The number of marketing, advertising, creative, and media agencies in the UK has doubled over the past decade, according to ground-breaking research from Agency by Agency.
Until now, the UK’s agency sector has been operating without a full picture of its size, impact, and growth. A lack of accurate data and mapping of the sector has made it difficult for agencies, investors, and policymakers to make truly informed decisions.
That has now changed with the launch of Agency by Agency, a comprehensive data mapping and insights platform, revealing the sector’s true scale, key trends, and future opportunities.
According to Agency by Agency’s data mapping tools, in the last decade, the number of agencies in the UK has doubled, with over 25,495 active agencies across the sector. This rapid expansion highlights the industry’s growing influence and economic impact, backed for the first time by comprehensive data insights.
The analysis reveals that across the 25,495 agencies active they employ 265,000 people with a total turnover of £34.9bn. The data mapping indicates that the UK agency sector contributes £20.5bn in GVA (Gross Value Added) with a GVA per agency employee of £77,438.
“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 will launch access to their insights by subscription on 10 March and will set a new standard for how agencies and professionals across the marketing ecosystem access and use performance data.
The insights from Agency by Agency have been made possible through funding from Innovate UK and the collaboration with The Data City, a data analytics partner.
The reports and data shots are designed to address the most pressing questions within the sector: How big is the UK marketing, advertising, creative and media agency sector? How many agencies are there? In which fields do they specialise? How has it developed? Where is the growth? What is it worth?
The reports categorise agencies based on the services they provide, mapping 28 distinct agency subsectors which are developing all the time with the support of people working in the sector. New categories and niches are being added on an ongoing basis and Agency by Agency are working with the industry to help prioritise these developments.
This granular approach gives stakeholders a deeper understanding of specific market segments, including areas such as design and branding, SEO, PR and communications and market research.
The full range of data and insights are available through subscription on the Agency by Agency website (www.agencybyagency.com). Agencies, investors, and industry professionals can also register for news and monthly free webinars.
