Marketing Agency Landscape

It’s widely acknowledged that the marketing and advertising world has changed inordinately over the years for both those requiring and offering the services. Then you throw the global pandemic, a war, and a cost of living crisis into the mix and everything is accelerated. New ways of working, greater flexibility, and a desperate need for businesses to survive are all screaming for our attention.

Whether it’s the ever-changing disciplines and channels, the budgets, the cultures of the agencies themselves, or on the other side - the boom in entrepreneurs and smaller, savvy businesses. All of these things have been slowly creating the need for new options – hence the rise of freelancers, consultancies, collectives, and virtual agencies. What do all these things have in common? Flexibility, the capability to adapt and react quickly, and the ability to develop a solution that is truly fit for the challenge. Whether you’re an agency or one of the other support choices I mentioned – being able to put together the most optimum team for every job is invaluable.?

Many agencies are starting to realise that their traditional structure and fixed workforce just aren’t working for the modern marketing world. It’s too cumbersome and it can’t react quickly enough to changing trends, digitisation, heightening needs for specialisms, and clients who just can’t pay what they used to. So they are moving towards more of a freelance model, where they can buy in the different areas of expertise that they need as and when they need it. They have been doing it for quite some time with the creative side of their offering (but more often than not pretending that they aren't to save face), but not as confidently and frequently when it comes to the client service part.

Businesses, of all sizes, need greater flexibility too. They can’t be committed to retainers or long-term contracts. They need marketing support more than ever before, but often their budgets are the first to be reduced when cost savings are needed. So their marketing needs to work harder and deliver more for less and the only way that is possible is by being able to access the right people, at the time that’s right for them.?

So, how do we feel about this constant change and evolution? Excited. Because it means we as marketers have to use our brains for strategy and creativity every single day. We get to solve new challenges, develop new approaches and break the cycle of "doing the norm".