RSWUS 2025 New Year Outlook Report

This is the RSW/US 2025 New Year Outlook Report.

If this is your first time here, RSW/US is an outsourced lead generation/business development firm that exclusively services ad agencies, PR firms, and marketing service firms (of all sizes and types).

We work with over 50 agencies across the U.S., operating as their outsourced sales and marketing team.

More about us here.

2025 is shaping up to be a pivotal year for agencies, and we’ve got the insights to help you stay ahead.

Our report has real-world data and actionable takeaways from agencies and marketers across the U.S. and Canada.

Here’s a taste of what’s inside:

  • Growth Expectations: 78% of agencies and 75% of marketers predict growth this year—but how will they get there?
  • Top Discovery Channels: Relationships still reign, but direct outreach surged to 52%. Are you connecting in the right ways?
  • Mind the Gap: 77% of agencies think they’re ahead of the curve on trends, but only 62% of marketers agree. What’s driving the disconnect, and how can you bridge it?
  • AI’s Big Moment: 73% of agencies say AI-powered personalization will define the year—are you ready to leverage it?

We created this report for you and your team to use as an initial blueprint to win more business and grow in 2025.

RSWUS 2025 New Year Outlook Report

The 2025 RSW/US New Year Outlook survey was conducted with senior-level Marketers and Marketing Agency executives in November & December 2024.

This survey aimed to uncover key insights into marketer and agency perspectives as they prepared for the challenges and opportunities of 2025.

The agency sample included over 5,000 marketing services, advertising, and PR firms in the U.S. and Canada, ranging from under $3M to over $75M in capitalized billings.

These agencies represented a variety of disciplines, including full-service, digital, PR, and marketing consultancies.

The marketer sample was drawn from our RSW/AgencySearch database of 20,000 marketing decisionmakers, representing companies of varying sizes, locations, and categories.

If you’d like to reproduce any of our findings in any format, please reach out to Lee McKnight at 513-559-3111 or via email at lee@rswus.com.

To view please fill out the form below

While we offer the resources found on our site at no charge, we do ask for your assistance in maintaining a certain level of knowledge about who is accessing our valuable assets. We will never sell or distribute your information to any third parties.

RSWUS 2024 Agency New Business Report

This is the RSW/US 2024 Agency New Business Report.

We’ve fielded it since 2010 and present comparable data that is available across previous editions, providing insight on trends in key areas over the past ten years.

This report is typically heavily downloaded because the answers come from our survey of your agency peers.

2024 Agency New Business Report Update

Since our release, we’ve created a blog series around key stats in the report and will add them to this page with each new entry.

  1. Average Length of Time To Close Business
  2. Decreasing New Business Director Tenure At Ad Agencies
  3. How Ad Agencies Are Actually Using AI

RSW/US 2024 Agency New Business Report

This year’s survey and the resulting RSW/US 2024 Agency New Business Report see ad agencies, marketing services firms, and PR firms seeing continuing challenges, albeit with certain improvements regarding challenges we saw in previous years: slowing referrals, decreased budgets, and longer sales cycles.

Agency executives nationwide had the opportunity to participate, and in fielding the survey, we wanted to discern how the challenges and dynamics of agency new business efforts have evolved as we finish 2024 and head into 2025.

Our hope is the key findings and implications of the study presented in this report provide value to you as you develop your plans for the remainder of the year and into Q1.

This study was commissioned by RSW/US. RSW/US is an outsourced lead generation/ business development firm that exclusively services marketing service firms (of all sizes and types). RSW/US works with over 50 agencies across the U.S., operating as their outsourced sales and marketing team. RSW was founded in
2005.

In 2010, RSW started RSW/AgencySearch. To-date, RSW/AgencySearch has managed over 40 searches for marketers across a range of different categories, helping them find better agencies. The RSW/AgencySearch model is unique to the industry.

The exposure to the agency and the marketer world has armed RSW/US with perspective unmatched in the industry.

This perspective is woven throughout this, and every survey report.

