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DBA Annual Survey Report
The DBA Annual Survey Report is an invaluable members-only business tool which enables you to benchmark your financial performance with your peers. Released each October it covers fees, salaries, utilisation, income, recovery rates, benefits and trends within DBA member companies. Data is segmented by geography and size of agency to make comparisons more relevant.
Need a clearer view?
The DBA Annual Survey Report is the most comprehensive analysis of industry fees, salaries, utilisation, income, recovery rates, benefits and trends in the UK design sector, and enables you to benchmark your financial performance. In addition to the PDF report those members who participate in the survey gain access to our dynamic data tables giving detailed information on over 50 different job titles.
If you are not a DBA Member, but you would like to clear the fog around the numbers in your business speak to Adam Fennelow about becoming a member to access the data we collect on the sector.
Current DBA Annual Survey Report
Our flagship report analyses fees, salaries, utilisation, income, recovery rates, benefits and trends of DBA member agencies.
The 2024 DBA Annual Survey took place from May to June 2024 with the Report launched in October 2024.
The Annual Survey Report comes in two formats – a PDF summary report or our micro-site with report, full data and dynamic tables enabling users to benchmark across a range of variables including upper/lower quartiles as well as averages.
Read – To receive a copy of the 2024 PDF report email Christina Warren. Read a summary of the Members’ Forum exploring the report.
Additional mini reports are available giving data on specific issues or for particular types of business. In addition to the main report members can also access:
– Data on staff benefits (pensions, parental leave & pay, bonuses etc)
– Data on staff turnover figures for the last three years
– Benchmarking for micro-agencies – based purely on data from micro-agencies (under 5 people) giving the benchmarks that matter to smaller businesses.
Watch – The recording of the webinar launching the 2024 report is available for members to watch on demand.
Interact – All members who participate in the survey automatically receive access to the Annual Survey Report website. Contact Christina Warren if you need a reminder if your login details.
The Survey and the Report are supported by Paprika and VisionFR, and produced in association with Moore Kingston Smith.
How useful is the DBA Annual Survey Report? A few DBA Members give their views
“We’ve gathered the data, created the spread-sheets, done the sums and calculated our new standard rate card. It all ‘adds up’ but how do we know whether we are competitive and what is going on in the market?
Without the DBA Annual Survey Report we have to learn the hard way; by losing pitches because we are too expensive or winning pitches that we can not make profitable. The DBA survey helps The Team win profitable new business.”
– James Dix, Commercial Director, The Team
“For many years I have used the DBA Annual Survey Report as a guide when creating business plans and budgets.
The information gives a number of benchmarks that then allow you to road test your own numbers and thinking versus what is happening within the sector. Always very useful!”
– Deborah Longbottom, Independent FD, working with Brandon
“As a small (and sometimes isolated) business, the DBA Annual Survey Report is the only way of really knowing how we compare with other agencies. Otherwise we’re just second guessing in the dark. It is essential in helping us to benchmark what we pay our staff and what we charge clients, in order to remain competitive.”
– Andy West, Director, MultiAdaptor
“The DBA’s Annual Survey Report is an extraordinary resource to have at my finger tips. It gives context on the performance of our business in terms of margins, utilisation rates and competitive salaries and benefits to name just a few examples.”
– Jeannine Martin, Finance Director, Wardour
“As much as we’ve learned over the years, Human After All inevitably operates within something of a bubble, lacking context on the actions of our peers agencies.
The DBA Annual Survey is a benchmarking platform that gives us both great insight and great comfort that we’re moving in the right direction.”
– Danny Miller, CEO, Human After All