It may not sound such a surprise that in the current economic climate, advertisers tend to squeeze every penny from the budget. Paul Hayes, MD of NI Commercial commented in Campaign magazine that ‘Agencies shoot themselves in the foot over unprofitable terms to win businesses’. The sentiment was echoed by Sir Martin Sorrell, who described the recent budget slashing trend as ‘insanity’ (Evening Standard 8 March 10).

Providing creative solutions to clients in a cost efficient manner is part of our job. It has always been. What had become unusual is that the discussions on costs often involve people who are not directly involving in coming up with the solutions – the procurement department is one. The severe auditing processes polarise solely on numbers which end up with such constrains that it becomes almost impossible to do the job professionally.

Some clients think that social media being a low cost medium meaning the budget can be slashed is also a myth. The job to conceive a decent campaign in the past is now turning into a much bigger task of creating a brand platform. The growing complexity of communication channels means greater effort and a new kind of creativity has to employ in managing the implementation of the campaign, across all medium. Creative agencies need to find ways to centralise production smartly to minimise costs by avoiding unnecessary repetition of process, so as to let the hard earning budget go an extra mile.