Running a brand consultancy inside a holding company, with Simon Hill of FutureBrand
Plus, our weekly news discussion: Stagwell’s bold growth target, WPP’s Infosum acquisition, and indie agency growth rates
Agency Business is brought to you by Brian Wieser’s Madison and Wall, in collaboration with Olivia Morley's FusionFront Media. We publish new podcast episodes every Monday at 6 a.m. Eastern.
Hello and welcome to Agency Business for the week of April 7, 2025. Episode 16 is available now on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen.
Simon Hill, U.S. president of FutureBrand, joins us to talk about what it means to build a brand-led consultancy inside a major holding company.
FutureBrand, as Simon explains, operates at the intersection of strategy, design and business transformation — helping clients navigate mergers, private equity transitions, and moments of category disruption. In this week’s episode, he shares how the firm balances its project-based model with clients’ growing appetite for consolidation, and why FutureBrand increasingly finds itself competing not just with traditional agencies but with top consultancies like McKinsey and Bain.
Simon also talks through FutureBrand’s approach to talent — why fluency across the entire customer journey is critical today — and the realities of offshoring creative work while maintaining cultural nuance. Plus, he gives us a view into the complexity of cross-border resource management, and how the FutureBrand team keeps collaboration smooth across markets and P&Ls.
In our news chat this week, we discuss Stagwell’s long-term revenue ambitions, as the group aims for $5 billion by 2029 — an eye-catching number that assumes sustained 9% organic growth annually, which Brian calls “willfully optimistic.” We also discuss WPP’s acquisition of data clean room provider Infosum and what the move signals about holding companies investing more aggressively in software businesses. Finally, Brian shares fresh Madison and Wall data on independent agencies, which grew around 2% in the first quarter of the year, holding steady in an environment of constrained growth.
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News of the week: Discussed in Episode 16
MW: It’s hard to assess the acquisition of a software company by an agency group without knowing all of the details of how the business will be integrated and how synergies will be pursued. There is certainly some overlap between what Infosum does and what WPP’s media clients need — everyone seemingly wants to use a clean room — but ensuring their solution is chosen over, say, LiveRamp’s; that they retain clients who work with other holding companies; and that there’s sufficient ongoing investment to keep pace with the evolution of the space are all critical factors to understand.
FFM: This feels like part of the broader trend of holding companies snapping up software businesses. What stands out to me is that WPP hasn’t historically been as aggressive or as clear with its data acquisitions as some of its peers. With Publicis, you had the Epsilon deal and a very defined product strategy coming out of it. Omnicom built its own platform with Omni. WPP, by comparison, has felt a little more like a black box. I’ll be watching closely to see how Infosum gets integrated. Does it become a standalone data product? Part of a larger suite? Either way, it looks like a move to close the gap — especially interesting as WPP consolidates and simplifies.
Stagwell provides long-term guidance at Investor Day
MW: Stagwell says it is targeting $5 billion in revenue during 2029, which depends on sustained organic growth of around 9% plus inorganic revenue, too. The 9% figure seems willfully optimistic. In our view, it presupposes that the economy is and will remain strong and that secular trends help drive growth for many of its business segments. But to get to something in the high single digits seems like it assumes operational perfection and best-in-class growth rates for every individual business.
FFM: Mark Penn’s optimism here feels, frankly, on brand. This is, after all, the same leader who hosted Elon Musk for a private CMO session at Stagwell Sport Beach in Cannes, and interviewed him again earlier this year to talk about deregulation and what they see as a coming “Golden Age” for the U.S. economy. Stagwell has a lot going for it, and for a smaller holding company faster growth is theoretically possible. But 9% organic growth, year over year, feels more like wishful thinking.
Independent agencies grew ~2% in 1Q25, according to Madison and Wall
MW: Last week we published our quarterly update on the 30 largest independent agency groups. Based on our analysis of LinkedIn data, we estimate that the indies grew their headcount – and, implicitly, their revenue – by around 2% in the most recent quarter. It’s not a huge number, but it’s not bad either, given the current environment of constrained growth in advertising.
FFM: What stands out to me is how consistently independents have held onto steady growth over the last several quarters. The standouts are especially interesting — PMG, for example, is posting really high growth numbers, and we’re seeing similar strength from other performance-driven shops. It’s a good reminder that, despite some narratives about brands pulling back from performance to invest in brand building, there’s clearly still an appetite for bottom-funnel efficiency.
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