11 Nov The Future of the Agency Belongs to the Challengers
If challenger brands are the future, what is the future of the agency?
That’s the question Rival, the global consultancy redefining how brands grow, is bringing to Cape Town this November at Innovation City. After four years and over 10,000 hours of research, Rival has published one of the most comprehensive studies on challenger behaviour to date: the Rival 50, built in partnership with Imperial College Business School, London.
The findings? The world’s most dynamic brands aren’t just marketing differently, they’re operating differently.
“We realised the brands showing up on the Rival 50 were engaging with their agencies in completely new ways,” says Viren Samani, Executive Producer at Rival. “They’re not briefing ten creative ideas and waiting for a campaign. They’re co-creating, testing, and moving in rhythm with their partners. It’s a new kind of relationship; faster, deeper, and more distributed.”
The Spark Behind the Rival 50
The project began as a data-driven attempt to measure the modern “challenger mindset,” not by size, but by intent. Rival defines a challenger brand as a brand whose marketing strategy and tactics successfully challenge the convention of their category in a way that engineers outsized impact on their growth.
“After analysing more than 270 nominated brands,” Samani explains, “we noticed that the ones driving the most growth all shared a few common traits. They questioned category norms, took creative risks, and built communities that felt genuinely involved. That behaviour has started to reshape how culture and commerce intersect.”
How Challenger Brands are Rewriting the Playbook
From that analysis emerged five global patterns that define challenger thinking in 2025:
1. Belonging has become the new brand infrastructure. The strongest performers treat community not as a channel, but as a system people live inside. Brands like Crocs, Buldak, and Nothing prove that participation now drives distribution.
2. Ideology has replaced positioning. In an age of functional parity, belief systems are the most powerful differentiator. Whether through irreverence like Liquid Death or precision like On Running, conviction now outperforms scale.
3. Comfort has become its own kind of rebellion. From Owala to Rhode, as financial strain and cultural burnout rise, brands that simplify, soothe, and stabilise are winning through empathy, and not noise.
4. Challenger thinking transcends commerce. From Doechii to The Boys, creators and cultural figures are adopting brand frameworks long before a product exists. Culture itself has become the newest category.
5. The future belongs to brands that think like media companies. The most effective challengers are no longer running campaigns. Surreal, Represent, and Nothing are all running content engines, building continuous stories that inform, entertain, and convert.
South Africa’s Voice in the Challenger Movement
Among the global Rival 50 list, Nando’s lands at number 45; the only South African brand to make the cut this year. Fieldbar and Yoco also made the nomination list, signalling that local challenger energy is being noticed internationally.
“We love how South African brands are pushing creativity with purpose,” Samani adds. “There’s a boldness and a sense of humour here that fits perfectly into the challenger mindset.”
Why Cape Town, and Why Now?
For Rival, the Cape Town event isn’t just a showcase, it’s a starting point. The consultancy plans to grow its presence in the city and connect with emerging creative talent.
“The future of the agency isn’t about replacing people with AI,” Samani says. “It’s about helping people use AI as a natural part of their workflow. Especially for young talent entering the industry, mastering AI tools is going to be as essential as writing or design. We want to be part of that conversation on the ground.”
What agencies should be doing differently
Following The Rival 50, the focus is now on what agencies and imperatives can improve upon when looking to partner with challenger brands:
- Use AI natively. Don’t outsource your insight; use AI to speed up and sharpen it.
- Prioritise effective work, not just pretty work. Campaigns that win awards are good. Campaigns that win revenue are better.
- Keep teams small and senior. Experience and agility now outperform scale and process.
