By Patrícia Rodrigues, CFO at Shift Your Branding Agency
Why the future of agencies doesn’t depend on talent alone
Today, there is a lot of talk about creativity. Awards, growth, viral campaigns, innovation and Artificial Intelligence are constant topics of discussion. But financial sustainability is rarely part of the conversation — even though it is what ultimately determines whether an agency will still exist in five years’ time.
For too long, the dominant narrative in the industry has been simple: talent generates work, work generates revenue, and revenue generates stability. Reality has shown that the equation is not that linear.
There are highly talented agencies operating under constant financial pressure, strong teams working with minimal margins, and organisations that grow in volume but increase their risk instead of reducing it. The problem is rarely creativity itself, but the foundations that support it.
The industry has become used to normalising low margins, almost as if they were inevitable, and to accepting non-billable hours as part of the game. Competing on price has become common practice and, over time, what should be the exception has turned into the model. Even growth has been mistaken for sustainability, when in many cases it simply represents greater exposure.
Growth is not the same as sustainability
Financial sustainability is not about cutting costs or limiting ambition. It is about having criteria.
It means understanding that not every project should be accepted, that visibility does not replace profitability, and that growth without margin is just volume. And no — being busy is not the same as being sustainable.
Much of the sector’s fragility does not result from a single wrong decision, but from the accumulation of small concessions made under pressure: repeated discounts to secure contracts, excessive dependence on a small number of clients, and teams sized for peak moments that become permanent.
We are talking about costs that do not always appear explicitly in financial statements, but that erode the capacity to invest and reduce resilience when the market slows down — something that, as we know, happens frequently.
The financial function does not limit. It protects.
The financial function in agencies should not be seen as a constraint on creativity, but as a condition for it to exist consistently.
Structure does not limit. It protects.
It allows for safe investment, margin-driven negotiation, and the ability to navigate market cycles without entering survival mode. Without this foundation, any growth is fragile and any ambition becomes dependent on external factors.
A matter of industry maturity
In an increasingly demanding context, where more is expected for less and competitive pressure continues to rise, perhaps the real advantage no longer lies solely in creativity, but in the strategic discipline that sustains the business.
As long as the industry continues to ignore this topic, it will also continue to accept a level of instability that could be avoided through more conscious decisions.
Financial sustainability is not a technical detail.
It is a structural decision.
And, more than ever, a matter of maturity.
Originally published in the Portuguese online magazine Marketeer.