———

If this is your first time here, RSW/US is an outsourced lead generation/business development firm that exclusively services ad agencies, PR firms, and marketing service firms (of all sizes and types).

We work with over 50 agencies across the U.S., operating as their outsourced sales and marketing team.

More about us here.

To view please fill out the form below

While we offer the resources found on our site at no charge, we do ask for your assistance in maintaining a certain level of knowledge about who is accessing our valuable assets. We will never sell or distribute your information to any third parties.

RSW 2024 Mid-Year Progress Report

This is the RSW/US 2024 Mid Year Progress Report (Agency and Marketer New Business Sentiments), a follow up to our January 2024 New Year Outlook Report, our most downloaded report to date.

This is something we haven’t done before, but with all the comments and feedback on the helpful nature of our January report, we thought a follow-up at the halfway point of the year would provide you with a valuable snapshot of where your fellow agencies, and importantly, marketers stand.

We’re an outsourced ad agency business development firm that works specifically with ad agencies, marketing services firms, and PR firms to find better-qualified new business opportunities and get you closer to close.

RSW/US is headquartered in Cincinnati, OH, with experts in lead generation, targeted prospect list building, and content creation driving our ad agency business development programs.

More about our advertising agency new business strategy and outsourced business development programs here.

Be sure to visit our YouTube channel and Agency New Business Blog for further insights and breakdowns on key stats from this report.

(And to download this report, head down to the bottom of the page.)

RSW/US 2024 Mid Year Progress Report

About The RSW/US 2024 Mid Year Progress Report

We released our RSW/US 2024 New Year outlook Report in January of 2024, completed by senior level Marketers and Marketing Agency executives during November/December, 2023.

That report garnered attention from publications like Adweek (New Agency Business Expected to Rise in 2024) and Marketing Profs (The Business Outlook for Marketing Agencies in 2024) and helped set business development expectations for the coming year.

As we looked to the half point of the year, we decided to do a temperature check, if you will, with agency and marketing executives, to see how business has fared for both groups so far, how spending shook out, and where they expect spending to go in the back half of this year.

We surveyed senior level Marketers and Marketing Agency executives in June, 2024, and our hope is the key findings and implications from this study are of value as you work through the remainder of the year.

The agency sample came from the RSW/US database of over 6,000 marketing services, advertising and PR firms in the U.S. and Canada, ranging in size from under $3M in capitalized billings to over $75M.

The disciplines of each agency spanned full-service, digital, PR, and marketing consultancies, to name a few.

The marketer sample came from our RSW/AgencySearch database of 30,000 marketing decision maker contacts. Company size, location, and category varied.

 

To view please fill out the form below

While we offer the resources found on our site at no charge, we do ask for your assistance in maintaining a certain level of knowledge about who is accessing our valuable assets. We will never sell or distribute your information to any third parties.

2024 RSWUS New Year Outlook Report

This is the 2024 RSW/US New Year Outlook Report, our first ad agency new business report of the year.

We’re an outsourced ad agency business development firm that works specifically with ad agencies, marketing services firms, and PR firms to find better-qualified new business opportunities and get you closer to close.

RSW/US is headquartered in Cincinnati, OH, with experts in lead generation, targeted prospect list building, and content creation driving our ad agency business development programs.

More about our advertising agency new business strategy and outsourced business development programs here.

Be sure to visit our YouTube channel and Agency New Business Blog for further insights and breakdowns on key stats from this report.

(And to download this report, head down to the bottom of the page.)

Update: We’re very pleased to have our VP of Sales, Lee McKnight Jr., interviewed for an Adweek piece on our report: New Agency Business Expected to Rise in 2024.

2024 RSWUS New Year Outlook Report

About The 2024 RSW/US New Year Outlook Report

The 2024 RSW/US New Year Outlook survey was completed by senior level Marketers and Marketing Agency executives during November 2023.

The agency sample came from the RSW/US database of over 7,000 marketing services, advertising and PR firms in the U.S. and Canada, ranging in size from under $3M in capitalized billings to over $75M.

