What is Big Return specialised in?

AI & innovation strategy, Brand strategy & positioning, Customer & audience strategy, Brand identity & design, Product & service design, Campaign concepts & big ideas.

How big is Big Return?

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

Review: Big Return

Big Return is al ruim twintig jaar actief als performance- & mediabureau uit Nivelles. De opgegeven expertises zijn creatie & reclame, mediaplanning & -buying, data & analytics en paid media (sea/social/display). Tot de publiek bekende klanten behoren Acerta en Schmidt.

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: € 90.417 gross margin, growth +47,4% against a sector median of +5,3%.

At or above sector pace

MarginEBITDA / gross margin · value-added coverage

20212022202320242025

Big ReturnSector median

EBITDA margin 47%, sector median 28%. Value-added coverage 1,91 (median 1,23).

Healthy margin

Revenue per headGross margin per FTE, against payroll cost

€ 56.510

Median (2025) € 76.236

Against a payroll cost of € 29.038 per FTE. The ratio between the two is the coverage rate above.

Below the median

Yield levelYield per hour worked, against payroll cost

€ 43

Median (2025) € 47

2.117 hours worked, 1.323 per FTE. Against that sits € 22 of payroll cost per hour worked, leaving € 21 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: 22,8 months (median 6,3 mo). Equity in the latest year: € 88.396.

Adequate buffer

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

Cash € 30.872. Liquidity ratio 2,31: current assets cover short-term debt in full. Solvency 54,1%.

Amply covered

Payment behaviourTowards suppliers and towards the NBB

Trade payables correspond to 182 days of supplier credit, sector median 63. The accounts were filed 212 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

Zichtbaarheid verschoven · 1 Nov 2026 · Google Autocomplete
Zichtbaarheid verschoven · 1 Nov 2026 · Google Autocomplete
Zichtbaarheid verschoven · 1 Oct 2026 · Google Autocomplete
Zichtbaarheid verschoven · 1 Oct 2026 · Google Autocomplete
Zichtbaarheid verschoven · 1 Sep 2026 · Google Autocomplete
Zichtbaarheid verschoven · 1 Sep 2026 · Google Autocomplete
+ 3 older signals within 24m

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

Gross margin grew 3 years in a row
EBITDA margin above the sector median (47,0%)
Profitable in every one of the last 5 years
Strong buffer: 22,8 months of payroll in equity
Team grew (+60,0% FTE in the latest year)
Value-added per euro of payroll above the sector median (1,91)
Margin per hour worked rose 2 years in a row
Healthy working capital (current ratio 2,31)
Equity was earned, not injected (reserves 3,8× the capital contributed)
Comfortable cash position: 243 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	€ 32.838	€ 22.590-31,2%	€ 58.929+160,9%	€ 61.353+4,1%	€ 90.417+47,4%
EBITDA	€ 31.520	€ 21.148	€ 30.581	€ 23.680	€ 42.460
EBITDA margin	96%	93,6%	51,9%	38,6%	47%
Staff
FTE	-	-	1,3	1,0-23,1%	1,6+60%
Gross margin per FTE	-	-	€ 45.330	€ 61.353	€ 56.510
Payroll cost per FTE	-	-	€ 21.023	€ 37.068	€ 29.038
Balance sheet
Equity	€ 54.474	€ 60.411	€ 66.956	€ 72.256	€ 88.396
Cash	€ 7.300	€ 22.564	€ 49.831	€ 27.067	€ 30.872
Liquidity ratio	1,24	1,47	1,56	1,67	2,31

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 31/07/2026. 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 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 29 services

Strategy & Insights

AI & innovation strategy Brand strategy & positioning Customer & audience strategy

Branding & Design

Brand identity & design Product & service design

Advertising & Campaigns

Campaign concepts & big ideas Campaign execution Performance creative & DCO

Content & Production

Content strategy & editorial

Media

Digital & programmatic buying Media strategy & planning Offline buying (TV, radio, print, OOH) Search advertising (SEA)

Social, Influencer & Community

Organic social content Social strategy & platform mix

Digital Experience & Tech

E-commerce (incl. payment) Mobile apps & PWAs SEO & GEO Website development Website strategy & UX

CRM, Email & Loyalty

CRM & lifecycle strategy Direct marketing & lead management Marketing automation

Data, Measurement & Governance

Dashboards & reporting Data science & analytics (incl. predictive modelling)

PR & Reputation

Corporate communication

Events, Sponsoring & Activation

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

Sector focus

Sectoragnostisch, data-driven performance marketing en media-aankoop. Belgische tak van Frans netwerk BIG Success (Brussel/Antwerpen/Luik), ca. 15 medewerkers.

From our own research. The agency hasn't listed its sectors yet.

Publicly known clients

AcertaSchmidt

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

1

People 1 people mapped

CU

Christophe Urvoy

DG BIG Return

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

€ 29.038

-54% versus the median

Team composition

1,6 FTE

€ 29.038

Median Performance- & mediabureau (2025) € 62.495All 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

62,5%

Median for this type of agency (2025): 25,1%

Inflow 2025

68,8%

1,1 FTE in, 1,0 FTE out

Net team change

+0,1 FTE

202320242025

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.