Bigger teams, more offices, higher headcount. For decades, that's been the agency scoreboard. This roundtable started by putting that scoreboard on the table and asking whether any of it actually counts as growth.

Four guests, four different answers. Guy Wieynk bet half his agency's revenue on licensing instead of services. Michael Semp is defending quarterly numbers to private equity in a flat market. Oliver Bradley hit hypergrowth and admitted it pulled him away from his own founding values. Lara Ballard built her agency's entire commercial strategy around refusing to grow that way in the first place.

Four Agencies, One Question

None of the four are running the same business anymore, and none of them are chasing the same definition of success. Guy restructured around licensing because services alone stopped being the growth engine. Michael is learning to defend a business quarter by quarter without losing sight of the three-year plan underneath it. Oliver rebuilt his agency's values from the inside once growth had already outpaced them. Lara has spent years proving that saying no to the wrong client can be a growth strategy in its own right.

About Supo:

Supo provides people-first intelligence software for professional services firms, helping businesses maximize profit and motivate their people through powerful, AI-enabled business intelligence dashboards. By connecting over 500+ platforms and providing real-time data analysis, Supo helps firms make better data-driven decisions about their profit, projects, and people.

For more information about Supo: ⁠www.supo.co.uk

About Guy Wieynk, AnalogFolk:

Guy Wieynk was Global CEO of AnalogFolk Group for six years, where he pivoted the traditional agency into a technology platform builder. Within three years the business had two platform companies operating at commercial scale: Untold Fable, a content production platform working with over 8,000 creators for clients including L'Oréal and Monzo, and Otomo, an AI-powered creative automation SaaS business used by 45 brands globally. Guy has since moved into a board advisory role and co-founded the UK arm of 24 Hour Business Plan, a growth advisory that has delivered value creation work across more than 200 companies in 14 countries.

For more information about AnalogFolk: https://www.analogfolk.com/

About Michael Semp, Sassy+:

Michael Semp is CEO of Sassy+, an award-winning production powerhouse of over 80 storytellers and technology specialists delivering content solutions to brands and businesses globally. Built on more than 30 years of experience across live streaming, hybrid events, branded content and broadcast PR, Sassy+ has delivered work for clients including Honda, ABB Robotics, Audible and Zeekr, operating its own studios and post-production facilities to run the full production process in one place.

For more information about Sassy+: https://www.sassyplus.com/

About Oliver Bradley, Words+Pixels:

Oliver Bradley is MD and founding partner of Words+Pixels, a 100% independent communications agency ranked in PRovoke's Top 100 Agencies in the World and named Consultancy of the Year by PRWeek, PRCA, CIPR and PRovoke. Words+Pixels works across consumer, corporate and B2B communications for brands including Back Market, PUMA, Red Bull and Michael Page, and has featured in the FT1000 list of Europe's fastest-growing businesses two years running.

For more information about Words+Pixels: https://www.wordsandpixels.co/

About Lara Ballard, Komodo:

Lara Ballard is Managing Director UK at Komodo, a global social marketing agency with offices in London, LA and Sydney. She leads the agency's UK growth and business development strategy, delivering standout experiential campaigns and social activations for brands including L'Oréal, Meta, Kérastase and Penhaligon's, working with creators and clients across the beauty, fashion and lifestyle sectors.

For more information about Komodo: https://www.wearekomodo.com/

Every platform has an algorithm. The question that opened this roundtable was simple: do you follow it, beat it, or ignore it entirely?

Four guests sat down with host Jim Johnson, and each one had landed on a completely different answer. Joel Williams builds on transaction data. Alice Johnston builds on creator intelligence. Simon Brading builds on handwritten letters and phone calls. Jemima Myers builds on search behaviour. None of them are wrong. That's what made the conversation worth having.

The Data That Doesn't Lie

Joel Williams' business runs on Mastercard's first-party transactional data, granular enough to show which postcodes are actually spending money, not just clicking on ads. His argument is that most of the advertising data market is saturated with contextual and behavioural strategies that never quite connect back to whether someone actually bought something.

"We enable advertisers and agencies and ourselves to activate against those audiences to see whether or not there was an uplift in sales or conversion based data."

About Supo:

Supo provides people-first intelligence software for professional services firms, helping businesses maximize profit and motivate their people through powerful, AI-enabled business intelligence dashboards. By connecting over 500+ platforms and providing real-time data analysis, Supo helps firms make better data-driven decisions about their profit, projects, and people.

