What Deliveroo’s Agency Search Teaches Startups

Deliveroo is searching for a digital creative agency, with Ingenuity+ managing the review. That single line (reported by Campaign on 9 Jan 2026) should land with a thud if you run a UK startup.

Most founders treat “creative” as something you do after product-market fit. Big brands treat it as something you do to keep product-market fit. Deliveroo isn’t hiring a digital creative agency because marketing is optional—it’s because the fight for attention, repeat usage, and loyalty is brutal, and digital channels are where those battles are won.

This post is part of the Startup Marketing United Kingdom series, so I’m going to translate what this means for startups and scaleups: when to bring in an agency, what to ask for, how to avoid expensive mistakes, and how to measure whether it’s working.

Why Deliveroo is looking for a digital creative agency

Deliveroo’s search is a reminder that digital creative is not “just content.” It’s the system that turns brand strategy into assets that actually perform across channels.

For a business like Deliveroo, “digital creative” usually covers a messy, high-volume reality:

• Always-on paid social and display creative that needs constant iteration
• App-first storytelling (everything ends at “open the app”)
• Seasonality campaigns (January health kicks, Valentine’s, Ramadan/Eid, summer events)
• Local and partner co-marketing (restaurant, grocery, and brand partners)
• Motion, short-form video, UGC-style edits, statics, landing pages, CRM templates

January is also a sharp moment strategically. In the UK, Q1 often brings a reset in budgets, targets, and agency rosters. If you’re a startup, you can take advantage of the same cadence: Q1 is when you can rebuild your marketing engine while competitors are still nursing holiday hangovers.

Snippet-worthy truth: Mature brands don’t outsource creative because they lack talent. They outsource because speed, variety, and performance pressure exceed internal capacity.

The market signal founders should notice

If a brand with Deliveroo’s scale is shopping for an agency, it’s usually for one (or more) of these reasons:

1. Creative fatigue is hurting performance. Ads that used to work stop working.
2. The team needs more throughput than internal designers can supply.
3. They want a fresh point of view (new formats, new narratives, new craft).
4. They need consistency at scale across many channels and markets.

Startups see the same problems earlier than they expect—usually right after their first paid growth push.

The startup lesson: agencies aren’t a luxury, they’re a capacity strategy

Startups often say: “We’ll hire an agency when we’re bigger.” I think that’s backwards. The better question is: When does not hiring help become the more expensive choice?

Here’s the pattern I’ve seen work for UK startups:

• Pre-seed to seed: keep creative in-house, but get lightweight specialist help for a brand sprint or a campaign concept.
• Seed to Series A: use an agency to build a repeatable creative system (templates, rules, tone, formats) so you stop reinventing everything.
• Series A+: move toward a hybrid model: in-house brand leadership + external production and iteration engine.

The reason this matters: digital marketing is increasingly a volume game. If you want to win on Meta, TikTok, YouTube, Google, or even LinkedIn, you need more shots on goal—and a disciplined way to learn what’s working.

A practical rule: hire an agency when you can’t ship fast enough

You’re a strong candidate for external creative support if any of these are true:

• You can’t produce 10–30 new ad variations per month (even simple ones).
• Your CAC is rising and you’re blaming “the algorithm” more than your creative.
• You have new segments to reach (students, families, high-income postcodes) but your message hasn’t adapted.
• Your paid social is stuck because every asset looks like a product screenshot.

In other words: agencies are often a growth throughput fix, not a branding indulgence.

What to ask a digital creative agency for (so you actually get ROI)

The fastest way to waste money is to ask an agency for “some ads” or “a content plan.” You want deliverables that build an engine.

1) A creative testing roadmap (not a moodboard)

Ask them to propose a 6–8 week testing roadmap that includes:

• Hypotheses (e.g., “speed messaging beats quality messaging for new users”)
• Variables to test (hook, offer, angle, format, CTA)
• Volume targets (how many concepts, iterations, and formats)
• A weekly learning loop: what we learned, what we’re producing next

If they can’t talk about creative like an experiment, they’re a production shop, not a growth partner.

