The last few years have been tricky for the industry, as profits have faltered and clients have demanded more and more of the major players. It has led to concerns that the Big Six, the marketing giants which have dominated the sector for the last few decades, are losing their grip.

Moreover, the Big Six are getting a reputation of being oversized for what they are able to offer. In some cases, the smaller scale and platform-specific expertise of boutique agencies has allowed challengers to experiment with new ways of running campaigns.

Christian Polman, chief strategy officer said:

Many are able to serve clients flexibly, which is giving rise to hybrid models where brands own some elements of marketing in-house while agencies refocus on the pieces they can do well.”

Polman does admit though, that there is still significant merit to the holding company model.

Boutique agencies cannot as easily scale their operations in the same way the network agencies can, nor do they offer the same range of capabilities.”

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First featured on 02/03/2020.