Türkiye playbook

01What this market buys

Istanbul and Ankara agencies buy listing and campaign video for Trendyol, Hepsiburada and Amazon TR sellers, plus a growing set of DTC brands importing the same volume habit. The requirement is a clip per variant, refreshed per campaign — volume, not craft. A studio cannot serve that profitably, which is why the gap exists at all.

02The language layer

Turkish hooks are written, not translated. Word order differs enough that a translated hook lands the emphasis on the wrong word, and the audience reads it as foreign instantly. Native review belongs inside the price for the same reason it does in the Gulf: separated out, it is the first line to be cut, and the ad then sounds imported to the only audience that matters.

03What the money looks like

This is the market where currency risk is the pricing problem. Costs are largely in hard currency, revenue is in lira, and a lira price fixed for a quarter can lose 5–10% of its value. We invoice in USD so the risk sits with the supplier rather than the agency — that is a deliberate answer to the volatility, not an inconvenience to work around.

04What decides the job

• Invoicing currencyUSD, monthly. It removes the quarterly repricing conversation and puts the exchange risk on the party that can hedge it.
• KDV at 20%Handled on the invoice for business buyers, with e-Fatura where the client is inside the electronic system.
• Surge eventsEfsane Cuma and Ramadan. An agency with bought capacity takes the surge and prices it as surge work; one with editors declines it and watches it go elsewhere.

05What goes wrong

Uncapped revisions are the fastest way to lose money in this market. Turkish clients give detailed, categorical feedback — that is a strength, not a problem — but a fourth revision round turns a healthy batch into a loss, so the cap belongs in writing before the first batch ships.