The new role of creative agencies in a platform-led marketing ecosystem

Not too long ago, the role of creative agencies was narrowly defined. A brief arrived, an idea was formed, and a campaign was delivered. 

Success was mostly judged by scale: how widely and loudly the work landed. Such an era was marked by big budgets, big moments, and carefully choreographed reveals that set the pace.

But now, this role has expanded to a great extent. Agencies are expected to operate consistently across channels and data layers, driving sustained growth over time rather than delivering isolated moments of impact. 

In parallel, marketing has turned into a web of platforms, search engines, social feeds, and digital marketplaces, each governed by its own logic, formats, and algorithms. Attention is fragmented, journeys are non-linear, and performance is visible in real time.

Looking at 2025, 63.9% of the global population actively uses social media. On average, users spend close to 2 hours and 21 minutes per day on nearly seven platforms each month. 

This dispersion of attention in multiple environments shows the challenge brands face in maintaining relevance and coherence today. As a result, creative agencies are required to operate as integrated, data-driven partners, positioned at the connection of storytelling, technology, and measurable business outcomes.

From silos to comprehensive solutions

One of the most evident shifts is structural. Agencies are moving away from siloed service models toward integrated offerings.

Creative development is no longer detached from media, SEO, social, or analytics. 

In their place, these disciplines are fused into end-to-end solutions designed to deliver consistency across every touchpoint. A brand story must now retain its integrity whether it appears in a six-second Instagram, a paid search result, an influencer collaboration, or an automated email journey. 

In a platform-led ecosystem, integration is the sole way to maintain coherence.

Redefining creativity with data

While intuition still matters, it does not operate in isolation. Data has become a core creative input. Agencies ever more bank on behavioural signals, audience insights, and performance trends to inform everything, from narrative direction to visual language. 

Industry research confirms this further.

A 2024 study found that 32% of marketers consider their data-driven marketing strategies very successful, with an additional 63% rating them as somewhat successful. 

Insights now shape creative decisions well before a campaign goes live and continue to refine them post-launch. Creativity, once episodic and final, has become iterative and responsive.

Surge of always-on content

Platforms reward consistency, relevance, and frequency. Consequently, agencies are producing higher volumes of content than ever before, shorter, sharper, and more adaptive in nature. The cadence has shifted. 

Instead of a single hero film supported by cut-downs, brands now need a consistent stream of platform-native assets that grow alongside audience behaviour and cultural moments. 

The challenge is in sustaining quality while maintaining speed, all the while ensuring that meaning is not diluted in the pursuit of volume.

Expanding the strategic mandate

As execution accelerates, so too does the strategic remit of creative agencies. Clients look at their agency partners to manage complexity. 

Questions around platform investment, budget allocation across the funnel, and the balance between short-term performance and long-term brand building are now key to agency-client relationships.

In the said context, agencies are stepping into consultative roles, decoding platform dynamics and building growth-oriented roadmaps. The real value is in understanding how platforms work in tandem. 

This further necessitates expertise. Google, Meta, and LinkedIn shape behaviour in distinct ways and offer different tools. What performs well in search may fail in social; what resonates on Instagram may not translate to LinkedIn. 

Agencies understand these nuances, from audience intent to algorithmic bias, and tailor strategies accordingly.

Technology is an enabler

Technology continues to influence what agencies produce and how they do so. AI and ML are simplifying workflows, accelerating testing, and enabling personalisation at scale. 

AR and VR are opening up interactive brand experiences that go well beyond passive consumption. Used mindfully, these tools can give a push to relevance and engagement. 

Handled poorly, they risk becoming novelty acts without substance. An agency’s role is to unify technology according to human-centred ideas, not at their expense.

Refocus on the human element

As feeds are filled with AI-generated content and formulaic advertising, authenticity has emerged as a differentiator. Audiences are adept at pinpointing work that appears hollow or manufactured. 

This is where storytelling is regaining its power.

Agencies are doubling down on true narratives, emotional resonance, and cultural insight, in turn building trust via consistency, honesty, and relevance.

Accountability and new compensation models

The emphasis on measurable outcomes is also changing how agencies are compensated. Conventional hourly rates and opaque retainers are under increasing scrutiny. 

In their place, outcome-based and value-based pricing models are gaining traction, linking remuneration to concrete results like growth, engagement, or return on investment. This trend mirrors wider shifts across professional services. 

Performance-linked pricing models are becoming more common now, suggesting a move toward shared accountability.

Expanding creative ecosystems

Content creators and influencers are now involved in the ideation process from the start. Their know-how of platform culture and audience expectations ensures that work appears authentic. In such an expanded ecosystem, agencies are acting as orchestrators, aligning brand strategy, creator voices, and platform mechanics to produce work that is in tune with digitally fluent audiences.

In a nutshell

Modern creative agencies now need to be agile yet strategic, technologically adept yet human, and analytical yet imaginative. Their role is to balance the art of storytelling with the science of data and performance, recognising that in a platform-driven world, creativity does not end at launch; it begins there. 

Eventually, the agencies that flourish will be those that embrace this complexity, place themselves as long-term partners in growth, and help brands be relevant, resonant, and resilient.

(Our guest author, Siddhartha Singh, is the Co-Founder and Director at Black Cab, an integrated agency network for the digital world of creative, strategy and marketing agencies.)