117. Commercial Comeback

The commercial comeback is a term Tiwana created to describe the moment when an inactive commercial makes it's return to the airwaves, which is typically a wonderful miracle for an actor when they receive unexpected income.

Tiwana shares two instances where she experienced a commercial comeback, one that is currently airing for the 2022 Holiday season, the other an expired commercial contract that was renegotiated at a higher dollar amount.

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Transcript

Tiwana 0:00
Hello Actor Fren. Welcome back. This is Tiwana Floyd thanks for listening to Acting Lessons Learned. I wish everybody a merry Christmas, a happy Kwanzaa, a Happy Hanukkah. A happy New Year. I wish you tremendous joy and prosperity for anything you celebrate.

This is the year's last episode, and I'm going to talk about The Commercial Comeback. The commercial comeback is when a commercial returns to the airwaves after being inactive for an extended period of time, providing multiple opportunities for an actor to be seen on TV again and earn an unexpected income that also funds the actor's pension and health. 

In this episode, I'll share two instances where I experienced unexpected commercial comebacks. One example is a currently airing spot that returned for this 2022 holiday season. The second was a commercial contract that ended and then, almost a year later was resurrected for another 21-month contract. 

If you want a fully-rounded story on how I booked my first national commercial. Listen to episode 102, "Agent Termination. Time to Go." 

To learn about the genesis of my commercial career, check out episode 114, "Commercial starter kit." 

And to hear about the first time, I earned commercial residuals and what happened when the money stopped abruptly, go to Episode 115, "Inside the Commercial's Residual,"

The national commercial that I'm in currently has me looking fashionably festive while I shop. I knew it would be a seasonal holiday spot because the audition notice stated so. Christmas spots start airing in early November and go through January. It's like a freight train circulating fast and furious for three months. The spot I'm in is what I call across the board: Class A, Cable, Wild spot, New Media, and Internet. It ticks all the primary usage boxes that will give me a lovely Christmas bonus.

I auditioned and shot this fashion commercial in October 2021, last year. It had a fast turnaround blazing the airwaves from November, and it stopped airing in February 2022. I presumed once the holiday ended, I'd never see it again. Like most commercials, I book at the end of their phase. 

And then, around April of 2022, I received a Holding Fee for every 21-day Maximum Period of Use, the MPU. Would they be bringing the spot back for Christmas/Holiday 2022? I hoped so. But there is no way of knowing because the actor nor the agent are privy to the details of the frequency of the run. So I had to just wait and see. 

For peace of mind, I release the idea of any commercial comebacks instead of getting my hopes up or trying to factor possible new income into my budget. 

By the time November 2022 rolled around, the suspected time of this commercial comeback, I was too preoccupied with tying up loose details before my pending Mexican Riviera vacation, that I forgot all about it. And then, my mother called me to tell me, "girl, your commercial is running again." She told me the network and the day and time it aired so I could keep track. Like me, my mother loves television and sees me most times before I know the Commercial is airing. Which is always exciting for us both. 

Most union actors ask friends and family members to inform us of our commercial airings. We do this because it helps us keep a personal log of usage should the commercial's tracking company have errors. Erroneous tracking could result in incorrect residual payouts to the disadvantage of the actor. The information allows us to compare the report from mothers and our friends info against our check stubs for inaccuracies. And there have been times when I've had to contact the payroll company with clerical errors and then file a claim with SAG-AFTRA to get paid. No one wants to be tied up in red tape, but it happens. And we do what's needed to recoup our dollars.

For a commercial comeback such as this one, I am still under the standard SAG-AFTRA 21-month contract from 2021; therefore, there are no renegotiations to be made. I'm still working under the current bargaining scale rate agreed upon from inception. 

If this information is new to you, every 21 weeks, according to SAG-AFTRA's Maximum Period of Use, the MPU, I will receive a holding fee equivalent to the session fee. The session fee could be $700. It could be 1400. It could be $2100, depending on how many conflicts one holds for one spot. 

SAG-AFTRA actors receive a holding fee every 21 days because our contract prohibits us from auditioning or booking another commercial with the same conflict for a different brand, fundamentally, the competitor, under a 21-month contract. 

The conflict is what the company, the brand, has hired me, the actor, to represent. And we know all of this before even being submitted. It's the agent and the actor's responsibility to keep track of conflicts. My agents, past and present, have been really good at keeping track, and every so often, possibly during Mercury Retrograde, I'll receive a conflict audition. I can just call or email my agent and ask if I should decline, and they'll say oops, sorry. We'll cancel your audition. Thanks for catching that. 

