Promethean Research

Agency growth stabilized at a lower level last year, while shops maintained margins. Get the latest research on the digital agency industry in our new State of Digital Services Report in partnership with The Bureau and sponsored by Parallax. https://lnkd.in/gPmAcmz7

Yes Michael B., Nicholas Petroski has done it again. He looked at info from 151 agencies and guess what? The times they are a-changin. Enjoy these key insights on AI adoption, pricing strategies & staffing to whet your whistle. ?? ?? Growth is Stabilizing but Uneven Industry-wide growth held at 4.6 percent, but small agencies rebounded while medium and large agencies saw their first recorded contractions. ?? AI is Changing the Game Agencies making the most progress in AI adoption are seeing the biggest efficiency gains, particularly in copywriting and coding. ?? Pricing and Specialization Matter Raising rates led to an average 8 percent revenue increase, while firms that lowered rates saw a 6 percent decline. Specialization continues to outperform generalist models. ?? Workforce and M&A Shifts Employee turnover remains high at 23 percent, with many agencies relying more on contractors. Nearly half of agency leaders are considering mergers or acquisitions in 2025. The full report is available on the Promethean Research website, but members of The Bureau can find it for free in the Business Operations channel on Slack. Membership has its privileges. ?? #AgencyGrowth #DigitalServices #AI #CreativeAgencies #FutureOfWork

Nicholas Petroski, in conjunction with The Bureau and Parallax, just released Promethean Research's 2025 State of Digital Services. If you're a Bureau Member check out the Slack for a copy, otherwise check it out here: https://lnkd.in/gmV9geKx Nick's work is always grounded in data and while it just came out so I haven't had a chance to read it yet, I'm looking forward to the insights and finding to better serve our customers and team members who can use this data to inform both forecastable tactical and strategic plans in Parallax!

State of Digital Services - Closes EoD today, 2/20! What’s the actual impact of AI versus all the clickbaity hype? How are tariffs and other policy shifts actually impacting agencies? How hot will this M&A market be? 71% of the responses have been directly from Founders/Owners/Partners, too, which is always great to see. Average agency size is right around 24 employees, and it looks like we've had solid representation from both small and large shops. This should give us some great data to help your teams make better decisions in 2025. Thanks to everyone who sent in their responses already! If you haven't, get em in before the survey closes to get the results and an invite to the private highlight call. Link in comments!

Don't talk about politics at work. Or on LinkedIn. Business is business and politics is politics. Sorry to all the Senior VPs of Cranky Town out there, but politics is business when it freezes budgets, cancels contracts, impacts employees' ability to work, and increases costs for teams who were just trying to survive. That's why this current State of the Digital Services research we're doing with Nicholas Petroski of Promethean Research is so freaking important. It includes new questions to help everyone better understand the impact of tariffs and other moves by the new US administration, the continued evolution of AI and one of the hottest M&A seasons I remember. Please fill out the survey down below and forward this to anyone you know who runs a creative agency. ?????? Looks like LinkedIn is hiding the link from people in the comments. So here ya go: https://lnkd.in/eQN6y9NP

Waaaaay back in 2023, digital agencies that shifted their service mix with the market grew 82% faster than average. Wanna learn which shops grew faster in 2024? We do too. Participate in this year's State of Digital Services survey and find out! Link in comments. (This chart is from our 2024 State of Digital Services Report, in partnership with The Bureau)

What's your shop charging? This is last year's rate data from our State of Digital Services Survey. We're already seeing some shifts in average hourly rates from last year! Make sure you've participated in this year's survey to get your free copy of the full report. Link in comments

Buckle up, Buttercup. Things are getting weirder. I never thought we'd be adding questions on how tariffs, anti-DEI & anti-environmental policies would be impacting creative agencies, but here we are. Folks are losing work left and right, so let's see what the real impact is as best we can. Partnering with our good friend and resident researcher at The Bureau, Nicholas Petroski, we've got a new state of the industry survey for ya. And you know me, so we're gonna ask a few questions about the real real. Survey link is in the comments, please feel free to share far and wide. This is an important one for all of us. ??

Calling all digital agencies! This year's survey is live. Participants get full access to the completed report plus an invite to a price highlight/Q&A call.

Digital agencies generate an above-average level of net income, they have few, if any, barriers to entry, and the market as a whole is growing rapidly. Our full industry report explores how these forces make digital agencies an incredibly attractive industry.