What Should Agencies Do in a Flat-Growth Year? [Video]

How are things for marketing agencies?

Not as great as last year, according to Ad Age’s Agency Report 2024 (subscription required).

In 2023, total revenue for the 30 biggest agency companies in the world rose 5.6%. The forecast for this year? It’s between 2% and 3%.

The Too Big Five (as CMI’s Robert Rose calls them) — WPP, Publicis, Omnicom, Interpublic, and Dentsu — have collectively grown revenue by a whopping 2.7% to date.

What gives? Are agencies doing fewer projects? Do brands need agencies as much? Where is the agency world headed?

Since Robert is our chief strategy advisor, we posed those questions to him but not before wishing him a happy birthday. Watch this video or read on for what he had to say:

Revenue growth drops precipitously for big agencies

Ad Age’s 2024 Agency Report takes the marketing market’s temperature by looking at the performance of the largest agencies.

It’s been doing it for 79 years, and only four agencies from the first report remain, at …