I could write an SEO-optimized article right now. Keywords like “Agency Trends 2026,” “AI Tools for Creatives,” “Digital Marketing Transformation.” The algorithm would love it. And it would be meaningless.
Instead, we’re making ourselves the trend.
Arrogant? Overconfident? Detached?
No. What has happened to us over the past 18 months is happening to the entire market. We’re not the only ones rebuilding. We’re just honest enough to talk about it.
Our repositioning –from a digital agency to a creative agency in March 2025 – was a rollercoaster. A stress test. An entrepreneurial risk. It’s working, but not because it’s easy.
In short: the agency market is splitting into three poles, and the middle is disappearing. Tool-driven one-person businesses deliver faster and cheaper. Agencies with proprietary tools create strategic dependency. Creative leads are booked for their stance, not for their efficiency. The middle – 8 to 15 people, full service, technically solid but not culturally leading – is being forgotten. Over the past 18 months, the market has shifted noticeably – many agencies have repositioned themselves, and we are among them.
Here’s what we learned and what it costs.
The Squeeze
2025 is economically strained. Budgets are shrinking, projects are being put on hold. At the same time, technological development is eating away from below. A designer with Midjourney, ChatGPT and production tools now delivers in one week what used to take us three weeks and three people—at a third of the price.
Economic pressure from above, technological disruption from below.
Radically rebuilding an agency under these conditions—changing positioning, rejecting projects, building new structures—is a tearing strain. That our team stayed on board is anything but a given.
The system optimises towards mediocrity and the path leads to a dead end.
Last week: a pitch tender. A generic briefing. A machine-generated scorecard. I didn’t see what the others pitched. But I know which tools they used. And the same tools produce the same results.
AI doesn’t optimize for creativity. It optimizes for comparability.
And the shortcut is tempting.
Templates instead of concepts.
ChatGPT instead of a copywriter.
Midjourney instead of art direction.
Faster, cheaper, fine.
But it leads directly into mediocrity. When design comes before idea, the brand starts to blur. Pitches become interchangeable. Projects look good, but say nothing.
A sign of this: more campaigns were submitted to creative and performance award shows in 2024 and 2025 than ever before. Visibility becomes currency when the middle dissolves. Awards are meant to create credibility when projects become indistinguishable.
But awards don’t automatically make you a creative lead agency.
This is not an isolated case. The entire market is shifting.
Over the last 18 months, the Austrian agency landscape has changed significantly. Tunnel23 became LWND. Heimat became Freude. We evolved from a digital agency into a creative agency.
These are strategic repositionings. Away from “full service for everyone” toward “creative leadership with a clear stance.”
At the same time, the major networks are slimming down their structures. Teams are being merged, offices reduced, services bundled. It’s a quiet movement, but one that is transforming the industry.
What’s happening?
The networks can hardly generate margin with efficiency and high holding costs. Mid-sized agencies are repositioning because full service has become a commodity. And many who leave the system launch one-person businesses that, equipped with AI tools, can build in weeks what agencies used to need years for. No overhead. Half the time. A fraction of the price.
The market is splitting. The middle is losing its position.
Why we repositioned ourselves in March 2025
We saw the wave of one-person businesses coming. At the same time, AI is removing more and more junior-level work. More applicants, less strategic thinking. With our setup, our fixed costs, and a full-service model, we were exactly where the market is most fragile: in the middle.
As a digital agency, we became interchangeable. Not because we were bad, but because “digital” has become a default. Pressure came from below through one-person businesses with flexible setups, and from within our team, which sought creative leadership.
So in March 2025, we repositioned. That meant: no more platform-only pitches, no more quick shops, no more projects where we would simply deliver instead of lead.
We wanted out of the digital middle.
How the Austrian agency market is really splitting
The market is dividing into three camps:
- The tool-driven: small, fast one-person businesses delivering in days what agencies take weeks for. Quick and affordable, but not scalable.
- The tool-builders: agencies developing their own systems for media, tracking or automation. Technologically strong, but dependent on the lifecycle of these systems.
- The creative leads: at the strategic table with clients, booked for their stance, judgment, and originality. Not the cheapest, but the most relevant.
And the middle: 8 to 15 people, solid but invisible. And that’s exactly why it’s disappearing.
Why we chose the creative lead direction
We cannot become tool-driven. We don’t want to become tool-builders. So we focus on the path of creative leads.
How do you become a creative lead agency when you’re not one yet?
Through focus and proof.
We specialized: automotive with BYD, Subaru, Suzuki and MAXUS Motors. Within three months, we developed the website, performance tracking, and campaign layout for BYD. Today, BYD is number two in Austria’s EV market.
And in the social impact sector: Haus der Barmherzigkeit, Saint Charles. People in long-term care stood in front of the camera – not for pity, but to raise social awareness. With Saint Charles, we developed a product whose revenue flows directly into the campaign. A strategic brand collaboration rather than a classic charity effort.
A one-person business can’t do that. Only an agency that leads creatively can.
We reorganized how we work. Small, tight-knit teams of three to four people accompany projects from the first idea to the go-live. No silos, no handovers. The same people carry responsibility from concept to implementation.
We recruit for cognitive originality and reject projects where we would be mere suppliers.
Does it work? Yes. BYD is number two in Austria’s EV market. Haus der Barmherzigkeit has received awards. We win pitches through stance, not price.
But it costs. Rejecting projects costs revenue in the short term. Building new team structures costs time. Saying no costs energy. But it is the only way out of the middle.
The crucial question
The agency market is splitting rapidly. The middle is disappearing.
The question is no longer who has the better tools.
The question is who has the clearer stance.
The tool-driven will become more efficient.
The tool-builders will become technologically indispensable.
The creative leads will become more relevant.
And the middle?
It is disappearing faster, not slower.
We have decided where we want to stand. Not because we reject technology—it’s part of our DNA. We use it as a tool, not as a substitute for thinking.
We don’t want to be the fastest agency.
We want to be the agency that thinks differently.
And this trend is not loud, but it is reshaping the market.
The question that remains: In which of the three categories do you want to be found in 2027?