Review: Media Architect

Media Architect is een full-service bureau met thuisbasis in Antwerpen. Er werken ongeveer 12 mensen, uitgedrukt in voltijdse equivalenten. De dienstverlening draait om paid media (sea/social/display) en creatie & reclame. De klanten komen vooral uit kmo's / lokale ondernemingen (antwerpse regio).

ContinuitySolid3,8 months of wages without income · median 2,7

littlea lot

Team stabilityHigh churn51,6% a year, roughly 1 in 2 · median 33,9%

stablea lot

SeniorityMixed profile€ 55.046 per FTE, € 4.587 a month · median € 57.493

juniorsenior

Price levelMarket rate€ 52 per hour worked · median € 43

keentop

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: € 1,04 mln gross margin, growth -13,8% against a sector median of +3,1%.

Shrinking

MarginEBITDA / gross margin · value-added coverage

20212022202320242025

Media ArchitectSector median

EBITDA margin 38,4%, sector median 16,3%. Value-added coverage 1,63 (median 1,18).

Healthy margin

Revenue per headGross margin per FTE, against payroll cost

€ 90.837

Median (2024) € 73.245

Against a payroll cost of € 55.046 per FTE. The ratio between the two is the coverage rate above.

Above the median

Yield levelYield per hour worked, against payroll cost

€ 52

Median (2024) € 43

20.125 hours worked, 1.750 per FTE. Against that sits € 31 of payroll cost per hour worked, leaving € 20 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: 12,5 months (median 5,5 mo). Equity in the latest year: € 659.145.

Adequate buffer

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

Cash € 200.688. Liquidity ratio 2,04: current assets cover short-term debt in full. Solvency 51,9%.

Amply covered

Payment behaviourTowards suppliers and towards the NBB

Trade payables correspond to 85 days of supplier credit, sector median 59. The accounts were filed 176 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 (38,4%)
Profitable in every one of the last 5 years
Strong buffer: 12,5 months of payroll in equity
Team grew (+9,5% FTE in the latest year)
Value-added per euro of payroll above the sector median (1,63)
No warning signals in the last 24 months
Healthy working capital (current ratio 2,04)
Equity was earned, not injected (reserves 34,4× the capital contributed)
Comfortable cash position: 116 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	€ 702.000	€ 1,14 mln+62,7%	€ 1,27 mln+11,1%	€ 1,21 mln-4,5%	€ 1,04 mln-13,8%
EBITDA	€ 440.000	€ 796.000	€ 739.324	€ 658.788	€ 400.799
EBITDA margin	62,7%	69,7%	58,3%	54,3%	38,4%
Staff
FTE	5,7	7,2+26,3%	9,8+36,1%	10,5+7,1%	11,5+9,5%
Gross margin per FTE	€ 123.158	€ 158.611	€ 129.490	€ 115.475	€ 90.837
Payroll cost per FTE	€ 43.684	€ 46.111	€ 52.857	€ 51.179	€ 55.046
Balance sheet
Equity	€ 318.000	€ 588.000	€ 534.597	€ 637.521	€ 659.145
Cash	-	-	€ 268.026	€ 433.067	€ 200.688
Liquidity ratio	-	-	2,19	2,48	2,04

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 25/06/2026. 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 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 4 services

Advertising & Campaigns

Campaign concepts & big ideas Campaign execution

Media

Paid social Search advertising (SEA)

Sector focus

KMO's / lokale ondernemingen (Antwerpse regio)

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

1

People 13 people mapped

Digital marketing is the engine: 8 of 13 profiles sit there. Within that core, Analytics, Content Marketing and SEA stand out. A specialist, not a generalist: the expertise is narrow but deep. Notably, no declared strategists in sight — this agency would rather make than philosophise.

F

Frederic

Managing partner

D

Demi

Content Creator

E

Emiel

Marketeer

E

Eveline

Marketeer

F

Florian

Visual Designer

J

Jan

Visual Designer

J

Jimmy

Content Creator

J

Julie

Performance Expert

L

Lore

Senior marketeer

M

Magalie

Marketeer

M

Matthias

Marketeer

R

Rufus

Performance Expert

S

Sacha

Senior Performance Expert

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

€ 55.046

-4% versus the median

Team composition

11,5 VTE

50% women
50% men

€ 55.046

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.

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

73,9%

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

Inflow 2025

92,2%

10,6 FTE in, 8,5 FTE out

Net team change

+2,1 VTE

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.