Agency leaders frequently reference the mix of strategic thinking and tactical execution when describing the work flowing into their agencies. In the 2025 Agency Core Research, this balance appears as a point of reflection tied to satisfaction, positioning, and how agencies believe their value is perceived by clients.

The findings do not point to a single, shared definition of what strategy or tactical work means in practice. Instead, they show how agencies describe these concepts in relation to their own work mix, client expectations, and business realities. This blog surfaces how agencies talk about that balance and how those descriptions vary across different agency mindsets.

Agency leaders tend to distinguish between strategy and tactical execution when reflecting on the nature of their client work. These distinctions are not always rigid, but they appear consistently in how respondents describe the work they deliver.

• What Agency Leaders Mean When They Reference Strategy

  When agency leaders reference strategy, they often describe activities connected to planning, direction-setting, and higher-level thinking. In the research, strategy is commonly mentioned alongside positioning, expertise, and value, rather than as a standalone service.

  Agencies that report incorporating strategy into their engagements often describe it as something embedded within broader client relationships. Strategy is referenced as part of ongoing work rather than a separate phase or deliverable.

• How Tactical Execution Is Described in Client Work

  Tactical work is typically described in terms of execution, delivery, and production. Agency leaders often associate it with specific outputs, timelines, and client requests.

  In the research, tactical execution is not framed negatively, but it is more often discussed in relation to volume, capacity, and workload. For some agencies, a heavier tactical mix is described as limiting time for higher-level work.

The Agency Core 2025 Research asked agency leaders how satisfied they were with the mix of strategic versus tactical work their agency gained in the prior year. Responses show wide variation, both overall and by segment.

• Overall Satisfaction Levels Reported By Agencies

  Across all respondents, fewer than half reported being very satisfied with the balance of strategic and tactical work gained in 2024. This indicates that many agencies see room for change or improvement in the type of work they are attracting, even if they do not agree on what that change should look like.

  Satisfaction with the work mix appears tied to how agencies perceive their role with clients, rather than to agency size or service category alone.

• Differences In Satisfaction Across Attitudinal Segments

  Satisfaction levels vary significantly by attitudinal segment. Thought Leaders and Loyalty Builders are more likely to report higher satisfaction with their mix of strategic and tactical work, while Change Seekers report the lowest satisfaction levels.

  These differences suggest that how agencies experience the balance of work is closely connected to broader mindset patterns, not just operational factors.

Agency Core’s attitudinal segmentation highlights how different groups of agency leaders describe their realities. These differences are visible in how agencies talk about strategy and execution.

• Patterns Reported By Thought Leaders And Loyalty Builders

  Thought Leaders and Loyalty Builders more frequently describe strategy as integrated into their engagements. They often reference expertise, positioning, and long-term client relationships when discussing their work mix.

  These segments are also less likely to report dissatisfaction with their balance of strategic and tactical work, suggesting alignment between how they describe their role and the work they attract.

• Patterns Reported By Change Seekers And Other Segments

  Change Seekers are more likely to describe tension between what clients demand and the type of work agencies want to deliver. Strategy is often referenced as expected by clients but not always recognized or compensated in the same way as execution.

  Other segments, such as Staffing Strugglers and Cobblers’ Kids, describe tactical work as necessary but consuming. In these cases, execution-heavy workloads are often discussed alongside capacity strain or limited internal focus.

• Strategy And Execution In The Context Of Agency Value

  Across segments, references to strategy and tactical work are closely tied to how agencies talk about value. Strategy is frequently associated with differentiation and expertise, while execution is linked to delivery and fulfillment.

  Some agencies describe strategy as a way to demonstrate value beyond outputs, while others focus on execution as the primary way value is experienced by clients. The research shows no single narrative, but rather a range of perspectives shaped by agency context and mindset.

Taken together, the findings show that agencies do not experience the balance between strategy and tactical work in the same way. Satisfaction, tension, and alignment vary widely across segments.

Rather than pointing to a preferred model, the data highlights how agencies describe their own realities. These descriptions offer visibility into how strategy and execution show up in agency work today, reflecting the diversity of agency experiences across the industry.

The Agency Core 2025 Research shows that the balance between strategy and tactical work is not experienced uniformly across agencies. Leaders describe this mix through the lens of their positioning, client relationships, internal capacity, and broader mindset about their role in the market.

Some agencies describe alignment between the work they want to do and the work they attract, while others describe tension or dissatisfaction. These differences are most visible across attitudinal segments, where perceptions of strategy, execution, and value diverge meaningfully. Taken together, the data surfaces how agencies themselves articulate this balance, without pointing to a single definition or outcome.

For agency leaders, these reported perspectives provide visibility into how peers across the industry are experiencing and describing the strategic and tactical dimensions of their work today.