By: Elle Welch, Account Director, B2B and Technology 

A new year always brings fresh possibilities, but 2025 is unlike any other. For CMOs, VPs of Communications, and senior PR executives, this is the year to rethink your agency relationship—not as a transactional vendor arrangement, but as a mission-critical strategic partnership. 

With internal teams operating under unprecedented constraints, the brands that win in 2025 won’t just be the ones with the biggest budgets. They’ll be the ones that smartly leverage their agency partners for agility, innovation and outsized impact in a high-stakes environment. 

The New Reality: Internal Teams Are at Capacity, and the Stakes Are Higher Than Ever 

Layoffs, hiring freezes, and shrinking budgets have left many corporate communications and marketing teams stretched to the limit. While internal teams are bogged down by immediate deliverables—stakeholder management, internal reporting, and reactive media responses—there’s little time for high-level brand storytelling, strategic media positioning or proactive reputation-building. 

Enter your agency. Not as a backup resource, but as an extension of your leadership team—a partner with the specialized expertise, media relationships and strategic firepower to drive forward-thinking campaigns, protect brand equity, and push beyond the day-to-day grind. 

2025 is not the year to go it alone. It’s the year to go all in with an agency that can help you own your narrative, outmaneuver competitors, and make a tangible business impact. 

Why 2025 Demands a Strategic Reset in Agency Relationships 

This year isn’t about maintaining the status quo—it’s about maximizing the agency advantage. Brands that lean into deep, trust-driven collaboration with their agency will unlock next-level results, while those who treat their agency as an order-taker will struggle to keep pace. 

Here’s how top CMOs and communications leaders should reframe the agency relationship in 2025: 

• Make Your Agency a Strategic Insider – Instead of handing over piecemeal projects, bring your agency into high-level planning conversations early. Treat them as a true business partner, not just a service provider. The deeper their visibility into your goals, the more impactful and aligned their contributions will be. 

• Stop Keeping Your Agency in the Dark – An agency can’t drive results if they don’t have full visibility into your challenges and opportunities. Break down silos and equip them with market insights, internal pain points, and executive priorities. The more context they have, the more valuable their strategy and execution become. 

• Embrace Radical Transparency – The best agency relationships thrive on continuous, unfiltered feedback. Don’t limit discussions to performance check-ins—proactively align on what’s working, what’s not, and where to pivot. When agencies and in-house teams co-own success, the results are exponential. 

• Give Your Agency Room to Innovate – If you only use your agency for execution, you’re underutilizing their potential. Give them the creative and strategic freedom to bring bold, disruptive ideas to the table—even if it challenges conventional internal thinking. The best PR and marketing campaigns aren’t safe; they’re transformative. 

Collaboration Over Competition: The CMO’s Mindset Shift for 2025 

Too often, internal teams and agencies operate as separate entities, leading to friction and inefficiency. In 2025, the brands that dominate will be the ones that blur the lines between in-house and external resources, creating a unified, high-performing ecosystem. 

• Agencies bring outside perspective, media intelligence, and executional power. 

• Internal teams hold deep institutional knowledge and brand history. 

• Together, they create an unstoppable force for brand growth and PR success. 

For lean internal teams, this collaborative model isn’t just a luxury—it’s a necessity. Agencies provide the bandwidth, expertise, and strategic foresight needed to scale campaigns, elevate brand authority, and keep teams from burning out. 

A Strategic Agency Isn’t a Luxury—It’s a Competitive Advantage 

The ROI of a well-leveraged agency extends far beyond just filling gaps. In 2025, top-performing CMOs will use their agency as a business multiplier: 

• Specialized Industry Expertise – Agencies bring an outsider’s edge—an ability to spot market trends, competitor moves, and emerging PR opportunities before they become mainstream. 

• Operational Flexibility – Need to pivot fast? A nimble agency partner allows your team to adapt quickly without internal red tape, ensuring that campaigns stay ahead of shifting market conditions. 

• Expanded Media Reach and Influence – A well-connected agency isn’t just executing campaigns; they’re activating media networks, forging partnerships, and building relationships that amplify your brand’s presence. 

• Crisis and Reputation Management at Scale – When unexpected crises hit, an agency with pre-built crisis playbooks and media connections ensures that your brand is proactive, not reactive. 

The Bottom Line: 2025 is the Year to Go All In on Agency Partnerships 

This is not a year for short-term transactional agency relationships. It’s the year for deep, trust-driven collaboration that turns your agency into a high-impact strategic asset. 

CMOs and PR leaders who lean into this dynamic will: 

• Gain competitive agility in a rapidly changing media and business landscape. 

• Free up internal teams to focus on big-picture initiatives rather than day-to-day fire drills. 

• Strengthen their brand’s positioning, visibility, and authority in a crowded marketplace. 

• Drive measurable PR and marketing ROI that fuels long-term business growth. 

2025 isn’t about just getting through—it’s about dominating the conversation, leading the industry, and outpacing the competition. The right agency won’t just support you; they’ll make you unstoppable. 

The question isn’t whether you should lean on your agency—it’s whether you’re leveraging them to their full potential. 

Final Thought: A Strong Agency Partnership is Your Competitive Edge 

A well-integrated agency relationship isn’t just nice to have—it’s the ultimate power move for CMOs and PR leaders navigating 2025. Treat your agency as a true business accelerator, and they’ll help propel your brand into its next era of success. 

This is your moment to own the narrative, drive unprecedented impact, and turn challenges into opportunities—with the right agency partner by your side.