The sixty-four thousand dollar question

By Simon Kearney, CEO   THE $64,000 question was the name of an American game show in the 1950s. It ran for four years until 1958. The phrase lasted much longer and it became a byword for an unanswerable question, like how much is a video?

We’ve grappled with this question for long enough, and decided to answer this particular $64,000 question (How much is a video?) with, you guessed it, $64,000.

Why? A while ago we decided to focus on our largest existing clients. The cut off point was $50,000 a year in existing business with us.

We had a roster of about 60 clients, this allowed us to focus on the top 12.

We pulled back from always seeking new clients, preferring to work on deepening the existing relationships we had worked hard on developing.

We put in place a checklist to qualify new clients who did want to work with us. Did they get content? Were they passionate? Did they have the budgets to do good work?

There are plenty of precedents for this. Most notably Sandwich Video in Silicon Valley who have a minimum of around $150,000 to work with a client.

It’s not a Naomi Campbell-esque: “I won’t get out of bed for less than $X”.

I’ve worked very hard to instil in our team that we cannot allow any sort of arrogance to creep into the way we adopt these standards. But it is very much about setting standards. Standards around the quality of work we do and the seriousness of the clients we work with. It’s not actually the price for one video, it’s the commitment we ask for over a year. It’s not a formal commitment but we do ask it in great seriousness.

For the last six months or so we’ve asked clients this question and it seems to be working enough to post it here for all to see.

If you want to work with us you need to be willing to commit to spending at least $64,000 over a year. Singapore dollars of course.

If you want to know about this or have any questions please feel free to get in touch with me. My email is [email protected] or you can call me on +65 9750 4024.