There has never been a better time to start an agency

31 Oct 2025

DDB looks to, like so many others recently, disappear, folded into the abyss of clean sans-serif fonts, pressed trousers and large, glass, sterile offices.

Under a backdrop of instability, counterintuitively, there has never been a better time to start something afresh.

As much as the LinkedIn gurus like to spread doom and gloom:

“All the work is bad.”

“Down with the networks.”

“Agencies are going to die.”

It’s all utter nonsense.

The future belongs to the brave souls who stand tall, stick their necks out and do something about it. Be cringe. Put your thoughts and creations out into the world. Fail in front of the crowd, time and time again.

Starting an agency is hard, like anything worth doing in life, but there are opportunities for those prepared to do things differently.

You’re more capable than you give yourself credit for. Told that you can’t do this or that, put in a pigeonhole by boss after boss and sedated by a half-decent paycheque, job title and those awards gathering dust on your shelf.

People do want what you have. Your experience, your point of view and your ability to create. In fact, they need it more than ever.

The UK’s indie scene has some amazing agencies rising up, most of which we probably don’t even know the names of yet, but in 10 or 20 years they’ll be the ones we’re shouting from the rooftops about.

The work is getting better; there is just more of it.

Our industry is exciting; there is just more noise.

There are opportunities; there are just more hurdles.

We need to get back to why we’re all in this industry in the first place.

To create. To get our smiles back. To have fun on briefs. To get people feeling something. To get work out the door. To work with people who inspire and excite us. The kind you hug and high-five after a win, however small.

Work then starts to mean something again.

The proudest I’ve been since starting DACRE was when we rocked up, just the two of us, in front of a FTSE 100 C-suite. What would normally have been 10 or more people, hundreds of slides and thousands in free pitch fees was just two people with a point of view, a vision and a set of beliefs.

The small has power. The unknown has curiosity. Energy is infectious.

An agency that has clarity, meaning and belief can add more value in a month than 10,000 disengaged and unmotivated people can do in a year.

We just need more people willing to shake things up. Grow together. Form healthy competition. And actually start valuing ourselves.

Whether that’s a small studio or an ambition to be the next big network, we need more and more new agencies to rise up, from CRM to social to TVCs to experiential.

The UK is one of the most exciting, creative and diverse places for talent. Don’t let the naysayers, politicians and accountants tell you otherwise.

If we’re going to fix our productivity problem, if we’re going to attract the best talent back to this industry we all know and love, we’ve got to come out from behind our screens, out of hibernation and create new, unexpected agencies and brands that will outlive us all.

It’s time for us to get our smile back.

You can read the article in The Drum here

Image credit: 'Lemon' advertising for the Volkswagen Beetle 1960, by Doyle Dane Bernbach