Indie agencies redefine scale as AI reshapes media landscape – IMANZ report

A new report has found that New Zealand independent media agencies are rethinking how they grow, compete and price their services.

The findings carry direct implications for the wider ANZ market including holding company networks, procurement teams and the wider agency ecosystem.

The report, the Indie Advantage, was published by ASX-listed martech outfit XPON in partnership with Independent Media Agencies of New Zealand (IMANZ).

IMANZ CEO Simon Teagle says the report reflects the independent sector’s willingness to have difficult conversations in the open.

“I am a fierce advocate for the independent sector, and I believe these stories deserve a wider stage. This report is more than a summary; it is a window into that candid exchange, and an open invitation for you to join the conversation.”

Agility and impact

The report captures the insights from an invite-only roundtable in Auckland of nine senior agency leaders.

It surfaces sector-wide shifts that will extend beyond indies as the metrics that once defined agency growth, think headcount, billings, office location/footprint, are now being replaced by a sharper focus on impact, across profitability per person, repeatable intellectual property (IP) and human-led strategy. 

While every topic discussed had an element of AI and its impact attached to it, the DNA of indies, their more singular leadership, structure, freedom to partner/pivot along with their efficiencies given their relative size, become a serious competitive advantage in a blended, automated future.

Focus on efficiency

Every agency is investing in AI, but focusing on efficiency right now, over substance or creative. Once woven into the fabric (read processes/systems) of an agency, the human-led ‘Indie Advantage’ of agility and pivoting quickly will reveal starker contrasts with their ‘networked’ counterparts.

One leader remarked in the report: “We’re not tied to using one software or provider. That allows us to shift and ride the AI cycle. Things can shift very quickly. The ability to adapt without shifting the entire platform and offering – that’s what allows us to be a lot more nimble compared to holdcos.”

Not just an indie issue

While the report documents independent agency strategy, its findings expose structural pressures facing the entire agency sector. Procurement teams are already developing “Human Time Equivalent” (HTE) metrics to benchmark agency efficiency against AI-augmented workflows. This will affect both holding company networks and independents alike.

One agency head observes: “We moved from selling time to project-based outcomes to managed service-based outcomes over three to five years. The repeatable stuff we knew – that’s buying your IP. The independent edge is your repeatability and access to senior stakeholders.”

XPON chief growth officer Chris Rozic says the shift from time-based billing to value-based pricing is accelerating across the industry.

“The real shift is from clients remunerating you for time spent to remunerating you for value created. AI makes that transition easier – if you’re selling outcomes, efficiency is your margin. If you’re still selling hours, it’s a race you can’t win,” says Rozic.

The report argues that holding company networks’ rush to automate is creating a quality gap that clients are beginning to notice. But it also warns that independents are not immune: agencies of any size that default to full automation risk commoditising their output.

Evolving media landscape

Indies have always been agile. Capitalising on brand marketing trends earlier, as well as shifts in consumer behaviour, when they’re not beholden to layers of sign off. This fluid positioning, and ability to pivot quickly in the AI era will be crucial to growing that competitive advantage.

While ‘networked’ media agencies across ANZ have seen jobs cuts, there have been signs of growth in the independent sector, with many indies looking to hire staff in 2026. The collective media sector may be impacted by redundancies, however automation can now empower indies with a new reality: AI lets a 20-person agency deliver like a 50-person one (but only if you sell value, not time) as one agency head put it.

It’s about delivering more scale and value, not always at a greater size, as one agency lead explained: “Our preference is not just to scale people – it’s to scale how efficient and the impact of revenue per head for those people.”

The future indie agency might have fewer people doing higher-value work, not more people doing the same work. Another leader reflected: “If you asked me 10 years ago, I’d say I want 50 people in the business. Now the metric looks completely different”.

Measurement – still lacks any silver bullet

The report acknowledges that cross-channel attribution remains the industry’s unsolved problem. A lack of first-party data and privacy readiness, the growth of AI search and with it a zero-click future, is leaving questions over measurement. But media agency leaders explained that the real opportunity, in New Zealand at least, is helping clients get from data implementation to business results faster. It’s not about perfect measurement.

XPON offers AI, adtech and data infrastructure to enable agencies to meet the evolving needs of brands, and local practitioner.

Rozic explains: “Signal loss isn’t slowing down – between privacy regulation and walled gardens, agencies can’t rely on any single data source the way they used to. The ones gaining ground are those helping clients adopt a triangulated approach – blending platform data, econometrics and incrementality testing – rather than chasing perfect attribution.”

Agencies need to define their own governance now – where AI can enhance, and where human craft is the product. By building managed services, playbooks and IP that compound over time, agencies are able to scale without bloating team numbers. And then it’s taking clients on the journey, not waiting for first-party data, but focusing on their business outcomes, rather than chasing perfect return on ad spend.

About the roundtable

The ‘Indie Advantage’ is based on a closed-room roundtable hosted by XPON and IMANZ, bringing together nine managing directors, general managers and partners from New Zealand’s independent agency community. Participating agencies included 36 Presents, D3, Lassoo, Overdose, Rascal Media and Together.

Get in touch with IMANZ CEO Simon Teagle for the full report.

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