A boutique TV advertising agency is usually owned by its employees or at least its directors. This contrasts with a network agency, which is part of a larger holding company made up of multiple agencies within a group owned by shareholders. The size difference between the two is significant. Each plays a role in the creative infrastructure. In this guide, we’ll help you find the best fit for your needs.
The world of big advertising agencies is constantly changing. Recently, consolidation has renewed as agencies seek to protect profits. In November 2025, Omnicom completed its takeover of IPG, creating the world’s largest holding company for advertising and marketing services. The deal aims to unlock around $750 million in annual savings, or using the correct terminology: cost synergies. Some of the best-known ad networks are being folded into ever-larger networks. It hasn’t been noted how this deal will affect creativity.
Boutique agencies work differently from global networks. Often the people who present the pitch are the same people running your account. In Toast’s case, this is true. The producer who originally sees your brief and asks questions will be the same person who sees the smile on your face as we deliver the film. This flat hierarchy means faster decisions, more precision, and, most importantly, accountability.
Because boutique agencies are smaller, they’re often specialists. Toast TV specialises in helping brands use TV advertising for the first time. Our producers have years of experience making the most of budgets, so the quality shows on screen. You can see our first-time TV adverts for brands like Loaf Sofa and Abel&Cole.
Boutique agencies generally struggle with limited headcount compared with large network agencies. Toast TV doesn’t have a large roster of creatives ready to take the next brief. But we’ve turned that into a superpower. While a large agency will fire the next brief at whoever’s free, we’ve honed a black book of freelance creatives with specialisms to cover every eventuality.
We pick the correct creative team for each project. To offset our lack of scale in areas like media buying, we partner with independent media agencies that can leverage scale and industry contacts to secure media deals.
You get scale from a large network, which can reduce costs on things like media deals. Global networks also make launching a worldwide campaign much easier than working with separate agencies in different territories. Procurement teams will prefer large network agencies with established frameworks for dealing with multinational companies.
A large network will fit your project into a tightly controlled structure, logging and auditing sign-offs and versions throughout the project. This prevents missed feedback and untracked changes from creeping in.
The scale of global networks can also be their downside. Their company structure is often multi-layered, with a feedback hierarchy that can involve numerous people in each sign-off. Large agencies are often accused of a creative bait-and-switch: they use a big-hitting creative team to land the job, then replace them with juniors once the work begins. This varies by agency, but it’s best to confirm at the outset who will be working on your project.
A boutique agency is usually better value for money for single-market TV campaigns because more of your budget goes to senior people and the work itself, rather than overheads. A network agency can be better value for very large, multi-market campaigns, but smaller clients often end up subsidising the rates negotiated for the group’s biggest accounts. Either way, judge value by what you get for each pound and how much senior time is on your account, not by the day rate.
Working with a larger agency network can reduce TV media-buying costs for large broadcast TV campaigns. Agency networks use clients’ combined media spend to get better rates. This matters less in BVOD, addressable, and programmatic TV budgeting, where prices are set by audience targeting and auctions rather than overall spend. In this area, boutique agencies can buy on the same terms as the networks.
Most brands will have to make this decision at some point on their growth journey. Because of their agile nature, boutiques work best suited to with challenger brands, scale-ups, and brands with single-market campaign needs. Network agencies suit global brands with multi-territory needs, very large media budgets, and strict procurement requirements.
Who will work on my account day to day? Ask for named people and their roles, and check whether the team you meet in the pitch is the team that will do the work.
Have you made TV adverts in my category? Ask to see campaigns and case studies from your sector, along with the results they achieved.
Do you handle creative, production and media buying, or do you outsource any of it? This tells you whether you’ll have one accountable partner or several suppliers to manage.
How do you get adverts through Clearcast? An experienced TV agency should explain how it builds clearance into the script and production schedule to avoid costly reshoots.
How do you charge for your work? Find out whether you’ll pay a retainer, a project fee, or a percentage of media spend, and what each includes.
How do you buy TV airtime, and do you receive rebates from media owners? Ask whether any rebates or volume bonuses are disclosed and passed back to you.
Which TV formats would you recommend for my budget? A good agency should explain the trade-offs between linear TV, BVOD, addressable TV and regional campaigns, not just push one option.
Yes, absolutely. Toast is a natural fit to work alongside a brand’s in-house agency. We provide the fast response time needed to keep up with fast-changing internal projects. We can step in at any point in a project timeline to provide specialist skills or knowledge an in-house team needs.This model is ideal for a boutique agency, where a staff member can integrate into an in-house workflow and provide rapid answers when needed.
Yes. Many plan, produce and deliver national campaigns, often working with independent or partner media agencies.
Often yes, because they carry less overhead. But compare outcomes and senior time attached to your project, not day rates.
A small, independent agency, usually specialised, where senior people work directly on client accounts.
