Tesla Motors doesn’t run commercials and they don’t have an ad agency. But a group of “recent college grads” decided to create an ad for the electric car company on spec. The founder of Tesla,
Tony Stark
Elon Musk announced on twitter that he loved the video and the company has been sharing it all over the web. And though they haven’t actually paid for the work, Musk said he was confident that his company would “do something” with the producers soon.
“Modern Spaceship” has caused a little bit of a stir because the producers claim they only spent $1,500 on it. On March 18th, Ad Age ran a story about the video’s low-budget origins. Then a few days later, Ad Age posted a rebuttal to that story. Nick Miede, the Associate Creative Director for the ad agency, Column Five declared that Modern’s Spaceship‘s $1,500 budget was an illusion:
I think outer space is pretty awesome. If you’re like me in this regard, you were probably blown away by Tesla’s “Modern Spaceship” spec ad created by Everdream Pictures — a production company founded by recent college grads — which takes us on a journey to the final frontier. You probably also read the headline-grabbing claim that the commercial cost just $1,500 to make. I work in the advertising industry, specializing in video production, and I’d say that price tag is out there with the space-traveling Tesla, orbiting far away from reality.
Miede goes on to say that a lot of very important expenses were left out of the budget:
What about the cost of developing the concept? Script? Storyboards? Pre-production logistics? Set Design? Visual effects? Day rates for the crew, talent and editor?
And what about all the gear they used to shoot the commercial?
I’ve noticed that Ad Age has a healthy bias against spec ads and commercial contests; maybe because the pros that visit adage.com see cheap spec labor as a threat. It seems like a lot of “real” ad makers just can’t accept that a few friends can get together and make a decent commercial for 90% less than what they would charge.
If you read Miede’s entire article, it’s clear that he’s trying to hold the Tesla project up to HIS personal standards. For instance, he wants to know how much the producers would have paid their set designer. Well who the heck said that every production needs a set designer? Modern Spaceship was shot in a living room and a garage. One of the producers could have dressed each set in about 30 minutes. And what about the equipment that was used? The folks at Everdream said they already had all the gear they needed to produce this ad. Mr. Miede seems offended that the producers wouldn’t include this expense in their final budget. But why should they? Unless you’re renting, the cost of your gear isn’t relevant to the process. I just made myself some baked chicken for dinner. I cooked the chicken for free and the food cost me about $9. But I baked that chicken in an oven that’s worth $600. So according to Ad Age, my dinner budget should be $609.
The author goes on to explain that he is concerned that low-budget spec ads give the false impression that professional ad makers (like him) are over-charging:
The $1,500 claim makes it sound as if this team found an incredibly cost-effective way to make beautifully produced video creative. It suggests that the industry could take a lesson from them and become more efficient. If this ad cost only a few bucks, then surely other brands can fetch a similar bang for their buck.
But they can’t, because there isn’t anything cost-effective about a $1,500 price tag that excludes the majority of production costs. This doesn’t lead to industry efficiency; it leads to industry confusion, which does a disservice to all of us.
I’m not trying to single out the Everdream team here. But I am concerned that we have an industry-wide problem on our hands. If we don’t reverse this trend — if we continue to promote misleading figures — we’ll be making it that much harder to communicate the actual value of our creative and debunk the perceived cost myth.
This argument is totally bogus. No reasonable person would watch Modern Spaceship and assume that the $1,500 price tag included an HD camera and an editing suite and no car company is going tell their agency that their next ad has to cost less than two grand.
Miede, like many in the advertising industry, is quick to attack high-quality/low-cost spec ads because they’re still trying to keep the low-budget, DIY culture from infecting their profession. They still haven’t realized that not every project has to be a BIG, FREAKING DEAL. If the sponsor just wants a fun or interesting video for the web, why does it need to cost tens of thousands of dollars? Even if Modern Spaceship‘s budget included pay for the cast and crew, it would still be a relatively cheap production. Maybe the producers didn’t need to spend thousands of dollars to hire a casting director or hold auditions because they already knew who they wanted to cast. And instead of renting a car or a location, they just used a car and a location that they already had access too. How many professional ad makers would borrow their dad’s car so they could shoot an ad for a client? Not many. Spec filmmakers know something that the pros haven’t realized yet; just because you CAN pay for something, it doesn’t mean you should. There’s no shame in getting something for free.
Miede wrapped up his article by giving a back-handed compliment to the folks at EverDream.
Am I suggesting that there isn’t a great financial story about this Tesla commercial? No, I’m simply saying we should more clearly acknowledge the financial truth of the story. The Everdream team probably didn’t have a huge marketing budget to build up its client base, but it had something else — skills. What they lacked in financial equity, they made up for in sweat equity: good, old-fashioned hard work with no guarantee of compensation, only the promise of a big-time pay off.
They didn’t make a really cheap video. They made a really shrewd investment.
Let’s celebrate the entrepreneurship of the Everdream team. Let’s champion the pursuit of cost-effective creative. Let’s boldly go where no creative has gone before. Let’s just make sure we go there with enough money for gas. Rocket fuel isn’t cheap.
Miede’s closing point is a common sentiment among nervous, old school ad agency types. Those guys love to look down their noses at spec filmmakers and say “when you give things away, you’re hurting the industry! These skills are valuable and you need to charge more!” But that’s BS. What they really want to say is “you punks need to stop working so cheap because you’re making the rest of us look bad!”
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