It’s nearly the end of the year but it seems that 200 of Europe’s largest companies have finally  reached the same conclusion that blur Group has postulated since the start of 2011 – marketing costs too much.

It seems that there is one big area of the business which could benefit from efficiency savings – according to the survey to the tune of £615m (that’s nearly $1bn). And that function is marketing.

It’s not really about the cost, but about the way it’s bought. We’ve talked before about how decisions are made in marketing that may not have the same scrutiny as other outsourcing choices. Quite simply, when it’s either agency or in-house then the spend is going to be determined by one of those two pots. But if there’s a third way…

You may not be one of the biggest companies, or even if you are, there’s one thing that’s for sure. Making the way you buy marketing services more efficient is going to have a major impact on your bottom line.

Here’s the ways that we think marketing procurement is currently inefficient, and how it can work in the new world that the Creative Services Exchange delivers: it’s worth putting these into a spreadsheet and try to work out how much you could save by switching your marketing procurement approach.

1. Time to select. It’s easy when you’re using your regular supplier – you’ve already done the ‘beauty parade’. But if you’re looking for something new then drawing up the longlist and shortlist of pitching agencies has a huge time cost. How many hours and what has that meant to your business in financial terms?

2. The pitch process. Another time and opportunity cost. You need to be on hand to answer all those questions, to review, to sift from long to shortlist. Then you need to travel to those processes.

3. Retainers. There’s no doubt they’re less a given than once upon a time. Partly led by the multi-channel approach meaning that one agency is not always the solution. But also because people are starting to question just what it covers. But if you’re still paying a retainer you really need to understand what the return on that particular investment is. It may be zero.

4. Markups. In the days when digital wasn’t in the marketer’s vocabulary, an agency bill would have a random markup factor applied on all external costs, normally print or media. Almost understandable in that most of us don’t really have the skills to do print proofing or even want to incur the time/cost of that process. Now there is less external production but markups still happen.

5. Think of a number. Let’s be straightforward. Agencies actually make the money on the dull stuff. Margins are big on those regular projects that can be given to the most junior designer, to the cheapest production shop, with the least creative input.

6. Expenses. We’re at the height of the Soho/Madison Avenue lunch and party season so it’s always worth remembering that the hangover doesn’t come free.

How does all this change when you start using the Creative Services Exchange?

1.  We manage the selection, handle all the pitch questions and deliver the top pitches to you. The process is streamlined, online. So there’s no time or travel costs for you.

2. You set the budget. This may seem to be our most labored point, but in the end this is the difference between wasting £615million and getting value-based marketing. If you continue to rely on your suppliers to price a project, you will continue to overpay. Of course part of the way that we can give our customers 30% cost savings each time is because our creatives are not carrying huge overheads. We know the idea of offshoring to save costs in other business processes, but quite often a cost-effective option is in a country you’ve never thought of, or equally just down the road from you. Pay for the creative, don’t pay for the sofa in reception.

3. Transparency. Following on from 2, you’ll realize that when you see everything that’s going on you’ll be aware if anything appears that doesn’t make financial sense. As our trading platform becomes ever more function rich we’ll have even more reports available to you that show just what’s happening. Oh and we don’t buy lunch for you, so you’re not buying it for us.

4. Speed. We often go from brief to pitch to project start within a week. Yet it can still be closer to a quarter for some campaigns to kick off in the traditional way. That means you lose the momentum and often means you’ve lost the market leadership by the time you go live. Whatever the reasons, this opportunity cost is massive. Fast turnaround is efficient in all sorts of ways.

5. Efficiency. Although our approach is loved by marketing execs, using the Exchange as a single supplier and as the company’s payment agent makes it a popular choice for procurement execs too.

6. Creative wins. As one respondent to the survey said  “drive real savings without sacrificing the vital creativity and innovation that effective marketing demands”. When you can put other concerns to one side, you’ll find that creativity is the winner in the new way of doing things.

It may seem a little early for 2012 resolutions, but why not make this one now. You can save your business money, without sacrificing quality or creativity. Brief the Exchange now.