Advertising Featured Marketing Opinion

posted on Aug. 12, 2025 at 9:30 amAug 12, 2025

Game Theory – an answer to agency woes?

posted on Aug. 12, 2025 at 9:30 amAug 12, 2025

Rain Creative's Vinay Mahadevan leans into Game Theory, and calls on industry leaders to be courageous enough to address pitching woes, pricing concerns, tight margins and a bubble waiting to burst.

Vinay Mahadevan, Client Services Director, Rain Creative on Game Theory to tackle pitching problems.

Vinay Mahadevan, Client Services Director, Rain Creative

Relentless pitching, constant battle for client retention, pressure to deliver ‘more for less’. Sounds familiar? Now add the pressure of AI and consulting firms wanting a piece of advertising action, and what you have is a ticking time bomb.

Agencies are locked in intense competition, not just with rivals, but often with their own clients and even media partners, leading to a fragmented, inefficient and increasingly less profitable industry.

How do you find a way out of this conundrum? I think one exists in John Nash’s Game Theory. Not the fancy math, but the simple truth it holds. Ever heard of the Prisoner’s Dilemma? It’s simple: two guys, caught. If they both keep their mouths

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Tags:Advertising AI Artificial Intelligence burnout Client services director do more with less Game Theory John Nash KPIs London Bullion Market Association margins marketing performance metrics pitches pitching pricing Procurement Rain Creative Sales Vinay Mahadevan

the authorAnup Oommen

Anup Oommen is the Editor of Campaign Middle East at Motivate Media Group, a well-reputed moderator, and a multiple award-winning journalist with more than 15 years of experience at some of the most reputable and credible global news organisations, including Reuters, CNN, and Motivate Media Group. As the Editor of Campaign Middle East, Anup heads market-leading coverage of advertising, media, marketing, PR, events and experiential, digital, the wider creative industries, and more, through the brand’s digital, print, events, directories, podcast and video verticals. As such he’s a key stakeholder in the Campaign Global brand, the world’s leading authority for the advertising, marketing and media industries, which was first published in the UK in 1968.