5 Reasons Why Photographers Are Low-Balled In The Running Industry
Running is booming and there’s a constant need for creative assets. So why are budgets sometimes so slim, and what challenges do digital marketers face when producing content?
Raise your hand if you’ve ever led a scrappy photoshoot where you had to be the producer, talent manager, creative director, campaign strategist, equipment-holder, car driver, and craft services all in one. That’s been me over and over again, since I’ve always worked in a start-up environment. I’ve never had the luxury of working for a massive company where money was an afterthought, so planning photoshoots has always stressed me out from a financial perspective.
The biggest budget I ever worked with was for the WHOOP 3.0 launch when our team worked with Emily Maye (the creative director behind the Tracksmith aesthetic). It was the first time I saw what real production looked like, including a wardrobe department, hair and makeup, rented out studio sets, and multiple assistants. I had one job during this shoot: make sure we got everything on the shot list. The results were beautiful and fully worth the investment.
On the opposite spectrum, I’ve produced shoots where the budget was “you can give the photographer and talent a GPS watch.” In the early years at WHOOP, we paid models in Amazon gift cards. In my recent gig at Remedy Place, a luxury wellness club that caters to celebrities and VIPs, event photographers are compensated with our spa services, including cryotherapy sessions and ice baths. This happens all the time in luxury markets, because you’re expected to be thankful for getting the chance to work alongside high-profile people.
Why are companies always trying to get free work in exchange for “visibility?” What challenges do marketers face in today’s industry when it comes to producing content? How much should photographers be paid? I outlined my experiences below and spoke with some of my freelance photographer friends to give a peek behind the curtain on the brand side and provide some helpful tips for freelancers negotiating in the run space.
1. Brands still think product is a fair exchange for work.
I don’t know a single photographer who hasn’t been asked to do free work in exchange for running gear. For the launch of the COROS x Sasha DiGiulian band (the first custom athlete band COROS had ever done), I offered my friend Nick a free APEX 2 watch. I wanted to pay Nick, but I was tasked with producing a campaign with no monetary support, despite asking leadership many times for resources to do my job correctly. We shot at Sasha’s house in Boulder (she has her own indoor climbing gym), and I borrowed lighting equipment from another friend. Thankfully, the assets came out great because Nick is a pro. I ended up producing a shoot with Nick again to launch Emma Bates’ custom COROS band, which sold out instantly, and we paid Nick a fair day rate after I put my foot down and said I wasn’t going to ask my friends to work for free.
While I don’t think paying creatives with product is fair, photographers will still do work for less in exchange for some pretty cool opportunities, and sometimes it can really advance their career. When LA-based photographer Steven Carvente (@steadyarchives) was just starting out, he shot for District Vision, an athletic eyewear brand founded in 2016 by Max Vallot and Tom Daly (who is married to the iconic Elsa Hosk, for anyone who cares). District Vision couldn’t pay him a lot, so they offered him $750 for the campaign and free sunglasses.
“At the time I was like, yeah whatever you want to pay me,” Steven told me on the phone, laughing. Steven was new to the industry and just happy to have the connection. However, what Steven didn’t understand was how District Vision would be using the content.
“I thought it was just digital, like e-comm and social,” he explained. “They shared the images with other companies that were for press, media, and wholesale. One image ended up on a poster and another in some European magazine. Knowing what I know now, I definitely would have included some usage rights.”
Steven says he probably would have charged $3,000 for the day versus accepting free product if he had to do it all over again. Steven later shot the District Vision x New Balance campaign for their shoe collab and said he was paid $6,000 for a 2-day shoot, which felt appropriate.
2. The unsustainable, reactionary rate at which content needs to be made.
I firmly believe in hiring someone in-house, or at least keeping creatives on retainer. There’s a constant need for new assets, and without someone readily at your disposal, you have to negotiate with freelancers each time. I love working with freelancers, but sometimes it’s just easier to have someone on staff who can attend events and immediately understands brand guidelines.
Anyone who’s worked in a marketing department has inevitably “run out” of creative assets and dug through the bottom of the Dropbox barrel. Social media moves so fast that by the time you’ve launched a campaign and used all 10 photos you spent 4 months preparing, it’s time to move on to the next thing. Consequently, digital marketers have to scrape up funds to keep the content machine rolling.
