Creative directors in PR earn more than those in advertising or digital, with ‘creativity and brainpower’ suggested as the reason

Matt Cartmell, PRCA communications director, said: “It is interesting to note that PR commands among the highest day-rates of the creative industries. Despite this, PR continues to be one of the most cost-effective marketing options, as additional costs such as paid-for media space are generally far less than for advertising and other disciplines. In PR, clients are mainly paying for creativity and brainpower.”

Location also played a big role: in London, the average day-rate of creative directors is £1193, compared to £885 outside London. This is the same for other positions: an account director could be expected to make £855 a day in London, compared to £755 outside London.

The well-established rate card model dominates the charging structure for the marketing world with just over half of agencies (54 per cent) admitting that they hadn’t changed their rates over the last two years.

However, the majority of agencies (78 per cent) have admitted offering discounts to clients and the report also showed signs of the rate-card model being challenged by payment-by-results, with almost a third of agencies (30 per cent) offering these to clients in the past 24 months.