Key takeaways from the BAND agency panel on winning in 2026

Last week, BAND brought together a room of agency leaders and creative business founders for a practical, honest discussion on one question many are grappling with right now:

How do agencies compete, convert and grow in an increasingly uncertain market?

Hosted in Soho, the event welcomed founders, MDs and commercial leaders from across the agency sector, spanning creative, marketing, media, experiential and communications, alongside leaders from the wider creative industries. What united the room was a shared desire for clarity, predictability and progress as agencies look ahead to 2026.

Our panel combined three specialist perspectives:

• Adam Graham, Partner at Gray Matters
• Seth Hawthorne, Chanel & Agency Partnerships at MSQ Index
• Marcus Brown, Founder of The Great Pitch Company

Together, they explored the realities agencies are facing, and what actually needs to change to unlock sustainable growth.

From growth ambition to strategic focus

One of the strongest themes from the discussion was focus.

Many agencies in the room shared a familiar tension: strong ambition for growth, but increasing pressure created by chasing too many opportunities, service lines or client types at once.

Adam Graham spoke to the importance of strategic choice, rather than strategic intent. His message was clear: growth rarely fails because agencies lack opportunity, it fails because they don’t make hard enough decisions about where to focus, and just as importantly, what to say no to.

Commercial clarity, he argued, is less about vision statements and more about leadership alignment, prioritisation and discipline in how agencies deploy time, talent and energy and then do so on a consistent and disciplined basis.

What the data says about sustainable agency performance

With uncertainty front of mind for many attendees, the conversation quickly turned to evidence.

Drawing on benchmarking data from MSQ Index, Seth Hawthorne shared insights into the metrics that genuinely correlate with sustainable, profitable agency growth, and those that often distract leadership teams without improving outcomes.

Margin erosion, particularly as agencies scale, was a common concern in the room. Seth highlighted how overheads, utilisation assumptions and delivery models can quietly undermine performance long before issues appear in headline revenue numbers.

The takeaway for many was simple but sobering: agencies that understand their data deeply are far better positioned to manage volatility and make confident decisions heading into the next 12–18 months, whilst also ensuring that agencies weren’t providing their strategic services without applying appropriate fees to clients.

Why agencies lose pitches before they even begin

While growth and performance set the context, conversion was where the conversation became especially practical.

Marcus Brown established the notion that pitch performance is so much more than simply presentation quality. In reality, he argued, agencies often lose control of the sales process well before a pitch deck is opened, through poor qualification, unclear positioning and a lack of commercial discipline.

A recurring message was the difference between more opportunities and better opportunities. Agencies that fail to qualify rigorously often find themselves pitching for the wrong work, to the wrong buyers, at the wrong price, damaging both win rates and long-term margins.

True differentiation, Marcus noted, comes less from how agencies describe themselves and more from how clearly they understand the client’s decision-making context. Win hearts and minds, understand the emotions and build rapport from the outset was mantra extolled by Marcus. Don’t pitch to strangers rang loud and clear throughout the room.

From hustle to systems

Across all three perspectives, one phrase resonated strongly with the audience: “always-on hustle.” underpinned with discipline and rigour.

Many agencies recognise that founder-led, reactive business development is no longer sustainable, yet struggle to replace it with repeatable systems that don’t dilute culture or creativity.

The panel collectively reinforced that moving from hustle to system doesn’t mean becoming sales-led at the expense of craft. It means introducing structure, clarity and accountability in areas that are too often left informal, from positioning to channel strategy to pipeline management, qualification and performance tracking.

One question to close the room

To close the session, each panellist was asked the same question:

If you were running a £2–10m agency today and could only fix one thing in the next 12 months to materially improve growth, predictability and resilience, what would it be?

While the answers differed, the underlying message was consistent:
sustainable agency growth is built on clarity, of strategy, of data, and of decision-making.

Looking ahead

The discussion reinforced what BAND sees every day working with agencies and creative businesses: the challenges are real, but they are solvable with the right focus, evidence and discipline.

Thank you to everyone who joined us, and to Adam, Seth and Marcus for an open, practical and grounded conversation.

If you’d like to continue the discussion or explore how BAND supports agencies across strategy, performance and growth, we’d love to talk.