Commission for an ad agent?

March 4, 2009 11:10 AM

What commission should I charge for an agent that's finding me advertising gigs?

I'm in a group of people that produces comedy shorts, and to raise money we're going to start doing more commercials. Our company writes, acts, and produces any ads it does.

A friend of mine is willing to shop our services around. What would be a fair commission to charge? Writing agents generally charge 10% and acting agents 15%, from what I understand. Is there a standard for something like this?

posted by Idiot Mittens to Work & Money (3 answers total)

In the one case to which I can speak with some knowledge, an advertising production company I have some knowledge of pays its sales reps (who find the company ad gigs by hooking them up with ad agencies) between 5% and 10% of the project budget. I have no idea what the industry standard is, however.
posted by dersins at 11:25 AM on March 4, 2009

I worked at an agency that represented photographers to ad agencies. They didn't take a cut out of the artists fee, they added an additional 10-15% of the total project cost as a line item 'agency fee' on the invoice. They were doing a lot more than finding gigs though - they were handling production, hiring additional talent, and doing all the billing and paperwork.
posted by bradbane at 11:29 AM on March 4, 2009

I've done 10% of the project in somewhat similar situations.
posted by Ookseer at 11:57 AM on March 4, 2009