I've spent almost 20 years inside agencies.
I know where profit goes.
Most agencies don't fail because they lack clients - they fail because they don't know if they can deliver what they've promised. Deadlines slip, freelancers are pulled in at a premium, and profit disappears before anyone notices.
Kate Bridge, BA (Hons) Dunelm DipM
Founder, Mission: Purple Ltd
Most agencies I work with aren't in trouble. Revenue is coming in. Clients are happy. But look closer - at the projects overrunning by a week or two, the freelance spend that keeps creeping, the retainer hours that quietly accumulated without anyone formally agreeing to them - and there's usually a significant gap between what the agency is delivering and what it's being paid for.
I started Mission: Purple because I've seen that gap from the inside; as an account director, a programme lead, and as SVP of Operations for a global agency. I know how it develops, why it persists, and how to close it without disrupting the work or the team.
When I started consulting, I did what most ops consultants do; I went into agencies, found the problems, and presented the findings. The work was accurate. But I kept noticing the same thing. The most valuable moment wasn't the findings. It was the conversation afterwards, when we stopped talking about what was wrong and started talking about what the agency was actually trying to become.
That's what I've built Mission: Purple around. Starting with the destination - the specific operating model of the agency you want to run - and working from there. It gets to the value faster, and it means every stage of the work produces something genuinely useful rather than just a list of things that need fixing.
Our philosophy:
Design the destination before you diagnose the problem.
Most operational work starts by looking at what's broken. We start by designing where you want to get to - because without a clear destination, any fix is just a patch.Profit is an operational outcome, not just a finance metric.
Every decision in scoping, pricing, capacity planning, and delivery affects margin. We help agencies understand that commercially - not as a finance exercise, but as part of how they deliver every day.New processes only stick when the people using them understand why.
Implementation that doesn't bring the team with it reverts within weeks. Every stage of our work accounts for the human side of operational change - not as a separate discipline, but as part of how we buildThe smallest changes, done in the right order, have the biggest impact.
We don't believe in large-scale transformation programmes. The right changes, sequenced correctly, consistently outperform comprehensive overhauls the team can't absorb.
Who we work with
- Agencies ready to invest in operational improvement without necessarily hiring more people.
- Marketing, digital, and creative agencies - typically 10 to 40 people - where the business has grown but the operation hasn't kept up.
Testimonials
Kate plays a critical role in keeping operations and programmes running smoothly, efficiently and effectively. It is easy to take this for granted - because you know that Kate is at the controls and you have complete trust in her abilities.
Shaun
The Craft Consulting
[Their] dedication to developing and implementing best-practice processes significantly improved efficiency and effectiveness across multiple areas of the business
Aimée
Agent3
The attention to detail, dedication to the tasks and the relationships built with customers is second to none