How Agencies Can Make Design Matter More to Clients
Welcome to Episode 170. This is a fascinating one if you work in or with design agencies, or if you’ve ever wondered why brilliant creative work doesn’t always get the influence it deserves inside client organisations.
I chatted with John Gleason, Founder & President of A Better View Strategic Consulting who help corporate organizations elevate and leverage design as a strategic business competence and catalyst for growth, help agencies become more relevant for the markets and clients they aspire to inspire while becoming better businesses, and enhance the client/agency relationship to be better, together.
John is one of the most vocal advocates for the role, power, influence, and BUSINESS impact of Design that you will ever meet. Interested in helping those who lead design... to better lead a strategic design proposition.
In this conversation we talk about:
Why design has been pushed further down the value chain in many businesses
What John learned from his time client-side at P&G
How he's now helping both corporate organisations and agencies work better together
The rise of in-house teamsWhy agencies often struggle to sound different from one another
How account managers can have more strategic conversations with clients beyond projects, deadlines and budgets
John shares some brilliant advice on helping clients navigate their own internal politics, ask better questions, and translate design into business impact.
I found it such a useful reminder of what clients are really dealing with internally, and why agencies need to understand the human and political dynamics inside client organisations - account managers can add huge value by helping them make the case internally.
You can connect with and find out more about John Gleason here:
LinkedIn:https://www.linkedin.com/in/johngleason/
THE FUTURE OF... conference (www.TheFutureOf-conference.com)
11 Influencers Who Elevate Packaging Design - Packaging Digest (https://www.packagingdigest.com/packaging-design/11-influencers-who-elevate-packaging-design)
How To Innovation When You Are Asked to Cut Costs - Packaging Digest (https://www.packagingdigest.com/packaging-design/how-to-innovate-when-you-are-asked-to-cut-costs)
Webinar + Panel: Beyond free pitching: building stronger, smarter client relationships [DESIGN BUSINESS ASSOCIATION member content] (https://www.dba.org.uk/resources/beyond-free-pitching-building-stronger-smarter-client-relationships/)
Podcast: Finding Our Way: Episode 59: Design Isn't Dead, But It's Seen Better Days (ft John Gleason) - https://findingourway.design/2025/06/06/59-design-isnt-dead-but-its-seen-better-days-ft-john-gleason/
'Is Design Dead?' - Design Leaders Wrestle With The Question - FAST COMPANY article, by Mark Wilson, Global Design Editor (https://www.fastcompany.com/91299152/future-of-design-leaders-executives)
Here is the case study for P&G’s initial launch of Febreze Air Effects. P&G chose to invest 3-5x more money in the actuator and stray mechanisms than the costs of the “typical” spray mechanisms for almost all other competing brands and products available at that time. The result was a product launch SO successful that P&G cancelled an “8-figure” advertising campaign, and still delivered consumer sales that exceeded their initial launch objectives by more than double.
We talk about the value of Design. John referenced 3 organizations who have provided varying degrees and depth of analysis of the value that Design delivers to businesses:
The Design Council (UK) did extensive research between 1994 - 2005 - studying there business performance (share value) of various companies. Its key finding is that the share prices of design-aware companies out-perform the FTSE 100 and FTSE All Share indices by more than 200 per cent. Attached is their 2005 Business Index - summarizing these learnings.
Picking up where the Design Council left off, DMI (Design Management Institute) created a Design Value Index which tracked the same business metrics (share value) between 2005 - 2015. And also like the Design Council’s findings… the DMI Design Value Index also found that the DMI Design Value Index (a summary value generated by the Design-led companies on this index out-performed the US S&P 500 by more that 200% (219% in 2014, and 211% ion 2015). DMI only published 2-3 years of their Design Value Index. Here is the last reported Design Value Index - the 2015 summary report.
Following these two highly credible efforts to measure and dimensionalize the value of Design, McKinsey created, perhaps, the most comprehensive study to uncover and measure the impact of Design. A 5-year study. 300 publicly-traded companies tracked. More than 100,000 design actions recorded. More than 2,000,000 pieces of financial data collected. Guess what… they ALSO found that “top quartile” companies (those who leveraged Design in the most strategic ways throughout their enterprises) - out-performed industry benchmarks and broad financial market indices by 2-to-1 (200+%): McKinsey’s “The Business Value of Design”, published in 2018.
If you’re listening before September 2026 and you’d like to join me in Atlanta, I’ll be co-hosting the next AM:PM Event on Tuesday 29th and Wednesday 30th, an in-person event for agency leaders focused on the future of account management, project management, client retention and growth. You can find out more and register at https://theampmevent.com
