Future of Marketing Briefing: The case for and against an agency subscription remuneration model

The idea of agencies selling subscriptions instead of billable hours has kicked up significant debate over the past week. It started when S4 Capital’s Monks told me it expects roughly a quarter of its revenue to come from subscriptions by year end. Cue the hot takes that are nearly unanimous in one verdict: subscriptions aren’t the answer to the pricing problem facing agencies in a world of automated advertising.

That doesn’t mean they shouldn’t be tested, though. If nothing else, they could be a useful stop gap on the road to the real holy grail: outcome-based pay.

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