When it comes to producing commercials, you can make almost anything for almost any budget. It's a question of what you get for it. (I wrote more about that in The Money Follows the Idea.)
The harder question is where the money goes once the budget is set. Some ideas don't need a big budget at all. It comes down to the idea itself, and putting the money in the right places.
Every idea has a center of gravity: the thing that has to be great for the spot to work. Find it, and put the money there.
Who has to carry it? The performers, the director or the director of photography.
Where does it come alive? On set, in the look, or in the edit.
How much media is behind it? That determines how much production investment makes sense.
Say you're producing comedy on a limited budget. You probably can't afford a top-tier comedy director. So you find an up-and-coming director who has done a lot of work with SNL or Comedy Central, and you put more of the money into talent, such as performers from UCB or the improv world.
If the idea depends on visual storytelling, you may not need the big-name director. You may need a seasoned director of photography, paired with an up-and-coming director who has one spot on their reel that nails the visual language you're after.
Sometimes the money belongs in post-production, not on set: the edit, the visual effects, the sound or the finish. It all depends on the idea.
For a paid media campaign, there's also the media behind it, and the ratio of working to non-working money. Most of the money belongs in media. Production is often 10% to 20% of the total, so it has to stay in proportion.
The size of the media buy tells you how much production investment makes business sense. A brand shouldn't put serious production money into something that won't run enough to move the needle. The exception is an idea built for earned media, which is a unique situation of its own.
What the idea needs is a decision. The best producers make that decision, and put the money where it belongs.
Start with what the idea needs. If it depends on performances, invest in talent. If it depends on visuals, invest in the director of photography. If it comes alive in the edit, invest in post-production.
For paid media campaigns, production is often around 10% to 20% of the total, with most of the money going to media. The size of the media buy should guide how much production investment makes sense.
Working media is money spent on placing ads where people see them. Non-working money covers everything else, including production, agency fees and research. Most of a campaign budget should usually be working media.
Not always. On a limited budget, an up-and-coming director paired with the right talent or a seasoned director of photography can deliver strong work, as long as the money goes where the idea needs it most.