Editing and post-production now accounts for an average of 16% of the production budget for television commercials in 1995, according to an in-house study done by MacLaren McCann.

Lesley Parrott, vp, director of creative and broadcast services at MacLaren, conducted an informal analysis of 20 30-second English-language commercials produced by the agency over the past year.

It is the first analysis of its kind done by Parrott since 1992 when she stopped her annual analysis of the costs of commercial production. ‘At the time, it was just getting silly. People were taking jobs at any price just to meet their overhead. But my sense is that now the industry is moving forward and again is on more stable ground,’ says Parrott.

This year’s study incorporates the budgets from a broad range of spots from retail and packaged goods to high-end pools like beer and cars. Percentages were calculated before agency markup.

The average production budget breakdown is as follows: 58% goes to the production house, 16% to editing/post, 9% to music/audio, 8% to talent, and 9% to all other.

Compared to 1992, the production house is getting 10% less of the budget. Post is getting 8% more, audio and music 4% more, and talent and all other are up 1% respectively.

According to Parrott, the portions remain pretty much consistent throughout groups of spots regardless of the size of the production budget.

Although post is getting a significantly bigger piece of the pie, the combined slice of production and post has stayed virtually the same since 1992, she says.

‘In the larger pools, post is less of a percentage because of the savings that come with doing volume. But by and large, the breakdown is the same. The combination of production and post is running about 74% of the budget.’

In spots that are post heavy, the percentage accrued by the post house shifts depending on the work necessary, says Parrott, who estimates post costs have risen 25% since 1992.

In 1989, post accounted for an average of 6% of the budget, increasing to 7% in 1992, at the beginning of the digital revolution.

Enhancement is a major issue, says Parrott. Years ago, agencies would have lived with a shadow in the wrong place, but now the technology is available to get perfection.

‘One has to question how much some of what is done the consumer actually sees and feels. The other thing is that now we can create images where we couldn’t before. It’s fabulous, but there’s a price to be paid for that.’ AV