Event
Agency Growth Summit – Speakers
Speakers
The Future of Agencies Is Leading, Not Being Led
“What are you selling? What is your product?”
That’s the question Dominic McGregor thinks more agency leaders need to ask themselves. Because too many agencies are still selling what he refers to as “cardboard boxes”.
“You end up saying, I’ll do 10 Instagram posts, or we’ll do your paid ads. Doing that, you just get yourself stuck in one lane,” he says.
Dom co-founded Social Chain at 19-years-old with his friend and fellow university-dropout Steven Bartlett. In just a few short years, the pair scaled the agency into a US $300 million turnover business with 750 staff in offices around the world, including New York City, Berlin and London. Working with global brands like Coca-Cola, Apple, McDonald’s, the BBC, and Amazon.
Back in the early days of Social Chain in 2014, clients weren’t asking for social content yet. Clients didn’t even really know the shape of that beast yet.
“We sat in the experimental budget section,” says Dom. “Year two, maybe some people assigned budget to social media for the first time. Year three, the budget probably increased and moved around.”
That forced Social Chain to sell differently.
“We had to sell them the idea that the solution to their problems is us,” he recalls. “We always lived with a consultative sell.”
And that’s the shift Dom thinks more agencies should look to.
“You can charge on the output you create, or you can charge on the impact you have,” he says.
“If I say ‘I’m going to create 10 social media ads’, there’s a range of that price.” Dom explains.
“If you say ‘I’m going to make your brand loved by young people,’ that pricing feels infinite.”
In this session, Dom will share why the agency of the future leads its clients – through sharper thinking, braver positioning, stronger specialism, and the confidence to say no (sometimes).
How to Prepare Yourself for Growth, Follow all the Advice, and Live to Regret Every bit of it
“We nearly killed our soul.”
Jonathan Ford and his co-founder thought they were doing the sensible thing.
After more than three decades building Pearlfisher into one of the world’s best-known independent branding agencies, he started activating a succession strategy linked to growth, preparing for what eventually comes next for every founder.
After the pandemic, Jonathan found himself dealing with the difficult question many founders wrestle with behind closed doors: what happens next?
Experts and advisers were brought in to help advise on this conundrum, leaders were consulted. Aim for growth, increase profit, shut down unfprofitable ventures, bring in and hand over the keys to the car to a Group CEO – all to prepare the business for a value building and smooth succession.
“We had the £20m double digit profit five-year plan, the advisers, the spreadsheets. We thought we were ready for anything.
What followed was one of the most chaotic and difficult periods in Pearlfisher’s history, misguided best intentions, leaders turning on each other, a new sheriff in town, unhappy townsfolk.
“It’s normal with an incoming CEO” I was advised. My gut screamed otherwise, and looking back if I’m honest I could feel things veering off course at the end of month one l, but we listened to the advice; stay hands off…
In this almost comic but candidly obvious session, Jonathan shares the reality behind adding in more voices to chase growth ‘the right way’ – and what happens when agency founders stop listening to their own instincts, step back
This is a frontline story about succession, pressure, culture, leadership, and the danger of outsourcing your judgement to people who don’t have to live with the consequences.
“It’s an agency founder’s war story,” Jonathan says. “But it’s also a warning story of what happens when culture isn’t understood and nurtured as part of your growth strategy.”
Creating an Agency Group
“If you want lots of trouble, I’d recommend buying distressed agencies.”
That’s Rich Bundock, founder of Cohaesus Group, on the messy reality of building an agency group.
From the outside, forming a group can look simple. Find a few complimentary agencies, bring them together, share resources and profits, build and scale.
Easy, right?
In reality it’s deals falling through at the last minute, advisors adding in their two cents, founders changing their minds. And people problems multiplying with every acquisition.
James Rose knows this too. Before launching Inflectiv Group, he spent a year trying to get deals done before the first one finally landed in January last year.
“A lot of deals have fallen through,” says James. “It feels like I’ve been doing it way longer than two years.”
His model is different: minority stakes, founder-first, helping agencies participate in the value created by the group rather than swallowing them whole.
Rich’s route has been more contrived. Cohaesus has bought 14 agencies, adding six to the roster in the last 18 months, many of them distressed.
He started during lockdown, on a structured M&A programme that gave him the legal, financial and deal-structuring grounding before he made his first offer.
“We’ve done turnarounds that worked, and turnarounds that didn’t,” he says. “The mistake people make is thinking the spreadsheet is the hard part.”
Barnaby Cook has been building Auspicious from a different angle. After co-founding a video production company in 2006, running it for 15 years and exiting, he teamed up with a former competitor to build a new group by acquisition.
In the last 18 months, Auspicious has bought four agencies and added a fifth startup. The group is still video-heavy, with commercial, documentary, and corporate agencies, but now includes a digital agency.
“Every deal is different.” Barnaby says. “Integration has been tough sometimes and we probably need to revisit the model in terms of equity.”
In this panel, James, Rich, and Barnab will unpack what it really takes to form an agency group – from finding the right agencies, structuring deals, handling control, spotting red flags, integrating founders, and knowing when to sell.
Because as Rich puts it: “If you want to sell your agency, run it properly.”
The 12 Levers of Agency Value
“There are 12 things that increase the value of an agency.”
When Peter Czapp started analysing agency valuations from the latest BenchPress report that the Wow Company produces each year, he realised something surprising.
Value isn’t vague, it isn’t subjective, and it definitely isn’t just about revenue.
It’s built deliberately across a set of very specific levers agency owners can focus on to increase their payout if they ever want to sell.
In this session, Peter shares brand-new BenchPress data from real agency deals completed in the past year, breaking down the 12 levers that directly impact how valuable your agency actually is. From profit and growth trajectory, to client concentration, recurring revenue, and intellectual property – the patterns are clear and proven.
Because agencies don’t get valued just on size. They get valued on predictability, risk, and how dependent they are on the founder.
“Most agencies don’t understand what makes them valuable. These 12 levers will help agency leaders prioritise the things that really move the needle when it comes to agency value.”
The agencies that focus on these levers, even if they’re not planning to sell, end up performing better anyway.
“They’re more disciplined and more focused.”
This isn’t just in theory. Peter’s seen hundreds of real agency deals over the past two decades, and will share exactly what buyers are looking for.
If you want to build a stronger, more valuable agency – this is where to start.
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