Read the latest Ingenuity+ news, thought leadership, reports and more

Agency change looks simple on paper. A review is launched, agencies are assessed, a recommendation is made, contracts are signed, and the business moves on. In reality, anyone who’s lived through an agency transition knows it’s rarely this straightforward.

Some of the most valuable advisory work doesn't look like advice at all. Often, it looks like a thoughtfully guided conversation and it's a skill Ingenuity+ has built its practice around.

A rigorous agency selection process will have been designed to identify the right partner. But even the strongest appointment can underdeliver if the transition from pitch to partnership is not actively managed. The first 100 days are often the clearest indicator of whether a new agency relationship will generate momentum or friction

Individually, none of the one percents feel important enough to obsess over. No one’s winning a pitch because there was a name card on the table. But stack enough of these moments together and suddenly the whole experience feels more confident, more considered, more complete.

Marketing has become more complex, more fragmented and more accountable than ever. Brands are navigating in-housing decisions, martech integration, AI adoption, specialist agencies, performance pressure and procurement scrutiny often simultaneously. The modern starting point needs to be the real problem we are trying to solve.

The role of the modern, progressive CMO has become an intricate balancing act. Today’s marketing leaders need to be commercial negotiators, data architects, and relationship managers as well as brand champions across increasingly fragmented multi-agency ecosystems.

Pitch processes are often shaped by competing stakeholder priorities, inconsistent briefs and compressed timelines, all of which undermine effective decision making and lead to unsatisfactory outcomes. A structured, well governed pitch process offers a clear alternative. It transforms agency selection into a disciplined exercise to support long term partnership and value creation for all.

In 2026, the most effective CMOs will be judged on the systems they build, not just the names on their roster. As 2025 ended we saw the UK market beginning to split into two distinct paths: the integrated platform (the holdcos) and the agile specialist (the indies).

Marketing has never been more complex or more accountable. Brands and their marketers are expected to deliver creativity, commercial impact, and continuous optimisation across an ever-expanding set of channels. In this environment, the choice of agency partner has become one of the most important strategic decisions a brand can make

Marketing procurement brings structure and fairness to agency selection, yet many pitch processes still resemble spotlight auditions. Real partnership success comes from something closer to a rehearsal, where teams work together, explore challenges honestly, and see how ideas develop in motion.

CMOs are being asked to move faster, prove impact more clearly and manage more complexity than ever before; all the while operating with leaner teams and tighter scrutiny. Yet many are still relying on partnership models designed for a slower, simpler era. The result is friction: over-cooked rosters, misaligned incentives and agencies optimised for comfort rather than performance.

Ingenuity+ was pleased to support Haier Europe throughout the agency selection process, helping the team identify the right partner for the brand's next phase of growth.