Owning Our Destiny: A Strategic Response to Supplier Pressures

The data is clear: the supply-side insights sector is under pressure, and not from passing trends. These are structural shifts shaking the very foundations of traditional agency models.

Each factor compounds the next, leaving agencies feeling they’re running even faster on a treadmill that never seems to slow down.

Too often, our industry fixates on what’s happening to us rather than what we can influence. Instead of asking why we’re not at the “top table,” we should be proving why we deserve to be there. Clients have never needed small, meaningful sources of competitive advantage more than they do now - sharper consumer connection, richer inspiration, and more engaging routes to innovation.

This is where we belong. Our role isn’t simply to measure what we’re given, but to drive smarter action: clearly demonstrating ROI, showing how insight drives commercial outcomes, and taking ownership of the difference we can make.

At the same time, client realities are shifting fast. Agility has become the currency of credibility. To thrive, we must deliver uncompromising agility, the kind that keeps research rigour and category expertise intact while operating at the speed clients expect.

Solutions like our own Product Hub blend technology, consumer closeness, and category understanding to deliver faster, smarter, more connected insight. Tech-enabled approaches should bring us closer to consumers, faster and more cost-effectively, leveraging our independence to choose the right solutions. At a time where access to tech is universal, differentiation comes from how we use it - intentionally, not reactively. 

But there’s another pressure point we can’t ignore: talent. Expectations are rising faster than margins, and our people are being asked to deliver more impact under greater strain. The agencies that win will have the right people: the ones who challenge, create, and connect.

The truth is, everyone in this space feels the squeeze. The agencies that thrive and perhaps even survive will be those that stay bold. More commercially-minded. More demonstrably impactful. More selective in the tech rainbows they chase, recognizing that not every rainbow leads to a pot of gold.

Our clients don’t just need suppliers, they need partners who lean into their challenges and help them navigate a changing world. There are no shortcuts to that kind of partnership. Just hard yards, smart risks, and decisive moves. Because in the end, fortune doesn’t just favor the brave, it follows those who own their destiny.