Agency leaders share their five-year plans for future-proofing
This installment of Agency Advice asks bosses how they will ensure their businesses are in good shape and offer the right services to clients over the next five years.
How to future proof your agency / Adobe Stock
Ongoing economic uncertainty, demanding clients and constant tech advancements mean it’s harder than ever for agency leaders to plan for the next five months, let alone five years. We speak to more than a dozen agency leaders about how to solve a problem like future-proofing your business.
Be client led
Sid Tuli, managing director, BBH Singapore: “It’s easy to complain about multi-year retainers going away, but that would just ignore the reality of how marketers are also getting their budgets allocated in shorter timeframes. Their planning windows have also been reduced and they’re often dealing with planning for the next three to six months at a time. This increases the amount of revenue that ends up being project-based and agency operating models need to shift to match.
“At BBH Singapore, this has had two direct implications: One, structuring the entire agency as collections of pitch pods to deliver against a larger, agency-wide, full year-round push for new business, and two, adjusting our hiring approach to allow for more temporary, remote, fractional and contract staff that we deploy in bursts to service the unpredictability.”
Patrick Reid, CEO, Imagination: “There are so many ways we’re working with clients to evolve and better partner with them, but two priorities come to mind:
“Generative AI is already transforming the game. We’re leveraging it to boost creativity and efficiency, delivering experience campaigns that are faster, smarter and more impactful. We have an active discovery, experimentation and evaluation program to lead this revolution. Creativity, amplified by tech – that’s how we stay ahead.
“Then there’s productization. Clients want flexibility and scalability, not complexity. We’re turning our services into streamlined, personalized, subscription-based products that are easy to buy and adapt to their needs. More value for them, more predictable growth for us.”
Alex Kirk, managing director and co-founder, Medialab: “A commitment to doing the right thing by our client partners and people is in our DNA, so central to how we plan and future-proof our business.
“Our high-touch client service means we’re actively listening to our clients, allowing us to constantly evolve our offering and prepare to meet their future needs. Recent strategic hires include a head of retention and a partnerships director – both follow client engagement and are a direct response to their requirements. Our independence means we can move fast, helping us stay ahead of industry shifts and continuously enhance our value proposition.
“We feel it’s our role to prove the impact of every pound of media investment to our clients. The data in our platform, which is accessible in real-time to clients, and our marketing effectiveness capabilities drive all decision-making and are what enable us to do this. We know our clients will continue to invest when we can prove the return on investment.
“AI is an opportunity we’re responsibly embracing to help improve client outcomes. It’s here to stay and there will be winners and losers – we want to be winners. Our team uses AI avidly – specifically large language models, such as ChatGPT – to boost their productivity and efficiency.”
Annika Welander, co-owner and CCO, Someoddpilot: “Marketers’ needs change fast, so being adaptable is important. Our agency started as a record label, but we’ve been a design duo, a webshop, a content studio, a brand consultancy, a creative agency and more.
“It’s insanely competitive out there and an indie can only fight on a couple of fronts. So we’ve slimmed down to the few services that we excel at and make sure to only hire builders who can get things done, have strategic vision, understand management skills and can vibe with clients.
“We also push the team to be IRL (where connections and creative ideas can go deeper and faster) and to spend more time with clients. And because there’s no room for uninteresting, we invest in joyful stuff like our apparel brand, art gallery and record label. It makes us happier and flying our freak flag helps our clients see what makes us unique.”
Culture first
Dan Gardner, co-founder, Code and Theory: “You can plan for the future, but thinking five years ahead is naive and likely to lead to failure. Future-proofing isn’t a final destination; it’s a constant, evolving journey. When I look into our agency’s crystal ball, one thing is certain – the future will be different from today. The key to surviving that shift is embedding a company culture that embraces change as a constant. We call ourselves the technology and creative network for a reason: we leverage both to tackle the endless stream of opportunities in an ever-shifting landscape. Everything is up for reimagining – what we do, how we do it, when we do it and who does it. Our business is to create what doesn’t yet exist. To future-proof means staying open, staying curious and challenging the status quo. We don’t take anything for granted. We don’t stick to the past because ‘that’s how it’s always been done.’ Instead, we aim to set industry standards, drive innovation and take calculated risks.”
Stacie Boney, president, Hanson Dodge: “This isn’t sexy, but it has guided us well so far... every three years or so, we engage the whole team in an exercise called Vivid Future State, where we ask everyone to look ahead and imagine what success looks like for our clients and agency. We consider what’s going on in culture with consumers, as well as considering our clients and our ambitions. Then, each January, we work from that to create six to eight key goals for the year and break the achievement of those into trimester subgoals. This has us always looking ahead and always staying ambitious.”
Kim Berkin, managing director, at Charlie Oscar: “‘Culture eats strategy for breakfast.’ Or does it? We think so. Amid ongoing volatility, investing in talent and culture remains our constant. What does this look like in practice? When people feel valued, they thrive. That’s why we focus on understanding what truly matters to our teams. A shared purpose and vision that is felt rather than just talked about brings everyone together. This alignment keeps us moving forward with the energy and direction needed for continued success.