The disciplines of each agency spanned full-service, digital, PR, and marketing consultancies, to name a few.

The marketer sample came from our RSW/AgencySearch database of 30,000 marketing decision maker contacts. Company size, location, and category varied.

To view please fill out the form below

While we offer the resources found on our site at no charge, we do ask for your assistance in maintaining a certain level of knowledge about who is accessing our valuable assets. We will never sell or distribute your information to any third parties.

RSW/US 2023 Ad Agency New Business Report

This is the RSW/US 2023 Ad Agency New Business Report: Perspective On The Agency New Business Environment, 2023 and Beyond.

(Download your report at the bottom of this page)

We’ve fielded it since 2010 and present comparable data that is available across all previous editions, providing insight on trends in key areas over the past ten years.

This report is typically heavily downloaded because the answers come from our survey of your agency peers.

This year’s survey and the resulting RSW/US 2023 Agency New Business Report see ad agencies, marketing services firms, and PR firms continuing to struggle with obtaining new business, however, 2023 has also brought challenges in the form of slowing referrals, decreased budgets, and longer sales cycles.

It’s been a tough 2023 for agencies-it’s never been more important to have new business plans in place, especially as you prepare for 2024 and what will ideally be a stronger Q1. 

Our hope is the key findings and implications of our report provide value as you develop plans for the remainder of 2023 and into 2024. 

RSW/US 2023 Ad Agency New Business Report

This study was commissioned by RSW/US. RSW/US is an outsourced lead generation/ business development firm that exclusively services marketing service firms (of all sizes and types), founded in 2005.

In 2010, RSW started RSW/AgencySearch.

The RSW/AgencySearch model is unique to the industry, with multiple searches managed for marketers across a range of different categories, helping them find better agencies.

The exposure to the agency and the marketer world has armed RSW/US with perspective unmatched in the industry and this perspective is woven throughout this, and every
survey report we release.

———

If this is your first time here, RSW/US is an outsourced lead generation/business development firm that exclusively services ad agencies, PR firms, and marketing service firms (of all sizes and types).

We work with over 50 agencies across the U.S., operating as their outsourced sales and marketing team.

More about us here.

To view please fill out the form below

While we offer the resources found on our site at no charge, we do ask for your assistance in maintaining a certain level of knowledge about who is accessing our valuable assets. We will never sell or distribute your information to any third parties.

This is the 2023 RSW/US New Year Outlook Report, our first ad agency new business report of the year.

We’re an outsourced ad agency business development firm that works specifically with ad agencies, marketing services firms, and PR firms to find better qualified new business opportunities and get you closer to close.

RSW/US is headquartered in Cincinnati, OH, with experts in lead generation, targeted prospect list building, and content creation driving our ad agency business development programs.

More about our advertising agency new business strategy and outsourced business development programs here.

Be sure to visit our YouTube channel and Agency New Business Blog for further insights and breakdowns on key stats from this report.

(And to download this report, head down to the bottom of the page.)

2023 RSW/US New Year Outlook Report

About The 2023 RSW/US New Year Outlook Report

The 2023 RSW/US New Year Outlook survey was completed by senior level Marketers and Marketing Agency executives during November/December, 2022.

The purpose of the survey was to glean insights relative to marketer and agency perspective as they each headed into 2023.

Topics explored included “biggest challenges facing marketing agencies” as seen through the eyes of marketers and agencies.

Also probed were topics related to spending and investment expectations, how important an agency site really is in the eyes of marketers, in-house agencies in flux, the impact of remote work on culture, and how Marketers are finding new agencies today.

The agency sample came from the RSW/US database of over 5,000 marketing services, advertising and PR firms in the U.S. and Canada, ranging in size from under $3M in capitalized billings to over $75M.

The disciplines of each agency spanned full-service, digital, PR, and marketing consultancies, to name a few.

The marketer sample came from our RSW/AgencySearch database of 30,000 marketing decision maker contacts. Company size, location, and category varied.

