Building agency relationships that unlock media investment
AdTech growth depends on agency partnerships
Agencies control a brand’s media budget, making scalable agency partnerships critical to your growth. They decide which partners are tested, approved, and added to their Preferred Supplier List (PSL).
Yet most AdTech companies struggle to get traction with agencies — and even when meetings happen, progress stalls.
Back to Black exists to change that.
Where agency partnerships succeed or fail
Back to Black focuses on the three key stages where agency partnerships succeed or fail: access to the right agency people, clear commercial activation, and protecting your margin as spend scales.
This is not theory. We work at the point where agency relationships turn into contracts, contracts turn into spend and spend is either protected or eroded over time.
Our model: three key stages of agency partnership growth
Agency partnerships evolve through three distinct stages - from launch, through growth, to scale. Each stage has a clear commercial objective aligned to how Back to Black supports your growth.
Securing access to the decision-makers who approve partners and control budgets.
Converting interest into signed trading agreements, live campaigns, and recurring spend.
Standardising commercial terms to protect margin and reduce risk as spend scales.
Trusted at the intersection of AdTech and media agencies
For more than twenty years, we have connected AdTech companies of all sizes with the world’s leading media agencies. Having established over 100 local and pan-regional agency trading agreements, agencies engage with our clients in recognition of our proven track record and credibility.
We work closely with senior agency executives and central investment teams and are embedded in the relationships that shape media investment decisions.
Who we work with
Back to Black works with AdTech companies across the media and data ecosystem that rely on spend from agency partnerships to grow their revenues and reach profitability.
Demand-side platforms (DSPs) and ad servers
Contextual and attention platforms
Identity, data, and clean-room providers
Measurement, verification and analytics platforms
Retail media and commerce AdTech
Video and CTV platforms
Sell-side marketplaces and sales houses
What success looks like
Success is defined by how effectively those agency relationships translate into sustained spend.
Reaching that outcome depends on getting a small number of fundamentals right: access to the right agency people, clear and scalable commercial structures, and agreements that are easy to activate and maintain over time. When these elements are in place, spend becomes more predictable, partnerships scale faster, and revenue is more durable.
This is where Back to Black is most effective.
A trusted partner to take your business from red to black