COMPANIES ARE REDUCING THE NUMBER OF AGENCIES. THEY WANT TO INTEGRATE MARKETING MORE CLOSELY

Marketing directors are increasingly looking for ways to simplify collaboration with agencies and integrate the various marketing disciplines. According to the Gartner CMO Spend Survey, 39 per cent of them plan to narrow their agency portfolio and concentrate more activities with partners who can cover a broader range of marketing activities.

An increasing number of marketing directors are considering reducing the number of agencies they work with and concentrating marketing activities more heavily on a few partners. According to the Gartner CMO Spend Survey 2025 , 39 per cent of marketing directors plan to streamline their agency portfolio and prioritise partners capable of covering a broader range of marketing activities.

This trend follows a long-term development in the marketing market, which has gradually fragmented into specialised agencies focused on performance, media, creative, data or retention. According to the survey, companies are now looking for ways to better integrate these individual areas and reduce the number of interfaces between suppliers.

One agency following this trend is Acomware, which has expanded from its original focus on performance marketing to also cover media, data, retention, creative and production. “From our origins as a specialised performance agency, we have become a partner that covers the entire marketing mix, both strategically and in terms of execution,” said Acomware CEO David Vurma.

Working with customer data is also part of Acomware’s broader offering. The agency implements and manages CDP platforms, primarily Bloomreach Engagement, which it uses to link customer data with marketing communications, performance and retention. In addition to its agency services, the company develops its own technological solutions. These include applications for managing cashback programmes and the AI Spotlight tool, which measures brand presence in responses from artificial intelligence systems. The offering also includes in-house production.

LG Electronics, for example, utilises the single-partner model. Acomware manages social media and campaigns, cashback programmes, PR communications and the production of press kits for clients and journalists in the Czech and Slovak markets. According to JeongYun Zmrzlíková, Head of Marketing at LG Electronics for the Czech Republic and Slovakia, integrating multiple marketing disciplines can contribute to a more consistent customer experience and better alignment between strategy and its implementation.

According to Acomware, consolidating agency partnerships is not suitable for all companies. It can be particularly beneficial where individual marketing disciplines require close coordination and the current distribution of work across multiple suppliers complicates the management of activities.

Source: mediaguru.cz