04/08/25 // Media Strategy
Integrated vs Specialist Agencies: What’s Right for Your Brand?
Written by: Simon
Choosing between an integrated media agency and a group of specialist partners is a key decision for any marketing team. Do you go with a full-service agency that can handle everything from creative to media planning under one roof? Or do you build a roster of experts, each focused on a single area?
In today’s fragmented media landscape, where digital channels are constantly evolving and marketing needs to work across the full funnel, many brands are rethinking how they work with agencies. This guide looks at the pros and cons of each model, recent trends in the UK, and how to figure out what’s best for your business. You’ll also find examples of how integration can benefit regional and mid-sized brands.
What an Integrated Agency Really Means
An integrated agency offers a wide range of services, all tied together by a single strategy. That usually includes creative development, media planning and buying, digital marketing, social media, and PR. But integration isn’t just about offering more services. It’s about having those teams work in unison to deliver joined-up campaigns that align with your wider business goals.
Put simply, a good integrated agency brings “all your marketing efforts—digital, print, social, email, web, brand—under one roof”. That makes it easier to maintain consistency, avoid duplication, and deliver a more cohesive experience to customers across channels.
At Media Performance, our approach to strategic media planning starts with this principle—understanding your commercial goals first, and building the media and messaging strategy around that.
The Pros and Cons
What integrated agencies do well
Joined-up strategy and messaging
When one team handles everything, it’s far easier to keep your brand voice and campaign narrative consistent. As Marketing Week put it, “good luck having a consistent brand voice with so many mouthpieces.” Integration means your social campaign won’t contradict your TV ad or website copy.Simpler to manage
One team means fewer briefings, fewer meetings, and fewer plates to spin. That’s a real benefit if your internal team is already stretched.Full-funnel planning
Integrated agencies can align brand-building and performance activity. So your awareness-driving activity at the top of the funnel connects seamlessly with your retargeting and conversion strategies further down.Clear accountability
With a single lead agency, there’s no room for finger-pointing. They’re responsible for the overall result, and the relationship tends to be more strategic and focused on shared outcomes.
Want to see how that works in practice? Here’s how we build integrated campaigns.
The trade-offs
Breadth may sacrifice depth
Some integrated agencies spread themselves too thin, trying to cover every discipline without offering real specialism in any.Not always truly joined up
As Fast Company notes, many so-called “integrated” agencies are still made up of siloed teams that rarely talk to each other. Integration is about behaviour, not just structure.They may be slower to adapt
Larger agencies can have more layers of approval and process, which can slow down testing or innovation.You might pay for what you don’t need
Some integrated packages bundle in services that aren’t relevant to your business, leading to wasted budget unless carefully scoped.
What specialists do well
Deep expertise
Specialist agencies tend to focus on a single channel or tactic. That means sharper execution, faster testing cycles, and access to cutting-edge knowledge in their niche.Agility and speed
With less overhead and narrower remits, specialists often move faster than larger integrated agencies.Flexibility
You can engage specialist partners for short-term projects or specific challenges without committing to a long-term retainer.Best-of-breed approach
Some brands prefer to cherry-pick their ideal line-up—PPC from one agency, content from another, SEO from a third.
But there are downsides
You do the heavy lifting
With specialists, someone—often the client—has to play the role of integrator. That means aligning strategies, managing deliverables, and keeping messaging consistent.Disjointed performance
It’s common to see overlapping efforts (e.g. both your SEO and content agencies running blog strategies), or worse, gaps that no one’s responsible for.Fragmented reporting
Every agency will send you a good-looking report. But it’s on you to join the dots and evaluate how each channel is contributing to your business.Scalability challenges
If your marketing function grows quickly, your current specialists might not have the structure or resource to scale with you.
Why Joined-Up Strategy Matters Now
Three trends are driving more brands towards integrated solutions:
1. Full-funnel expectations
As consumers move fluidly between awareness, research and purchase, campaigns must work across the funnel. That means brand and performance can’t live in separate silos. As WARC notes, advertisers increasingly want to consolidate creative, data and media to achieve joined-up execution.
2. Too many touchpoints
From CTV to TikTok, podcasts to programmatic, the number of marketing channels has exploded. Without integration, campaigns can become fragmented. That’s why some agency groups are merging or restructuring to remove silos—as seen in Everest Group’s analysis of WPP and Publicis consolidations.
3. A shift in client mindset
More brands want agencies who act like business partners, not just channel managers. According to Marketing Week, 60% of brands are looking to reduce their number of agency partners, but at the same time, many want better specialist support within those relationships.
At Media Performance, our consultancy model is designed to meet this need—strategic thinking, executed across the right mix of channels with a focus on real results.
Is Your Brand Ready for Integration?
There’s no one-size-fits-all. But here are a few signs that an integrated model might suit you:
Your internal team is stretched
If you’re spending more time managing agencies than planning campaigns, it might be time to simplify.You’re running across multiple channels
If you’re active in search, social, video, and offline channels, you need joined-up thinking to avoid duplication or wasted budget.You need a partner who understands the full picture
When performance needs to be tied to business outcomes, not just channel metrics, a strategic lead agency can help.
That doesn’t mean you need to ditch your specialists. Many brands adopt a hybrid model—one integrated agency leading strategy, supported by a few technical or creative specialists where needed.
Curious how that might work in your sector? See how we work with brands across retail, property, travel, and more.
What Real Brands Are Doing
Take a regional retail group with stores across the North. They used to run separate campaigns through different agencies—local press and radio from one, digital from another, and a freelance PR. The messaging was inconsistent, and campaign timing often slipped.
They moved to a full-service partner, with one core team managing creative, planning, media and PR. The result? A single campaign platform that rolled out across Meta, local radio, digital display and in-store—all aligned, well timed, and easy to measure. Their share of voice went up, costs came down, and reporting got easier.
On the other hand, a growing ecommerce brand wanted the sharpest minds in every field. They hired a specialist PPC agency, a separate TikTok agency, and a brand strategist. Their in-house team ran weekly alignment calls, coordinated reporting, and ensured everyone was working toward the same goal. It took more effort, but they got performance gains that justified the structure.
Both models can work. The key is knowing your own strengths—and finding agency partners who complement them.
Final Thoughts
There’s no perfect structure. The best setup is the one that helps you move fast, stay consistent, and drive results. That might be a single integrated agency. It might be a specialist roster. Or it might be a hybrid model that blends both.
Whichever path you take, make sure your agency relationships are built on strategy, not just execution. Ask how they collaborate across disciplines. Push for clear KPIs. And choose partners who focus on outcomes, not outputs.
If you’d like to chat about how our full-service campaigns are built to deliver both reach and results, we’d love to hear from you.
Get in touch
0148 495 9610
hello@mediaperformance.co.uk