Review: Favorite! Agency: digital agency

Favorite! Agency is een full-service bureau. Met ongeveer 3 VTE is dit een klein bureau. Het bureau is toegespitst op paid media (sea/social/display) en webdevelopment.

ContinuityUnder pressure2,6 months of wages without income · median 2,7

littlea lot

SeniorityMixed profile€ 64.002 per FTE, € 5.334 a month · median € 57.493

juniorsenior

GrowthShrinking-38,0% gross margin versus the previous year · median 5,3%

shrinkinggrowth

ProfitabilityLoss-making-70,2% of gross margin remains as EBITDA · median 17,1%

thinample

Digitale marketing en development voor bedrijven die verder willen groeien.
Klanten:
Heeft al digitale campagnes lopen, maar vraagt zich af of de impact wel groot genoeg is of heeft een concrete webdevelopment nood
Heeft ambitie om te groeien of veranderen
Zoekt een partner, geen uitvoerende leverancier
Begrijpt de waarde van digitale marketing (hoeft hier niet van overtuigd te worden)
Heeft het budget en de mindset voor strategisch creatief werk
Heeft een concrete timing (3 à 6 maand), maar beseft dat resultaten tijd vragen.
Zelfomschreven cultuur:
Gewoon doen.
Team:
5 designers, 1 creative strateeg, 3 performance marketeers, 3 web developers, 7 marketeers, 2 content creators (ook video)

Referentieklanten: Duuf.be, Schoenen Moernaut, EXZO, Topsport, Ecoveld, Houtschop Van der Gucht
Tech stack: Shopify, Hubspot, Odoo, Drupal, Webflow, Wordpress
Gepercipieerde concurrenten: Digital Leader. Webrand. Ants.
Partners: Akira translations. Cantilis.
Ondernemingsnummer: BE 0886 694 420
Gemiddelde klantgrootte: 50k

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

202220232024

Latest year: € 137.800 gross margin, growth -38% against a sector median of +5,3%.

Shrinking

MarginEBITDA / gross margin · value-added coverage

202220232024

Favorite! AgencySector median

EBITDA margin -70,2%, sector median 17,1%. Value-added coverage 0,54 (median 1,19).

Loss-making

Revenue per headGross margin per FTE, against payroll cost

€ 41.758

Median (2024) € 70.862

Against a payroll cost of € 64.002 per FTE. The ratio between the two is the coverage rate above.

Below the median

Yield levelYield per hour worked, against payroll cost

€ 30

Median (2024) € 42

4.567 hours worked, 1.384 per FTE. Against that sits € 46 of payroll cost per hour worked, leaving € -16 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: -23,1 months (median 6,5 mo). Equity in the latest year: € -405.751.

Critical buffer

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

Cash € 45.110. Liquidity ratio 0,35: current assets cover short-term debt not in full. Solvency -165,9%.

Not covered

Payment behaviourTowards suppliers and towards the NBB

Trade payables correspond to 495 days of supplier credit, sector median 59. The accounts were filed 238 days after closing; the legal deadline is seven months.

Filed late

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

3 red flag(s) (24m)

Signals in the last 24 months

Late filing · 26 Aug 2025 · NBB
The annual accounts were filed after the statutory deadline. Over a third of the sector does this; rarely alarming in itself.
Negative equity · 31 Dec 2024 · NBB
Debts exceed assets. A serious signal: the agency is running on other people's credit.
Two consecutive loss-making years · 31 Dec 2024 · NBB
The agency closed two financial years in a row at a loss. That is structural and weighs heavier than a single bad year.
Critical buffer · 31 Dec 2024 · NBB
Equity covers less than one month of payroll. Very little reserve to absorb a setback.
Low value-added coverage · 31 Dec 2024 · NBB
Every euro of payroll generates less than 95 cents of added value. The team is not fully earning itself back.
Late filing · 4 Oct 2024 · NBB
The annual accounts were filed after the statutory deadline. Over a third of the sector does this; rarely alarming in itself.

Click a signal for a plain-language explanation.

What this agency does well

Stable team (no meaningful FTE loss)
Comfortable cash position: 78 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.

3 financial years, 2022 to 2024Result, staff and balance sheet

	2022	2023	2024
Result
Gross margin	€ 107.359	€ 222.400+107,2%	€ 137.800-38%
EBITDA	€ -78.619	€ -18.873	€ -96.798
EBITDA margin	-73,2%	-8,5%	-70,2%
Staff
FTE	2,9	3,3+13,8%	3,30%
Gross margin per FTE	€ 37.020	€ 67.394	€ 41.758
Payroll cost per FTE	€ 57.597	€ 71.525	€ 64.002
Balance sheet
Equity	€ -273.839	€ -301.430	€ -405.751
Cash	€ 37.683	€ 106.220	€ 45.110
Liquidity ratio	0,40	0,53	0,35

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 2024, filed on 26/08/2025. 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 27 Jul 2026. Sector medians based on financial year 2024: the last year for which nearly all accounts have been filed.

What the agency actually does 6 services

Media

Search advertising (SEA)

Social, Influencer & Community

Social strategy & platform mix

Digital Experience & Tech

E-commerce (incl. payment) Platform implementation (CMS, DXP, DAM, PIM) SEO & GEO Website development

Sector focus

Algemeen (B2B/B2C) in Belgie, Nederland en Luxemburg

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

€ 64.002

+11% versus the median

Team composition

3,3 VTE

56% women
44% men

€ 64.002

Median Full-service bureau (2024) € 57.493All agencies (2024) € 59.129

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 2024

60,6%

Median for this type of agency (2024): 38,9%

Inflow 2024

0,0%

0,0 FTE in, 2,0 FTE out

Net team change

-2,0 VTE

202220232024

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 2024. 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.