A decade ago, agencies sold the dream.
“Give us a retainer, we’ll give you peace of mind. We’ll handle your brand. Your socials. Your SEO. Your marketing. Basically, your destiny.”
And founders signed the cheque, smiled, and waited for magic.
Spoiler: magic never came.
What came instead were 30 posts a month, two reels, one blog, and a PDF calendar that looked the same as the previous month’s.
Retainers worked once — when digital was new, when clients didn’t question, and when “being online” itself felt like progress.
But let’s face it: today, retainers are on life support.
Why Retainers Are Dying
- Boredom.
Founders don’t want “12 Happy Diwali creatives” every year. Neither do audiences. Yet most retainers are glorified festival greetings on Canva. - No Results.
Monthly retainers promised consistency but rarely guaranteed outcomes. “Engagement is up 3%” doesn’t pay salaries. - AI Ate the Calendar.
What agencies billed 2 lakhs for — 20 posts, 5 reels — AI now churns out in 20 minutes. Faster, cheaper, sometimes better. - Performance > Presence.
Founders today don’t care how many posts you made; they want to know how many leads closed, how many carts recovered, how many homes sold.
What Replaces Retainers?
The obituary of retainers isn’t the death of agencies. It’s the death of laziness.
Here’s what’s already taking their place:
- Campaign-Led Retainers.
Not “30 posts,” but “3 big campaigns a quarter.” Think launches, Diwali blitzes, narrative pushes. Less filler, more fire. - Performance Partnerships.
Agencies moving skin-in-the-game: percentage of revenue, leads, or sales. High risk, high trust, high reward. - Fractional Leadership.
Instead of paying for 20 juniors, founders pay for one scarred brain who’s seen it all. Outsider clarity, insider execution. (Yes, that’s me.) - Hybrid Models.
A thin baseline for hygiene (yes, you still need posts to stay alive), layered with bursts of performance and seasonal campaigns.
The Founder’s Dilemma
Founders love predictability, which is why retainers existed. But what they actually want is predictable results, not predictable PDFs.
And agencies love stability, which is why they sold retainers. But stability without impact is just a slow funeral.
My Take
Retainers aren’t dying because clients became unreasonable.
They’re dying because agencies stopped being ambitious.
If your “value” can be replaced by a 19-year-old with ChatGPT and Canva Pro, maybe it’s time to admit you were never adding value in the first place.
The future belongs to agencies (and leaders) who can mix systems with sparks:
- Delivery that doesn’t break.
- Campaigns that don’t bore.
- Outcomes that matter.
Retainers may be dead. But relevance is very much alive.