In sports marketing, there’s also so much reactionary content that needs to be made. An athlete of yours wins the Boston marathon, or sets a world record. Or maybe they DNF’d and now you need to switch the narrative and find visuals to communicate that. There’s so much happening in the world of sport and it’s impossible to be onsite at all times, therefore, a lot of freelancers are being hit up last minute by brands to provide photos without a budget in place.
3. Signing athletes, but not willing to invest in additional media.
A mistake brands make when signing athletes is forgetting how much additional investment is required to truly activate them. When determining athlete salaries, sports marketing managers should also factor in a separate budget for storytelling and creative production. I’ve always followed the 2x rule–whatever salary you’re paying an athlete, double it. That’s about how much you need to spend to successfully activate them, and the more star power the athlete has, the more you’ll be investing.
When determining athlete salaries, sports marketing managers should also factor in a separate budget for storytelling and creative production.
In my athlete marketing roles at both WHOOP and COROS, I always had to ask pro athletes to post on social media. The difference was that WHOOP paid for shoots and invested heavily in paid media with brand partners to leverage the athletes, while COROS tasked the athlete with developing content for their own channels (unless it was for a major product launch). These two vastly different experiences taught me a lot about sports marketing. There’s room for both, but the pay to play model with professional athletes (determining contract value based on how many social posts they can do for you) shouldn’t be the only way to activate them.
I noted this in my Influencers vs. Athletes article on Matt Trappe’s newsletter. Athletes should negotiate content stipends when signing with a sponsor if the contract is largely based around social deliverables. That way, they can hire a photographer of their choice to shoot branded content without the added stress of coming up with creative ideas on their own.
4. Disconnect between leadership and marketing operations.
Everyone wants to wear Carhartt shit until it’s time to do Carhartt shit. Every CEO wants a brand campaign like Apple and Nike, until it’s time to spend Apple and Nike money.
Production is expensive and the sticker price can be shocking when sharing a proposal with leadership. Oftentimes, the CEO of a brand doesn’t know why photoshoots cost so much money, because they aren’t privy to things like location scouting, sound equipment, set design, travel costs, and post-production edits. They think they’re only paying for the end product (i.e. 20 final edits and a single brand video), because that’s all they see. It can be really challenging to communicate needs to leadership, especially when scrappy shoots have been done before with a really low budget.
Production is expensive and the sticker price can be shocking when sharing a proposal with leadership.
If you’re being low-balled as a photographer or videographer, please understand that it’s not always up to the Marketing Manager or the Creative Director. We can only get so many things approved and we’re doing our best to communicate our needs for a successful production.
5. Sometimes, a photographer’s rates simply don’t match the investment.
Unpopular opinion: sometimes photography rates are simply too high. I’ve been quoted $1,500 for a one-time use of a race photo on social media. This isn’t from a scoped shoot–I’m just asking to use a photo the photographer already has. My suggestion to freelancers out there is to be more flexible in these situations. For smaller brands, it’s unrealistic to spend thousands on a single photo for organic social, and it’s also unrealistic to charge licensing fees for something that’s only going to be used once. Paid media and scoped campaigns are much different, of course, but quick posts on Instagram are an incredibly low-lift. A brand could post 10 photos a day on Instagram between feeds and stories, so the marketing team is looking for relatively cheap, quick ways to get content.
The Brand That Used AI To Reproduce A Photographer’s Work
A few months ago, Steven shot for up-and-coming hydration company Magna. They had just launched the blood orange flavor. Steven shot some beautiful work on the trails in LA with local runners.
Then he saw that Magna posted a video from the shoot, but Steven never shot video for that scene. Magna had used AI to animate a photo of someone squeezing a blood orange into a water bottle.
While the intentions were never to undercut Steven’s work, it made him think about the ethics of brands using AI in marketing campaigns. Did Steven have rights to that video, since it was his original work? Should he be paid for any assets created by AI where his work was used as a reference? Doesn’t this mean his work is now in the aggregate pool of AI data without his consent?
“At the end of the day, I could have just shot [the video] if they wanted that. They didn’t ask for permission ahead of time,” said Steven. “That was my first experience with AI, and I’m sure if I asked them to take it down, they would. But I let them know it was fine. Moving forward though, it did give me some stuff to think about as far as what my contracts or agreements look like in the future.”
