FAQs - Creative

There are two main reasons you should work with us. The first reason is real simple, you have the potential to make a lot of money. Of course it depends on the creative that you provide, but a good ad can earn you $50,000 or more, and we do most of the work! You might have work already created that is just waiting for you to submit it! Why not turn that into extra money?

The second reason is that it gives you the ability to do outstanding creative work. Do you have any rejected work that you really wish had the chance to run? Any ideas that were too far out there for your conservative client, but you know would work great? We're looking for the best creative ideas, this is your opportunity to really do some compelling work.

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The first step is to submit your work via email (or contact us if you need to ftp the files.) See the Submit Work to Ad Diner page.

At this preliminary submission stage the files are just sent for review, so small Quicktime files, mp3s, and pdfs are preferred.

Go ahead and submit your work now. Even though the Ad Diner website is just getting started, direct-selling is already going on!

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Not all submissions will be selected. We will review the work and make a determination if it works for the Ad Diner site. We're looking for attention-getting, high quality work, so send us the work that you are the most proud of.

If selected, we will send you a more detailed form. You maintain all rights to your work and we won't do anything with your creative until we have a signed contract from you.

Remember, we are looking for finished work that simply needs to be customized for the client. We really can't use concepts or rough layouts. (That may change in the future, but for now only send us ads that are ready to be customized and sold.)

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If accepted, the actual submission stage involves a little more work, but remember you have the possibility of making quite a bit of money, so it is worth it. The next steps are:

1. You will need to fill out forms with pertinent information about the submissions
2. You will need to determine the pricing structure (as the creative supplier, you will set the selling price)
3. You will get the contract to review and fill out (Note: We require that the contract be notarized to authenticate your submission. Most banks will do this for you for a small fee.)
4. You will need to fill out and sign a W9 tax form (you are responsible as a supplier to pay your own income taxes)
5. You will need to upload the actual editable graphic files or commercials. (You will get a list of acceptable formats. If you cannot supply us with the proper format, we can convert the work for a minimal charge.)

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The Ad Diner will handle all of the sales, promotion, and paperwork with the client.

We have a three-step marketing program to promote the work on the Ad Diner. First, we will do national advertising and public relations programs targeted to small businesses.

Second, we are selling direct. (We currently have some direct selling projects going on right now. We use industry lists to call on advertisers directly.)

Third, we will do industry promotional selling, where we visit key industry segments and use their industry groups to promote sales. (See the question on discounts.) With our industry promotions we will also do tradeshows and seminars to promote our products. (This depends on the levels of creative in a certain industry. For example, if we have a lot of good creative for chiropractors, we'll go to the chiropractic conventions, etc.)

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You will actually determine the price of the ads or campaign. You will receive a suggested price range from us, but the final determination is yours. (We imagine that most items will be between $1,000 - 3,500, with some basic print ads as low as $500.) There are always exceptions, and campaigns can be sold as packages or a la carte. The Ad Diner may insist on a minimum price in order to recoup costs and make a profit. Pricing will be determined in advance and will only be changed by mutual agreement by both parties.

Remember, the premise is that these clients can get it cheaper buying through the Ad Diner than if they were to have it done from scratch. We want to offer value and still make money with volume sales. Our clients get exclusivity in their market for one year, so it is important not to underprice it either. You submit your creative, we do the selling and the customization, and when they sell we will pay you a royalty.

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We pay royalties for every ad sold, minus any expenses (see subsequent questions for more explanation on expenses and discounts.)

The basic royalty payment available to everyone is 50% of the profit.

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We will be offering discounts and commissions, so you need to consider that in your pricing strategy. Our discounts are as follows:

We can offer up to 10% off for promotional purposes to groups (to entice them to offer our ads to their group) or for web specials.

In addition, we are offering ad agencies as well as media outlets (TV stations, radio stations, publishers, etc) a 15% commission on anything that they purchase for their clients.

If there is a discount or promotion along with a media commission, the commission is given after the discount.

One last discount, we will give our clients a 50% discount if they are buying for more than one market. (First one at regular price, each additional market at 50% off.) We will also offer a 50% discount on the total purchase if they renew for an additional year.

Your royalty payment as the creative provider is determined after all discounts and expenses are applied. (See expenses below.)

