Agency Creatives: Looking for Job Satisfaction? Consider Moving to the Brand Side

There’s an old story about a New York City adman who wrote a catchy slogan for the Muscatine Steam Laundry: “We keep you clean in Muscatine.” The boss liked it so much he gave his copywriter a raise.

But the money didn’t matter; the young employee quit soon afterward. His name? F. Scott Fitzgerald.

Okay, so that was in 1919, and Fitzgerald was destined for greatness anyway. And yet this story is still relevant. The Great Gatsby author left his agency gig because he felt creatively stifled and didn’t see a future. It’s malaise that endures a century later, according to a survey conducted by NewtonX on behalf of ADWEEK.

The data shows that while there’s still much job satisfaction to be had in the marketing field, it’s mostly on the brand side, not with an ad agency.

Consider two core stats: 53% of brand marketers told us that they plan to stay in their current posts for the next 12 months, while 54% of agency executives see themselves striking out on their own within the next two years. Does that mean they plan to pull a Fitzgerald and dump the ad business? No. But it does suggest they’d rather not be on the contract side of it.

“A lot of agency leaders describe their culture as burnout as a strategy,” said NewtonX vice president of partnerships Daniel Sills. “Agencies are built on headcount leverage and billable hours, and a lot of volatility drivers like pricing pressure and budget cuts are forcing them into a do-more-with-less environment.”

Got those agency blues

Considering the recent volatility of the agency world of late, it’s no surprise that so many of its constituents are eyeing the exit. The funeral air on Madison Avenue is coming from mergers like Omnicom and IPG in December and curtailments like WPP’s February announcement of £400 million ($538M) in budget cuts.

And this at a time when brands have already hit the brakes on ad spending. Gartner data shows that 2024 marketing budgets fell to 7.7% of company revenues (from a high of 11% in 2020) and stayed there through 2025.

“As budgets get tighter, agency life has devolved into a high-pressure fulfillment center where technology is treating talent as a line item expense to be optimized or cut,” observed Dustin York, who teaches communications at Maryville University and whose long CV includes stints in the brand and agency worlds. “Brand-side folks typically value job stability more than agency, and it’s showing true now more than ever.”

Little wonder, then, that NewtonX’s data also revealed that agency execs feel less job security than their colleagues on the brand side do (44% vs. 56%) and are also less pleased with their work-life balance (55% vs. 65%.) 

Enter AI—again

The elephant in the room here, of course, is the rapid adoption of AI—which, by Sills’ analysis of the data, doesn’t read the same way on the agency side as it does on the brand one.

“People who work at agencies see it as a threat to their jobs—AI is being used to reduce headcount and increase cost savings,” he said. But “within brand marketing teams, marketers see it as a push to increase their productivity. It doesn’t seem as much a threat to their jobs.”

But here’s an unexpected wrinkle. Questioned about what they most value about their roles, marketers didn’t rank job security and stability as highly as other attributes. Marketers with corporate positions reported they like “autonomy and decision rights” most (76%), followed by “influence with executive leadership” (74%.) Also important were work-life balance, which 65% of corporate marketers flagged as a key part of their job satisfaction, while only 55% of agency executives indicated as much.

“The thing we’re seeing in the brand side is everyone really values autonomy, influence, and their ability to make decisions,” Sills said, “and the only way to really do that in the agency world, at least from the perception of the employees, is to own the business yourself.”

Look before you leap

But making that change isn’t a panacea, cautions one industry veteran who’s worked on both the brand and agency sides, and requested anonymity to speak candidly.

“If more than half of agency professionals are thinking about going solo, it signals a structural problem, not a momentary mood,” he said. “Many agency folks feel squeezed between AI disruption, procurement-driven pricing, and increasingly fragmented roles that limit creativity and autonomy.”

Granted, AI tools are making it easier than ever for marketers to strike out on their own, the executive said, but the proverbial grass isn’t necessarily greener. “The thing these folks don’t understand is going freelance doesn’t guarantee you any income, and a lot of talented marketers are not talented business professionals—meaning, they might have expertise but won’t have any idea how to market it effectively and get paying clients.”

And with those clients also adopting AI and pulling more creative work in house, he said, “there just isn’t enough paid work to go around and be sustainable as an independent.”