Transparency report
2025

2025 was a year of change for respektive1. The volume of work was significantly lower than in the previous year, which had a direct impact on our revenue.

Our total revenue stood at 819,503 euros – down from 3,902,408 euros in 2024. This sharp decline is primarily due to a fundamental change in our revenue structure: we provided significantly fewer external services. As a result, so-called ancillary services – that is, revenue that we pass on on behalf of our clients – also fell sharply.

What remains is the core of our work: agency fees. These stood at 509,293 euros in 2025 (2024: 959,213 euros). Their share of total turnover has increased: around 62 per cent of our turnover came from fees – compared with around 25 per cent in the previous year.

On average over the year, we had 16 colleagues.

In 2025, we once again shared the company's success with our colleagues. In total, we distributed 13,976 euros – partly as direct payments and partly in other forms.

We aim to keep the gap between the highest and the lowest salary as small as possible. In 2025, the lowest salary was 42,192 euros and the highest was 93,758 euros. The highest salary was therefore 2.2 times higher than the lowest.

The proportion of women stood at 68 per cent in 2025 – including freelancers. This means it remained at a level that is common for our sector. Over a three-year average, women's salaries stood at €70,296, which was higher than the average for men at €62,591.

Over the past years, we have been able to steadily increase freelance fees. The three-year average for fees rose from 3,299 euros (2023) to 6,165 euros (2025) for men, and from 5,945 euros to 8,772 euros for women.

We donate 1 per cent of our fee turnover each year. In 2025, this amounted to 9,600 euros – the highest sum since we began reporting this KPI. Thanks to a very good year in 2024.

This year's donation went to Zubaka, an organisation that championed educational equality. Unfortunately, Zubaka has since had to cease its work, which we deeply regret.

We aim to devote 5 per cent of our total time to pro bono work. In 2025, this figure stood at 4.7 per cent. Unfortunately, we fell just short of our target this year, and we are considering setting the bar slightly lower for the coming years given the current economic challenges.

We regularly measure satisfaction levels amongst both our clients and our staff.

We are pleased to report a positive trend among our clients: after scoring 4.50 in 2024, we achieved a score of 4.61 in 2025 – a very good result. This shows that, despite considerable pressure to transform, we are able to maintain our quality and further improve our collaboration with our clients.

The picture is slightly different when it comes to our staff. The score fell slightly from 4.67 to 4.64. This is linked to the changes we are currently undergoing as an agency – and the strain this places on the team. We take this seriously and are working to achieve improvements in this area again by 2026.

We analyse our supply chain annually with our partner Integrity Next. In 2025, 77 per cent of our suppliers were classified as low risk, 23 per cent as medium risk – and not a single one as high risk. Compared with the previous year (67 per cent low risk), this is a significant improvement.

We have also compiled a carbon footprint for 2025. Total emissions stood at 85.69 tonnes – compared with 99.5 tonnes in the previous year. In relation to our staff, this equates to an intensity of 16.32 tonnes per FTE; in relation to turnover, it is 104.56 tonnes per million euros.

For this year's report, we have changed our methodology: instead of the previous French ADEME database, we are now using the globally recognised CEDA database. CEDA offers greater accuracy and more Germany-specific emission factors – particularly for purchased services.

This change has a direct impact on comparability: the absolute emission figures from 2025 cannot be directly compared with the estimated figures from 2024. We therefore regard the 2025 assessment as a more reliable starting point – as a new baseline for all future analyses and reduction measures.

2025 was a year of change for respektive1; characterised by the transformation of the industry and a challenging economic climate. We have downsized our team and further developed our business model. This was not easy, but it was essential to secure our future.

The work of the last two years has left us well positioned. We look forward to 2026 with confidence – as a year that will be less challenging and in which we can once again offer our customers the best possible service and added value.

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