Review: Head Office

HeadOffice is a content marketing agency that believes attention and connection is what builds strong brands. It's mostly marketeers who like campaigns. Real people want to be moved, challenged, informed or entertained. Born and raised in editorial content, we've always seen storytelling as a means to do just that.

ContinuityUnder pressure7,2 months of wages without income

Team stabilityNot available37,2% a year, roughly 1 in 3

Seniority€ 68.763€ 68.763 per FTE, € 5.730 a month

Price level€ 48€ 48 per hour worked

- the leading content marketing agency of Friends of Cartel
- editors at heart, marketeers by choice
- everything we do is with intent. No vanity metrics.
- we bring high energy and positivity, especially when facing a challenge. And we love clients who match that mindset.

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: € 1,22 mln gross margin, growth -30,8% against a sector median of -1,3%.

Shrinking

MarginEBITDA / gross margin · value-added coverage

20212022202320242025

Head OfficeSector median

EBITDA margin 22,4%, sector median 23,3%. Value-added coverage 1,23 (median 1,29).

Healthy margin

Revenue per headGross margin per FTE, against payroll cost

€ 69.572

Against a payroll cost of € 68.763 per FTE. The ratio between the two is the coverage rate above.

No data

Yield levelYield per hour worked, against payroll cost

€ 48

25.436 hours worked, 1.453 per FTE. Against that sits € 47 of payroll cost per hour worked, leaving € 1 for premises, equipment, depreciation and profit.

No data

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: 0,1 months (median 7,2 mo). Equity in the latest year: € 13.948.

Critical buffer

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

Cash € 719.280. Liquidity ratio 0,84: current assets cover short-term debt not in full. Solvency 0,4%.

Not covered

Payment behaviourTowards suppliers and towards the NBB

Trade payables correspond to 50 days of supplier credit. The accounts were filed 204 days after closing; the legal deadline is seven months.

Pays and files on time

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

Sharp headcount decline · 31 Dec 2025 · NBB
Average headcount fell by 15% or more in a year. Often felt in the seniority on your account.
Critical buffer · 31 Dec 2025 · NBB
Equity covers less than one month of payroll. Very little reserve to absorb a setback.
Board change · 7 Nov 2025 · Staatsblad
Appointments or resignations on the board. Routine during growth or succession; watch for repeated changes.
Late filing · 2 Oct 2025 · NBB
The annual accounts were filed after the statutory deadline. Over a third of the sector does this; rarely alarming in itself.
Late filing · 2 Oct 2025 · NBB
The annual accounts were filed after the statutory deadline. Over a third of the sector does this; rarely alarming in itself.
Board change · 6 Aug 2025 · Staatsblad
Appointments or resignations on the board. Routine during growth or succession; watch for repeated changes.
+ 3 older signals within 24m

Click a signal for a plain-language explanation.

What this agency does well

Equity was earned, not injected (reserves 2,1× the capital contributed)
Comfortable cash position: 218 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	€ 2,16 mln	€ 2,23 mln+2,9%	€ 1,71 mln-23,4%	€ 1,76 mln+3,2%	€ 1,22 mln-30,8%
EBITDA	€ 460.784	€ 329.922	€ -136.602	€ 453.894	€ 272.948
EBITDA margin	21,3%	14,8%	-8%	25,8%	22,4%
Staff
FTE	26,1	27,3+4,6%	25,8-5,5%	22,8-11,6%	17,5-23,2%
Gross margin per FTE	€ 82.874	€ 81.507	€ 66.094	€ 77.170	€ 69.572
Payroll cost per FTE	€ 63.640	€ 67.599	€ 68.162	€ 68.361	€ 68.763
Balance sheet
Equity	€ 73.949	€ 193.547	€ -193.364	€ -16.863	€ 13.948
Cash	-	€ 311.000	€ 232.369	€ 191.203	€ 719.280
Liquidity ratio	-	0,86	0,81	0,83	0,84

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 23/07/2026. 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 7 Aug 2026. Sector medians based on financial year 2024: the last year for which nearly all accounts have been filed.

What the agency actually does 31 services

Strategy & Insights

Customer & audience strategy Marketing strategy

Branding & Design

Brand identity & design Storytelling & narrative

Content & Production

AR/VR & immersive content Animation, 3D & motion Audio & podcasts Content strategy & editorial Copywriting & long-form content Photography Print & AV production Social-native content Translations & localisation Video production

Media

Digital & programmatic buying Media strategy & planning Paid social Search advertising (SEA)

Social, Influencer & Community

Community management Influencer & creator marketing Organic social content Social strategy & platform mix UGC sourcing & rights

CRM, Email & Loyalty

CRM & lifecycle strategy Email marketing Loyalty programs

Data, Measurement & Governance

Dashboards & reporting Marketing operations Tracking & tag management

PR & Reputation

Corporate communication Sustainability & CSR communication

Sector focus

Retail & e-commerceFinance & insuranceHealth & pharmaTechnology & softwareFood & beverage

Publicly known clients

Federale Verzekering, Horta, A.S.Adventure, Solidaris, Zespri, Samsung, Lapperre, ICI PARIS XL, Brouwerij Haacht, Gemeente en Sociaal Huis Herent

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

1

People 4 people mapped

This team is built around client service: 2 of 4 are account & project. Within that core, Klantbeheer and Relatiebeheer stand out. A small team: short lines, little noise between you and the makers.

DM

Dorothée Mortier

Account Director

JJ

Jente Joris

Managing Director

SJ

Stijn Jacquemyn

Creative Director

VF

Valerie Fripon

Account Director

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

€ 68.763

Team composition

17,5 FTE

80% women
20% men

€ 68.763

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

55,4%

Inflow 2025

5,7%

1,0 FTE in, 9,7 FTE out

Net team change

-8,7 FTE

20212022202320242025

Source: annual accounts and social reports (NBB), collected by IKAg. Financial year 2025. Calculations by IKAg; an indication, not financial advice.