What is Phobos & Actor specialised in?

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

How big is Phobos & Actor?

Around 8 full-time equivalents (financial year 2025).

Review: Phobos & Actor

Q: Who are the clients of Phobos & Actor?

Among others Lidwina, Herbafrost, Punto Blu, Dobit, ACMP, Rijschool Otto, B'Nice & Joris IJs, Group Suerickx, In-Lease nv, DAF Trucks Vlaanderen NV, Lab9, Dicar Motorhomes, Gemeente Mol, Ciblis.

Vanuit Geel werkt Phobos & Actor sinds 2011 als brandingbureau. Er werken ongeveer 8 mensen, uitgedrukt in voltijdse equivalenten. Het aanbod bestrijkt strategie, branding & identiteit en creatie & reclame. Sectoren waar het bureau vaak werkt: breed kmo/b2b; 100+ klanten (regio antwerpen-hasselt).

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: € 500.014 gross margin, growth -24,2% against a sector median of +2,1%.

Shrinking

MarginEBITDA / gross margin · value-added coverage

20212022202320242025

Phobos & ActorSector median

EBITDA margin -4,8%, sector median 28%. Value-added coverage 0,95 (median 1,30). Value-added coverage sits in the sector-wide grey zone (0.95-1.15): context, not an alarm.

Loss-making

Revenue per headGross margin per FTE, against payroll cost

€ 60.243

Median (2024) € 78.994

Against a payroll cost of € 63.064 per FTE. The ratio between the two is the coverage rate above.

Below the median

Yield levelYield per hour worked, against payroll cost

€ 36

Median (2024) € 47

14.074 hours worked, 1.696 per FTE. Against that sits € 37 of payroll cost per hour worked, leaving € -2 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: 9,8 months (median 8,3 mo). Equity in the latest year: € 427.328.

Adequate buffer

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

Cash € 247.337. Liquidity ratio 2,24: current assets cover short-term debt in full. Solvency 62,3%.

Amply covered

Payment behaviourTowards suppliers and towards the NBB

Trade payables correspond to 87 days of supplier credit, sector median 74. The accounts were filed 201 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

No serious signals

Signals in the last 24 months

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.
Late filing · 11 Sep 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.
Late filing · 2 Oct 2024 · 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

Strong buffer: 9,8 months of payroll in equity
Healthy working capital (current ratio 2,24)
Comfortable cash position: 172 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	€ 649.086	€ 684.717+5,5%	€ 650.381-5%	€ 659.432+1,4%	€ 500.014-24,2%
EBITDA	€ 96.027	€ 117.403	€ 64.679	€ 117.553	€ -23.933
EBITDA margin	14,8%	17,1%	9,9%	17,8%	-4,8%
Staff
FTE	11,0	10,0-9,1%	9,9-1%	9,1-8,1%	8,3-8,8%
Gross margin per FTE	€ 59.008	€ 68.472	€ 65.695	€ 72.465	€ 60.243
Payroll cost per FTE	€ 50.176	€ 56.634	€ 59.107	€ 59.444	€ 63.064
Balance sheet
Equity	€ 574.762	€ 630.809	€ 506.236	€ 550.850	€ 427.328
Cash	€ 220.611	€ 285.206	€ 161.089	€ 169.091	€ 247.337
Liquidity ratio	3,10	3,54	2,78	3,49	2,24

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 20/07/2026. 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 21 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 5 services

Strategy & Insights

Brand strategy & positioning Marketing strategy

Branding & Design

Brand identity & design

Advertising & Campaigns

Campaign concepts & big ideas Campaign execution

Sector focus

Public sector & governmentAutomotive & mobility

Publicly known clients

Lidwina, Herbafrost, Punto Blu, Dobit, ACMP, Rijschool Otto, B'Nice & Joris IJs, Group Suerickx, In-Lease nv, DAF Trucks Vlaanderen NV, Lab9, Dicar Motorhomes, Gemeente Mol, Ciblis

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

1

People 11 people mapped

Digital marketing is the engine: 4 of 11 profiles sit there. Within that core, Content Marketing, Social Media and Marketing Automation stand out. Notably, no declared strategists in sight — this agency would rather make than philosophise.

CV

Carlo van Tichelen

Zaakvoerder & Strateeg

AD

An Daems

Projectmanager

AW

Ann Winderickx

Grafisch Designer

GE

Guido Evens

Operations Manager

HA

Heidi Anceau

Grafisch Designer

JS

Jasper Sijmons

Online Marketeer

KC

Kristine Corthout

Administratief Medewerker

LG

Laure Goeminne

Social Media Expert

LV

Lien Van de Sande

Content Marketeer

MJ

Marlies Janssens

Marketing Automation Expert

TB

Tinne Boen

Projectmanager

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

€ 63.064

+10% versus the median

Team composition

8,3 FTE

86% women
14% men

€ 63.064

Median Brandingbureau (2024) € 57.393All agencies (2024) € 59.045

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

45,8%

Median for this type of agency (2024): 33,9%

Inflow 2025

21,7%

1,8 FTE in, 3,8 FTE out

Net team change

-2,0 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 2024: the last year for which nearly all accounts have been filed.