If you’ve ever uttered the word ‘exposure’ or ‘it will be good for your portfolio’ to an experienced Creative pro, you’ve probably been thoroughly choked. And with good reason. Those are the things people say when they want you to do something for free, which is pretty much never OK for experienced creatives. But, if you’ve got a budget and are looking for a way to boost the allure of a project and entice the best talent to take part, there are a few incentives you can offer:

1) Working with Other Talented People

In collaborative media like film or game development, no person is an island. In order to do great work, you need to partner with other talented professionals. This is why it’s such a boon for creatives to have the opportunity to work on a project that has other skilled crew attached- it speaks to the highest goal of nearly all Creative Professionals, doing great work.

This, of course, requires that you get someone of notable talent on board before recruiting the rest of the team, so it’s extremely helpful if you, personally, have some quality work under your belt.

2) Creative Control

Creative professionals, especially those who typically work in corporate or advertising positions, very rarely get the chance to exercise the full range of their creativity. By giving your team a certain amount of creative license, you not only gain the interest of top talent, but you will quite often walk away with a truly terrific project.

3) It’s a Unique or Interesting Project

For most creatives, monotony is death. That’s why you can really grab their attention with a unique project. Any part of the project can be unique- the concept, like an interactive film, the content, like a genre defying software project, or the delivery, like a short film that plays in theaters before features.

It’s not something that can be faked, however. Creatives live and breathe their craft. They might be too polite to tell you that your ‘unique project’ is yet another hack job, but they’ll definitely know if it is.

4) It’s for Creative Reasons Only

It’s not so surprising that creative professionals respect a creative endeavor. In fact, many of them would rather work on a purely creative endeavor rather than be enlisted on a project in exchange for backend compensation, which they’ll likely assume they’ll never see. Not seeking profit for the project changes many attitudes; among people like creative professionals, whose talent is so often exploited for gain, it’s refreshing to see creation for its own sake.