to discuss as many specifics to your brief as possible with your creative team so they can again advise on the people’s day rates and time required based on this.

3. Other expenses to remember

The last thing to remember for your budget are the sneaky expenses. Unlike the cost of e.g. print production which would be hard to overlook, the following sometimes get missed out and can bite you later:

• Fonts: Although system fonts work in some places, we’d recommend putting aside £100 — £200 for a full license suite if you’re doing key brand work.
• Image licenses: If you’re not creating your own content, you may need to use existing imagery. We suggest around £30 — £50 per image to avoid generic stock woes.
• Hosting & plugins: For website builds, we’d recommend a monthly hosting & maintenance allocation of c. £200–£500 per month to cover updates and tweaks.