Retainer or project: how to buy video

There are two ways to buy video from us: a single project, priced from $2,000 to $20,000 ex GST, or an ongoing retainer, priced at $5,000 to $10,000 a month with a minimum six-month term. Which one suits you comes down to whether you have one clear job for video to do, or an ongoing need for a steady flow of it.

Neither option is the "serious" one and the other the light-touch version. They're built for different situations, and picking the wrong one is how businesses end up either overpaying for something they didn't need repeated, or underinvesting in something that needed a system rather than a single asset.

When a project is the right buy

A project makes sense when you can name one clear job for the video before you start: a Video Business Card for the homepage, a recruitment film for a specific campaign, a set of testimonial cuts to support a sales page. You know what you need, you know roughly when you need it by, and once it's delivered, the job is done until the next need arises. A single video package covers pre-production, production, editing, optimisation and an implementation guide, so the cost includes getting it live and working, not just the raw files.

Projects also suit businesses testing whether video works for them before committing further. One well-planned shoot day can produce a genuine spread of assets, not just the one hero piece, so even a project engagement doesn't have to mean a single output. We cover how that works in what actually drives video production cost.

When a retainer makes more sense

A retainer suits a business that needs video as an ongoing part of how it operates, not a one-off. That's usually a business posting regularly on LinkedIn, running a consistent sales or recruitment process that needs fresh proof points, or one that's realised a single video a year isn't enough to keep pace with how often its message needs refreshing. The first month of any retainer is set aside for strategy, so the ongoing production that follows is working from a plan rather than a running list of ad hoc requests. The minimum six-month term exists because video compounds, and six months is roughly the point where a consistent cadence starts to show in the numbers rather than just in the folder of finished files.

The monthly fee covers production and deliverables within an agreed scope, which is different from paying per video. It means the cadence stays steady even in a slower month, and the relationship deepens because the same team is carrying the story across every piece rather than starting fresh each time.

The middle ground: strategy first, either way

Whichever route you take, we start the same way: a strategy session that settles the audience, the message and the channels before anything is filmed. For a standalone project, that's a smaller, focused version scoped to the single deliverable. For a retainer, it's the full first month, building the roadmap the rest of the engagement works from. If you want the strategy work on its own, without committing to either a project or a retainer yet, that's available too from $5,000. We've written more on what a media strategy engagement includes if that's the better starting point for you.

Where each one tends to show up

In practice, project engagements are common with businesses marking a single moment: a professional services firm launching a new offer, an education provider building one strong recruitment piece for the year, a non-profit needing an annual report film. Retainers tend to suit businesses with an ongoing story to tell month to month, construction and manufacturing companies documenting projects as they progress, or trades and field services businesses building a steady library of safety and training content alongside their marketing. Neither pattern is a rule, just what we see most often.

How to tell which one you actually need

Ask whether the need repeats. If the honest answer is "we need this one thing," buy the project. If the honest answer is "we're going to need this kind of thing every month for the next year," the retainer is the better economics, because it buys planning, consistency and a team that already knows your business, rather than restarting the brief every time. You can see both structures laid out side by side on our pricing page.

If you're not sure which fits, get in touch and we'll help you work it out against what you're actually trying to achieve.