What is Idearte specialised in?

Brand strategy & positioning, Marketing strategy, Brand identity & design, Campaign concepts & big ideas, Campaign execution, Corporate communication.

Around 6 full-time equivalents (financial year 2025).

Review: Idearte

Q: Who are the clients of Idearte?

Among others DAF Trucks, BergHOFF, Jessa Ziekenhuis, GO! Next, Belgica, Provincie Limburg, Stad Maaseik, Stad Sint-Truiden, Gentoo, i.am.klean, Reslin, Assign, Avant Machinery, ITZU, Nelissen.

Idearte, opgericht in 2013, is een brandingbureau uit Sint-Truiden. Er werken ongeveer 6 mensen, uitgedrukt in voltijdse equivalenten. De opgegeven expertises zijn strategie, branding & identiteit, creatie & reclame en pr & communicatie. De ervaring zit vooral in brede kmo-clienteel; duurzame branding.

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: € 192.085 gross margin, growth -58,1% against a sector median of +6,6%.

Shrinking

MarginEBITDA / gross margin · value-added coverage

20212022202320242025

IdearteSector median

EBITDA margin -64,8%, sector median 32,2%. Value-added coverage 0,61 (median 1,29).

Loss-making

Revenue per headGross margin per FTE, against payroll cost

€ 32.014

Median (2025) € 82.809

Against a payroll cost of € 55.179 per FTE. The ratio between the two is the coverage rate above.

Below the median

Yield levelYield per hour worked, against payroll cost

€ 23

Median (2025) € 48

8.211 hours worked, 1.369 per FTE. Against that sits € 40 of payroll cost per hour worked, leaving € -17 for premises, equipment, depreciation and profit.

Below 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: 1,1 months (median 6,3 mo). Equity in the latest year: € 29.253.

Thin buffer

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

Cash € 1.013. Liquidity ratio 1,16: current assets cover short-term debt in full. Solvency 15,1%.

Tightly covered

Payment behaviourTowards suppliers and towards the NBB

Trade payables correspond to 207 days of supplier credit, sector median 68. The accounts were filed 89 days after closing; the legal deadline is seven months.

Pays slower than average

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

Points to ask about

Signals in the last 24 months

Board change · 11 Aug 2026 · Staatsblad
Appointments or resignations on the board. Routine during growth, succession or a new partner. Ask about it when several changes follow each other closely.
Low value-added coverage · 31 Dec 2025 · NBB
Every euro of payroll generates less than 95 cents of added value. That happens in a build-up year, with a lot of subcontracting, or under pressure on rates. Ask what explains it here.
Loss-making year · 31 Dec 2025 · NBB
One financial year closed at a loss. The size is not shown here: it can be a few thousand euros, a one-off settlement, or a deliberate investment. Ask the agency what was behind it.
Sharp headcount decline · 31 Dec 2025 · NBB
Average headcount fell by 15% or more in a year. That can be contraction, and just as easily a deliberate choice for fewer but more experienced people. Ask who left and who came in their place.
Thin buffer · 31 Dec 2025 · NBB
Equity covers less than three months of payroll. A limited reserve, and at many smaller agencies the normal state of affairs. Ask how the agency absorbs a setback.
Sharp drop in equity · 31 Dec 2025 · NBB
The financial reserve shrank by more than 30% over two financial years. A dividend, buying out a partner and a loss-making year all look the same here. Ask which of the three it was.

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.

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	€ 669.269	€ 584.683-12,6%	€ 499.161-14,6%	€ 458.174-8,2%	€ 192.085-58,1%
EBITDA	€ 171.017	€ -2.916	€ 38.313	€ 23.180	€ -124.547
EBITDA margin	25,6%	-0,5%	7,7%	5,1%	-64,8%
Staff
FTE	11,1	11,9+7,2%	8,9-25,2%	8,0-10,1%	6,0-25%
Gross margin per FTE	€ 60.295	€ 49.133	€ 56.086	€ 57.272	€ 32.014
Payroll cost per FTE	€ 44.882	€ 45.960	€ 49.991	€ 49.995	€ 55.179
Balance sheet
Equity	€ 146.887	€ 147.795	€ 154.102	€ 159.342	€ 29.253
Cash	€ 97.318	€ 57.052	€ 64.663	€ 102.906	€ 1.013
Liquidity ratio	1,61	1,71	1,86	1,88	1,16

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 30/03/2026. 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 7 services

Strategy & Insights

Brand strategy & positioning Marketing strategy

Branding & Design

Brand identity & design

Advertising & Campaigns

Campaign concepts & big ideas Campaign execution

PR & Reputation

Corporate communication PR strategy & media relations

Sector focus

Public sector & governmentHealth & pharmaB2B servicesAutomotive & mobilityRetail & e-commerce

Publicly known clients

DAF Trucks, BergHOFF, Jessa Ziekenhuis, GO! Next, Belgica, Provincie Limburg, Stad Maaseik, Stad Sint-Truiden, Gentoo, i.am.klean, Reslin, Assign, Avant Machinery, ITZU, Nelissen

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

1

People 10 people mapped

The heart of this team is creative: 5 of 10 profiles are makers. Within that core, Art Direction, Design and Merkstrategie stand out. There are 2 strategists around — expect thinking first, pixels second.

P

Patricia

strateeg en creative director

S

Steph

art en interior director

A

Aline

strateeg

A

Andreas

animatie

E

Erwin

grafisch techneut

JD

Jessika Derwael

client management en vormgever

L

Laura

projectmanagement

LL

Liesbeth Lenaers

vormgever en illustrator

PO

Peter Otten

PR expert

P

Philippe

branding expert

Based on public profiles. Something wrong? Let us know.

2

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

€ 55.179

-10% versus the median

Team composition

6,0 FTE

€ 55.179

Median Brandingbureau (2025) € 60.980All 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.

3

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

86,7%

Median for this type of agency (2025): 38,9%

Inflow 2025

11,7%

0,7 FTE in, 5,2 FTE out

Net team change

-4,5 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.