For instance, if I were under contract with Toyota for an automobile conflict, I wouldn't then audition or work for Mercedes Benz under an automobile conflict. But, if I were under contract with Chase for a personal banking conflict. I could work for Citibank under an investment banking conflict. There is no conflict. While they are both banks. They have hired me to represent different areas of banking. And If chase hired me for personal and investment banking, they would pay me double-scale holding fees and residuals. Oh, how I love that. And that's why the holding fee can be $700, 1400, or 2100, depending on how many conflicts I hold for one spot. 

If the same company wants to hire me again for the same conflict, it would be granted under a new contract with the same conflict. Similar to Flo in the Progressive commercials, albeit her agreement is an exclusive one. 

And once the contract has ended. The actor is free to return to auditioning or working for the competitor of the same conflict. As we've notoriously witnessed, in what I believe to be the most brilliant advertising coup of all time when Sprint hired Verizon's "Can you hear me now? Spokesperson actor Paul Marcarelli. Too bad for Verizon but excellent for Paul. 

And get this, some SAG-AFTRA actors take the risk and work for the competition while they hold a conflict or are under contract. mmmhmmm. The idea of getting caught would give me tremendous anxiety. There was a well-known case of an actor who was being sued for the total cost of a commercial production when he was caught working for a competitor while holding a conflict. I was unsuccessful in my search to find it. It was in AdWeek around 2011ish. If you can find it, please share it with me. 

With that said, I can't go and book a Target commercial in the two years that I'm under a TJ Maxx contract. Even if I booked a Target commercial four years ago, if Target decided to have a commercial comeback. Target would have to inquire about my availability and any other actors involved, meaning No Conflicts. And then they'd have to renegotiate a new contract deal. And this is when you want an agent who is well-versed in the art of negotiating. 

A renegotiation benefits the actor because of leverage. Sticking with the Target example. Target may not want to spend another several million dollars to shoot an entirely new commercial when it may be more cost-efficient to run the last spot for millions less. Especially if they had a year of profit losses, like, say, a quarantine. Several of my actor peers were fortunate to experience a commercial comeback or extension during the height of the quarantine. And sometimes, that's the miracle of commercials. As is with my currently airing holiday spot. I booked two commercials this year, and neither of them has aired yet. So this commercial comeback not only bolsters my year-end numbers but also helps to fund my eligibility for SAG-AFTRA health insurance for next year. As well as my pension plan.

For a contract renegotiation, the agent, exceptional at negotiations, understands this and will go back and forth until the deal is solidified, hopefully with the money scales tipped in the actor's favor. And the deal is considered solidified once all parties agree and the new contract is signed. 

This is another area where I release outcomes and wait to celebrate once it's all done. It can be nerve-wracking for the actor to wait for these negotiations to be complete. To me, it's all a win-lose.

I've been fortunate to partner with powerful commercial agents who enjoy negotiating, do it well, and keep me informed from start to finish. 

Moving on to the second scenario, I won't divulge the brand's name for libel reasons. Let's just call it "Good Biscuits."

I booked the Good Biscuits commercial in 2009. There were four actors, a gentleman who played my husband, a young lady who played my daughter, myself, and the voice-over actor. 

The "Good Biscuits" commercial hardly aired. It had an inconsistent run for one quarter, one 21-week MPU. And then it stopped airing for the remainder of the 21-month contract. I still received a holding fee every 21 weeks, but the conflict took away any opportunity to audition for breakfast foods for two years. That was the conflict. Not biscuits but breakfast foods.

The probability that I would have booked another breakfast commercial if I weren't under a prior contract is a gamble because, in Hollywood, anything is possible. And that's why the holding fee is in place to give the actor a small earning to tide us over until the contract has expired or the commercial begins to air. 

I made a total of a little over $9000 by the end of the 21-month "Good Biscuits" contract. Before the contract ended, the common practice was to renegotiate a new contract if it were up for renewal. According to SAG-AFTRA, a renegotiation letter must've been sent 60 to 120 days (two to four months) prior to the end of the maximum period of use, the MPU. 

The agent was responsible for contacting the producer to start the renegotiations. And here's something I only learned recently, according to the SAG-AFTRA rules. If the agent didn't do their due diligence and missed the negotiation window, causing the actor to be locked into the same scale contract, The agent could not take a commission if the agent didn't send a renegotiation letter. I'm sure most actors didn't know this. I know a few actors whose agents dropped the ball and missed the deadline and the opportunity to negotiate a better rate. I wonder if my peers withheld the commissions. From their misfortune, I kept track of my renewal dates and reminded my agents just in case to cover my bases. 

