3 Things Successful Agencies Are Doing to Grow in 2025

Keep reading to discover the strategies some of the most successful agencies right now are using to drive growth and how you can apply them to your own business.

1. Embracing Bold Storytelling

Storytelling is the way ideas, brand values, and messages are communicated through narrative, instead of just information. It’s not just about describing a product or service; it’s about shaping an emotional arc that connects a brand to its audience.

Being bold in storytelling could look like tackling uncomfortable or taboo topics with purpose, using humor, surrealism, or weirdness to break expectations, or taking a clear stand on social or cultural issues. It’s flipping common narratives or stereotypes on their head and telling stories in formats or voices that aren't typical for the industry.

It’s not always easy to get right — bold storytelling walks a fine line. But when it lands, it’s memorable, shareable, and often the difference between work that blends in and work that leads.

How Gigil Did It

Several agencies have built their reputation on this approach. Gigil, based in the Philippines, is known for surreal, culturally-specific campaigns that go viral by leaning into the unexpected.

One standout example is their RC Cola “Basta” campaign (2020), which featured a bizarre twist involving a soda bottle embedded in a child’s back. It's an offbeat, surreal story that captured massive online attention and redefined local ad norms. Their bold storytelling also extended to campaigns for Netflix Philippines, which leaned into culturally resonant humor and narrative style.

That commitment to creative risk paid off. In 2025, Gigil became the first Filipino agency to be named Independent Agency of the Year at ADFEST.

Gigil has continued to demonstrate bold storytelling in their recent campaigns. Notably, their "4Dish Pot" campaign for Netflix's series Replacing Chef Chico in late 2024 stands out. This campaign featured a 24-foot installation resembling a boiling pot of kare-kare, complete with LED screens, smoke effects, and a vibrating floor to simulate boiling. This immersive experience captivated audiences and earned Gigil a gold award in the Out of Home category at the 2024 Clio Entertainment Awards.

Additionally, Gigil's work for brands like Grab and Closeup has been recognized at Korea's MAD STARS advertising festival, further showcasing their commitment to innovative and bold storytelling.

Why It Works

Bold storytelling cuts through because it makes people feel something. It doesn’t blend in with the rest of the feed — it stops the scroll. When a campaign takes creative risks with intention, it becomes easier to remember, talk about, and connect with.

That emotional impact is what drives engagement, brand recall, and in many cases, sales. It also makes performance marketing work harder. As Gabe Harris, Owner of Facqt, puts it: “Better ad creative, better stories, create better results.”

Strong creative output rooted in real storytelling improves lead quality, reduces acquisition costs, and keeps audiences engaged longer.

How To Put It Into Practice

Bold storytelling doesn’t require a big budget or shock value, but it does require intention. Start by asking: What is the brand really trying to say? Then find a way to say it that feels original, honest, or unexpected.

Here’s how to start building that approach into your process:

• Identify what others are avoiding: Is there a truth, tension, or topic in your client’s space that most brands tiptoe around? That might be your entry point.
• Break a creative habit: Swap polished perfection for raw honesty. Trade product benefits for a story. Drop the voice of authority in favor of a character or moment your audience actually relates to.
• Use format as a storytelling tool: Could your concept live better as an installation, a series, or a satire? Think beyond ads — bold storytelling often thrives in places people don’t expect to find it.
• Test for clarity, not safety: Bold doesn’t mean confusing. Make sure your idea is easy to follow — even if it’s unusual.

2. Specializing in a Niche Market and Owning It

Trying to speak to everyone often leads to saying nothing meaningful to anyone. Agencies that are growing in 2025 are doing the opposite — narrowing their focus, going deep into a specific niche, and building real authority there.

This kind of specialization creates clarity, not just in your messaging, but in your process, your results, and the kinds of clients you attract. It’s not about doing less. It’s about doing the right things for the right market, with more relevance and insight than a generalist agency ever could.

How Cool Nerds Marketing Did It

Cool Nerds Marketing is a great case in point. Instead of casting a wide net, they’ve built their agency around a clear focus: helping brands connect with their audiences through social media and influencer-led campaigns.

Their niche focus lets them dive deep into the nuances of these industries, from understanding purchasing behavior to platform-specific content that actually performs. They’re not trying to win every kind of client. They’re working with brands that benefit most from their expertise, and that alignment shows up in their results.

One campaign that highlights this approach is their work with Mini Melts Ice Cream. Over six months, they ran a mix of organic content and paid social campaigns tailored to the brand’s voice and audience.

The result: a 45% increase in followers and a 37% boost in engagement. They focused on creative visuals and community-focused messaging that made sense for the product and the people buying it — the kind of detail you only get when you really know the space you’re working in.

Beyond Mini Melts, Cool Nerds Marketing has partnered with esteemed brands such as Herr's, Max Boost, Campbell's, and others, assisting them in achieving their marketing objectives through effective advertising and social campaigns. These collaborations underscore the agency's ability to deliver tailored strategies that resonate within their specialized markets.

Cool Nerds’ niche focus hasn’t gone unnoticed. They were named one of the Top 15 CPG Marketing Agencies by Socially Powerful and earned a Gold Award in the B2B category at the international dotCOMM Awards, recognizing their creative excellence in digital communication.

Why It Works

Specializing gives your agency clarity in who you serve, how you show up, and what you’re best at. That clarity builds trust. Clients in a specific industry don’t want a generalist who’s figuring things out as they go — they want a partner who already understands the landscape, the audience, and the challenges they face.

