Most companies approach video backwards. They set a budget first, “we have 3,000 euros, what does that buy us?”, then they look for what it will bring in. The order should be reversed: first what the film has to produce, then what it is worth putting in.
This is not a consultant’s nuance. It is the difference between a spending line you trim the moment cash gets tight, and an investment you defend with numbers. Our studio conviction: you can estimate the return on a video before you shoot it. And until you do, you are flying blind.
Video is not a cost, it’s an asset
A figure to start, because it reframes everything else: companies that use video see their revenue grow 49% faster than those that do not. 82% of marketers report a good ROI on video, and 88% say it has directly helped generate sales and leads.
These numbers say one simple thing. Video does not behave like a cost, a cost goes out once and disappears. It behaves like an asset: a film shot once is repurposed, re-aired, feeds a website, a booth, a campaign, an email signature, for months. A landing page with video converts at 4.8% versus 2.9% without. A video in a sales email doubles response rates. These are not flourishes, they are measurable conversion points, on an asset that keeps working long after the invoice.
As long as you file it under “expenses”, you cut it first when things tighten. Filed under “investments”, it is judged on its return. Same euro. Not the same decision.
Calculating ROI before you shoot, concretely
“You can’t know in advance”, that is false. You do not know the exact figure, but you can set a solid range. Here is the method we apply before writing a proposal.
1. Start from the objective, not the format. A film exists to do something precise: book meetings, sell a property, recruit, drive footfall to a booth, retain a client. Until the objective is quantifiable, the budget is just a hunch.
2. Set the value of an action. How much is a client worth to you? A qualified meeting? A sale? If a recurring client is worth 5,000 euros and a film brings in two, the budget question settles itself.
3. Estimate volume conservatively. Take your own numbers, traffic, current conversion rate, audience, and apply the documented lifts (a video on a product page or a landing can raise conversion significantly). Always take the low assumption.
4. Relate it to the real cost. Divide the estimated return by the investment, spread across the film’s lifespan, not a single airing. An aftermovie used at the booth, then in social, then in client follow-up over six months does not have the same cost per use as a single-use film.
This estimate will never be perfect. But a cautious, argued range beats “we’ll see” a thousand times over. It turns a spend you endure into a bet you control.
From nice to have to must have
Three years ago, a beautiful brand video was a bonus. A nice to have you treated yourself to when the budget allowed. That is no longer true, and not because of fashion.
91% of companies now use video as a marketing tool. When nine competitors out of ten communicate through video, not doing it is no longer a saving, it is an absence. On a scrolling feed, at a trade show, in an inbox, what is not filmed does not exist. Video went from nice to have to must have because the point of comparison changed: you are no longer judged on “do you have a video”, but on “does yours hold up next to the others”.
And that is where the ROI reasoning loops back. If it is a must have, the only question left is not whether to invest, but how much and for what return. Back to the method above.
The example coming up: TFWA in Cannes
From 27 September to 1 October 2026, the TFWA World Exhibition & Conference brings the global travel retail and duty free industry together at the Palais des Festivals in Cannes. Luxury brands roll out booths costing tens, sometimes hundreds of thousands of euros. Five days. Then it comes down.
Ask the ROI question. A booth at that level is a huge investment for a five-day presence in front of an audience that is ultra-qualified, yes, but finite. A film, the booth aftermovie, the executive interviews, the product capsules shot on site, extends that investment well beyond the show’s final hour. It then works for months: on the website, in sales outreach, on social, until the industry’s next gathering.
In other words: the booth is the cost. The film is what recovers the return over time. Not filming a six-figure investment that lasts five days means letting almost all of its value evaporate the night of the teardown. Video is not an extra line on the show budget. It is what makes the rest pay off.
That is also why being based in Cannes matters. On an event like TFWA, we know the Palais, the accreditation protocols, the on-site shooting constraints. No Paris crew costs, responsiveness on last-minute changes, and delivery possible before the show ends, the capsules roll while the booth is still running.
What to take away
The right question was never “how much does a video cost”. It is “how much does it bring in, and over how long”. Until you ask that one, you are negotiating a price. The moment you ask it, you are deciding on an investment.
At BOW, we do not write a proposal without setting this equation with the client. Because a film that does not know what it has to return is a film that gets cut in the first tough quarter. And because “pas que du beau, du BOW” means exactly that: beauty draws you in, but it is the result we come for.