What a retainer actually buys you

Ask most agencies what a retainer gets you and they will lead with the rate. Book twelve months, save fifteen per cent. Fine, as far as it goes. The rate is not the point.

Priority is the point

On a project basis you compete for crew every time you call. A retainer removes you from that queue: your dates are blocked before the calendar fills.

Knowledge compounds

Around month four, we stop asking questions. The crew knows which entrance to use and which floor the MD works on. Institutional memory is invisible until you lose it.