How indies are closing the gap between holding companies

In adland’s unfolding David vs. Goliath battle, the long-held mantra of "bigger is better" is crumbling. Despite their size and endless acquisitions, holding companies are losing ground to nimble independent agencies that are rewriting the rules. While the giants slash costs to survive, independents are doubling down on innovation, winning top clients, and dominating awards circuits—proving that agility and bold ideas can outmatch scale and bureaucracy.

"It could be that brands are finally realising that greater things come in smaller packages," says Natalie Lowe, CEO & founding partner, The Orangeblowfish. "We're smaller in size but we pack a punch." Lowe co-founded the independent creative agency in 2012, and last year won Bronze for Greater China Boutique Agency of the Year at Campaign Asia's Agency of the year Awards.

"Boutique agencies are more agile, with a less complex bureaucratic chain of command," adds Lowe. "Larger agencies are built with heavier senior management overhead costs, who aren’t necessarily tapped into the local market. As such, they are not as swift to get things into motion compared to boutique agencies."

Elisa Harca, co-founder and CEO at Red Ant Asia agrees that sometimes smaller can be better. “Less complexity, no internal constraints and always leading with our best players. We use our independence to our advantage—a decision is only ever one Teams/Zoom away,” says Harca.

It's that inherent flexibility and agility that has allowed indie agencies like Red Ant to work outside traditional frameworks to create innovative, effective, and swiftly executed campaigns and projects. For Red Ant, this included working on the world’s first scented art toy for Creed—Creed x Robbi, a campaign that picked up five awards.

 

And besides the ability to be agile and produce bolder creative work, these days being an indie can even come with less risk. 

 

"Networked agencies are now a risky choice for clients," says Margie Reid, CEO at Thinkerbell. "With so much consolidation and squashing brands together clients are increasingly unsure if their agency will be around."

 

Reid believes that independently owned agencies represent a safer, more stable choice. "The people running the agencies have a vested interest in their success, and therefore their clients' success and that’s why they make for a better choice, most of the time. The beauty of the independently owned agencies is they are unencumbered by the legacy of the way it's always been done or what the parent company needs over what is the best thing for our clients business while also looking after our business."

Beyond the freedom and ability to operate without the constraints of a network or parent company, independent agencies are increasingly finding that they're able to win major global clients over holding companies. Mithila Saraf, CEO of Famous Innovations, an independent creative agency headquartered in Mumbai, says that one of the key reasons why some of the biggest global clients, such as Unilever, Pernod Ricard, and Jockey choose them over their globally allied agencies is that they see they have personal skin in the game. 

 

"We’re not working for some dead man whose name is merely on the door, we’re working for ourselves," says Saraf." Our success is directly tied to the success of our clients. This sense of accountability and ownership ensures that major clients choose us over larger agencies."

 

Independence gives agencies like Famous Innovations the freedom to try things that don’t always fit a corporate mould and build a space where people can experiment, fail, and learn.

 

"We’re smaller, yes, but that gives us the freedom to take risks, try new things, and deliver work that feels personal and meaningful," says Saraf. "In India especially, understanding cultural nuances makes all the difference, and indie agencies are better positioned to embrace this."

 

But it's not just brands and clients who are seeking out independent agencies for a more personal and bespoke touch, some of the industry's top talent are heading to indies or even starting their own agencies to seek a greater sense of purpose and a culture that resonates with their values.

"Often in these public listed companies, the chase is so much on the bottom line and top line growth that the important and intangible things such as culture and value systems get overlooked," says Rohan Bhansali, chairman and co-founder of Gozoop. "And people today want to belong to an organisation that resonates with their value and culture systems."

Moreover, Bhansali believes that a lot of networks are overprocessed, which is why brands today are more comfortable working with independent agencies.

"There's no one sitting over in France or US or Japan deciding how we run our business," says Bhansali. "If there's a great idea, no matter who it comes from, it could come from an intern, it could come from a city head. If it's a great idea, we can move fast on it. And I think that's what people are looking at."

