Lately, I have heard a fresh round of discussion around buyers looking to “roll up” smaller agencies into a package to sell to a bigger buyer.
These rollup concepts come in different flavors, but they often sound better than the reality — sort of like the way I remember those fruit rollups that were a novelty when I was a kid.
I’ll explain more a bit later in this week’s newsletter, but first let’s take a look at what Jen has rounded up for us this week.
(Oh, and I should have explained that the Agency Leadership Podcast is on a brief summer hiatus while Gini is at camp. Or, her daughter is at a camp and she is the chauffeur, but I think saying Gini is at summer camp is more fun!)
— Chip Griffin, SAGA Founder
Jen’s Weekly Roundup
Here’s what caught my eye this week:
THAT MONEY WAS NEVER YOURS — Kristen Kelly and Carson Pierce on the Agency Profit Podcast dig into pass-through costs and why so many agencies misread their own financial picture. The “$10 million agency” that’s really a $2 million business is a more common story than you might think. At AgencyAnalytics, Francois Marchand writes about how marketing attribution is broken in 2026, and the agencies that will keep clients through the next 12 months are the ones that can walk into the room and tell the truth about what the numbers show and what they don’t.
THE CRISIS PLAN ISN’T THE PROBLEM — From Spin Sucks, Gini’s podcast lays out a visibility engineering playbook for showing up inside the answer — the proactive work of building credibility before you need it. And Travis Claytor’s blog post argues that your crisis communications plan is solving the wrong problem. Traditional plans assume you still have time to shape the narrative after something goes wrong, which doesn’t work in today’s world.
POSITIONING AND PRODUCTIZATION — David C. Baker writes about how proprietary research bolsters positioning, and while we know you don’t like math and numbers are scary, it may be easier to do than it sounds. On 2Bobs, Baker and Blair Enns take on productization. Again. But this time within the context of AI.
LEADING YOUR TEAM — Karl Sakas writes about triangulation on leadership teams and how to stop being the person everyone routes conflict through. Brad Farris of Anchor Advisors writes about what not-for-profit leaders do differently when things get uncertain. And That Solo Life podcast looks at why senior PR pros should focus on development rather than decline.
THE REST OF THE BEST — Rick Gould writes about how AI is reshaping PR firm valuations, and the key distinction is between AI-enabled and AI-dependent. Buyers want to see AI enhancing human expertise, not replacing the judgment that makes a firm worth acquiring. Sharon Toerek hosts Mike May on The Innovative Agency podcast for a conversation on the future of agency strategy. And Agency Bytes features Zack Rosenberg of Qortex on what your audience watches revealing more than what they search.
— Jen Griffin, SAGA Community Manager
Rollups aren’t as tasty as they sound
Those fruit rollups we had as kids sounded good, but tasted funny (at least to me). It was an odd delivery with lots of artificial elements.
It sort of reminds me of the periodic waves of agency rollups that we seem to see.
Based on my conversations with agency owners of late, it seems like there is a renewed interest in the idea — both from those who are organizing the rollups and the owners who find the idea enticing.
Essentially, the idea goes like this. A group of small agencies get bound together — rolled up — either through a series of actual M&A agreements or some looser mechanism. The sum of the parts then gets marketed to potential buyers who would have been less interested in the smaller players all on their own.
The pitch is that everyone wins here. And with more and more agency owners seemingly frustrated and burned out, it can be a very appealing idea indeed.
In theory, it can work. And on occasion it even does in practice.
But more often than not (at least from my vantage point), it doesn’t.
Many of the deals end up being heavily skewed in favor of whoever is organizing the rollup. In some cases, that’s an individual, and in others it may be an agency looking to take the lead seat in the consolidated organization.
If you are approached about a rollup, you need to ask some tough questions:
- What happens if a buyer for the consolidated group never materializes?
- What happens if a buyer shows up but the terms aren’t what you had hoped for (or been led to expect)?
- If it is a rollup without actual equity transferred, are you required to go along with any sale the organizer brings to the table?
- How autonomous will you be in the new entity or loose organization? Do you still call the shots or are you becoming an employee instead of an owner?
- What are the tax implications of the deal structure (both interim and the eventual sale)?
This is just the tip of the iceberg.
Remember that in all major business arrangements (M&A, partnerships, large client deals, etc.) you always need to understand worst-case scenarios.
It’s easy to focus on what happens when everything goes well, but knowing your alternatives when it doesn’t is at least as important.
So if you get approached about a rollup — or you’re thinking about leading one yourself — take a clear-eyed look at the deal before jumping in with both feet.
You don’t want to end up with a nasty aftertaste because you didn’t read the label.
