For years, agency leaders have aspired to become indispensable strategic partners to their clients, unlocking more fulfilling and profitable relationships through deeper trust and collaboration.
However, the agency landscape in 2025 is more challenging than ever. Winning new business remains the single biggest struggle for most firms, profitability margins are under intense strain and one in three agencies made redundancies last year as client spending slowed. These mounting pressures make it essential for teams to strengthen their strategic thinking and commercial nous, enabling them to confidently engage with client leadership on their true business growth drivers.
While many founders and senior leaders are adept at building this level of trust, scaling these skills across the wider agency team remains difficult as an agency expands.
At Open Velocity, we believe training is core to the solution. Providing staff with proven frameworks and skills prepares them to tackle industry complexities, guide clients strategically and confidently take on more consultative responsibilities. This empowers agencies to progress their top talent from channel-specific roles to ones that influence client growth at a higher level.
In turn, these enhanced capabilities pave the way for stronger, longer-lasting client relationships and create more opportunities for upselling and cross-selling. In times when acquiring new business is especially tough, the ability to deliver more value to existing clients has never been more vital.
That’s precisely why Open Velocity is committed to practical, actionable training that empowers agency teams to step up and play a more strategic role with every client. And for those ready to make this shift, there’s an immediate opportunity: as part of Leeds Digital Festival, our upcoming Strategy Skills Accelerator Workshop is designed to help agency and in-house marketers build the confidence, commercial insight and strategic toolkit needed to thrive in today’s tougher landscape.
What you’ll learn
This workshop focuses on the foundational marketing concept of competitive advantage and how to deeply understand and leverage what sets your organisation or your client apart.
Here’s what you can expect:
- Understand competitive context:
Discover why it’s essential for agencies and marketers to know how to analyse and use the concept of competitive landscape and how this knowledge unlocks winning strategies. - Customer mapping & insight:
Learn practical techniques to map customer needs and motivations, going beyond surface-level demographics to identify what truly drives decision-making. - Business capability assessment:
Assess your business or client’s strengths, weaknesses and unique capabilities, then compare these with competitors to spot where your edge lies in the market. - Articulate strategic value:
Gain the confidence to communicate insights and recommendations to stakeholders with authority, showing that you offer not just execution but informed, strategic thinking. - Build credibility & trust:
Position yourself as a valuable partner in growth by contextualising advice within the client, business and market realities, strengthening relationships based on expertise and trust.
Why attend?
- Hands-on, practical learning:
Apply what you learn immediately through practical frameworks and real-world scenarios. - Step change in conversations:
Move from tactical meetings to strategic dialogues that position you as a trusted advisor not just a service provider. - Lay the groundwork for growth:
Build the capabilities to drive longer-term planning, secure bigger budgets and deliver measurable impact.
Who should attend?
Anyone who wants to better understand strategic marketing and better communicate with senior stakeholders, and specifically:
- Agency teams (from account managers up to founders/owners)
- In-house marketers seeking to make a greater strategic impact
- Anyone eager to move beyond tactical delivery and into real business partnership
Join us at Leeds Digital Festival and unlock the skills to stand out, support your clients or business at a higher level and accelerate your journey to becoming a true strategic leader in marketing.
Agenda
| Time | Description |
| 12:00 – 12:10 | Introduction and set up |
| 12:10 – 12:25 | Marketing strategy and how it drives growth – focused on how to create competitive advantage using frameworks and practical techniques |
| 12:25 – 12:35 | Break out groups – applying frameworks to your live business challenges |
| 12:35 – 12:45 | Review session |
| 12:45 – 13:00 | Wrap up and Q&A |
Book your place now! Click here for tickets.
