Fewer agencies, better people on the account, lower fees.
A mid-market financial services firm had accumulated a roster of creative, media, and production agencies over five years. Fees had never been benchmarked. The senior people from the pitch had long since moved on.
Situation
Marketing spend had grown with the business, but the agency roster had grown faster. Overlap between creative and media scopes, production routed through an agency mark-up, and account teams staffed with juniors billed at senior rates. Nobody inside the firm had the commercial visibility to challenge it.
What we did
We audited cost of service, scope compliance, and output quality across the roster. We benchmarked fees against market rate cards, identified production work that could go direct to suppliers rather than through agency mark-up, and restructured the retained agencies' account teams and fee models. Contracts were rewritten with scope frameworks, audit rights, and AI-era productivity terms.
Outcome
A consolidated roster, senior talent back on the account, production intermediaries removed, and fees reset to market. Governance now runs quarterly.
Facing something similar?
Fifteen minutes. We’ll tell you whether the pattern matches and what we’d do first.