For more information about Supo: ⁠www.supo.co.uk

About Joel Williams, Transact Media Group:

Joel Williams is founder and CEO of Transact Media Group (TMG), a transaction-driven media and data company that enables brands to target, activate and measure real consumer behaviour at scale. Rather than relying on the proxy-based targeting that dominates much of the advertising data market, TMG builds on deterministic transaction data, including Mastercard's first-party spending data, to activate high-intent audiences and attribute media exposure directly to real sales outcomes. TMG works with over 450 advertisers, including Amazon and Coca-Cola, spanning retail, ecommerce and travel.

For more information about Transact Media Group: https://www.transactmediagroup.com/

About Alice Johnston, LOI:

Alice Johnston is founder and MD of LOI, a global creator marketing agency built on the principle that campaigns work best when they're run by people who are native to the creator space, not agencies who simply hire creators after the fact. LOI pairs creator fluency with data-backed strategy, running cultural sessions that bring brands and creators into the same room before any content is made. The agency has worked with brands including Bentley and Magnum, and has been recognised with multiple TikTok Creative Partner Awards.

For more information about LOI: https://www.loi.digital/

About Simon Brading, Brightec:

Simon Brading builds enterprise partnerships at Brightec, a multi-award-winning UK mobile app development agency. Brightec has delivered for clients including Jaguar Land Rover, Morrisons and Willis Towers Watson, with a culture built on curiosity, long-term relationships and putting people first at every stage of the process.

For more information about Brightec: https://www.brightec.co.uk/

About Jemima Myers, Social Chameleon:

Jemima Myers is founder and CEO of Social Chameleon, a Search-First Social Media agency and winner of Social Media Agency of the Year and Digital Agency of the Year. The agency pioneered an approach that treats social content the way a search engine treats a query, optimising for user intent rather than platform algorithms, and works with global brands including Xiaomi and Marriott alongside major sporting activations spanning F1, La Liga and the World Cup.

For more information about Social Chameleon: https://socialchameleon.com/

The conversation about AI has gone everywhere except the place it actually matters: governance.

Boardrooms are excited. Marketing teams are experimenting. Finance departments are calculating efficiencies. And somewhere in the middle, something dangerous is happening. Employees are using ChatGPT on personal accounts with sensitive data. Companies are buying AI tools without understanding where their data goes. Legislation is decades behind technology. And nobody - literally nobody - has a clear answer to what happens when AI automation means you can do the work with half the staff.

That's the tension this episode explores.

Raj Bawa is co-founder and operations director of JBi Digital, a full-service digital agency where integration runs through everything. But what separates Raj from the hype machine is something harder: he takes information security seriously. Not as a compliance checkbox. As a core part of how you actually work.

Jonathan Boakes runs the UK arm of Infinum, a 400+ person digital agency that spent two years rebuilding itself around AI before offering to help anyone else do the same. He's been thinking about this longer than most, and what he's learned is blunt: the technology isn't the hard part.

Chris Maslin runs Go EO, helping business owners transition to employee ownership trusts. He's built a business, handed it to his team, and now watches other founders wrestle with the exact tension AI creates.

About Supo:

Supo provides people-first intelligence software for professional services firms, helping businesses maximize profit and motivate their people through powerful, AI-enabled business intelligence dashboards. By connecting over 500+ platforms and providing real-time data analysis, Supo helps firms make better data-driven decisions about their profit, projects, and people.

For more information about Supo: ⁠www.supo.co.uk

About Raj Bawa, JBi Digital:

Raj Bawa is co-founder and operations director of JBi Digital, a London-based digital transformation agency founded in 2008, with a focus on delivering digital platforms that are both user-centric and highly secure. Raj brings a risk-averse approach to AI adoption - not avoiding it, but understanding it. JBi's proprietary SecureSense™ framework ensures that organisations deploying AI do so with clarity about what data they're sharing, where it goes, and who controls it. JBi Digital works with leading global brands, public sector bodies, and non-profit organisations to solve complex digital problems through user-focused strategic consultation and technical implementation.

For more information about JBi Digital: https://www.jbidigital.co.uk/

About Jonathan Boakes, Infinum:

Jonathan Boakes is managing director of the UK arm of Infinum, a 400+ person digital agency with offices across the US, Canada, and Europe. Since 2005, Infinum has designed, built, and scaled software for top-tier brands including Philips, Porsche, and Leica - with solutions used by millions worldwide. Jonathan brings over 20 years of digital experience and a pragmatic view to AI adoption: it's not about the tools, it's about adoption strategy, measurement systems, and whether your teams have opinions about the products they're using.

