MarchiteQ Shortlisted for Best Start-Up Agency at the European Search Awards 2026

A new agency built on a decade of experience, and a belief that marketing needs a smarter foundation.

From Day One to the Shortlist

When we launched MarchiteQ in early 2026, we had a clear conviction: the traditional agency model is broken. Campaigns without strategy, dashboards nobody trusts, and senior expertise that gets replaced by process the moment the contract is signed. After more than ten years each working inside that system, co-founders Stefanie Janssen and Rick Tousseyn decided it was time to build something better.

Just months later, being a finalist for Best Start-Up Agency at the European Search Awards 2026 is a powerful validation of that vision. It tells us that the industry recognises the need for a new kind of agency, one that puts AI, data, and strategy at its core from the very first day.

An AI/Tech-First Marketing Agency

MarchiteQ is not an agency that bolted AI onto its existing services. AI is the foundation everything else is built on. From Generative Engine Optimization (GEO) and AI-powered workflow automation to server-side tracking and BigQuery data architecture, every engagement is designed to help marketing teams work smarter, measure accurately, and scale sustainably.

Our approach follows a clear methodology: Create → Measure → Scale → Automate. Each stage feeds the next, replacing the patchwork of disconnected tactics that most companies rely on with a single, integrated system. Instead of five agencies and a dozen freelancers, our clients get one partner who sees the whole picture.

What Sets Us Apart

Generative Engine Optimization (GEO): The organic search landscape has fundamentally changed. Users increasingly discover brands through AI-powered search experiences such as Google AI Overviews, ChatGPT, and Perplexity. We help businesses optimise their content to be cited and surfaced by these generative engines, not just traditional search results.

Paid Ads & Performance Marketing: We manage full‑funnel paid campaigns across Google Ads, LinkedIn Ads, Meta, and Amazon, built on clean data and AI‑driven optimisation. Instead of isolated channel management, we run paid media alongside organic growth within one holistic strategy.

AI Automation & Workflow Intelligence: We build AI agents and automated workflows that handle the repetitive, time-consuming tasks marketing teams drown in: reporting, creative generation, lead routing, and alert systems. This frees senior marketers to focus on strategy and creative thinking.

Data Architecture & Measurement: Clean data is the foundation of every good marketing decision. We implement server-side tracking, first-party data strategies, and BigQuery data warehousing to give teams a measurement infrastructure they can actually trust.

Training & Enablement: We do not believe in creating dependency. A core part of our work involves training in-house marketing teams on how to implement AI tools and strategies within their current organisation. We want our clients to be stronger after working with us, not more reliant on us.

New Agency, Seasoned Practitioners

MarchiteQ may be new, but the expertise behind it is not. Both founders bring over a decade of hands-on senior experience across performance marketing, data strategy, B2B growth, and agency consulting.

Stefanie Janssen has spent 10+ years in data-driven performance marketing, building the infrastructure that makes campaigns accountable: paid media across Google, Amazon, LinkedIn, and Meta, server-side tracking architectures, and the measurement systems that tell you what is actually working.

Rick Tousseyn brings 10+ years of B2B growth strategy, SaaS consulting, and agency advisory across EU and US markets. He specialises in AI visibility, GEO frameworks, and the kind of senior-level strategic thinking that most agencies promise but rarely deliver.

Together, we made a deliberate choice: stay boutique. We work with just three to five clients at a time. Every engagement is led by the founders directly. No account managers, no junior handoffs. Senior work, always.

What This Nomination Means to Us

“When you start a new agency, there is always a moment where you wonder whether the market sees what you see. Being shortlisted for Best Start-Up Agency at the European Search Awards within months of launching tells us that the industry is ready for this shift. AI is not a feature you add to marketing. It is the architecture you build marketing on. This recognition motivates us to keep pushing that vision forward.” — Rick T., Co-Founder, MarchiteQ

“The European Search Awards represent the highest standard in our industry. To be nominated alongside the best agencies in Europe as a brand-new company is incredibly humbling. It proves that what matters is not how long you have existed, but how deeply you understand the challenges your clients face. We built MarchiteQ because we saw the same problems repeated for over a decade. Now we get to solve them.” — Stefanie J., Co-Founder and CEO of MarchiteQ

Looking Ahead

Being shortlisted is a milestone, but it is just the beginning. Our mission remains the same: to help marketing teams build systems that are measurable, scalable, and AI-powered. Whether that means helping a company get cited in ChatGPT, building a BigQuery data warehouse that finally makes reporting trustworthy, or training an in-house team to integrate AI into their daily workflows, we are here to close the gap between where marketing is and where it needs to be.

We look forward to celebrating with the search community in Porto, and to continuing to build the kind of agency we always wished existed.