To view please fill out the form below

While we offer the resources found on our site at no charge, we do ask for your assistance in maintaining a certain level of knowledge about who is accessing our valuable assets. We will never sell or distribute your information to any third parties.

RSW/US 2022 Agency New Business Report: Perspective On The Agency New Business Environment

This is the RSW/US 2022 Ad Agency New Business Report: Perspective On The Agency New Business Environment, 2022 and Beyond.

(Download your report at the bottom of this page)

We’ve fielded this survey since 2010, and in this year’s edition we present comparable data that is available across all previous editions, providing insight on trends in key areas over the past ten years.

This report is typically heavily downloaded because the answers come from our survey of your agency peers.

This year’s survey and the resulting RSW/US 2022 Ad Agency New Business Report see ad agencies, marketing services firms, and PR firms in a different place in 2022;

with organic growth slowing and “new” new business tougher to get, agencies have some work to do.

RSW/US 2022 Agency New Business Report: Perspective On The Agency New Business Environment

Over 3,000 Agency executives nationwide had the opportunity to participate, and in fielding the survey, we wanted to discern how the challenges and dynamics of agency new business efforts have evolved as we came out of 2021 and progressed through 2022.

Our hope is the key findings and implications of the study presented in this report provide value as you develop your plans for the remainder of 2022 and into 2023.

———

If this is your first time here, RSW/US is an outsourced lead generation/business development firm that exclusively services ad agencies, PR firms, and marketing service firms (of all sizes and types).

We work with over 50 agencies across the U.S., operating as their outsourced sales and marketing team. and were founded in 2005.

More about us here.

To view please fill out the form below

While we offer the resources found on our site at no charge, we do ask for your assistance in maintaining a certain level of knowledge about who is accessing our valuable assets. We will never sell or distribute your information to any third parties.

RSW/US New Year Outlook Report Unearths An Unexpected Trend-Less Marketer Reliance On In-House Agencies in 2022

In our latest RSW New Year Outlook Report (download at no cost at the bottom of this post), we once again asked marketers and agencies about the state of in-house agencies.

With one exception, signs point towards the trend we saw in last year’s report: marketers’ reliance on in-house teams seems to be on the wane.

We initially asked agencies,

What percent of YOUR current clients have in-house agencies/do agency-like work in-house

To provide some perspective, in January 2020, 28% of agencies indicated that 51%+ of their clients brought agency work in-house, and in January 2021, it was only 14%.

Bucking the trend a bit, in this year’s response, that number jumped slightly to 17% of agencies reporting 51%+ of their clients brought agency work in-house.

So while rising slightly, as mentioned previously, this is the only exception to the in-house trend actually decreasing.

For example,

77% of agencies expect either no change or a reduction in the amount of work being managed by their clients inhouse.

Last year’s report saw that number at 67%.

RSW/US New Year Outlook Report Unearths An Unexpected Trend:Less Marketer Reliance On In-House Agencies in 2022

Overall, this is seemingly good news for agencies.

And the good news continues with marketer responses.

We asked marketers,

What percentage of your marketing/advertising activity is managed by an in-house marketing/advertising team?

Last year’s report saw 58% of marketers reporting more than 50% of their work was done by in-house agencies. This year, that number is only 39%, quite a decrease.

And when asked how marketers see the amount of work managed in-house changing over the next few years, last year the response was 36% saying it would not change or decrease somewhat to significantly.

This year it’s 63%!

RSWUS New Year Outlook Report Unearths An Unexpected Trend Less Marketer Reliance On In-House Agencies in 2022

In-house agencies aren’t going away of course.

(And interestingly, our findings are contrary to a report Adweek released in early December, 2021.  We shall see, right?)

Part of your agency new business strategy needs to include how to co-exist and work with in-house groups, but if these numbers prove themselves out, we’re looking at yet more potential opportunities for agencies to win more new business.

Part of your plan for winning new business from existing clients is to make them aware of all the things you can do for them.

