The AdNews end-of-year Perspectives, looking back at 2025 and forward to next year.
And see the AdNews 50 plus page state of the market report, Forecast 2026
Amy Carr, GM Growth, Yango.
If 2023 was the year of AI panic, and 2024 was the year of experimentation, 2025 has been the year of integration.
Sitting here in late November, looking back at the last 11 months, the most striking theme isn't a new platform, a changing algorithm, or a buzzword. It’s a feeling. The industry seems to have exhaled. We’ve moved past having to adopt every shiny toy and settled into a rhythm where technology supports our people, rather than distracting them.
As a GM of Growth at an independent agency, my view of growth has shifted fundamentally this year. It used to be a metric defined almost exclusively by new business wins and billings increases. In 2025, growth became about depth: the depth of our client relationships, the depth of our strategic thinking and how that shows up in the campaigns we take to market, and the realisation in an automated world, human expertise has never been more important.
Here are the things that I’ve observed from the indie frontline in 2025.
Indies’ agility became cost of entry
For years, independent agencies touted "agility" as our USP. In 2025, the volatile local market meant this stopped being a nice-to-have and became a must.
The economic climate this year - stabilising but still stubborn on costs - meant that clients couldn't afford six-month lead times for campaigns that might be irrelevant by launch. They needed the "to be in market this weekend" capability that indies are built on.
We saw a notable move away from rigid, "set and forget" retainers toward flexible partnership models. Clients didn't want an agency to just pull levers, they wanted senior people in the room collaboratively hashing out and solving business problems. Being independent allows us to strip away the red tape. We weren't just buying media; we saw indie agencies at their best, becoming marketing partners and solving business problems.
AI faded into the background (in a good way)
The conversation shifted. We stopped asking "How do we use AI?" and started asking "Does this actually drive the result we are after?"
In 2025, the novelty of AI started to wear off. Clients, while impressed by how fast you can generate 50 variations of an image, started asking which one will move the needle on sales.
We saw a return to the premium of human insight. The tools are becoming ubiquitous; everyone has the same copilots, Geminis, ChatGPTs…. The differentiator returned to strategy, curation, application.
For growth, this was massive. We found that automation cleared the administrative clutter - —the reporting, the scheduling, the basic optimisation - leaving our teams free to do the high-value work: more time talking business with our clients, with each other, understanding nuance, and negotiating deals that algorithms can’t.
The return of brand vibes over hard performance
The most refreshing trend of 2025 was starting to see the recalibration of t performance versus brand.
The industry has been obsessed with the bottom of the funnel for at least the last 10 years. If you couldn't track the click-to-conversion path in five seconds, it wasn't worth spending. But this year, we saw the cracks in that logic. With attribution models breaking down and the cost of pure performance media plateauing, clients realised you can’t convert demand you haven’t created.
We saw a needed return to brand building, but not the nebulous "awareness" plays of the past. It was about building mental availability and cultural currency that made performance media work harder. We proved that brand "vibes" and hard commercial results are partners.
Culture is the ultimate growth hack
Internally, 2025 tested the culture of every agency. Growth also applied to our people.
The talent war cooled, but the retention war is where the battle is really fought. At Yango, we doubled down on the belief that a people-focused culture drives client results.
Continuing to treat our team as precious partners in the business, rather than resources, meant our client outcomes consistently improved. A rested, supported, purpose-driven, passionate media person spots opportunities, that an overworked one misses. We used our independence to evolve people policies to suit our people, not a global HQ, and delivering genuine flexibility.
Looking to 2026
As we stare down the barrel of 2026, I am incredibly optimistic for the independent sector. While some of the big end of town may be distracted by internal operations, indies need to remain focused on delivering for our people and our clients.
The agencies that will win next year are the ones that can hold two opposing thoughts in their heads at once: leveraging data and tech, while doubling down on the messy, unquantifiable, beautiful chaos of human creativity.
If 2025 was the year we partnered with tech, 2026 will be the year we put people back at the centre of media.
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