Small Agencies Compete with Larger Firms Through Agility

Independent agencies are achieving significant industry recognition, directly challenging larger, established firms. Recent accolades, such as Rethink being named Ad Age's Agency of the Year and winning multiple awards at Cannes Lions, highlight this shift. This trend indicates that agency size no longer directly correlates with capability.

Small teams can compete at the highest level due to their inherent agility. Keeping key personnel close to the work and clients eliminates layers of bureaucracy and lengthy approval chains. This proximity allows strategists, designers, and clients to collaborate earlier, make faster decisions, and build stronger work together.

Virtyt Pula, founder and creative lead at TOML Collective, stated the company's goal was to build a different kind of agency focused on talent and creativity. With a small core team and a network of over 50 creatives, TOML Collective assembles the optimal team for each brief. Pula identifies four key factors enabling smaller agencies to move faster: clients value attention over scale, proximity builds trust, shared responsibility fosters better work, and artificial intelligence enhances competitiveness.

Artificial intelligence is accelerating this shift by enabling small teams to explore more creative avenues and produce work at a scale previously requiring larger production structures. While AI increases capacity, it does not replace human judgment, taste, or trust in determining the quality of the final output.