The Agency by Agency Atlas 2026 Introduction

The United Kingdom is genuinely world-class at agencies. In creative thinking, in strategic counsel, in the craft of building brands and the science of reaching audiences, UK agencies punch above their weight on a global stage. That has always been true. What has been less true, until recently, is our ability to say so with data.

That is why we built Agency by Agency, and why, now in our second year, we have gone further and deeper than ever before in our industry analysis. Nearly 25,000 active agencies. 194,000 people. £33 billion in turnover. £18 billion in gross value added. Close to a billion pounds in investment. These are the numbers of a sector that deserves to be understood properly and supported accordingly.

The UK government’s Industrial Strategy has identified the creative industries as one of eight high-potential growth sectors, with marketing and advertising explicitly named within it. That recognition is welcome and right. But recognition is only the starting point. For the strategy to work – for the ambitions around creative clusters, innovation funding, regional growth and inclusive opportunity to translate into real-world impact – it needs to be grounded in a clear-eyed picture of what the agency sector actually looks like.

What the Atlas shows, above all, is the extraordinary complexity that lies beneath the headline figures. There are several economies operating under the same ‘agency’ label: nano businesses and global networks, established institutions and young companies still finding their footing, fast-growing specialisms that are attracting clients and marketing spend and established agency disciplines fighting for relevancy.

One of the most striking illustrations of that complexity is the relationship between the holding companies and the independents. Six global holding groups account for just 0.6% of active UK agencies. Yet they employ 15% of the workforce and generate nearly a quarter of all sector turnover. At the same time, the UK agency sector is, when measured by number of agencies, 99% independent.

Geography shapes this picture too. London’s dominance is real: a third of agencies, half the workforce, nearly two thirds of turnover. But the Atlas consistently shows that London’s concentration of revenue does not translate straightforwardly into a concentration of value. The South West leads the entire country on GVA per head. The North East grows faster than any other region. Sheffield, Leicester and Newcastle are among the fastest-growing agency clusters in the UK. Oxford leads all fifteen major cities on productivity. The story of agency excellence in this country is a national story.

And then there are the challenges we cannot look away from.

Women are founding agencies yet they are leaving leadership as those agencies mature. Women-led agencies generate economic value per employee at a rate comparable to or above their male-led counterparts, yet they receive a fraction of the funding and investment flowing to the sector.

Investment is still centred on London and the South East, potentially stifling growth and missing opportunities in other parts of the country. For seven of the fifteen cities with the largest agency clusters in the UK, private investment into the sector is basically non-existent.

Our purpose at Agency by Agency is to provide the data and intelligence needed to power the agency and creative economy. To help people find agencies, and to help agencies get found. The Agency by Agency Atlas 2026 sets out to show the sector as it is in all its scale, its diversity, its dynamism and its contradictions. What we, together as a sector, choose to do with that picture is, as ever, up to all of us working in it.

Tom Salmon
Co-founder & CEO, Agency by Agency