How big is PHD Media?

Around 23 full-time equivalents (financial year 2025).

Review: PHD Media

PHD Media werkt ruim twintig jaar als performance- & mediabureau uit Zaventem. Met ongeveer 23 VTE is dit een groot bureau.

Awards

3× IAB MIXX Awards

1× Effie Awards Belgium

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: € 940.123 gross margin, growth -1,4% against a sector median of +5,3%.

Growing slower than the sector

MarginEBITDA / gross margin · value-added coverage

20212022202320242025

PHD MediaSector median

EBITDA margin -88%, sector median 28%. Value-added coverage 0,53 (median 1,23).

Loss-making

Revenue per headGross margin per FTE, against payroll cost

€ 41.233

Median (2025) € 76.236

Against a payroll cost of € 78.094 per FTE. The ratio between the two is the coverage rate above.

Below the median

Yield levelYield per hour worked, against payroll cost

€ 28

Median (2025) € 47

33.722 hours worked, 1.554 per FTE. Against that sits € 50 of payroll cost per hour worked, leaving € -22 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: 9,8 months (median 6,3 mo). Equity in the latest year: € 1,43 mln.

Adequate buffer

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

Cash -. Liquidity ratio 1,08: current assets cover short-term debt in full. Solvency 7,6%.

Tightly covered

Payment behaviourTowards suppliers and towards the NBB

Trade payables correspond to 151 days of supplier credit, sector median 63. The accounts were filed 141 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

2 red flag(s) (24m)

Signals in the last 24 months

Zichtbaarheid verschoven · 1 Oct 2026 · Google Autocomplete
Registered office moved · 22 Jul 2026 · Staatsblad
The registered office relocated. Usually just a new office.
Board change · 11 Mar 2026 · Staatsblad
Appointments or resignations on the board. Routine during growth, succession or a new partner. Ask about it when several changes follow each other closely.
Two consecutive loss-making years · 31 Dec 2025 · NBB
Two financial years in a row closed at a loss. That can be an investment period, or a client that fell away. Ask what explains the pattern and what has changed since.
Low value-added coverage · 31 Dec 2025 · NBB
Every euro of payroll generates less than 95 cents of added value. That happens in a build-up year, with a lot of subcontracting, or under pressure on rates. Ask what explains it here.
Board change · 31 Oct 2025 · Staatsblad
Appointments or resignations on the board. Routine during growth, succession or a new partner. Ask about it when several changes follow each other closely.
+ 4 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

Strong buffer: 9,8 months of payroll in equity
Team grew (+20,0% FTE in the latest year)
Turnover below the median (21,9%)

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	€ 841.108	€ 1,56 mln+86,1%	€ 1,17 mln-25,3%	€ 953.270-18,4%	€ 940.123-1,4%
EBITDA	€ -626.207	€ -198.083	€ -559.023	€ -854.786	€ -826.886
EBITDA margin	-74,5%	-12,7%	-47,8%	-89,7%	-88%
Staff
FTE	24,7	25,1+1,6%	22,9-8,8%	19,0-17%	22,8+20%
Gross margin per FTE	€ 34.053	€ 62.350	€ 51.042	€ 50.172	€ 41.233
Payroll cost per FTE	€ 60.497	€ 69.340	€ 74.286	€ 78.503	€ 78.094
Balance sheet
Equity	€ 1,03 mln	€ 984.797	€ 602.012	€ 1,97 mln	€ 1,43 mln
Cash	€ 746.387	€ 2,72 mln	€ 3,51 mln	€ 558.263	-
Liquidity ratio	1,05	1,04	1,07	1,21	1,08

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 21/05/2026. 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.

Coming soon

We're working on this part of the factsheet.

Coming soon

We're working on this part of the factsheet.

1

People 7 people mapped

The titles skew top-heavy: lots of seniority, few juniors — you're mostly buying experience. A specialist, not a generalist: the expertise is narrow but deep. A wide leadership layer: 6 of 7 steer.

CS

Carolina Solanilla

CEO LATAM

CF

Christian Flouch

Global Brand President

EO

Eileen Ooi

President, APAC

EK

Erica Kokiw

President Canada

MS

Mike Solomon

CEO U.S.

SG

Susanne Grundmann

CEO EMEA

RT

Rohan Tambyrajah

Global Chief Strategy Officer

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

€ 78.094

+25% versus the median

Team composition

21,7 FTE

74% women
26% men

€ 78.094

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

23,0%

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

Inflow 2025

40,6%

8,8 FTE in, 5,0 FTE out

Net team change

+3,8 FTE

20212022202320242025

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.

Award-winning work 4 award(s)

2024

IAB MIXX Awards GoldRetail Media · “L'Oréal” · source ↗

2023

IAB MIXX Awards BronzeBest Use of Marketing Technology · source ↗

2020

Effie Awards Belgium Silver“wtFOCK - Generation Woke — SBS Belgium” · source ↗

2018

IAB MIXX Awards BronzeBest Awareness · “Telenet Group-Base” · source ↗

As published by the organising award shows, collected by IKAg.