A new data insights business is promising to shed more light on the role of the UK agency sector.
Agency by Agency is launching on 10 March and aims to reveal the true scale of the UK’s agency landscape, the contribution it makes to the economy and the innovation that it brings.
“This new way of analysing our sector has huge implications,” said Tom Salmon, co-founder of Agency by Agency. “The agency sector is one of the UK’s most precious assets and, with our new methodology, it’s finally possible to see trends, opportunities and threats across the whole of it.
“We want to put the data in as many agency leaders, investors and industry professionals’ hands as possible to empower informed decisions, whether they’re looking to scale, differentiate, evolve, acquire or optimise performance.”
Agency by Agency’s analysis reveals that the 25,495 agencies active in the UK employ 265,000 people with a total turnover of £34.9bn.
The data mapping indicates that the UK agency sector contributes £20.5bn in gross value added (GVA), with a GVA per agency employee of £77,438.
Clive Mishon, co-chair and founder at the Alliance of Independent Agencies, said: “Being able to now deep-dive into the agency landscape in such granular detail is going to be a gamechanger.
“And we are not just talking about a few types of agencies — the detail of the agency types, in such a fast-moving industry, reflects that this study is not looking back but is very much live data.”
The new insights have been made possible through funding from Innovate UK and a collaboration with The Data City, a data analytics provider. Together, they have developed a new way of classifying the UK’s marketing, advertising, creative and media agency sectors.
Paul Mead, chair of WeDiscover and Beacon lead at the IPA said: “This unique dataset from Agency by Agency demonstrates just how critical agencies are to the UK creative industries.
“At last we can shine a detailed light on the industry as a whole whilst highlighting some of the challenges around scaling agencies and where opportunities exist to provide investment and support.”
