What is Black is blue specialised in?

Packaging design, Campaign concepts & big ideas, Campaign execution, CRM & lifecycle strategy, Direct marketing & lead management, Marketing automation.

How big is Black is blue?

Around 1 full-time equivalent (financial year 2025).

Review: Black is blue

Black is blue is een eventbureau met thuisbasis in Waterloo, opgericht in 2006. Het bureau combineert crm & marketing automation, events, creatie & reclame en branding & identiteit.

1

How this agency makes money

Revenue, margin and what an hour of work brings in. Everything on the earning side sits together here.

Revenue trendgross margin per financial year

20212022202320242025

Latest year: € 173.161 gross margin, growth -48,8% against a sector median of +12,8%.

Shrinking

MarginEBITDA / gross margin · value-added coverage

20212022202320242025

Black is blueSector median

EBITDA margin 58,6%, sector median 46,6%. Value-added coverage 2,45 (median 1,64).

Healthy margin

Revenue per headGross margin per FTE, against payroll cost

€ 173.161

Median (2024) € 92.849

Against a payroll cost of € 63.577 per FTE. The ratio between the two is the coverage rate above.

Above the median

Yield levelYield per hour worked, against payroll cost

€ 100

Median (2024) € 54

1.724 hours worked, 1.724 per FTE. Against that sits € 37 of payroll cost per hour worked, leaving € 64 for premises, equipment, depreciation and profit.

Above the median

No hourly rate follows from this. Gross margin is already net of services and sundry goods, which mixes rebilled production with the agency's own overhead, and the accounts do not say how many hours were billable. Deriving a rate from this systematically understates it.

2

Can the agency take a hit

Buffer, cash position and payment behaviour side by side, so you can see where they disagree.

Bufferequity in months of payroll

Buffer: 48,5 months (median 11,8 mo). Equity in the latest year: € 282.994.

Adequate buffer

Cash positionAvailable cash, and whether it covers short-term debt

Cash € 61.323. Liquidity ratio 3,42: current assets cover short-term debt in full. Solvency 72,9%.

Amply covered

Payment behaviourTowards suppliers and towards the NBB

Trade payables correspond to 17 days of supplier credit, sector median 100. The accounts were filed 240 days after closing; the legal deadline is seven months.

Filed late

3

Signals and strengths

Events from the CBE and the Official Gazette over the past 24 months, plus positive markers derived from the figures.

Continuity

No serious signals

Signals in the last 24 months

Zichtbaarheid verschoven · 1 Sep 2026 · Google Autocomplete
Zichtbaarheid verschoven · 1 Sep 2026 · Google Autocomplete
Zichtbaarheid verschoven · 1 Aug 2026 · Google Autocomplete
Zichtbaarheid verschoven · 1 Aug 2026 · Google Autocomplete
Late filing · 28 May 2026 · NBB
The annual accounts were filed after the statutory deadline. Over a third of the sector does this, usually because of the accountant's calendar. Rarely a story in itself.
Late filing · 28 May 2025 · NBB
The annual accounts were filed after the statutory deadline. Over a third of the sector does this, usually because of the accountant's calendar. Rarely a story in itself.

Click a signal for a plain-language explanation. Each signal is a fact from a public source, without the agency's own context. Best to ask them directly.

What this agency does well

EBITDA margin above the sector median (58,6%)
Strong buffer: 48,5 months of payroll in equity
Stable team (no meaningful FTE loss)
Value-added per euro of payroll above the sector median (2,45)
Healthy working capital (current ratio 3,42)
Equity was earned, not injected (reserves 2,6× the capital contributed)
Comfortable cash position: 352 days of payroll

Each point is a fact from the filed annual accounts, measured against the same thresholds and sector medians as the signals above.

4

All the figures

Reference material, not a starting point. Expand it if you want to read the series yourself.

5 financial years, 2021 to 2025Result, staff and balance sheet

	2021	2022	2023	2024	2025
Result
Gross margin	€ 40.715	€ 41.067+0,9%	€ 223.856+445,1%	€ 337.932+51%	€ 173.161-48,8%
EBITDA	€ 15.470	€ -190.246	€ 146.086	€ 273.607	€ 101.451
EBITDA margin	38%	-	65,3%	81%	58,6%
Staff
FTE	-	2,2	1,0-54,5%	1,00%	1,00%
Gross margin per FTE	-	€ 18.667	€ 223.856	€ 337.932	€ 173.161
Payroll cost per FTE	-	€ 20.031	€ 55.707	€ 61.375	€ 63.577
Balance sheet
Equity	€ -592	€ -26.480	€ 105.526	€ 256.284	€ 282.994
Cash	€ 63.226	€ 32.623	€ 48.467	€ 165.768	€ 61.323
Liquidity ratio	2,41	0,95	3,75	2,28	3,42

Payroll cost per FTE comes from the social report where available, otherwise from the Remuneration line. Both are gross costs including employer contributions.

What this factsheet does not know

How good the work is. Figures do not measure creativity, strategy or chemistry.
How the client portfolio is spread. Concentration is not in the accounts.
Freelancers and subcontractors are not in the FTE figures. An agency with 40 staff may in practice run with 70 people.
The figures cover financial year 2025, filed on 28/05/2026. At a fast-moving agency reality today may differ.

Based on publicly filed annual accounts (NBB) and official records (CBE, Belgian Official Gazette). An indication, not financial advice. Sector medians calculated on 14 Sep 2026. Sector medians based on financial year 2024: the last year for which nearly all accounts have been filed.

What the agency actually does 10 services

Branding & Design

Packaging design

Advertising & Campaigns

Campaign concepts & big ideas Campaign execution

CRM, Email & Loyalty

CRM & lifecycle strategy Direct marketing & lead management Marketing automation

PR & Reputation

Corporate communication

Events, Sponsoring & Activation

Brand activation (incl. guerrilla) Events & experiences Sponsorship & partnerships

Sector focus

Algemeen B2B/B2C, breed dienstenpakket (branding, packaging, events, print); geen duidelijke sectorniche gevonden. Waterloo (opgericht 2005).

From our own research. The agency hasn't listed its sectors yet.

Based on IKAg research and public sources. Incomplete or outdated? Let us know.

1

Seniors or juniors?

Payroll cost per FTE is the best public proxy for a team's experience level. Higher is not automatically better, but it says something about who sits at the table.

Payroll cost per FTE

€ 63.577

+12% versus the median

Team composition

1,0 FTE

€ 63.577

Median Eventbureau (2024) € 56.686All agencies (2024) € 59.069

Read with care. Directors and partners invoicing through a management company are not in the payroll cost. At small agencies this skews the picture downwards considerably.

2

Will your team stay?

Inflow and outflow from the social report. This series only counts people on the payroll: freelancers who invoice do not appear in it. A low figure therefore means two very different things, a stable permanent team or a small core with heavy outsourcing. A high figure usually points to short contracts. Compare only within the same type of agency.

Exits 2022

90,9%

Median for this type of agency (2024): 47,2%

Inflow 2022

/

2022202320242025

Figures for financial year 2022: in 2025 this agency published no inflow or outflow.

Exits are clearly above what is usual for this type of agency. That may reflect project-based staffing, but it is a reason to ask in the pitch how much of the proposed team was already here two years ago, and to contractually fix your permanent contacts.

Source: annual accounts and social reports (NBB), collected by IKAg. Financial year 2025. Calculations by IKAg; an indication, not financial advice. Sector medians based on financial year 2024: the last year for which nearly all accounts have been filed.