Andrew Wiseman unpicks the narrative that insight agencies are fundamentally different to those in other marketing disciplines.
I used to work for a Marketing Agency Group, in one of their insight businesses. In that time, I must have heard “We’re not like marketing agencies. We’re different.” over a hundred times from my research colleagues. We’re more rigorous. More objective. More trusted. More strategic.
It’s a comforting idea. And, to some extent, a deserved one. The research industry grew up on the promise of independence, evidence and truth-telling in a world of opinion and persuasion.
Earlier in the week, a colleague sent me a link to a LinkedIn article on ‘The Future of Agencies’ by an agency growth advisor, Stephen Firth. His reflections on how clients now view their marketing agencies raised an awkward question for our own corner of the agency landscape. Are insight agencies genuinely operating differently to marketing agencies? Or are we just telling ourselves a better story about what we do?
Different Origins, Similar Pressures
Historically, research agencies were positioned as the quiet advisors. Studious, quasi-academics a million miles away from the creative, the campaign, the noise. Our value came from being methodical, impartial and, in many cases, deliberately slow. That distance from execution became part of the brand
But the environment we now operate in looks increasingly similar to the one Firth was describing in his article about marketing agencies.
Clients are under pressure to move faster. Budgets are scrutinised more closely. Internal teams are more capable than they’ve ever been. Technology has flattened access to tools that once defined agency expertise.
The latest edition of Greenbook’s GRIT Insights Practice Report makes this uncomfortably clear. Buyers increasingly see research, data collection and even analytics as commoditised capabilities. Things that can be brought in-house, automated, or bought cheaply. What they struggle to source internally isn’t data. It’s judgement.
That’s exactly the same issue that marketing agencies are facing.
The “We’re Different” Narrative
Insight agencies often draw a sharp line between themselves and marketing agencies. The distinction usually sounds something like this:
- They persuade. We inform.
- They sell. We advise.
- They execute. We think.
But if we step back and look at how many insight agencies actually behave, the picture is more blurred.
We still pitch.
We still compete on price and speed.
We still lead with capabilities, tools and methodologies.
We still talk about “deliverables” and “outputs.”
In other words, structurally and commercially, we often operate in remarkably similar ways.
GRIT highlights that full-service firms and tech-enabled agencies are becoming more resilient not because they collect better data, but because they integrate more deeply into client decision-making. That’s not a methodological shift, it’s a relationship shift.
And it’s here that the “we’re different” claim is most exposed.
The key for clients is in value, not in the agency category
From a client’s perspective, the distinction between a marketing agency and an insight agency is purely a practical one.
They ask a simple question: “Who helps me make better decisions, faster, with more confidence?”
If an insight agency shows up late in game, after the strategy is shaped, the direction is chosen and the risks are largely locked in then it doesn’t matter how independent or rigorous the research is. The agency becomes a validator, not a shaper.
That’s a pattern Firth describes clearly in the marketing world. Agencies that sit downstream of decisions are the first to be squeezed. The same dynamic applies to insights. GRIT reflects a similar concern from the supplier side. As more work is internalised, agencies feel pressure to be cheaper, faster and more tactical. Ironically, that pressure often pulls them further away from the strategic role they claim as their point of difference.
GRIT reflects a similar concern from the supplier side. As more work is internalised, agencies feel pressure to be cheaper, faster and more tactical. Ironically, that pressure often pulls them further away from the strategic role they claim as their point of difference.
Where the Real Difference Actually Lies
If insight agencies are truly different, it’s not because they run better surveys or smarter models. It’s because they are willing to do something harder. It’s about facing into the uncertainty alongside their clients.
The real point of distinction isn’t objectivity. It’s intellectual courage.
That shows up in moments like:
- Challenging the question, not just answering it.
- Pointing out uncomfortable trade-offs, not just neat conclusions.
- Helping leaders understand what they don’t know, not just what the data says they do.
These are not technical skills. They are advisory skills. And they look a lot like the kind of “trusted partner” role marketing agencies are also trying to claim.
This raises another uncomfortable truth. The future for insight agencies may not be to become more different from marketing agencies, but to become more similar to the best versions of them.
Not in execution, but in being closer to the power brokers.
The Internalisation Test
One of the strongest signals in GRIT is the continued pressure on research budgets and staffing. Clients are internalising what they believe they can replicate. Tools, templates and processes are easy to absorb. Perspective is not.
This creates a simple acid test for every agency in the insight world:
If your client can reproduce what you do with a platform, a junior analyst and a dashboard, why would they choose you? The agencies that survive this aren’t the ones that shout loudest about being different. They’re the ones that become hard to replace because they influence how decisions are framed, not just how evidence is presented.
So… Are We Really Different?
Maybe the better question isn’t whether insight agencies are different from marketing agencies. It’s whether we are different from the tools and systems that now sit between clients and their data.
If the answer is yes, it will show up in where we sit in the conversation, not in how we describe ourselves on our websites. Because in the end, clients don’t buy insight. They buy the confidence to act. And any agency that consistently provides that will always be seen as different, no matter what category it claims to belong to.