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Sometimes it's hard to have a crystal ball that will tell you exactly how your project will evolve, but here's a huge mistake you need to avoid:
If an unprepared or untutored person is securing stock image rights from a photo agency and the eventual scope of the project is uncertain, they either buy too many rights (and pay for too many rights up front, at the beginning, just in case...) or (and this can be even worse) they buy the most minimal rights to get the project going, thinking that they'll come back later to secure additional rights (at an uncertain cost) if and when the project expands.
Yikes! That down-the-road price might be a lot more than you expect -- and a lot more than it would have been if you had established it in the beginning, as a "what if...?" scenario.
EXAMPLE: You’re doing a business-to-business ad that will be tested in three publications. If it tests well, you’ll run it ten more times. If it tests really well, you’ll run it over and over for a year, maybe even two years. If it doesn’t test well, you’ll kill it.
Okay, right now you only need to acquire the rights for the three test ads, so you do that.
The ad tests great.
So, you go back to the agency and say, "Okay, now I want to buy unlimited insertions for a period of a year."
Here's what they know: They know the ad tested well. (You don't have to tell them that. Why else would you be coming back for more rights?) They know that the last thing on Earth that you want to do is change anything on an ad that has tested well, most especially the stock image. Does the expression "Being over a barrel" come to mind?
Now, in the agency's defense it should be pointed out that it is quite possible that one of the reasons -- perhaps the major reason -- that the ad is doing well is the stock image, and, therefore, a lot of "value" is being generated by that picture, and, hence, a rather generous fee for the rights to that picture is warranted.
And if you would like to leave it entirely up to the photo agency to determine what that "warranted" price is, with absolutely no leverage at all on your side of the table, then by all means, don't establish future rights in the beginning.
But if, on the other hand, you'd like to be in a better negotiating position in circumstances like this, the simple way to do that is to establish what you WILL have to pay, IF the project expands, up front, before you commit to the picture at all, to begin with.
If you're purchasing rights for a brochure with a print run of 5,000 copies, but there's some possibility that eventually the distribution will be increased to 50,000 copies, buy the rights for 5,000 now, but also negotiate -- now -- a price for reprints in case that should occur.
No, don't pay for the extra print run now, but get the agency to commit NOW to the price they WILL charge if you DO come back to them later for additional rights.
...unless, as we say, you take some perverse pleasure in placing yourself directly, immutably and precariously over a big, fat barrel later...
We're guessing you don't...
And by the way: Any good agency will be willing to make such an up-front commitment for potential future rights, even if it is just a "range" or "ballpark" for additional rights. It would be unreasonable for you to ask them to commit absolutely and forever, but it is not unreasonable for you to ask for some "pricing comfort" regarding these rights.
Yes, due to the very nature of stock photography [see background], rights are being sold every day to stock images, including, possibly, the one you have bought for your test or your initial run. The Agency is likely to tell you that they cannot guarantee that someone else might not buy rights in-between the time you buy your initial rights and the time you come back for more rights, and that such a sale holds the possibility (probably remote, but real nonetheless) that those other-party rights will preclude your obtaining additional rights later.
If that is a major concern, then you'll have no choice but to buy all the rights at the beginning that you might conceivably need. But be a little careful: Try to discern whether the agency salesperson you are dealing with is genuinely trying to be helpful to you in thinking through what you need to purchase, or, instead, merely trying to talk you into buying rights you don't actually need.
And if the agency categorically refuses to provide any assurances on pricing for future use at all, our advice is to shop elsewhere.
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