Sam Pardoe, SEO & Content Account Manager at Pod Digital, puts it simply: “Focus on what you are good at and make a name for yourself. If you are that good, clients will come to you.”

Kristin Marquet, Founder & Creative Director of Marquet Media, adds: “The most successful agencies aren’t generalists—they own their niche.” Her agency did just that by shifting focus to executive personal branding and PR for female-led businesses. She emphasizes that building authority through case studies, expert features, and content is key to standing out.

A focused niche lets you refine your strategies faster, build more relevant case studies, and speak more directly to the clients you want. And over time, it positions you not just as a service provider, but as an expert in that space.

How To Put It Into Practice

You don’t need to start out as a niche agency, but choosing a focus and going deep can help you grow faster and smarter. Specializing doesn’t mean turning away work outside your lane. It means being intentional about the clients you want to work with — and making it easy for them to see why you're the right fit.

Here’s how to get started:

• Pick a niche you can win in: Look at where your best work or most consistent results come from. Is there a pattern? A client type or industry you already understand well?
• Position yourself around their world, not yours: Speak directly to the pain points, trends, and language of that market. Make it clear that you’re not just a marketing agency — you’re a marketing partner for that kind of business.
• Build proof: Case studies, testimonials, and campaign results from that niche are your best assets. Use them to show — not just tell — why your agency is the expert.
• Let repetition work for you: As you do more work in a niche, your processes, creative thinking, and messaging get sharper. That makes your pitch stronger — and your delivery more efficient.

3. Combining Data with Psychology to Drive Smarter Marketing

Most agencies use data, but few go deeper into what truly drives customer behavior. The agencies growing in 2025 are not only tracking metrics but also combining data with insights from psychology to understand why people click, convert, or drop off.

This blend of data and behavioral science helps make marketing more human and more effective. It informs sharper messaging, smarter targeting, and campaigns that connect on a deeper level.

How Bee Digital Did It

Bee Digital specializes in education marketing, and what sets them apart is how they pair data with real human insight. They don’t just analyze the numbers; they talk to the people behind them to understand what really drives behavior.

That’s exactly how they approached their campaign for LessonUP, a Dutch education platform entering the UK market. Their research began with conversations, asking teachers not just what they used but why. That process revealed a key friction: teachers didn’t want to start from scratch or “reinvent the wheel.” They wanted to enhance what they were already doing.

That insight flipped the campaign strategy. Instead of leading with “create new lessons,” Bee Digital reframed the messaging around adding interactivity to existing PowerPoints — a psychological shift that made the platform feel more useful and less overwhelming.

Combined with targeted digital ads, landing pages, and a supporting email series, the campaign reduced cost per acquisition by 75%, with a 26% landing page conversion rate and strong platform usage right from the start.

This campaign reflects a wider pattern in how Bee Digital works. They consistently blend data and behavioral insight across their client work — a strategy that’s earned them industry recognition. In recent years, they’ve won awards for both crisis communications and digital marketing excellence, including “Best Crisis Communications Campaign” at the Global Agency Awards and “Digital Marketing & Social Media Management Company of the Year” by Acquisition International in 2023.

Why It Works

Marketing works best when it understands people, not just platforms. This approach creates messaging and journeys that feel intuitive. Instead of generic strategies, agencies develop offers that meet people where they are, backed by evidence and insight. The result is better conversion, stronger engagement, and marketing that performs and makes sense to the audience it's trying to reach.

As Garrett Olano, CEO of Sugoi, notes: “Agencies should focus on targeted strategies that prioritize efficiency and precision... By analyzing past client profiles, behavior patterns, and engagement trends, agencies can create highly targeted campaigns that focus on prospects who are more likely to convert.” This kind of data-informed targeting helps reduce wasted spend while increasing marketing ROI.

How To Put It Into Practice

If you're already using data, this is the next level — adding context, empathy, and real-world behavior to what the numbers tell you. It’s not about adding complexity. It’s about asking better questions and using what you learn to shape smarter campaigns.

Here’s how to start building that into your process:

• Talk to real users: Ask questions that go beyond product features. What drives their decisions? What’s holding them back?
• Spot emotional blockers: Look for patterns in hesitation or resistance. Fear, confusion, or inertia often derail conversions more than price or competition.
• Test with purpose: Use data not just to report performance, but to test messaging and validate what your audience actually responds to.
• Design around behavior: Align your content, offers, and journey with how your audience already works.

What Successful Agencies Are Doing to Grow: Final Words

The strategies in this article don’t belong to one type of agency. They’re not tied to size, location, or specialty. What connects them is focus, intention, a defined space to grow in, and a deliberate way of working. That’s what’s driving results right now and it’s what’s shaping the agencies that continue to grow, whether this year or the next.

Looking to attract more of the right clients? Join our Marketplace to get discovered by businesses actively searching for agencies with your expertise.

What Successful Agencies Are Doing to Grow: FAQs

1. What’s the most cost-effective way to attract new clients in 2025?

Referrals and strategic partnerships continue to be among the most cost-effective sources of new business. However, pairing them with targeted content and SEO can build long-term visibility without relying heavily on paid ads.

2. How important is it for agencies to show thought leadership?

Very. Thought leadership builds credibility, improves brand recall, and shortens the sales cycle — especially in B2B. Agencies that publish valuable insights regularly are more likely to be trusted and remembered.

3. Should agencies invest in AI tools right now?

Yes, but selectively. The most successful agencies are using AI for efficiency (e.g., content drafts, data analysis, automation), not as a creative replacement. The key is integrating AI into workflows without sacrificing quality or originality.