“A deep understanding of our clients’ businesses is key. We don’t believe that transactional relationships drive success for us or our clients. Instead, we embed ourselves in our clients’ businesses and we make their business our business.
“Finally, we’re rejecting the urge to be a one-stop shop. There is strength and differentiation in knowing where we excel, so we prioritize our capabilities in areas where we can make the biggest impact. We believe that specializing, rather than generalizing, creates the lasting value our clients expect from our partnership.”
Constant evolution
Katy Wright, CEO, FCB London: “We’ve witnessed a period of enormous change and will continue to see the industry shift. We have to continue beating the creative drum, standing up for and showcasing how creativity can be applied everywhere to help clients solve their biggest challenges, whatever they might be. On a more practical note, FCB wouldn’t have survived for over 150 years if we hadn’t continually looked inwards.
“A key component of this strategy has been scaling capabilities globally. Servicing areas we know our clients need, such as CRM and production, has allowed us to quickly adapt to changing client dynamics.
“While I can’t predict the future, we can say for certain that investing in successful areas of the business and applying creativity across the board – especially in areas that have previously been undervalued and underleveraged – will ensure you’re set up for success.”
Chris Wallrapp, CEO, Hill Holliday: “For an agency to be truly future-focused, leaders must realize that a ‘future-proof agency’ isn’t a fixed model but a dynamic business strategy. Our clients look to partners to answer two fundamental questions: How can we profitably grow? And how do we acquire and keep customers? We’re focused on these growth goals, hiring seasoned experts in new fields and expanding offerings that deliver the results they need.
“We’ve introduced Hill Holliday Quest, focused on transforming fleeting interactions into enduring connections for health and wellness brands. We’ve expanded Decision Science capabilities, investing in Connext, an AI-powered data platform that discovers new audiences and delivers precise activation strategies. We’re introducing strategic consulting capabilities and aligning brands with customer priorities through deep business acumen. Our model allows us to flex into new capabilities, with a foundation of integrated creative, strategy and media resources to take any growth challenge head-on. This has evolved our offering and relationships from a best-in-class ad agency to a trusted business partner.”
Chris Gokiert, CEO, Critical Mass: “As we all know, our experiences (algorithms!!) are filled with slop. This leaves brands stuck in an environment where it’s exceptionally difficult to stand out. To combat this for our clients, we’re going to continue to be hyper-focused on understanding consumers and connecting brand experiences around them in real time through stand-out creative and technology. We deploy and develop some of the market’s leading technologies to meet consumers where they are… and use data and AI-powered analysis to be predictive rather than reactive. As channels for brands and customers continue to expand and evolve, our innovation won’t be slowing down over the next five years. With the best possible consumer intelligence, we can look at a lot of different potential innovations while being very picky about selecting and confidently integrating the most valuable, future-proof opportunities for clients.”
Ana Burmudez, SVP and managing director, Alma: “While many might focus solely on AI, we believe the conversation is shifting. AI is now a reality, prompting the question: how do we prepare for a constantly evolving future marked by rapid changes in technology and consumer behavior?
“Alma’s strategy for future-proofing goes beyond chasing AI and starts with embracing a mindset of flexibility and foresight. We’ve done this in a couple of ways:
“The first is cultural relevance. Our ‘ungeneral’ strategy emphasizes understanding the nuances driving cultural shifts, enabling us to create meaningful, resonant work that anticipates change rather than reacts to it.
“Next is talent. We cultivate a mindset of curiosity and adaptability, investing in talent that’s not only skilled, but agile, obsessed with culture and capable of navigating uncharted territory – whether that’s mastering new technologies or anticipating shifts in culture and consumer behavior.
“In a world where change is the only constant, the ability to stay ahead isn’t about predicting the future – it’s about being ready to adapt when it arrives.”
David Sudjian, CEO, Sparks: “We’re embracing AI across the board to stay ahead in a rapidly evolving, tech-driven landscape of brand experiences. With marketing budgets tightening and ROI expectations rising, AI is now essential for working smarter, not harder. We’re using it to enhance everything from our internal business processes to the actual strategy and creative development within our client solutions, enabling us to deliver more personalized, immersive experiences that truly connect. It’s no longer about keeping up with the competition – it’s about leading the charge toward more streamlined and innovative ways of engaging our clients’ audiences. By investing in AI, we’re improving agility and effectiveness, future-proofing our business and setting new standards for what’s possible in experiential marketing.”
Justin Tobin, founder and president, Gather: “To future-proof your agency, you first have to define growth. For us, growth is a product of three obsessions: One, doubling down on the uniqueness of our people and our model. Two, retaining laser-sharp focus on the quality of our work and not just the quantity. And three, elating our clients with our agility and collaboration.
“Nimbleness is the key to agency success, especially when you consider the recent backlash around bloated rosters and challenges to longstanding retainers. That’s also why, as a collective of independents, Gather is uniquely able to assemble as needed to tackle client challenges head-on without the trappings of red tape and contractual dramatics. We’ve designed our agency so that our people can raise their hands to take on work – we can also nominate them – and ensure we’re able to come together in rapid time and then fall back as needed. By creating inherent flexibility that others can’t rival, you future-proof your business model because it keeps talent on board and clients coming back.”