Get more from the agencies you work with, or find better ones.

Agency advisory is independent support to help a business choose, structure and manage its marketing partners. It covers decisions such as which work to keep in house and which to outsource, how to select a new agency, how to brief and contract partners and how to review their performance. The aim is to make sure your marketing budget is spent with the right people, on clearly defined work, with good collaboration between partners and clear accountability for results across your whole marketing setup.

Common signs include results that have plateaued, rising fees without a clear link to performance, confusion over who is responsible for what, overlapping scopes between agencies and frequent friction between partners or with your own team. It is also worth getting support before a significant change, such as a rebrand, a new market launch, a funding round or a decision to build an in-house team. An outside view can save a great deal of time and money at these moments.

We start by agreeing what you need from a partner and what success looks like. We then build a longlist from our knowledge of the market, narrow it to a shortlist and write a clear brief. We manage the process so agencies have fair access to information and a reasonable timeline, and we help you score proposals against agreed criteria. The aim is to make the decision on substance, chemistry and value rather than on who gave the most polished presentation on the day.

We review the quality of their work, the results they deliver against agreed goals, their reporting, how they collaborate with your team and other partners, and the value they provide for their fees. We speak with your team and, where appropriate, with the agencies themselves. You receive an honest summary of what is working and what is not, along with practical recommendations. Often the answer is to reset expectations and improve briefing rather than to change partner altogether, which is disruptive and costly.

It depends on your scale, budget, the skills you need and how much control you want. In-house teams build deep brand knowledge and can move quickly, but specialist skills are expensive to hire and hard to keep current. Agencies offer breadth, experience across many brands and flexibility, but need good management. Many businesses settle on a hybrid model. We help you weigh the trade-offs for your situation and plan a structure that you can grow into over time without disruptive changes later.

We help you define what each partner is responsible for, how fees are calculated, what is included and what counts as additional work. We look at notice periods, reporting commitments, performance measures and ownership of data, accounts and creative assets. Clear scopes reduce disputes, prevent paying twice for the same work and make it easier to compare value. We are not lawyers, so we work alongside your legal advisers on the formal contract terms where needed, so the commercial and legal sides line up.

Each partner should be measured against goals that connect to business outcomes, such as new customers, revenue, cost per acquisition or brand measures, alongside service measures like reporting quality and responsiveness. We set up a simple review framework with regular check-ins and a fuller review at agreed intervals. Feedback works both ways, so agencies also have a chance to say what they need from you. Clear, fair reviews tend to bring out the best work from good partners and make difficult conversations easier.

Only if it is genuinely the right fit and you want us to be considered. When we run a selection process, we are open about any potential conflict and agree in advance how it will be handled, which may include stepping out of the pitch altogether. Often our recommendation is to keep and improve an existing relationship, or to choose a specialist partner. Our advisory work is valued because it is honest, and we intend to keep it that way.

Yes. Many brands work with separate agencies for creative, media, search, social and email, and the gaps between them are where results are often lost. We help set up shared goals, joint planning sessions, consistent reporting and clear ownership of audiences, data and creative. In some cases we act as a lead partner coordinating the wider group. The aim is for all your partners to work as one team towards the same results rather than competing with each other for credit or budget.

We use AI agents to gather and compare agency reports, analyse scopes for overlaps and gaps, track commitments from review meetings and draft briefs and review notes. That makes it much quicker and easier to see how each partner is performing and where your attention is most needed. Every judgement about a partner, and every conversation with them, is handled by our advisers. AI helps us see the full picture faster, while experienced people make the decisions and manage every relationship directly.

Start with a conversation about your current setup, what is working, what is frustrating you and what you want to achieve. We will usually suggest a short review of your partners, scopes and results, then recommend next steps, whether that is resetting an existing relationship, running a selection process or planning an in-house team. We will be clear about where we can help and where your current arrangements are already working well and should be left alone. Honest advice at the start saves time for everyone involved.