A: Indu Sharma, marketing procurement specialist at CCS&N, writes: There are many marketing and purchasing managers who are increasingly interested in ensuring that their advertising agencies are providing them with value for money. However, it is not easy.

The advertising industry is full of suppliers that have very close relationships with advertising agencies. In many cases, agencies use production houses and design companies from within their own group to maximise profits. This gives little incentive or opportunity to ensure competitive prices in creative execution or production of the ideas - the area where most of the budget is spent.

One has to dig deeper into how agencies work with their suppliers to explore "tied in" deals and discounts. there is also a general lack of information about benchmark prices. So agencies are rarely questioned about value for money.

As you know, to be able to assess value for money, one needs reliable benchmarks in quality, delivery and prices. This information is not readily available. So one way to acquire this is to build networks of similar-minded buyers to gather intelligence; the other is to get the specialists to do the value audit. Many agencies can be persuaded to share the cost. Whereas the former will take time, the latter is quicker and it is possible that it will pay for itself, probably many times over.