Agency growth in the age of AI with Robin Bonn

The RGD Firm Owners’ Group met to explore how to grow an agency in an AI-driven world. Our speaker, Robin Bonn, is CEO and founder of Co:definery. He has coached nearly 150 agencies, wrote the international bestseller Market of One, contributes to Marketing Week and hosts The Immortal Life of Agencies. He came to cut through the noise—and he did.

Ronn opened with a reality check he calls “the big grind.” New business is slow, pitching feels random and expanding accounts is difficult. Margins get squeezed when projects become loss-leaders, teams over-service and procurement leans on price. Talent is tired, especially in smaller firms.

Although AI is reshaping the model, many leaders are chasing efficiency to patch margins. That only buys time. Capabilities that once set firms apart are now table stakes. Worst of all, the billable hour is dying and any agency that depends on it is in trouble. Leaders face a choice: race to the bottom or create a real alternative that earns a premium.

He then knocked down three myths. 

First, the agency market isn’t over-supplied, it’s just under-differentiated. “Too many agencies” is procurement spin when buyers can’t tell you apart. That sameness is why building a category of one is essential.

Second, agencies believe that clients see their difference just because they say it. Lines like “our people are our edge” or “we work with ambitious clients” are beige wallpaper. Differentiation has to work like a competitive weapon, not a slogan.

Third, agencies believe their business strategies are AI-ready, but they’re not. Too many firms haven’t made three basic decisions. Vision, something more concrete than numbers or fluff. Point of view, a belief you can own and defend. Ownable value proposition, a specific problem you solve for a specific audience. Your proposition isn’t packaging, it is your strategy. Make it strong enough so that an outside investor would buy in. 

How do leading agencies pull ahead? They build a market of one, an intentional mix of expertise, experience and belief that puts them where rivals can’t follow. Robin boiled it down to five principles.

• Believe in better. Instill robust self-belief and write your own rules.
• Define your dream. Set a vision and clarifies what success looks like and energizes the whole business.
• Craft your narrative. Decide where you’ll apply your strengths, then align the business to that focus.
• Walk the walk. Demonstrate the vision in every part of the company, so the difference is obvious, not skin-deep.
• Reap the rewards. Be commercial, challenge briefs, solve what clients actually need and charge accordingly. No one wins by being the cheapest grown-up in the room.

His sequence for durable advantage is simple. First, be seen as different by the clients you want. Second, earn the right to sell differently, speak to more senior buyers and navigate around beauty-parade pitches. Third, price more effectively, using the scarcity your difference creates to support productized offers and new pricing models.

The biggest blocker is inertia. Leaders must admit that what got you here might not get you there, and AI is speeding up that reckoning. If change feels uncomfortable, that’s not a bug, it’s a compass.

Pick a lane, make it yours and price like you mean it.