A new consultancy has launched to help UK agencies do something most are finding harder than ever: grow profitably.
Two Engines is the venture of agency leaders Mark Varley (left) and Nick Hussey (right), combining over four decades of frontline experience across media, digital, creative and founder-led agency businesses. It launches at a moment when the pressures on agencies have rarely been more acute. Margins are tightening, pipelines are inconsistent, leadership teams are stretched, and the commercial models that built many agencies are now showing their age.
Two pressures are accelerating all of this: the rapid adoption of AI across the sector, which is reshaping delivery models faster than most agencies have adapted their commercial structures to accommodate; and a fundamental shift in what clients expect to pay for, moving away from output-based remuneration and towards commercial arrangements centred on results and outcomes.
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Two Engines is built on a simple but underserved insight, the pair say: Most agencies are running hard on one engine. Growth and commercial discipline are treated as separate problems, addressed separately, if they are addressed at all. The result is a sector in which revenue growth and profit growth have become increasingly disconnected, and founders find themselves working harder for returns that do not reflect the effort.
The Two Engines model brings both into alignment. Varley leads on growth: Positioning, proposition, talent, new business strategy, and client development. Hussey leads on commercial: P&L management, margin recovery, operational governance, and forecasting discipline. Together, they work alongside agency leadership teams at the moments that matter most. When growth has plateaued, when margins are eroding, when AI is disrupting existing delivery models, or when a business is preparing for its next stage, whether that means scaling, attracting investment, or building towards an exit.
A particular focus of the Two Engines model is helping agencies navigate “the shift from output-based to outcomes-centred commercial models.” Clients are increasingly demanding remuneration structures that reflect results, not hours. Agencies that can make this transition confidently, with a proposition clear enough to justify outcome-based pricing and a commercial structure robust enough to protect margin while doing so, will be significantly better positioned for the next phase of the market.
The model is deliberately flexible, but every engagement begins in the same place: a Pre-Flight Diagnostic that identifies the three biggest levers for immediate EBITDA improvement, before anything else moves.
“Most agencies we speak to know something isn’t working. Revenue is up but margin isn’t following. The founder is still the bottleneck. New business lurches rather than flows. And now there are two further pressures sitting on top of all of that: AI is reshaping how the work gets done, and clients are shifting what they expect to pay for. These aren’t isolated problems. They all point to the same underlying need: a business that has the commercial clarity and operational structure to grow on its own terms. That’s what Two Engines is built to provide,” said co-founder Nick Hussey, whose career spans senior roles at some of the UK’s most respected agencies, including Mother London, McCann Manchester and Rise at Seven, where he scaled the business to 102 staff across the UK and US, delivering improved gross profit and exceptional EBITDA.
Fellow co-founder Varley, a veteran of senior roles at WPP and Havas, added: “The agencies that will navigate the next few years well, are the ones that know exactly what they are worth. That clarity is what lets you use AI as an advantage rather than a threat. It is what gives you the confidence to move from charging for outputs to being remunerated for outcomes. And it is what turns a good agency into a great business. Getting there is the work. That is what we do.”