For more information about Infinum: https://infinum.com/

About Chris Maslin, Go EO:

Chris Maslin is founder of Go EO, which specializes in helping smaller businesses (5-50 staff) transition to employee ownership trusts (EOTs) - easily and affordably. With deep experience in succession planning and exit strategy, Chris brings a unique perspective to governance questions: how do you manage technology decisions that make businesses more profitable but potentially cut headcount - especially when your employees are your shareholders?

For more information about Go EO: https://goeo.uk/

Agency leaders are built for optimism. It's in the DNA. Walk into any pitch presentation and you'll see it: the belief that this agency can solve anything. The energy. The hunger. The confidence that borders on audacity.

But the last few years have worn that down in ways that aren't always visible. The roller coaster didn't just go higher and lower - the highs and lows became exceptional. Unprecedented. And somewhere in the middle, something shifted.

Confidence took a hit.

That's the reality Sarah Vick hears in every boardroom she sits in. Sarah is a chair and non-executive director who's spent 20+ years helping creative and technology businesses define and deliver growth strategies. She's seen what happens when the fundamentals crack. When boards stop planning for growth and start planning for survival. When ambition gets replaced by anxiety.

But here's what Sarah is also seeing now, in early 2026: something is shifting again. Not back to where it was. Something different. More realistic. More grounded. "The highs and lows have been exceptional," she says. "We're used to living on the roller coaster now. Some things are getting better."

That's not naive optimism. That's exhaustion turning into acceptance, which is often the first step toward genuine resilience.

About Supo:

Supo provides people-first intelligence software for professional services firms, helping businesses maximize profit and motivate their people through powerful, AI-enabled business intelligence dashboards. By connecting over 500+ platforms and providing real-time data analysis, Supo helps firms make better data-driven decisions about their profit, projects, and people.

For more information about Supo: ⁠www.supo.co.uk

About Sarah Vick:

Sarah Vick is a chair and non-executive director specialising in supporting creative and technology businesses to define and deliver strategic growth plans. With more than 20 years of global leadership experience, she helps agencies navigate growth, scaling, operational improvement, international expansion, and M&A. She speaks regularly on finance for agencies, career development, and the role of gratitude in business success, and brings a sharp financial lens to the ambition conversation.

For more information about Sarah Vick: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sarahvick/

About Simon Rhind-Tutt:

Simon Rhind-Tutt is co-founder of Relationship Audits, a consultancy that provides actionable intelligence on client-agency relationships built on millions of data points. Nearly three decades of experience have convinced him of one thing: business is built on relationships, and those relationships should be measured, understood, and continuously improved. His proprietary RADAR survey tool helps agencies and clients move beyond satisfaction scores to genuine mutual commitment.

For more information about Relationship Audits: https://relationshipaudits.com/

About Joanna Anthony:

Joanna Anthony is a fractional operations leader, strategic advisor, and co-founder of The Client Impact Awards, a recognition programme celebrating the account leaders and client service professionals who drive growth and build the partnerships that make great work possible. With over 30 years on agency boards, she specialises in designing the operational structures and relationship-building behaviours that make strategic partnerships actually work - and in proving that client service is a commercial asset, not a cost.

For more information about Joanna Anthony: https://joannaanthony.com/

The question arrives quietly at first. Then it becomes deafening.

Agencies are delivering work faster than ever. Not because they've hired more people or worked harder. Because AI has fundamentally changed how work gets done. A task that took three days now takes three hours. A brief that required a week of research now needs an afternoon. Efficiency has skyrocketed.

But something else has happened alongside that acceleration. Vulnerability. Pressure. A creeping sense that speed isn't actually the answer - it's just made the problem more obvious.

David Finch, who advises agencies at board level, calls it the mindset shift nobody's making. James Holden, who works on leadership and culture, calls it an identity crisis. Simon Douglas, who runs a performance marketing agency and lives with this tension daily, calls it a market that's fundamentally changed. Lewis Wilkins, who's building a model that leans into AI rather than resisting it, calls it an opportunity nobody's taking seriously enough.

They all agree on one thing: the agencies that are hiding from this conversation are the agencies that are going to cease to exist.

About Supo:

Supo provides people-first intelligence software for professional services firms, helping businesses maximize profit and motivate their people through powerful, AI-enabled business intelligence dashboards. By connecting over 500+ platforms and providing real-time data analysis, Supo helps firms make better data-driven decisions about their profit, projects, and people.

