The statistic came to light after the agency commissioned market researcher JRBH Strategy & Management to quiz marketing teams about their knowledge of pre-press.

Brand Images.MM director Chris Holmes described the results as "concerning," given that pre-press costs on advertising campaigns can rise to as much as 500,000.

During telephone interviews with marketers in 15 major firms, just one claimed to know what pre-press is.

Further questioning revealed that two thirds of respondents were aware of the repro process, but not a single respondent was able to state their pre-press spend.

Some 63% said that their ad agency dealt with repro, while 27% said that they left their in-house creative teams to organise pre-press.