The agency model has been pronounced dead so many times that its obituary has become a running gag within the Middle East brand and marketing industry – especially when geopolitical pressure, economic uncertainty or the latest technology wave gives the industry another reason to panic.
However, such humour is also perceived as a coping mechanism for recurring concerns such as flawed commercial logic, procurement and pricing challenges, the democratisation of creative output, the fallout of huge mergers and acquisitions, and the effect of automation and artificial intelligence (AI) on client expectations.
When the financial toll is felt – even momentarily or for a single quarter – agencies are told that their days are numbered. Some bend, others are bruised; some complain, others cruise; most of them reorganise and, somehow, the media and marketing industry perseveres.
Campaign Middle East speaks to industry leaders, who are clear about one thing: the region’s agencies will find a way to remain resilient even through recessions. However, they also advise caution: the value that agencies bring to the table is under intense scrutiny.
In the Middle East, that scrutiny is sharpened by the speed of the market. Brands are being asked to launch faster, localise better, prove impact sooner and produce more content across more platforms, often while budgets are under tighter pressure. That makes the agency question less theoretical here than in more mature markets. Clients need partners who can move at regional speed without reducing strategy to output.
The agency model conversation is not as simple as whether the future belongs to holding companies, global networks, regional joint ventures, local independents or in-house agencies. It is a more complicated, and more useful, discussion than that.
The consensus is that the future belongs to better combinations: teams built around business problems rather than agency labels, and partnerships based on measurable outcomes rather than billable hours.
The agencies best placed to thrive will be those that combine judgement, craft, speed, cultural fluency and commercial accountability, without losing the confidence to challenge the brief. That puts measurement, remuneration and trust at the centre of the debate. Clients need to involve agencies earlier in solving business problems, while agencies need to be clearer about where they add value and how that value should be rewarded.
To fix this, briefs need to be written around business problems rather than predetermined outputs; key performance indicators (KPIs) need to connect brand, performance and commercial outcomes; and payment models need to reward strategic thinking, collaboration and measurable impact.
Their arguments don’t begin with the death of agencies, but with the economics that govern them.
Industry leaders begin the discussion by explaining that the agency model itself is not the only issue. The deeper problem, they say, lies in how value is priced and assessed.
Agencies are being asked to provide more specialist support and remain always available, while many buying processes still reduce that contribution to rates, hours and discounts.
The implementation of AI-augmented tools and processes has only exacerbated the existing problem.
Sleiman draws a clear distinction between the agency model and the version of it that no longer deserves protection.
“The agency model isn’t broken. The mediocre agency model is,” Sleiman says. “Ev…