Australian agencies bounce back from GFC
Tick Boxer’s annual Australian Agency Rates Report, drawn from over 130 agency rate cards across Australia, has concluded that agency rates are increasing aftaer a period of decline that followed the global financial crisis.
The industry is being refreshed
It’s three central conclusions are that average charge rates are stabilising, account service charge rate averages are stabilising, and agencies are diversifying their services.
"Our analysis clearly shows owners/managers of creative agencies how they can commercially grow and what is happening across their industry,” said Debbie Pine of Tick Boxer.
“We're really excited about the trends showing in this year's report. For the last few years, we've seen agency rates being consistently whittled down, to the point where businesses really start to struggle, but this year, we're finally seeing corrections taking place, which is great news for the industry.
“Plus with the introduction of new niche services and skills, the industry is being refreshed and starting to take the front seat again with clients and their communications strategies."
Nadine Rimmer of Tick Boxer added: "We've finally reached the point where agencies can no longer just 'do more with less' and the market has forced them to adapt to tougher conditions by innovating within their own business instead of being so outwardly focused.”
She said: “We're really happy to see more value being placed back on some role types, as the end result of such widespread commoditisation as we've seen in recent years is often low quality work, which won't deliver a result for the client in the long run.”
The report found that agencies have introduced innovative charging models in response to financial pressures, and non-traditional fee structures have been extensively introduced.
It added that offshore outsourcing is growing in popularity.
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