Under the recently ratified SAG-AFTRA commercial contract, the onus to renew and renegotiate a commercial contract now falls on the producer. This seems more fitting since that person knows whether they're considering rerunning the spot or not. 

But the Good biscuits was not renewed at the end of its term. And we continued business as usual. Several months later, I received a call from my then-commercial agent. I remember pretty vividly where I was when the call came in. I was driving south on Fairfax blvd at the cross street of Olympic. My agent asked if I had a moment to talk, that she had to run something very important by me. I didn't know what she was about to say, but I could hear her tone was less relaxed. There was an urgency. I pulled over so that I could focus on this conversation. 

She said "Good Biscuits" wanted to renew the contract for a commercial comeback. Agents perform standard business practices every day, all day. They make these calls to their actors quite often and can sometimes forget their actors may be green or have yet to have a specific experience. So, I asked what does this mean?

She explained that commercials sometimes come back because it's cheaper for the brand to renew an expired one than to pay for a whole new production. She further explained that it can be a nice win for the actor if the negotiating partners strike the right balance. Finally, she asked me how I wanted her to go into the negotiations. Did I want her to play safe or play hardball? I was still determining what hardball meant. I could only deduce she'd negotiate the highest dollar amount with no slack for a lowball number. This was very exciting because it would be my first time having this conversation and experience. An actual Hollywood moment.

Since the commercial didn't complete an entire run and had already been inactive for two years. Worst-case scenario, if they didn't agree to the terms of my agent and keep in mind the agents of the other three actors, they wouldn't be able to re-air the spot. I felt I had nothing to lose. So, I told my agent to play hardball. And she said okay, that she preferred to get the actors' permission before doing business on their behalf. She went on to say it could take a couple of days, or it could take a couple of weeks. Either way, her next call to me should be a final answer. We hung up and proceeded back on the road to my destination.

Two days later, my agent called me. This was the call. She let me know that they had agreed to the following terms.

$18,000 upfront to reinstate the commercial. A $9,000 holding fee for every MPU for the next 21 months of the contract. I was given favored nations. Favored nations is an industry term that means that you get equal contractual treatment to others on the project - billing, accommodations, and any other contractual provision. This is not required by SAG-AFTRA and must be separately negotiated between Performer and Producer or in my case Agent and Producer.

If the commercial ran often, I would be paid in excess of the $9000 holding fee. Meaning any earnings that surpassed $9000 in a 21-week MPU is what I'd be paid. The Good Biscuits commercial didn't run much. You can probably imagine how grateful I was for that $9000 holding fee every 21 weeks deal.

I also learned that agents tend to have amicable business relationships with the producers they bargain with because they've done so for years and because people can be assholes, some producers are quite challenging to negotiate with. And the same holds true for some agents.

My agent told me her negotiation argument was based on "good Biscuits" holding me to a 21-month contract for a spot that hardly ran. And because I didn't earn any money on the first run, they had to make up for it in the second run. Now, I'm sure her language was much more articulate than what I'm saying here, but you get the gist. Sidenote, when the Brand's producer knows they won't run the commercial for the entire 21 months, they will release the spot, which usually comes in the form of a letter. 

Nowadays, they just stop paying the holding fee. And the actor has to guess if it's done. No formal letter. Just stop paying the holding fee. RUDE! My current agency will self-release their actors if the holding fee doesn't arrive by the expected date. I love them for that. 

And if you're wondering. All of the dates and the usage amounts are listed on the check stub. I sometimes call the payroll company myself when I was expecting a holding fee. I still keep holding fee dates in my calendar. Know this, you can contact the payroll company if you want to know if the commercial you booked has been released. It's just nice to know. Especially for any spot you worked on that has yet to begin airing seven or more months later. Also, you should know sometimes they will kill the release of the commercial without informing the actor.

Meanwhile, we are waiting with bated breath to hear that the commercial we booked is running. And this is why we can only rely on the session fee. The rest is a bonus. 

I have heard triumphant commercial comeback stories and nightmarish ones. My first commercial comeback was a win for me and my agent. And it boosted my worthiness both personally and career-wise going forward. I'm curious whether the voiceover actor or the actors who played my husband and daughter were as fortunate. Hopefully, their agents negotiated favored nations, also. It's unfortunate, but not all agents negotiate well or even at all. 

Have you experienced a commercial comeback? If so, share your experience in the comments. I hope it was a win. If you're a commercial actor, one day, you will. I hope the odds are in your favor. 

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If you want to be a commercial actor, just know it is not far-fetched. It is attainable. It takes time. But if you put your mind to it you can do it too.

Until next time, Bye