2) A brand-to-performance system

You want creative that can live in both worlds:

• Brand: distinctive assets, consistency, memory structures
• Performance: high-scrolling environments, direct response hooks, fast iteration

A good agency can hold both without making you choose.

Here’s what I’d ask for specifically:

• A message house (3–5 core claims, proof points, and examples)
• Channel-specific guidelines (what works on TikTok vs Meta vs YouTube)
• A modular content toolkit (templates for statics, motion, UGC scripts)

3) Production that matches your channel reality

Startups love one hero film. It’s usually the wrong investment.

For most UK startups, the better mix is:

• 1–2 hero assets per quarter
• 10–20 short-form edits derived from them
• 30–60 lightweight variations (hooks, headlines, crops, formats)

This is how you keep learning without burning your budget.

How to pick the right agency (and avoid classic founder mistakes)

Answer first: pick for repeatable output and honest measurement, not the prettiest portfolio.

The selection criteria I’d use

When I’m advising founders, these are the filters that actually predict success:

1. They show their working. Case studies include process, iteration, and what didn’t work.
2. They understand UK growth constraints. Limited budgets, limited first-party data, short runways.
3. They can write. If scripts, hooks, and lines are weak, performance will be weak.
4. They have a system for speed. Turnaround time beats perfection in most digital channels.
5. They don’t overpromise. Anyone guaranteeing ROAS without seeing your funnel is guessing.

Red flags (I’d walk away)

• They insist on a big rebrand when you asked for conversion lift.
• They can’t explain how they collaborate with in-house teams.
• Reporting is vague (“engagement improved”) with no numbers.
• They sell you “innovation” but can’t describe weekly production cadence.

Memorable line: Your agency shouldn’t be a black box. It should feel like an extension of your team’s velocity.

Measuring digital creative: the startup KPI stack

A lot of founders say “creative doesn’t work” when what they mean is “we didn’t measure it.” You don’t need enterprise tooling. You do need a clear KPI stack.

Use a three-layer measurement model

Layer 1: Output (speed and volume)

• Assets shipped per week
• Concepts tested per month
• Time from brief to live

Layer 2: Market response (creative effectiveness)

• Hook rate / thumbstop rate (platform dependent)
• CTR and CVR trends by concept
• CPA/CAC by creative theme

Layer 3: Business impact (what the board cares about)

• New customer growth (weekly/monthly)
• Payback period (if you track it)
• Retention impact for CRM and app journeys

If an agency is good, they’ll welcome this. If they resist measurement, they’re protecting opinions.

A simple cadence that works

• Weekly: performance review + next batch of iterations
• Monthly: angle audit (what themes are winning/losing)
• Quarterly: brand consistency check (are we still distinctive?)

This cadence is how big brands stay sharp—and it’s accessible to startups.

What this means for UK startups right now (January 2026)

Answer first: creative is getting more expensive to ignore, especially in paid channels.

Two forces are squeezing founders:

1. Attention is fragmented. People scroll faster and trust ads less.
2. Distribution costs fluctuate. When CPMs rise, weak creative gets punished first.

So if you’re building in the UK—whether you’re B2C, B2B SaaS, or a marketplace—the question isn’t “should we invest in creative?” It’s “do we have a system to keep creative effective as we scale?”

Deliveroo’s agency search is a public sign that even category leaders keep refreshing that system.

“People also ask” quick answers

Is hiring a creative agency worth it for a startup? Yes, when your bottleneck is content volume, speed of iteration, or messaging clarity—especially in paid social and lifecycle marketing.

When should a startup hire a digital creative agency? When you have a repeatable acquisition channel but performance is flattening, or your team can’t consistently ship and test new creative.

What should I include in an agency brief? Business goal, audience, offer, channels, creative constraints, metrics, and a testing plan. Ask for hypotheses and an iteration cadence.

Where to go from here

If you take one lesson from Deliveroo’s move, make it this: marketing maturity looks like process, not polish. Big brands hire agencies to keep their creative machine running—fresh, fast, and measurable.

If you’re a UK founder, start small but be serious. Define the outcomes, set the cadence, and demand learning. That’s how external creative becomes a growth asset, not a cost centre.

What would change in your pipeline if you could reliably ship (and learn from) two new creative angles every week for the next 60 days?