Agency reviewsand the contractsbehind them.
How to check, reset or review a media or creative agency relationship, and the contract terms that decide what it really costs.
Why it matters now.
2027 is shaping up as a heavy review year. Holding companies have merged, agencies now sell media to their own clients, and fees are moving off hours. These pieces cover when to review, how to write the brief and which clauses matter.
Services: Agency health check Marketing, media and agencies Data independence review Second Opinion
Media agency reviews in 2027: what's changed and what never will
Agencies became sellers, fees moved off hours and search split in two. What still decides a good agency relationship, and how to review it.
Nov 3, 2026
Running a US media agency review in 2027: write the brief first
Most agency reviews are decided by the internal objectives document, not the pitch. What it needs to say before a single agency is invited.
Oct 28, 2026
How to run a media agency review in eight weeks
Most brands wait for a crisis. A planned review takes eight weeks, costs less than a panicked one, and often ends with better terms from the agency you already have.
Jun 16, 2026
The agency pitch is theater. Buy the team, not the show.
The people who win the pitch are rarely the people who run the account. How to score the team you will actually get, before you sign.
Nov 12, 2025
The agency RFP most brands get wrong, and how to fix it
Most agency RFPs select for whoever writes the best response. Fix the brief, set the scoring before it goes out, and replace the final pitch with real work.
Jan 22, 2026
How much should a mid-market company pay its media agency?
There is no market-standard fee, but there is a right way to build one. Where agency pay comes from, where the hidden margin sits, and what a fair deal looks like.
May 12, 2026
The agency contract, clause by clause: what to ask for
Most agency contracts start from the agency's template. What each clause usually says, what to ask for instead, and which three carry most of the money.
Aug 18, 2026
Fix the agency contract before the 2027 budget closes
Budget season is when teams argue about how much to spend, not what it buys. Once the 2027 number is signed, the agency contract rolls forward on old terms.
Oct 6, 2026
Principal media disclosure clause: what to put in the contract
The clause points to brief your lawyer with on principal media, drawn from ANA and ISBA guidance: approval per buy, a cap, no co-mingling and a working audit right.
Jul 22, 2026
Principal media, explained for the people who sign the invoices
Agencies buying media in their own name and reselling it is now mainstream. It isn't automatically bad. It is automatically opaque. What to ask before you sign.
Jun 17, 2026
Publicis now owns LiveRamp: what to check before 2027
Publicis closed its $2.2B LiveRamp deal on Nov 2. Your data, identity graph and agency contracts need a governance check before 2027 budgets lock.
Nov 4, 2026
Omnicom is shedding 15,000 jobs. Read your agency contract.
Omnicom is cutting deep to hit its IPG merger savings. Whoever your agency is, check whether your contract protects the team you thought you hired.
Oct 27, 2026
Will AI reduce our agency fees? Only if the contract says so
Only if you ask. AI has cut the time behind much agency work, and most agencies have kept the gain. The fix is in the contract, not the budget.
Jun 30, 2026
Agency roster bloat costs more than the fees
A dozen agencies cost more in internal time, brand drift and lost accountability than in fees. How to find the two or three you no longer need.
Oct 13, 2026
Fewer agencies, more senior people: why the small roster wins
A big agency roster feels like coverage. It is usually overlap, junior staffing and a coordination cost nobody has counted.
Feb 11, 2025
Measurement got cheaper. Your agency contract didn't notice.
Independent media measurement used to be an enterprise purchase. It now costs about half as much and takes weeks, yet most agency contracts still pay for delivery.
Aug 27, 2026
Log-level data: the clause worth more than the discount
Advertisers negotiate the fee and forget the data. Owning your impression-level records is what makes every audit, renegotiation and agency exit possible.
Sep 17, 2026
Straight answers.
When should a brand review its media agency?
When an annual health check shows the relationship cannot be fixed, or the business has changed shape. Contract expiry alone is a weak reason.
What should an agency review brief include?
The reason for the review, scope with spend attached, the fee model, the contract terms you will not trade, scoring weights and a named decision-maker.
Tell us what you’re working on.
Fifteen minutes. We’ll tell you whether we can help and what the engagement looks like. No pitch deck, no sales cycle.