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The Ad Diner will do basic customization (dropping in logos and adding tags to radio and TV.) There may be times when extra work beyond basic customization is needed. For instance, a radio spot may need to be recut every time. If this is the case, we will set up an equitable fee for providing this type of customization. These extra expenses will be deducted before the creative royalty payment is determined.

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Our contract states that we will license the copyright from you for a five year period. We do not own the copyright, but we do become the exclusive distributor and licensee of the work for that period. If we are unable to make a sale of your ad or campaign within a year, there is a clause for you to get out of the contract at that time if you desire.

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The Ad Diner will cut royalty payment checks on a quarterly basis. You will only receive a quarterly statement if you are owed a payment. All creative that has made a sale during the year will receive an end-of-year statement and a IRS form 1099, depending on your tax status. (Quarterly statements will be sent via email unless other arrangements are requested.)

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Sometimes more than one person or entity will own a copyright. We can split royalty payments if needed. We encourage teams to develop new creative for us.

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We understand that sometimes an agency will create work for a client and the specifics of who owns the copyright are never discussed. We highly recommend that the agency and the client work together and come to an agreement to split the royalty payments between them for work submitted to the Ad Diner. (Let's all benefit! This way the client will pay the agency to create even more great work that they can use and both can profit from later!)

Remember, we cannot give legal advice. Please consult an attorney if you are unsure of your copyright ownership. If you fill out the contract stating that you own the copyright, you are legally liable if it is found later that you are infringing on someone else's copyrights. If you want to learn more about copyrights, you can visit the US Government's copyright website.

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Yes. A lot of businesses buy all the rights when they hire a creative company to do work for them. If you are the copyright owner, then you can resell the work. It is our understanding (and once again, we are not attorneys, so get your own legal advice) that a copyright must be transferred in writing.

Please check your contracts to see if you own the copyright. If you don't have a contract, then please talk with the creative company that you hired. If there is a doubt, we recommend an agreement where we pay both the creative company and you equally.

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Our contract states that we will be the exclusive sellers of the ads, so once you sign the contract everything will need to go through us for the length of the contract, even if you find someone directly to resell the ad to. However, this does not include pre-existing placement of the original advertising. When you fill out the contract you will state what markets the ads have already ran in and we won't sell in those markets. We need to maintain this exclusivity in order to control our market promise to our customers. (We promise our customers that they will have exclusivity of the ad in their market for one year. In order to keep this promise, we need to control the process.) Plus we are spending time and money promoting your ads, we need to be able to make a profit too.

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Let's say you have a TV commercial that you determine the selling price will be $2,000. We sell 50 of them to companies around the U.S. Let's say that 10 were sold to media or agencies that collected the 15% commission. 10 were sold as part of a promotion to a group, getting a 10% discount. And five more were sold at the 10% discount AND received an agency commission. None of the TV commercials had any extra expenses.

10 sold with 15% commission

= 10 × $2,000 = $20,000 − $3,000 commissions = $17,000

10 sold with 10% discount

= 10 × $2,000 = $20,000 − $2,000 discount = $18,000

5 sold with 10% discount AND 15% commission

= 5 × $2,000 = $10,000 − $1,000 discount = $9,000 − $1,350 commission = $7,650

25 sold with no discounts

= 25 × $2,000 = $50,000

Total sales = $92,650 to be split between the Ad Diner and creative supplier
Creative royalties = $46,325

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As mentioned, we will do basic customization as part of our services.

This includes dropping in the logo, changing copy, resizing the ad, etc., on print ads, dropping in logos and basic announcer tags on TV, and tags on radio spots. All of these components are included in the Ad Diner's portion and are not deducted from the net profits of the ad. (There's been some confusion on this, so let us reiterate, basic customization costs are not deducted from your profits, we cover that for you.)

If we need to hire talent for more than just a simple tag, or if the work incurs a stock photo fees, talent fees, needle drop fees, etc., all those expenses will be taken out before we determine royalties. These expenses should be factored in when the price is set. It is your responsibility to make sure we have all of that information in advance so we can include them in the contract.

A basic rule of thumb is if it costs the Ad Diner money out of pocket, then we have to deduct it from the net profits. If our internal production team can do it, then it doesn't factor into the net profits at all.

