Design marketers 'performed poorly'

Design consultancy firms performed poorly compared to other marketing agencies, despite improving on 2008's profits, according to a new survey.

Compared to the advertising sector, design was found to have had the second-lowest gross income per head and operating profit margin of all the marketing services questioned in Kingston Smith W1's Financial Performance of Marketing Services Companies Annual Survey, reported Design Week.

The accountancy firm polled the top organisations in the design, digital, advertising, media buyers, direct marketing and sales promotion, and public relations sectors and found that the top 30 design consultancies' gross income rose by 11 per cent.

In total, 24 of the top 30 firms posted an increase in profits on the previous year.

Mandy Merron, a partner at Kingston Smith W1, told the news source: 'The current set of results does not fully take into account the effects of the downturn. Next year's survey is likely to show very different results and, historically, the design industry has been one of the first to suffer in a recession.

'The top 30 designers have increased their net cash by 30 per cent to £79.6 million, but net current assets have only shown a slight increase of six per cent to £105.4 million.'