For more information about Supo: ⁠www.supo.co.uk

About David Finch - The Thinking Field:

David Finch advises agencies at board level through The Thinking Field, bringing 20+ years of experience helping agency leaders navigate strategic transformation. His expertise sits at the intersection of business strategy, digital transformation, and the changing agency model. David works with agencies on the fundamental question: where is your value going to come from in a world where your current value proposition is becoming commodified?

For more information about The Thinking Field: https://www.thethinkingfield.com/

About James Holden - Holden Thinking:

James Holden runs Holden Thinking, working with leadership teams on culture, identity, and navigating uncertainty. He specialises in helping leaders understand how their own identity shapes their agency, and how to evolve both when the world around them shifts fundamentally. His work addresses the psychological dimension of business transformation - the part most leaders avoid.

For more information about Holden Thinking: https://www.linkedin.com/company/holden-thinking/

About Simon Douglas - Curated:

Simon Douglas runs Curated, a performance marketing agency specialising in SEO, PPC, and content. With 12 years of direct experience watching AI change what agencies can charge for and what clients actually want, Simon is living the tension between the old delivery model and the new value model. His agency is actively pivoting from delivery-heavy work to strategic thinking and client outcomes.

For more information about Curated: https://curated-digital.com/

About Lewis Wilkins - Future Strategy Club:

Lewis Wilkins founded Future Strategy Club, building a model that leans into AI rather than resisting it. His perspective is that the opportunities created by AI adoption are far larger than the threats - but only if agencies are willing to rethink what they're actually building. He works with agencies on AI strategy and how to use AI to amplify human capability rather than replace it.

For more information about Future Strategy Club: https://www.futurestrategy.club/

Most agencies look the same, pitch the same, and end up competing on price. This episode is about what you do instead.

Jim Johnson is joined by Jeremy Stern, Scott Ashley Whiteley and Elena Malinowski for a conversation about standing out in a crowded market. Jeremy explains why he narrowed his niche while everyone else diversified - and how 20 years of sticking to it means over 60% of his income now comes from clients who've stayed more than a decade. Elena breaks down the affiliate model, where brands only pay when a sale actually happens. And Scott makes the case that "sexy is dead" - audiences see through celebrity endorsements, and relevance beats glamour every time.

Along the way: why storytelling is really about emotion, whether the author of an advert even matters in the age of AI, treating AI as a sparring partner rather than a search engine, and why genuine curiosity might be the rarest skill in marketing.

Because it turns out a tight niche is a better moat than a broad deck.

Elephant in the Boardroom is presented by Supo - replace gut feel with true intelligence.

About Supo:

Supo provides people-first intelligence software for professional services firms, helping businesses maximize profit and motivate their people through powerful, AI-enabled business intelligence dashboards. By connecting over 500+ platforms and providing real-time data analysis, Supo helps firms make better data-driven decisions about their profit, projects, and people.

For more information about Supo: ⁠www.supo.co.uk

About PromoVeritas:

Jeremy Stern founded PromoVeritas 25 years ago to become the specialist in international promotions, prize draws, and promotional compliance that the industry had abandoned. Working across 90 countries with 250 clients, he's built a business where retention drives growth and authority replaces pitching. Over 60% of PromoVeritas revenue comes from clients who've been with the agency for more than a decade. His philosophy is built on deep curiosity, genuine expertise, and the commercial clarity that comes from refusing to diversify.

For more information about PromoVeritas: www.promoveritas.com

About Blott:

Scott-Ashley Whiteley founded Blott on the conviction that storytelling - the ability to take something complicated and make it felt - is the last truly differentiating skill agencies have. Working across GTM, digital experience, and innovation, Blott works with ambitious businesses in music, fintech, FMCG, and private equity. Scott is building an agentic operating system for his own agency - using Blott as the proof point that the capabilities he sells to clients actually work. His philosophy: 50 passionate specialists beat 200 indifferent ones every time.

For more information about Blott: www.blott.com

About Webgains Global:

Alona Malinovska leads Webgains Global, a performance-based platform that connects brands with publishers across 80+ countries. Rather than operating as a traditional agency, Webgains charges brands on commission - they pay only when results happen. Alona watches consumer discovery shift in real time: from Google to social and influencers to AI tools. Her philosophy: accountability through measurement, and the belief that the commercial model should reflect reality rather than obscure it.

For more information about Webgains Global: www.webgains.com