Success isn’t about cutting

Beyond the freedom to ideate and create without the constraints of rigid corporate playbooks or global mandates, independent agencies are also investing in innovative business solutions, attracting major clients, while holding companies focus on cost-cutting and efficiency.

"While holding companies cut costs to survive, we’re investing to grow," says Bench Media’s CEO and co-founder, Ori Gold. "Success isn’t about cutting, it’s about smart investment."

Tim Harvey, who runs Un-held, says the smartest indies need not make cuts because they have built a model based on an ability to scale up as and when required.

"Indies quite naturally have an inverse opportunity, while holding companies merge for efficiencies and reduce headcount, indies have the ability to partner for effectiveness and temporarily add headcount," says Harvey. "The investment we are seeing is just as much a time investment in partnerships as a financial investment in products for growth.

 

A distinct advantage of indies is that they offer a core team to service clients, and can also scale up or down according to the needs of clients. "Boutique agencies are also more willing to partner with other agencies who offer complementary services, putting together the best of the best in-market/global service offerings," says Lowe. 

 

The ability to more easily collaborate and partner with other agencies to scale up or down, whatever needs dictate, is coupled with the ability to make decisions at speed, whereas holding companies often spend weeks getting small things signed off from global HQ's.

 

"We're highly agile, allowing us to make the best decisions, at the best time—in real-time," says Daniel Willis, chairman & CEO of independent growth agency, Claxon. "We trialled a four-day work week over three months last year then put it into place permanently in January—at the time when WPP is mandating back to the office," says Willis. "An initiative like that would have taken forever to even be considered, yet we moved from consideration to implementation in a short period of time. The freedom that indies experience is something holdco staff can only dream of."

Yet, not all indies are committed to remaining independent. Publicis Groupe ANZ's recent acquisition of Atomic 212, Australia's largest independent media agency, raises the question of whether independent agencies are building toward acquisition as an exit strategy or if they aim to remain independent while scaling. The acquisition included a four-year earnout for the leadership team, who will remain an independent operation within Publicis Media.

 

Some express skepticism regarding the earnout model, despite its implementation by Martin Sorrell in his agency acquisitions and subsequent adoption by various networks. This model entails entrepreneurs receiving a company valuation based on profits earned over a specified period, such as five years. 

 

"But what happens there is the entrepreneur's focus is about 'how do I optimise my bottom line so that I can earn maximum value because I've spent 15 years building this company and now whatever value I have to get, I have to get in the next five years'," says Bhansali. "The focus then only becomes the bottom line, not things like culture and long-term building, and short term decisions are made and there's little investment in building anything great. And you've seen that in agencies that have gotten acquired and great agencies which are now non-existent or a shadow of what they once were."

 

Smarts rather than scale

 

And while there are a growing number of advantages to running an independent agency, it's not without its challenges.

 

Nicholas Ye, CCO at The Secret Little Agency, says that noise and confusion have been a huge challenge for them. He added that the industry sadly fosters too many of the same people saying the same things are circulated across LinkedIn, trade media, big industry awards, and in their credentials, fuelled by holding company communications machinery to amplify these same messages.

 

"This is confusing because one person in a holding company is holding five roles across consulting, advertising, media, production and PR, and this is being sold to clients as a good thing," says Ye. "Services and convenience are being oversold, and creativity is being grossly under-delivered."

 

 

Meanwhile, holding companies typically have larger resources and scale at their disposal.

 

"Of course, they have access to capital that we don’t, but we have other talents and assets that aren’t governed by size," says Harca. "We find ways to use smarts rather than scale to think differently, and entrepreneurial fleet of foot to enable us to execute our ideas."

 

And Willis at Claxon says brands are seeking bravery, agility, innovation and experience from their agencies—something he believes that indies undoubtedly have the edge on.  

 

"All the resourcing in the world isn't stopping the flow of brands from holding companies to indies so I don't believe there are any obstacles to overcome for the indies," says Willis. "The real obstacle is for the holding companies—how will they keep pace with the leading indies and stop falling further and further behind."