Why Winning Agencies Prioritize Agility, Not Headcount
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Pathlabs Marketing |
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July 30, 2025 |
Independent agencies are stretched thin. They’re juggling platforms, chasing vendors, and racing to optimize before performance windows close. That’s not a workflow. It’s a bottleneck.
That pressure to move faster without breaking process is exactly what brought agency leaders together at the 2025 Ad Age Small Agency Conference. Pathlabs joined Pink Rebel Media and Continuum Media on stage to talk about how independent agencies can win bigger opportunities without adding overhead.
Because today, agility isn’t a bonus. It’s a competitive requirement.
The Problem: Too Much Complexity, Not Enough Capacity
Modern media execution demands omnichannel fluency, but most independent agencies are already operating at full capacity. Managing retail media, CTV, paid social, and programmatic in-house quickly becomes unsustainable since real-time optimization is the standard for successful campaigns.
Pink Rebel Media faced that exact challenge. Their clients expected full-funnel, multi-platform campaigns, but scaling their internal team would have added cost and complexity, not capacity.
The Solution: Scaling Through People, Process, and Partnership
Rather than stretch themselves thin, Pink Rebel restructured with purpose. They partnered with Continuum Media for linear tv advertising. Then, they brought on Pathlabs for digital media execution across CTV, paid social, display, and programmatic. The result was faster launch times, seamless coordination, and full transparency.
That’s why Pathlabs created the Media Execution Partner model. We embed directly with independent agencies to eliminate executional drag. That means agencies can:
Launch in days using integrated workflows.
Move budgets and assets fluidly between platforms.
Make live optimizations with specialist teams monitoring performance.
Focus on the client relationship while we handle the nuts and bolts of execution.
Pink Rebel used this model to deliver a cross-platform campaign and win against larger competitors without expanding headcount.
Why Agility Is the New Competitive Advantage
Independent agencies don’t lose pitches for lack of strategic thinking. They lose them because they can’t always promise the speed, scale, or cross-channel execution that larger shops offer.
Legacy media workflows weren’t built for today’s pace. Internal teams are overwhelmed, and external vendors often slow things down. Even simple optimizations turn into operational hurdles, and most agency leaders don’t have time to untangle the mess.
Meanwhile, programmatic is projected to make up nearly 90% of global digital display spend this year, and retail media CTV budgets are expected to hit $5 billion. As investment grows, media execution only becomes more complex.
That’s why agility is your edge. The ability to launch quickly, adapt in real time, and optimize across platforms isn’t just efficient, it’s what helps you test faster, pivot smarter, and deliver results without adding headcount.
In a landscape where clients expect results yesterday, agility isn’t a luxury. It’s what keeps independent agencies in the game and ahead of the curve.
How Pathlabs Helps Independent Agencies Win
The panel made one thing clear: independent agencies aren’t falling behind. They’re leading. They’re rethinking compensation, experimenting with AI, and staying flexible by choice.
At Pathlabs, we’re built to support that approach. We don’t sell media. We help agencies execute it better. Our team works behind the scenes with more than 50 agency partners to provide the speed, scale, and support needed to run cross-channel campaigns without adding overhead.
If your agency is ready to move faster, simplify execution, and stay focused on strategy, we can help you get there without compromise.
Media execution should be your advantage. Not your burden.
