Break the Agency Mold
3 Steps to a New Growth Model
Agencies can continue competing for the same creative assignments…
…or they can rethink the value they bring to their clients.
It's a tough time for creative agencies. Competition is fierce, marketing budgets are under pressure, and AI is giving brands more reasons to bring creative work in-house.
According to Gartner's 2025 CMO Spend Survey, marketing budgets remain at just 7.7% of company revenue, while 39% of CMOs planned to reduce agency spending. Gartner 2025 CMO Spend Survey
Clients are reconsidering what they need agencies for. And while great creative will always matter, creative execution alone is becoming harder to defend as a competitive advantage.
The agency business model needs to evolve. Here's where to start.
Step 1. Look Beyond the Brief
The initial client assignment rarely tells the whole story. And what's missing can be more important than what's in the brief.
Consider a company seeking a brand refresh. On the surface, it may appear to be a positioning or messaging challenge. But deeper exploration could reveal that inconsistent customer experiences are undermining the brand.
Uncovering the full story means connecting customer insights, employee perspectives, competitive intelligence and business priorities to reveal the underlying challenges and opportunities.
The real value comes from understanding not just what the client is asking for, but what's driving the need in the first place.
Step 2. Expand Your Strategic Role
Understanding the bigger picture creates an opportunity to move beyond creative execution and become a more integral business partner.
If creative agencies don't have these capabilities in-house, bringing in the right research and business strategy experts can position them as more valuable strategic partners, equipped to uncover deeper business challenges, inform critical decisions and deliver solutions that extend beyond creative execution.
The opportunity is to become the partner clients turn to for more than creative solutions.
Step 3. Turn Strategic Value Into Growth
A stronger strategic role creates opportunities to deepen client relationships, identify new business needs and expand the agency's contribution.
The traditional agency model is under pressure, and incremental changes may no longer be enough. Agencies need to reconsider where they create value, how they strengthen client relationships and what role they want to play in their clients' businesses.
A more strategic approach can open doors to business challenges that extend well beyond the original creative assignment, creating new opportunities for growth while making existing client relationships more valuable.
This isn't about turning creative agencies into management consultancies. It's about making their existing creative strengths more valuable while creating new opportunities for growth.
The Next Chapter
AI isn't going away. Neither is the pressure on marketing budgets.
The agencies that thrive will be those that challenge the traditional model, expand their strategic value and become more integral to their clients' success.
The future of creative agencies isn't less creative. It's more strategic.