The Australian agency market is undergoing a seismic structural shift with holdcos dominating media pitches and indies dominating pitches in creative, PR, customer experience and other marcomms disciplines, according to a groundbreaking new report by TrinityP3.
Fading are the days of agency of record briefs, being replaced by a roster of specialist agencies and the rise of in-housing of certain services.
This has created a landscape where at one end of the spectrum there are big holding companies and their platform solutions that dominate media planning and buying, particularly for multinational and large domestic clients.
At the other end are highly specialised creative, PR, social media, experiential and digital agencies vying for non-media services.
“What that means for indies is that in the next 12 months, you can’t just be a good generalist agency,” TrinityP3 founder and global CEO Darren Woolley told B&T.
“You’ve got to have something that makes you stand out, because we’re literally talking about 500-plus indies competing, there’s not enough space for them to just be another advertising agency.”
A specialist agency could be one that is an expert in a specific category, or focuses on companies in the B2B sector versus B2C.
TrinityP3’s New Business Report analyses data from 440 pitches in 2025, identifying the agencies that had the most wins across and the most active client sectors.
It focused purely on volume of wins, not the size of the prize. That research that is already carried out by RECMA and COMvergence for media agencies. What makes the report unique is that it reveals the results of many pitches that have not been made public.
The report found food manufacturing was the most active category, followed by tourism and travel, banking, healthcare and technology.
Other trends picked up by the report is that many companies are no longer looking for ‘agency of record’ partners, and instead are shopping around for specialists.
In fact, specialist agencies heavily dominated pitch wins for a growing number of sole-service briefs in social, PR and CX, according to the report.
A high profile example of this is the Optus’ pitch roster that B&T first revealed last June. The telco supplemented holdco creative and media muscle with specialists. Accenture Song to handle media and creative (via Droga5), while also adding Apparent as its specialist B2B creative partner and BRX for production.
Woolley said that five years ago, far fewer companies appointed agencies to carry out specialist services.
“Clients are looking beyond just needing a media agency and a creative agency. It’s growth in these other specialist areas that’s different,” he said.
The rise of project work was another trend. Woolley is aware of one agency that pitched 100 times in 2025 with 70 per cent of briefs for project work.
“There’s also a lot more project work happening because clients are finding that they’re either doing some services in-house or they’re getting a one-stop shop, usually a network agency or large indie and always have to add these smaller specialists in. Smaller clients are also pitching because they’re looking for a better deal.”
The Top 10s
The agency that won the most pitches in 2025 was Atomic 212°, which notched up 31 wins. Hero won the most creative pitches and Apparent picked up the most non-media pitch wins (see lists below).
B&T caught up with the leaders of all three to find out why they believe they have been so prolific in the past year.
Atomic 212° chief executive Rory Heffernan told B&T the agency is careful in the pitches that it chooses to take on and is always transparent with the client.
“Every single pitch is bespoke to exactly what that client needs. And the reason we can do that sustainably is that we have built the capability and the team plan, to provide that human element for the client,” he said.
“The client knows up front who’s the team on the ground, what’s the technology, and whether we would need to hire or add additional resources. It’s crystal clear in terms of what they get from day one.”
Atomic 212° said it also benefits by having an ‘indie’ spirit backed by the tools and resources of Publicis Groupe, which it joined a year ago.
“Our positioning is that we can understand your business challenge and build a solution for you that’s going to give you a competitive advantage…there’s just as much of that innovation going into existing clients as there is in pitching.”
Apparent managing director Suzy Smiley said that in the past 18 months, the agency has added “expert leadership” across all disciplines, “forming a team with strong chemistry that flows throughout the business”
“Clients want to partner with an agency that understands their business and can seamlessly integrate customer-first marketing programs that deliver results,” she said..
“I believe clients are choosing us for our passion, high energy and our ability to run alongside their teams as marketing partners.”
Like Atomic 212°, creative pitch win leader Hero tries to avoid pitching where possible.
“Most of our new clients come through referrals or recent work that‘s piqued someone’s interest. Otherwise pitches themselves are very much a lottery for us and I doubt we’re any better or worse at it than anyone else,” Hero creative chairman Ben Lilley said.
Lilley believes that Hero’s promise to ‘turn brand into Heros’ is resonating and AI has been a “game changer” with work including Mastercard Transit Tales, Toyota C-HR Diamond Collection and Fujifilm Mindography.
“Right now, being independent is of course a major advantage too. I think more than ever, clients want direct access to their agency’s decision‑makers and to have senior people working on their business,” he added. “Our model is deliberately streamlined to offer just that: senior access, strategic rigour and creative innovation, backed by real-world impact and results.”
Top 10 (in alphabetical order)
- Atomic 212°
- Apparent
- Sparro by Brainlabs
- Emotive
- Havas
- Hatched
- Hero
- Initiative
- Nunn Media
- Today The Brave.
Top 10 Media Agencies by Tenders Won (alphabetical order)
- Atomic 212°
- Sparro by Brainlabs
- Havas
- Hatched
- Initiative
- Mediahub
- Mindshare
- Nunn Media
- PHD
- UM.
Top 10 Creative Agencies by Tenders Won (alphabetical order)
- 72andSunny
- Apparent
- BMF
- Born
- DDB
- Droga5
- Emotive
- Hero
- Special
- Today The Brave.
To obtain the full TrinityP3 2025 New Business Report, including detailed breakdowns across more than 440 individual pitches, visit the TrinityP3 website.