Please note: your unlimited stock photo usage may not apply and we may have to pay an additional fee. These will be determined on a case-by-case basis. (This is a gray area with some stock photo contracts and each one treats it a little differently. Typically these fees are small enough that they won't really be a factor in profitability.)

Beside production expenses, if any, we will also recoup credit card expenses prior to determining royalties. For now we are set up with PayPal and the standard PayPal rates will apply. If our clients pay by corporate check, these credit fees obviously will not apply.

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We're here to help. Email us at info@AdDiner.com or call 608-527-2200 between 9-5, M-F, Central Time.

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If you're a creative supplier, there are multiple reasons to sign up, including:

• Be informed of special promotions. We sell direct to different industries, if you're signed up we can inform you of upcoming promotions and events. For instance, we may be going to a furniture store trade show, so you'll want to make sure that we have all of your furniture store ads on the site so we can promote them to this audience.
• Special requests. If we get a request from a certain industry, or have a lot of a certain industry signed up, we can let you know. (For instance, we can let people know if we have several chiropractors signed up, but don't have much work in that industry on the site.)
• Other opportunites. We're actually working on other components to the Ad Diner site where we will be soliciting business for our creative suppliers. If you're not signed up, we can't let you know when these opportunities arise.

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As the creative supplier, you will need to set the price of your ads. Here are some suggestions to keep in mind:

Obviously, we want to make these ads a good value for the businesses that purchase them. Our promise is that they get creative at a lower price than what they would pay to have them created from scratch.

On the low end, we probably don't want to get below $400-$500 for an ad. There's a selfish reason from our end for that minimum. We have sales costs, production costs (customization), customer service costs, along with all the paperwork costs that we need to recoup. If we can't make at least a couple hundred dollars on a sale after paying your royalty, it gets to where it isn't worth our efforts.

On the high end, it really depends on production values and what an ad would typically cost. If you're shooting a 35 film TV spot and have a big set and quality actors, along with great creative, and the spot would cost $75K-$100K to produce from scratch, then asking $10K-20K probably isn't out of the question.

We think a good rule of thumb is to take what you normally would charge and divide by 10. An ad that you might charge $15,000 for would probably sell for $1,500 on the Ad Diner. Remember, we're hoping that the real profits are created by multiple sales.

We're guessing that a majority of the print and radio will be in that $500 category, and simple television will be between $1,000 and $2,000 and higher production TV will be between $2,000 and 5,000.

We're also a proponent of giving options, and the more the client buys, the lower the price. So maybe a single ad might be $500, but if there's a series of ads, the cost might be 2 for $900, 3 for $1200, etc.

The last thing to keep in mind is we don't mind changing the price later, but we much prefer to raise the price rather than lower it. The reason we don't want to lower the price later is that anybody that has made a purchase will feel like they deserve a refund. Our goal is to have lots of happy customers coming back year after year, so we don't want to upset them in any way. (If a sale hasn't been made yet, then that may be the exception for lowering the price.)

Remember, there is also the possibility of discounts off the final price. We pay commissions to ad agencies and media people, so that's a 15% commission that we may have to pay off the top. In addition, our contracts allow for special offers to groups and for promotions, that is a separate 10%. So keep those discounts in mind when pricing your ads.

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Any media outlet (TV station, radio station, newspaper, magazine, etc.) or ad agency that wants to purchase an ad for their client can receive a 15% commission, discounted off of the purchase price (after any other discounts are applied.)

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We have mixed signals from the stock sources. At this point in time, we either have agreements with the stock sources that the work can be used without paying any additional fees or that we will pay an additional fee each time the ad is sold.

When your work is accepted by the Ad Diner, you will fill out an information form that includes listing any stock sources. At that time we will determine whether we need to make additional payments when the ads are sold. (And you can adjust your asking price accordingly.) For most royalty free sources, this fee is minimal so we don't mind paying again (and helping our photographer and illustrator friends in the process.)

Because of their helpfulness, we highly recommend i-Stock (www.istockphoto.com) and Getty as a resource, as well as Pond 5 (www.pond5.com) for film footage.

We will not accept any ads that use Dreamstime images. (You can probably find many of the same images they sell on other stock photo websites.)

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