Marketing
#BizTrends2026 | Scopen President, Cesar Vacchiano: Less is more
Cesar Vacchiano 21 Jan 2026
The evolution of agencies from FTE to...
The global agency model is at a turning point. This is what the research is showing, but it is also the experience of top clients and creative and media agency leaders.
A roundtable of agency leaders and marketers discussed the evolution of the global agency model at the recent Scopen Africa Decade Awards (Image supplied)
This was a key talking point at the recent Scopen Africa Decade Awards held in Johannesburg on 24 February 2026. While the morning was a celebration, this was an uncomfortable conversation, but in the best possible way.
FTE model is no longer fit for purpose
César Vacchiano, president and CEO of Scopen set the tone. Drawing on insights from Scopen global studies he states that the traditional FTE model is no longer fit for purpose.
“It may help procurement compare costs, but it does not reflect the true value agencies create.”
But, change, he stressed, will require trust, cultural alignment and collaboration between brands and agencies. It will not happen overnight.
The conversation was taken up by a roundtable featuring Bridget Harpur, head of marketing at Volkswagen Group South Africa; Andisa Ntsubane, managing executive of brand marketing and communications for Vodacom Group Africa; Chris Botha, group managing director of Park Advertising; Kabelo Moshapalo, chief creative officer of Ogilvy; and Carl Willoughby, chief creative officer of TBWA.
Show me the outcome
“The world around us is changing at a rapid pace, and the way we think about remuneration needs to fundamentally change too,” says Ntsubane.
“We’re constantly asked, ‘What’s the outcome?’ If we don’t have meaningful conversations about balancing resources with outcomes, we have a problem.”
Marketing & Media
EXCLUSIVE Agency Scope 2025 | What keeps marketers and agencies awake at night
21 Jan 2026
Structural flaws
Chris Botha highlights the structural flaws in current models.
“With FTE-based remuneration, you’re incentivised to employ more people — the bigger your team, the bigger your fee. Commission models create the opposite problem. So both extremes are flawed.”
Yet outcome-based remuneration is not simple. Attribution is rarely clean, and external factors matter.
“Defining the ‘how’ and ‘what’ will be fascinating,” he notes.
Botha also pointed to productisation as part of the future. Agencies are building proprietary AI tools and platforms, with clients increasingly open to licence fees.
“There isn’t one single answer. The future will likely be a mix.”
Accountability, but…
From the marketer side, Harpur welcomed stronger accountability but warned of risk.
“If you were an agency in the motor industry right now and paid purely on outcomes, you might be in serious trouble,” she says.
“But what I do like is the accountability.”
She adds that marketing leaders are under intense pressure to justify spend.
“It’s often difficult to demonstrate marketing’s contribution in financial terms. An outcomes-based model would force clearer metrics — and that’s what finance teams want.”
Who carries the risk?
For creative leaders, remuneration models shape daily realities.
“Operationally, how we’re paid affects everything,” says Willoughby. “We’re under pressure to deliver more, faster, with fewer resources. Something has to shift.”
Moshapalo framed it as a question of shared risk. “CFOs ultimately make the decisions. It’s about shared expectations. Creativity has long-term value, but we’re still incentivising it through archaic models.”
Marketing & Media
A decade of consistency: Scopen Africa Decade Award recognise top leaders and agencies
Danette Breitenbach 25 Feb 2026
No perfect solution
No one claimed to have the perfect solution.
Hybrid structures — blending base fees, outcome incentives, project pricing and licensing — are likely to dominate, with some experimentation unavoidable.
Convincing procurement, which often has little understanding of marketing goals, may be the toughest hurdle of all.
“Consistency doesn’t mean standing still,” says Johanna McDowell, Scopen's partner in South Africa and CEO of the Independent Agency Search & Selection Company.
“If we want sustainable partnerships, we have to be brave enough to test new commercial models — together.”
The FTE era may not disappear overnight. But in a room full of people who'd spent a decade measuring this industry, the mood was clear: the next 10 years will require a different kind of conversation — and it has already started.
The language of finance
When collecting her Most Admired Marketer of the Decade award, Khensani Nobanda, chief marketing officer of Nedbank Group, put it in a nutshell: “I didn't show a single ad,” she notes when describing her board presentation. “I showed how marketing will create value for the business going forward.”
The implication for agencies is clear: if marketers are being asked to speak the language of finance, their agency partners need to meet them there.
McDowell notes that the timing felt significant. "We've spent a decade gathering data on how this industry works," she says.
"What we're seeing now is that the commercial models underpinning those relationships are no longer keeping pace."