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Allpoints Insights

2025 Agency Survival Guide: The Six Trends You Can’t Afford to Ignore

By Max Fellows, Founder of allpoints

Introduction
As we continue into 2025, the agency landscape remains dynamic, offering a mix of opportunity and unpredictability. The Agency Hackers’ Q1 2025 Forecast dives deep into the challenges and victories agency leaders face, revealing a roadmap to thrive in the year ahead. From changing client expectations to leveraging technology and collaboration, here’s a comprehensive guide to navigating the trends shaping the creative, digital, and events industries.

1. Confidence with Caution
The forecast highlights a renewed sense of optimism among agency leaders, with 65% rating their confidence at 7 or higher. However, many are adopting cautious strategies due to lingering economic uncertainty. Agencies are ditching rigid growth plans in favor of adaptable KPIs tied to campaigns and outreach metrics.

✔️ Who’s Doing It Right?
Agencies like Boutique and The Digital Maze are leading with agility, focusing on flexible, campaign-driven goals rather than fixed revenue targets. For instance, Boutique recalibrated its 2024 plan multiple times and is now prioritising sustainable growth over aggressive expansion.

2. Growth Is the Buzzword
While uncertainty looms, growth remains the ultimate goal. Agencies are shifting from reactive to proactive strategies, including refining sales processes, streamlining service offerings, and adopting productised approaches. This shift allows agencies to focus on repeatable, scalable solutions that drive predictable revenue.

✔️ Who’s Doing It Right?
Sherpa
, a B2B marketing agency, has successfully productised its services, launching two repeatable products that have already seen renewals. By simplifying its offerings, Sherpa reduced inefficiencies and created a scalable growth model. Similarly, Napier doubled down on niche sector expertise to move upmarket, securing high-value clients with its proprietary strategic models.

Takeaway: To achieve growth in 2025, focus on narrowing your niche, building scalable offerings, and optimising your sales funnel.

3. Embrace Collaboration
Collaboration between agencies is no longer a nice-to-have—it’s essential. Partnerships and referral networks are becoming a significant revenue driver. Agencies that invest in building relationships with complementary businesses are expanding their reach, diversifying offerings, and creating long-term opportunities.

✔️ Who’s Doing It Right?
JonesMillbank doubled its agency-partner revenue from 21% to 42% in a single year by actively seeking collaborative projects. Meanwhile, Studio Graphene attributes a large part of its growth to referrals and has made expanding its partner network a core focus for 2025.

Takeaway: Build a robust referral and partnership strategy to leverage the expertise of complementary agencies while growing your revenue streams.

4. Navigating the Client Relationship Shift
Client expectations are changing rapidly. Many clients now prioritise immediate, measurable results over long-term strategic value, often leading to transactional relationships. Agencies are finding themselves under pressure to deliver quick wins while maintaining quality. This shift emphasises the need for clear communication, realistic expectation-setting, and a focus on measurable outcomes.

✔️ Who’s Doing It Right?
Napier is leading by example with radical transparency. They emphasise clear communication about what clients can achieve with their budgets, ensuring no promises go unfulfilled. Similarly, The Digital Maze introduced real-time dashboards for clients, creating trust and accountability while showcasing measurable progress.

Takeaway: Set clear expectations, prioritise communication, and integrate measurable outcomes into every client interaction.

5. Talent and Technology Investments
Agencies are increasingly relying on a combination of skilled teams and cutting-edge technology to stay ahead. AI tools are enabling operational efficiency, while training programs are upskilling teams to meet evolving demands.

✔️ Who’s Doing It Right?
Curated, an AI-driven marketing agency, has integrated GPT technology to automate 60% of its workflow, freeing up resources for strategic work. Similarly, Napier has invested heavily in training, allocating £10,000 per employee to upskill their teams and boost client delivery.

Takeaway: Invest in automation tools and training to increase efficiency while empowering your team to deliver high-value work.

6. Productisation as a Path to Profitability
Productisation—the process of turning bespoke services into scalable products—is on the rise. Agencies adopting this model are seeing greater efficiency, higher client retention, and predictable revenues.

✔️ Who’s Doing It Right?
Sherpa’s productisation journey has already proven successful, with its first renewals validating the model. By streamlining services into repeatable products, they’ve reduced operational overhead and improved scalability.

Takeaway: Identify services that can be transformed into repeatable, scalable products to ensure consistent revenue streams.

Looking Ahead
2025 holds promise for agencies ready to adapt. By focusing on flexible strategies, fostering collaborations, and leveraging technology, agencies can turn challenges into opportunities. The key lies in staying agile, investing in relationships, and positioning services as essential, measurable drivers of client success.

✔️ What’s Your Move?
Whether you’re looking to streamline your offerings, build a referral network, or upskill your team, the time to act is now. The agencies thriving in this environment aren’t just reacting—they’re proactively shaping their futures and opportunities in an evolving landscape.


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