Renowned Boston run photographer Justin Britton who has shot for New Balance, HOKA, Sprite, and Under Armour said he said he didn’t see AI as a threat (so far). “When I’m pitching clients or trying to put together a deck, it’s been super helpful to use AI to try to render what I’m trying to explain, like a mood board.” AI can certainly be helpful for artists, writers, and creators in the ideating and pitching phase who need help organizing their thoughts.
“I don’t think creative people will get replaced by it,” said Justin, who believes there’s no replacement better than using real people on set. “But who knows, I’m not a genie.”
What Steps Can Creatives Take To Negotiate Their Worth?
Ask a lot of questions.
This is the first piece of advice Justin would give to any creative professional. The more communication up front, the clearer the expectations.
“I’ve learned over time and learned from mistakes that it’s great to just ask as many questions as possible. All these details are worth asking because then everyone’s on the same page. From there you can kind of craft how you want the contract to look.”
Questions like, what time of day will we be shooting? How are we getting to the location? Is the location private, or are we sharing the space? How will the photos be used? These can help guide the budget as brands understand what’s needed to make a shoot successful.
Understand the scope of the campaign.
This works in tandem with the first point above, but having a thorough understanding of the purpose of the shoot, where the assets will live (print? digital? OOH?), and who they are being shared with (for example, with press and media) can help establish a fair budget. Too often, brands will pay for content they plan to use on organic social media, but then those photos end up on partner channels or in paid campaigns.
This happens all the time with talent, too. In 2019 I was hired by Tom Brady’s eponymous TB12 company for the launch of his store on Boylston in Boston. I was told the photos would be used on social media and was paid $400 for a half-day shoot, which is pretty standard. The photos were then used on their website, billboards on the MBTA, the walls of their PT clinic, and in a looping brand video in front of the store. I should have been paid more for that and wish I had asked my agency at the time (Maggie Inc) how the photos were being used. Models are almost always screwed over, no matter how big the brand is. Even in high-fashion, models are being paid pennies to walk down the runway for brands like Prada, Chanel, and Balenciaga. I think this speaks more to the lack of respect for the work models do, since the attitude is usually that you should be thankful for the opportunity, versus being fairly compensated for your time.
Include licensing and usage fees (when reasonable).
Most agencies will always have licensing fees for their work, and they’re sticklers about it. Freelancers can do the same. Since I’ve always been on the brand side, licensing fees are usually pretty annoying because it increases cost, but I totally understand why creatives need to do this to protect the longevity of their work. Licensing fees can vary based on the duration of the project, how the assets are being used, who is using the work, and how often those assets will be showing up in media. If a brand plans on using your work over and over again for multiple campaigns and for many years, you should definitely charge licensing fees.
Ask for the budget, then work within it.
Another strategy Justin takes when clients reach out to him is being understanding of their budget and working within their framework. Maybe 50 final edits aren’t possible, but 20 still works and everyone is still happy.
“It relieves so much stress when you don’t have to go back and forth and do the song and dance. It’s like ok, here’s the scope of work and our budget is 10k,” Justin explains, noting that he will tell the client what’s possible within that budget, instead of pushing back and asking for more compensation.
Discuss retainer options.
A retainer model works great for companies and media outlets with a lot of creative needs, especially for running events. A brand might not need you all the time, but they definitely need you at critical moments in the run calendar. Justin has been on retainer with Citius Mag since 2017, and he’s a regular contributor to all their social content.
Retainers are also great for companies with a lot of product SKUs that are constantly in rotation (new colors, new accessories, and more). If you have your own studio space or at-home setup to shoot product for e-comm, you can work with brands to get samples on a regular basis.
The running production landscape is moving fast and it’s a really exciting space to be a part of. There are so many new brands, new shoes, and new run clubs. If you can get your foot in the door as a creative, I hope some of these tips help, and I’m curious to know what others think.
This is amazing. Thank you for the thoughtful piece. I've definitely experienced a lot of what you've written about. I think there is a big opportunity for brands to work more closely with freelancers and athletes. Having a few trusted people on retainer or simply trained in the brand messaging who can work with athletes directly could go a long way.
A great topic to bring to light. Great work Allison. I'd put #4 at the top of my list. In my experience, the inexperience of those leading creative/marketing budgets is the source of many of the problems. Keeping someone on retainer or bringing someone in house is a good option I rarely see used well/enough because it still requires the foresight to have a creative strategy and corresponding budget.