HOW MUCH DOES AN INFOMERCIAL COST?
The short answer for this commonly asked question is that there is no standard answer for the cost of infomercial production.
The long answer to “how much do commercials cost?” and “how much does a TV ad cost?” — we’ve got you covered! The word “infomercial” actually refers to a 30-minute video for national television. As a direct-response marketing agency, we’ve produced many 30-minute infomercials. We also do shorter DRTV, or “direct-response television,” spots, commonly referred to as “short-form infomercials,” usually ranging from 1-2 minutes in length. And more recently, many of our clients are asking for “infomercials” for Facebook or YouTube. These videos are usually only produced for digital platforms, which means they may look very different from a TV spot. With all these different infomercials, combined with the locations, talent, props, animation, and prep work required, the cost for an infomercial for your product varies widely.
The length of the video alone does not determine the pricing of the video. Instead, it’s all the possible production elements that go into the productions of the video. The process of creating a top-quality marketing video for your business goes into three categories: pre-production, production, and post-production.
This “full-length” video will tell the whole story of the product. It will include all of the key features and benefits, the unique problem that the product is solving, and how it solves this problem. We always want our clients overjoyed with the video, so we consult the client through every step of the process to ensure their vision comes to life to optimize profits while making them proud with the end result.
The cost of the infomercial will depend on many factors within pre-production, production, and post-production. So, let’s break it down.
PRE- PRODUCTION
Before writing the best infomercial script, we first have to delve fully into your product and its target market. Pre-production includes extensive market research, competitive analysis, and product immersion that combine to identify the ideal audience and the offer/messaging for your TV or digital marketing campaign.
The ideal audience, or “target market,” is the most profitable group of people. The target market helps guide our media strategy (what TV stations to use or what group of people to target in a digital campaign). Still, the ideal audience also helps guide our creative strategy — even down to selecting talent for our marketing videos. The “ideal offer” refers to how we price the product or service and how we talk about the pricing — “do we include the price in the ad?” or “do we wait until they get to the site?” Finally, the ideal message helps us identify the key features and benefits to focus on in our videos, website copy, and Facebook/Instagram copy. Once the audience, offer and messaging are optimized, we’re ready to start working on the ideal video script.
For scripting, we make it a collaborative approach. We combine our knowledge of DRTV and digital marketing and your product expertise to create a powerful script. We will handle the script-writing, but we’ll collaborate with you until you love it. The best videos are a combination of scripts that drive response with a creative vision that fits our clients’ vision for their brands.
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Generally speaking, we offer a flat fee before the pre-production process. Harvest Growth offers a Perfect Launch Blueprint that provides the strategy you need to succeed as the very first step, and we’re so confident in our process that we provide a full refund if you don’t love the strategy we’ve come up with to launch your campaign.
This entire Blueprint pre-production process can cost as little as $2,500.
PRODUCTION
Production is the phase where the actual video shoot happens. For our clients, production is the most exciting because they see their marketing tangibly come together — perhaps for the first time. For us, the Production step is fun but also stressful as we watch to ensure 1,000 variables go right on the day of the shoot. In terms of pricing, the main factor is the complexity of the shoot. How many shoot days are required? How many locations and talent? Are we using a celebrity spokesperson? Is 3D animation needed?
For a shorter, more straightforward commercial, there will be a smaller crew with less talent. There will be more costly elements for larger-scale commercials, such as talent, animation, locations, and a larger crew. Some of the crew roles include Director of Photography (camera operator), lighting, sound, director/producer, makeup artist, and more.
We handle the location, scheduling, talent, crew, equipment, and everything else with the client’s input along the entire way for video production. With that, we always provide an expected price upfront for production costs once we fully understand the project scope. Digital video production can cost a few thousand dollars up to tens of thousands of dollars, and TV video production is generally $30,000 to $50,000, depending on scope. Other agencies can charge $100,000 or more for video production, but Harvest Growth works to keep costs under control without sacrificing quality. Please reach out directly to one of our Product Launch Experts for a detailed cost quote for your project by clicking the link below!
POST PRODUCTION
Post-production includes the pre-planning steps needed for a successful editing workflow and the actual editing process. All of this happens after the last day of video shooting. Along with editing the footage to create the perfect, most effective infomercial, editing also includes adding music, voiceovers, animation, and other effects needed to fully prep the commercial for national television and/or digital media.
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The fees for post-production go alongside production fees. These numbers are available in advance
in the contract.
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Read some testimonials from clients regarding their infomercial experience.
“They wrote the script, filmed, and edited a TV commercial. They also brokered agreements between designers and media buyers. They essentially set up the entire campaign for us.”
—Josh Wingate, Med Manager.“
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They always provide amazing insights and have truly helped us get better. You can also tell they really care about their clients and will go above and beyond to help do what needs to get done.”
—Katelyn Stiver, Boogie Board.“
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The videos they produced are very compelling, and I’ve shown them to a lot of people, including my investors, and there’s no criticism. Everyone thought it was extremely well done and very motivating to purchase the product”
—Edward Goldfarb, SOPO Dispenser Program
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