The State of Creatives

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The Wow Company has just released the latest findings from its 2018 agency benchmarking survey.

Now in its seventh year, the BenchPress Report captures valuable insight from agency owners across the UK and provides a comprehensive indicator of the state of the creative industry.

Despite market instabilities, agency owners are flourishing. Most agencies surveyed grew their revenue in 2017, with just over two-thirds increasing turnover by 5% or more.

An impressive third of those surveyed recorded revenue growth of 25% or more.

We spoke to Peter Czapp, co-founder of The Wow Company about what these results mean.

The Brexit effect?

As Brexit negotiations gather speed, there is a worry that they might detract from making sure the right conditions are in place for home growth. This is especially important when you consider that 87% of the revenue generated by UK agencies is reliant on contracts with other UK businesses.

Against this backdrop, it’s promising that a large number of agency owners are confident that this year will be better than the last.

As companies grow, the report suggests there could be positivity for the UK jobs market in 2018, with 65% of participating agencies stating their intention to recruit this year. Additionally, 46% of agencies plan on giving wage increases beyond the rate of inflation in 2018.

Making the most of Artificial Intelligence (AI)

There has been a lot of hype about AI over the past 12 months. Last year, Publicis Groupe withdrew its sponsorship of the Cannes International Festival of Creativity to invest in a new AI platform named Marcel.

Wow’s research on the subject of AI found that over a third of agencies (38%) plan on increasing the revenue generated from AI projects in the next 12 months. It’s great to see that the smaller players in the creative world are leading the way when it comes to this emerging technology.

It’s awesome that so many agencies are doing this well, and with access to the right tools and talent, we’re sure they’ll continue to do so.

Peter Czapp will be holding an Inside Track webinar on the results of the report on Wednesday 16th May, including discussions on the traits and trends of the UK’s top-performing agencies. You can register your interest here.

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