A benchmarking survey exploring how agencies are navigating pricing, profitability, forecasting, delivery pressure and changing client expectations.

Most businesses have a vision, a plan, a positioning statement or a growth ambition. There are decks, workshops, away days and bold intentions everywhere. What is often in shorter supply is the thing that makes strategy actually useful: a clear connection between the big idea and the business reality underneath it.

Good ideas absolutely matter. They are often the spark. They can open up new directions, sharpen a proposition or create momentum. But ideas on their own do not build resilience, improve margin or make a business easier to scale.

The agency pitch landscape has become increasingly hard on everyone involved. For brands, it can feel like a long, resource-heavy process with too many similar options and not enough clarity. For agencies, it often means months of unpaid work, high internal strain and no guarantee that the process is actually designed to identify the right partner.

War and conflict on this scale are devastating. Lives are being lost, communities are being torn apart, and the effects reach far beyond the countries directly involved.

The recent IPA agency census figures landed heavily for a reason. Creative and non-media agency headcount fell 14.3% in 2025, while total headcount across IPA member agencies fell 6.8%. Open roles were down sharply too, with vacancies across all seniority levels falling 40.8% year on year.

Across the industry, the landscape is shifting quickly. Independents are carving out space with specialist, scene-led expertise. Larger networks are reframing social, experiential and strategy teams around culture. Creator-first agencies are emerging out of talent businesses and PR models. And more brands are building in-house culture teams of their own.

Many organisations are dealing with a more uncertain funding landscape, shaped by tighter local authority budgets, changing expectations around public investment and increasing pressure on already-stretched operating models.

One of the biggest issues I see in agency businesses is that what looks like a commercial model is often just a costing model in disguise.

Hearing that Corsica Studios is closing in its current form hits hard. For a lot of people, this will feel personal. It certainly does to me.

Visit Cornwall going into liquidation is genuinely gutting. But this may be Cornwall’s best chance in a generation to rebuild the visitor economy in a way that actually fits how travel works now, how communities feel now, and how the county needs to thrive in the years ahead.

Cultural relevance is rarely built through aesthetics alone. It is built through trust, consistency and contribution. It is something brands earn over time, not something they can borrow for a campaign window. That distinction matters more than ever.

Almost three years ago, I moved from London to Cornwall and have been managing Warm Street from here ever since, with regular trips back to what I still call “town.” That shift in perspective has changed how I think about audiences, creativity and where cultural value actually lives.