# Do I need a specialist agency for B2B, pharma, retail or public sector?

**Short answer.** Only where the rules drive the work. Pharma and public sector carry their own legislation and procedures that a generalist learns at your expense; in B2B and retail you are mostly buying audience knowledge, and that can be briefed.

The answer differs per sector, and the dividing line is always the same: do the rules drive the work, or does the audience? In the first case a specialist pays off, in the second it can be briefed.

## Pharma: yes, a specialist

Here regulation determines what may be said, to whom, and with what approval. A generalist learns that at your expense and at your risk. Ask which approval procedures they know, and who does the medical and regulatory check on their side.

## Public sector: yes, for a different reason

It is not the creative that differs but the procedure. Public assignments run through tenders with formal criteria, deadlines and award rules. An agency that knows that procedure does not lose a bid on a technicality, and that happens more often than you would think. Ask which framework agreements they are on.

## Retail: usually not

What you buy here is pace and volume: many executions, short lead times, strong production. That is a matter of organisation, not sector knowledge. Ask about their production capacity and how they get through a week with fifty amendments, not about retail cases.

## B2B: not the industry, the audience

The real question is whether the agency can write and think for a technical or professional buyer with a long decision path and several decision makers. That skill travels: whoever can do it for machinery can do it for software. Ask for work on complex purchases, whatever the sector.

## What holds in all four cases

Sector specialists almost by definition also serve your competitors. Ask which ones, and how they organise separation. And weigh that an agency knowing your market inside out also applies that market's conventions inside out. If you want to stand out, that is a drawback.

On the factsheets you can [browse by sector](https://www.ikag.be/en/factsheets/sectoren) and cross sector with expertise, so you get "digital agencies with pharma experience" instead of one or the other.

See also: [which agency fits your sector](https://www.ikag.be/en/factsheets/faq/welk-bureau-past-bij-mijn-sector) and [should I pitch or award directly](https://www.ikag.be/en/factsheets/faq/pitchen-of-onderhands-gunnen).

## Related questions

- [Which agency fits my sector?](https://www.ikag.be/en/factsheets/faq/welk-bureau-past-bij-mijn-sector): Sector experience helps with regulation and hurts distinctiveness: an agency serving five players in your market knows the rules and has already applied them five times. Search by sector in the factsheets.
- [How do I know whether an agency has experience in my sector?](https://www.ikag.be/en/factsheets/faq/ervaring-in-mijn-sector): Do not ask whether they have experience but who they served, when, and who from that team is still there. The factsheets list stated sectors and reference clients per agency, and you can browse by sector.
- [Should I run a pitch or can I award the work directly?](https://www.ikag.be/en/factsheets/faq/pitchen-of-onderhands-gunnen): Pitch if you do not know the market, or if the assignment is big enough to justify weeks of work by three teams. If you already know the candidate and the amount is modest, a paid trial assignment is fairer and faster.

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IKAg is the business consultant for marketing and agencies in Belgium and the Netherlands. Market figures come from the Agency Barometer, calculated on the annual accounts agencies filed with the National Bank themselves. Figures on pitches and satisfaction come from IKAg-guided processes, and are always presented as such.

- All questions: https://www.ikag.be/en/factsheets/faq
- Last updated: 2026-08-19