The number
Frontify, working with D&AD, put the question to creative directors and 70% pointed at time as the thing standing between them and work worth remembering. Not budget, not client conservatism, not talent supply.
It is a useful number because it moves the diagnosis out of the studio and into the operating model.
Where the time actually goes
Adaptation. One idea becomes forty deliverables across ratios, durations and platforms, and each one needs a look.
Approval latency. Work sits in someone's inbox for four days and then comes back with a note that costs two days to action. The calendar shrinks even though nobody worked faster.
Brand policing. When assets and rules are not centralised, the most expensive person in the room spends their afternoon checking logo clear space.
What buying time back looks like
Template the repeatable volume so non-designers can produce it safely. Every locked template is a recurring hour returned to the concept work.
Centralise assets and guidelines so nobody has to ask a human where the file lives.
Fix the approval path, not the deadline. Two named approvers with a 48-hour SLA changes more than an extra week ever will.