COST SHARING
Sharing the cost of photography enables multiple parties to make the most of the benefits to having professionally taken images. This common and valuable practice can help to maximise your marketing budget by splitting the photography cost between any and all relevant parties involved in your project.
It works particularly well within ARCHITECTURAL PHOTOGRAPHY as there are typically a lot of parties involved throughout the construction process; architects, interior designers, contractors, engineers, developers, product manufacturers, property owners, vendors etc. As the booking client of a photography project, it’s beneficial to remember who was involved thorughout the whole construction process and try to bring them on board with sharing the photography cost. Bringing additional Licensees in on the project early will help to educate them on the benefits of the cost share and will allow the end product (stunning images of your project) to be tailored to each of the parties involved, creating a more dynamic and varied set for everyone.
COST SHARING EXAMPLE
Typically a single party would commission the photographer to photograph a project. This would involve a photography fee, sometimes specific editing fees or per image fees, and a licensing cost depending on clients usage. These elements together would give you your quotation for photography.
In cost sharing, additional licenses would be added per each third party. All of these costs would be added together and split among each of the parties involved, this can result in huge savings not only for the original booking client but for each of the third parties who would otherwise have had to commission their own photographer further down the line.
(Figures for example purposes only)
£500 initial photography cost (Image License is inclusive of initial fee)
£200 Additional License Fee (e.g. Contractor)
Splitting this overall cost of £500 + £200 = £700 between the parties involved (2) means you would each pay £350, saving £150 (30%) on initial photography cost
Additional Parties - cost of £500 + £200 +£200 + £200 = £1100 / 4 = £275 each, saving £225 (45%) on the original single user cost.
The bottom line with cost-sharing is that everyone should benefit, the photographs get used more and the project gets more exposure, each party saves money on marketing costs and the photographer gains more clients with more wonderful projects to photograph in the future.
It’s a WIN-WIN for all.