In recent surveys agencies reported the vast majority of their clients didn’t have a full view of all of the potential offerings/services their agency had to offer.

Creating a comprehensive plan to organically win new business is just as important as having a solid plan to find new business outside your clients’ four walls.

Download our entire 2022 RSW/US New Year Outlook Report here

2022 RSWUS New Year Outlook Report

This is the 2022 RSW/US New Year Outlook Report, our first ad agency new business report of the year.

We’re an outsourced ad agency business development firm that works specifically with ad agencies, marketing services firms, and PR firms to find better qualified new business opportunities and get you closer to close.

RSW/US is headquartered in Cincinnati, OH, with experts in lead generation, targeted prospect list building, and content creation driving our ad agency business development programs.

More about our advertising agency new business strategy and outsourced business development programs here.

Be sure to visit our YouTube channel and Agency New Business Blog for further insights and breakdowns on key stats from this report.

(And to download this report, head down to the bottom of the page.)

 

About The 2022 RSW/US New Year Outlook Report

The 2022 RSW/US New Year Outlook survey was completed by senior level Marketers and Marketing Agency executives during December, 2021.

The purpose of the survey was to glean insights relative to marketer and agency perspective as they each headed into 2022.

Topics explored included “biggest challenges facing marketing agencies” as seen through the eyes of marketers and agencies. Also probed were topics related to spending and investment expectations, where traditional platforms stand, in-house agencies in flux, data privacy preparedness, and the continued importance of data and analytics.

Our hope is that the key findings and implications from this study are of value as you kick your marketing and sales planning into gear for 2022.

The agency sample came from the RSW/US database of over 5,000 marketing services, advertising and PR firms in the U.S. and Canada, ranging in size from under $3M in capitalized billings to over $75M.

The disciplines of each agency spanned full-service, digital, PR, and marketing consultancies, to name a few.

The marketer sample came from our RSW/AgencySearch database of 50,000 marketing decision maker contacts.

Company size, location, and category varied.

To view please fill out the form below

While we offer the resources found on our site at no charge, we do ask for your assistance in maintaining a certain level of knowledge about who is accessing our valuable assets. We will never sell or distribute your information to any third parties.

RSWUS 2021 Agency New Business Report

This is the RSW/US 2021 Agency New Business Report: Perspective On The Agency New Business Environment, 2021 and Beyond.

We’ve fielded it since 2010 and present comparable data that is available across all previous editions, providing insight on trends in key areas over the past ten years.

This report is typically heavily downloaded because the answers come from our survey of your agency peers.

This year’s survey and the resulting RSW/US 2021 Agency New Business Report are once again taking place in a strange time.

Ad Agencies and PR firms expected, as we all did, for normalcy to take hold in 2021, and while in some ways it has, we’re obviously not quite out of the woods in terms of the pandemic.

Our survey questions reflected this, in a few ways directly, and others tangentially.

Over 3,000 Agency executives nationwide had the opportunity to participate, and in fielding the survey, we wanted to discern how the challenges and dynamics of agency new business efforts have evolved as we came out of 2020 and through 2021.

Our hope is the key findings and implications of the study presented in this report provide value to you as you develop your plans for the remainder of 2021 and into 2022.

———

If this is your first time here, RSW/US is an outsourced lead generation/business development firm that exclusively services marketing service firms (of all sizes and types).

We work with over 50 agencies across the U.S., operating as their outsourced sales and marketing team. and were founded in 2005.

In 2010, we started RSW/AgencySearch, and have managed searches for marketers across a range of different categories, helping them find better agencies.

The RSW/AgencySearch model is unique to the industry.

The exposure to the agency and the marketer world has armed RSW/US with perspective unmatched in the industry. This perspective is woven throughout this, and every survey report.

To view please fill out the form below

While we offer the resources found on our site at no charge, we do ask for your assistance in maintaining a certain level of knowledge about who is accessing our valuable assets. We will never sell or distribute your information to any third parties.