What is Spike specialised in?

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

Around 2 full-time equivalents (financial year 2025).

Review: Spike

Spike is een creatief bureau met thuisbasis in Ukkel, opgericht in 1998. Het team telt ongeveer 2 medewerkers (VTE). De focus ligt op creatie & reclame, strategie, branding & identiteit en paid media (sea/social/display). Het zwaartepunt ligt bij opdrachtgevers uit brede merkactivatie.

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: € 273.943 gross margin, growth -0,6% against a sector median of -0,2%.

Growing slower than the sector

MarginEBITDA / gross margin · value-added coverage

20212022202320242025

SpikeSector median

EBITDA margin 46,8%, sector median 21,9%. Value-added coverage 1,90 (median 1,23).

Healthy margin

Revenue per headGross margin per FTE, against payroll cost

€ 119.105

Median (2024) € 72.309

Against a payroll cost of € 62.156 per FTE. The ratio between the two is the coverage rate above.

Above the median

Yield levelYield per hour worked, against payroll cost

€ 69

Median (2024) € 45

3.997 hours worked, 1.738 per FTE. Against that sits € 36 of payroll cost per hour worked, leaving € 33 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: 50,4 months (median 7,7 mo). Equity in the latest year: € 600.466.

Adequate buffer

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

Cash € 28.203. Liquidity ratio 2,94: current assets cover short-term debt in full. Solvency 69,2%.

Amply covered

Payment behaviourTowards suppliers and towards the NBB

Trade payables correspond to 92 days of supplier credit, sector median 74. The accounts were filed 166 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

No signals in the last 24 months.

What this agency does well

EBITDA margin above the sector median (46,8%)
Profitable in every one of the last 5 years
Strong buffer: 50,4 months of payroll in equity
Value-added per euro of payroll above the sector median (1,90)
No warning signals in the last 24 months
Margin per hour worked rose 3 years in a row
Healthy working capital (current ratio 2,94)
Equity was earned, not injected (reserves 13,5× the capital contributed)
Comfortable cash position: 72 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	€ 250.472	€ 351.849+40,5%	€ 334.146-5%	€ 275.650-17,5%	€ 273.943-0,6%
EBITDA	€ 102.872	€ 99.720	€ 71.367	€ 59.189	€ 128.088
EBITDA margin	41,1%	28,3%	21,4%	21,5%	46,8%
Staff
FTE	3,6	4,9+36,1%	3,8-22,4%	3,3-13,2%	2,3-30,3%
Gross margin per FTE	€ 69.575	€ 71.806	€ 87.933	€ 83.530	€ 119.105
Payroll cost per FTE	€ 60.925	€ 51.330	€ 68.507	€ 61.095	€ 62.156
Balance sheet
Equity	€ 496.146	€ 530.614	€ 540.109	€ 546.972	€ 600.466
Cash	€ 18.230	€ 110.533	€ 54.866	€ 106.369	€ 28.203
Liquidity ratio	2,21	2,31	1,95	2,39	2,94

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 15/06/2026. 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 2024: 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

Media

Paid social Search advertising (SEA)

Sector focus

Brede merkactivatie

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

€ 62.156

+0% versus the median

Team composition

2,3 FTE

€ 62.156

Median Creatief bureau (2024) € 61.920All agencies (2024) € 59.021

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

43,5%

Median for this type of agency (2024): 32,5%

Inflow 2025

/

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.