Design is less commercially scrutinised says report

When asked whether their new agency relationship involves some element of payment by results, the findings were even more revealing. The all-agencies figure for the presence of payment by results was 20%, whereas fewer than 1% of clients claimed to have a similar arrangement in place with regard to their design appointments.

Other results showed 17% of the clients' last agency appointments involved procurement officers, with the figure dropping to 5% in design agency reviews.

Adam Whittaker, chief executive of RSW, said: "One imagines that very large, institutional design appointments do attract the attentions of procurement people. But it is clear that the majority of design arrangements are largely immune to the rigour of commercial interrogation, certainly with regard to measuring effectiveness.

"Perhaps the difficulties associated with isolating the effects of great design will forever require marketers to evaluate on qualitative rather than quantitative criteria."

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