What is D-side specialised in?

Packaging design, Campaign concepts & big ideas, Campaign execution, Influencer & creator marketing, Organic social content, Social strategy & platform mix.

Around 25 full-time equivalents (financial year 2025).

Who are the clients of D-side?

Among others Brussels Airport, ACI World/Europe.

Review: D-side

D-side is al ruim twintig jaar actief als eventbureau uit Evere. Het team telt ongeveer 28 medewerkers (VTE). Ze werken rond crm & marketing automation, events, pr & communicatie en social media. Tot de publiek bekende klanten behoren Brussels Airport en ACI World/Europe.

Awards

2× BEA Awards

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: € 2,89 mln gross margin, growth -8,3% against a sector median of -8,9%.

Shrinking

MarginEBITDA / gross margin · value-added coverage

20212022202320242025

D-sideSector median

EBITDA margin 55,6%, sector median 36,2%. Value-added coverage 2,06 (median 1,50).

Healthy margin

Revenue per headGross margin per FTE, against payroll cost

€ 114.298

Median (2025) € 92.992

Against a payroll cost of € 59.904 per FTE. The ratio between the two is the coverage rate above.

Above the median

Yield levelYield per hour worked, against payroll cost

€ 72

Median (2025) € 56

40.054 hours worked, 1.583 per FTE. Against that sits € 38 of payroll cost per hour worked, leaving € 34 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: 30,1 months (median 9,8 mo). Equity in the latest year: € 3,80 mln.

Adequate buffer

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

Cash € 802.119. Liquidity ratio 1,63: current assets cover short-term debt in full. Solvency 28,4%.

Amply covered

Payment behaviourTowards suppliers and towards the NBB

Trade payables correspond to 91 days of supplier credit, sector median 87. The accounts were filed 293 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

Late filing · 20 Oct 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.
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

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 (55,6%)
Profitable in every one of the last 5 years
Strong buffer: 30,1 months of payroll in equity
Value-added per euro of payroll above the sector median (2,06)
Healthy working capital (current ratio 1,63)
Comfortable cash position: 193 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	€ 2,40 mln	€ 3,21 mln+33,8%	€ 3,15 mln-1,7%	€ 3,15 mln+0,1%	€ 2,89 mln-8,3%
EBITDA	€ 819.241	€ 1,14 mln	€ 1,32 mln	€ 1,84 mln	€ 1,61 mln
EBITDA margin	34,2%	35,4%	42%	58,4%	55,6%
Staff
FTE	30,6	32,8+7,2%	30,0-8,5%	28,3-5,7%	25,3-10,6%
Gross margin per FTE	€ 78.330	€ 97.746	€ 105.016	€ 111.478	€ 114.298
Payroll cost per FTE	€ 58.861	€ 68.596	€ 67.279	€ 56.555	€ 59.904
Balance sheet
Equity	€ 1,90 mln	€ 2,45 mln	€ 1,78 mln	€ 2,87 mln	€ 3,80 mln
Cash	€ 1,58 mln	€ 464.648	€ 468.767	€ 2,36 mln	€ 802.119
Liquidity ratio	1,62	1,86	1,65	2,00	1,63

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 20/10/2026. 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 2 Nov 2026. Sector medians based on financial year 2025: the last year for which nearly all accounts have been filed.

What the agency actually does 15 services

Branding & Design

Packaging design

Advertising & Campaigns

Campaign concepts & big ideas Campaign execution

Social, Influencer & Community

Influencer & creator marketing Organic social content Social strategy & platform mix

CRM, Email & Loyalty

CRM & lifecycle strategy Direct marketing & lead management Marketing automation

PR & Reputation

Corporate communication PR strategy & media relations

Employer Brand & Internal

Internal communication

Events, Sponsoring & Activation

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

Sector focus

Automotive & mobilityFinance & insuranceReal estate & constructionEnergy & utilitiesTravel & hospitality

Publicly known clients

Brussels AirportACI World/Europe

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

€ 59.904

-4% versus the median

Team composition

25,3 FTE

53% women
47% men

€ 59.904

Median Eventbureau (2025) € 62.258All agencies (2025) € 62.294

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 2025

78,3%

Median for this type of agency (2025): 47,2%

Inflow 2025

71,9%

18,2 FTE in, 19,8 FTE out

Net team change

-1,6 FTE

20212022202320242025

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 2025: the last year for which nearly all accounts have been filed.

Award-winning work 2 award(s)

2021

BEA Awards GoldInstitutional Events · “We are Events (Stay Safe Events)” · source ↗
BEA Awards GoldB2E Events · “Ontex 40th Anniversary” · source ↗

As published by the organising award shows, collected by IKAg.