UBO Agency: Turning into a scalable agency with higher margins
What do you do as an entrepreneur when your agency starts to struggle under its own success? For Frank, founder of UBO Agency, it became a fundamental question. His agency had grown steadily since its founding in 2015, but as the team expanded and ambitions increased, a familiar agency pain resurfaced: high workload, fragmented processes, rising costs, and too little control over margins.
Since 2015, UBO Agency has developed into a marketing agency with over fifty professionals and a versatile portfolio, ranging from positioning and branding to development and marketing. Yet the fundamental challenge remained the same over the years: how can you make your agency better, more efficient, and more scalable, without burning out your people or sacrificing quality?
UBO Agency wanted to do more with fewer people. Not by compromising on quality, but by organizing smarter. Efficiency shouldn’t come at the expense of creativity, but should actually enable it. Margins needed to go up, pressure on employees needed to go down. At the same time, they wanted to serve clients faster and more consistently. AI seemed the solution, but reality was stubborn. “We had ChatGPT, Midjourney and a handful of other tools,” says co-founder Frank, “but we missed one thing: cohesion.”
The challenges piled up. Each team experimented with something different: text generation here, image editing there, or a brainstorming tool elsewhere. There was no shared vision, no established workflow, and no one felt ownership of the AI approach. AI was something that was ‘added on’ instead of being a strategic foundation.
“Without a clear AI strategy and implementation, your agency won’t stay competitive for much longer.”
Internal pressures also rose. Teams worked in silos, knowledge remained with individuals. So when someone left the company, valuable expertise walked out the door too. AI should have made processes more efficient and given the organization breathing room. In reality, it led to even more fragmentation. Frank, owner of UBO Agency, decided things had to change. Together with his management team, he formed an internal team with one clear assignment: make UBO more scalable.
“We had to make fundamental choices,” Frank says. “Continue as before and further develop and integrate our existing tooling, perhaps with our own interface on top. Or build a platform ourselves, but with the costs of development and maintenance, that wasn’t a sustainable option either. The third possibility was the most appealing: partner with an existing platform. A partner that really knows how to combine technology, structure, and process-driven thinking.”
And that’s where Growf came in: a platform that connects AI, processes, and people. What attracted UBO most was the underlying philosophy: Growf sees AI not as a replacement for people, but as a way to strengthen teams. That’s at the heart of the future of work. The platform became the central workspace where everything comes together: client knowledge, tone of voice, personas, strategies, and formats. Everything is captured, shared, and applied. “Growf lets everyone work from the same foundation,” Frank says. “Whether you’re a junior or a senior, the platform ensures you speak the same language. And that makes the difference.”
And it worked. Instead of every team member using their own tools, a streamlined way of working emerged. New colleagues could be onboarded faster, client knowledge was systematically documented, and there was a clear, scalable workflow from strategy to onboarding and client management. The effects could be quickly felt in the workplace. Concerns over differences in interpretation or the right tone of voice were eliminated. Moreover, the number of separate tools dropped significantly, saving costs. The tangle of plug-ins, random notes, and ad hoc tools was replaced by a single, clear AI workspace. The workload decreased, teams regained peace and focus, and output per employee increased—without more hours being worked. And, just as important, margins finally rose sustainably.
“Without proper adoption, teams still won’t use AI tools.”
Growf brings structure, speed, and scalability. But above all, it brings peace of mind. Employees now have room again for strategic and creative thinking, instead of constantly reacting and operating at a surface level. That directly results in higher output without the accompanying workload. “AI is about more than working more efficiently or smarter,” says Frank. “It’s about being able to serve your client better, faster, and more intelligently. Creating extra value that way.”
UBO transformed from a full-service provider into a scalable full-service marketing agency with human creativity at its core. And that’s exactly what’s needed in the coming years. “The agency world will change faster than ever,” predicts Benjamin. “Without a clear AI strategy, you’re going to lose that race.”
Where many agencies still struggle with AI as a fragmented promise, UBO Agency proves it can be done differently. By not seeing technology as a replacement, but as a foundation. By building structure, streamlining processes, and capturing knowledge. And by ensuring employees aren’t just saddled with tools, but truly enabled to work with them.
