Simplification, clarity and focus will be key ingredients for agency success in 2025

Here, agency leaders muse on learnings around simplification, clarity and focus.

Ben Shaw, CSO, MullenLowe: “We espouse simplicity to clients yet never follow it through ourselves. We put collaboration on a post-it note and lose it down the back of an org chart. For a comms industry, we’re so embarrassingly poor at selling ourselves. Too many words. Too many models. Too much chat. Not enough magic. We need to make things more simple. We spent 2024 doing that. Our best work and wins this year have been from prioritizing clarity over cleverness. We’ve had brilliant chemistry meetings when there’s no agenda, no slides, just chat. Clients are buying answers but they’re really buying trust. In turn, we need to trust our people. Small, tight teams. Complete ownership, mile-deep knowledge, 100% investment. It’s so simple. In among exponential AI growth our industry is getting both more complicated and more confusing. We’re going to use it to our advantage. 2025 is going to be a banger.”

Virginie Chesnais, chief marketing officer, Happydemics: “In 2024, we’ve witnessed the flourishing fragmentation of the martech landscape, highlighting the urgent need for standardization in the metrics advertisers rely on. The industry has to start embracing synergies between media with unique strengths that become even more powerful when activated together rather than viewing them as either/or choices. It’s time to break down silos and adopt a unified cross-measurement framework that reveals the performance of every euro invested as part of a whole media mix. In this new era, measurement can only thrive through repetition and scalability.

“AI-powered tools will facilitate access to instant insights at a campaign level, enabling even more robust benchmarking and continuous optimization. This will be a significant driver of ROI. Another key lesson has been the increasing demand for transparency, as marketers call for tools that go beyond vanity metrics and draw clear connections between campaigns and business outcomes. In 2025, focusing on meaningful, full-funnel KPIs such as attribution, ad recall and consideration will give us the opportunity to bridge the gap between adtech and martech and build strategies that foster connections with audiences and drive long-term brand growth.”

Chris Woodward, CEO, CTI Digital: “2024 has been a year of change and transformation. We’ve simplified our business from seven agencies to one to help our clients succeed in a very competitive and fragmented digital marketplace. At the core of this is listening to our clients. They’re always right and if you really listen (something a lot of agencies don’t do), you’ll become a valuable and trusted partner to them. And they will look after you. As for 2025, we have three focuses. First, keep listening to our clients and keep evolving our business to be more relevant than our competitors. Second, always look after the business fundamentals: cash flow and your people. Third, work should always come second place to family. If that’s not your reality, change it immediately.”

Adrienn Major, Founder at POD LDN: “This year, I learned the importance of telling our clients all the different ways in which we can help them. It will be a priority for me in 2025 as well. Often, clients can consider you for one type of work not realizing that you can work with them on other things too. While it can be hard to schedule in-person calls to discuss it, we’ve used our social channels, PR and newsletter to get the message across.”

Patrick Reid, CEO, Imagination: “2024 has been a year of transformation for the creative industry, with global, economic and technological shifts reshaping how we work. Generative AI has been a game-changer, revolutionizing creativity. By embracing it, we’re producing faster, smarter and more impactful campaigns, proving that technology can amplify – not replace – human originality. Clients are also demanding more flexibility and simplicity. The days of complex service models are over. We’re responding by turning services into adaptable, subscription-based solutions that meet evolving needs. The takeaway from this year for the creative industry? Adapt, innovate and harness technology to stay relevant in this rapidly changing world.”

Barney Worfolk-Smith, chief growth officer, Daivid: “To be honest, this year I’ve not lived up to my personal mantra that well. So, living that with renewed vigor will be my takeaway for 2025. The mantra is... Focused – don’t let shiny, short-lived nonsense deviate you from the plan. Upbeat – nobody ever said work had to be miserable, so be positive and the ripples spread. Curious – keep asking questions and, weirdly, you’ll keep learning. Kind – it’s been a rough year, so be kind to yourself, others around you and those further away in the world.”

Olaf van Gerwen, founder and global creative director, Chuck Studios: “The one thing I’ve learned, or rather been strongly reminded of, in 2024 is the very simple idea that in the advertising business, you need to go big or go niche. At Chuck Studios, we’re not opportunists who take on every job; we’re specialists that do one thing really well. In a year of increased complexity and ambiguity, our laser-sharp focus (translating brand values into food depiction) has saved our butts. A single-minded strategy is incredibly important. Ironically, it’s something the advertising industry has been advising clients to do for decades but honestly, we need to take that advice ourselves too. Agencies are rebranding, merging and repositioning like caffeinated squirrels. Be specific and concise to be the best at what you do and leave the rest to others – because specialists will always be better.