Indirect Spend

Judging a creative or media agency by its blended hourly rate card is a management failure. True marketing value is unlocked by shifting from time-based audits to a practical scorecard that measures deliverable quality, unbundles hidden production markup, and links agency margins to business growth.

Applying standard manufacturing procurement rules to creative agencies is a recipe for operational warfare. Protecting your marketing budget requires moving past blunt price-crushing tactics and building a governance model that measures agency output, eliminates hidden production markups, and treats transparency as a non-negotiable metric.