Ever been to Hollywood? Lots of agency people go there, and other far away places, to produce commercials.  Top talent, hot directors and the astronomical production costs are there too.  It has become quite fashionable for agencies to encourage even clients of modest advertising means to spend exorbitant amounts of money on production. Why? So the client’s ads can compete with those of the big national advertisers is what the client is told.  Note: it is never necessary to overspend to produce effective advertising. Simple creative concepts, which are typically the most effective, can be well produced on modest budgets if your agency knows how to manage the process. We have produced thousands of effective ads on such budgets. We do it by basing costs on what experience tells us things should cost rather than what the production company would like to make. So, when getting a quote on production budgets, think about this and ask a lot of questions.