An advertising agency, often referred to as a creative agency or an ad agency, is a business dedicated to creating, planning, and handling advertising and sometimes other forms of promotion and marketing for its clients. An ad agency is generally independent of the client; it may be an internal department or agency that provides an outside point of view to the effort of selling the client's products or services, or an outside firm. An agency can also handle overall marketing and branding strategies promotions for its clients, which may include sales as well.
WPP plc is a British multinational communications, advertising, public relations, technology, and commerce holding company headquartered in London, England. It is the world's largest advertising company, as of 2023. WPP plc owns many companies, which include advertising, public relations, media, and market research networks such as AKQA, BCW, CMI Media Group, Essence Global, Finsbury, Grey, Hill & Knowlton, Mindshare, Ogilvy, Wavemaker, and VML. It is one of the "Big Four" agency companies, alongside Publicis, The Interpublic Group of Companies, and Omnicom Group. WPP has a primary listing on the London Stock Exchange, and is a constituent of the FTSE 100 Index.
Neil French is a former British advertising executive who started his career in Singapore in the 1970s. The recipient of over 500 awards, he is best known for creating ads for Kaminomoto Hair Tonic, Chivas Regal, and XO Beer. After giving a controversial speech about women in advertising, he resigned from his position as Worldwide Creative Director at WPP Group PLC in 2005.
Ogilvy is a New York City-based British advertising, marketing, and public relations agency. It was founded in 1850 by Edmund Mather as a London-based agency. In 1964, the firm became known as Ogilvy & Mather after merging with a New York City agency that was founded in 1948 by David Ogilvy.
Havas Creative, formerly known as Havas Worldwide and Euro RSCG, is a French advertising agency. It is one of the largest integrated marketing communications agencies in the world, made up of 316 offices located in 75 countries. The firm provides advertising, marketing, and corporate communications services.
J. Walter Thompson (JWT) was an advertisement holding company incorporated in 1896 by American advertising pioneer James Walter Thompson. The company was acquired in 1987 by multinational holding company WPP plc, and in November 2018, WPP merged J. Walter Thompson with fellow agency Wunderman to form Wunderman Thompson. In October 2023, WPP announced yet another merger in which Wunderman Thompson, along with another group agency VMLY&R, would cease to exist and create a new combined entity named VML. This took effect January 1, 2024.
Hill & Knowlton is an American global public relations consulting company, headquartered in New York City. The firm has over 80 additional offices in more than 40 countries. The company was founded in Cleveland, in 1927 by John W. Hill and is now owned by the WPP Group.
Grey Group is a global advertising and marketing agency with headquarters in New York City, and 432 offices in 96 countries, operating in 154 cities. It is organized into four geographical units: North America; Europe, Middle East and Africa, Asia-Pacific, and Latin America.
Mindshare is a global media and marketing services company formed in 1997. As one of the world's largest media agencies, Mindshare is responsible for a large majority of GroupM/WPP's global marketing billings and campaigns.
Bates CHI & Partners is an advertising and marketing agency and a member of the WPP Group.
Campaigns & Grey is a Philippine-based marketing communications company affiliated with the Grey Group. It is part of Grey's Asia-Pacific operations with offices located in Makati handling the national requirements of its major clients and coordinated services for global accounts. Its affiliates Campaigns Cebu and Campaigns Davao handle marketing communications for Visayas and Mindanao clients as well as provincial initiatives of Manila-based clients.
the7stars is UK's largest independent media planning and buying agency. The agency provides media and advertising services to clients, including media planning and buying, creative strategy and content creation, partnerships, insight and analytics, and strategic services.
VMLY&R, now part of VML, after the merger of VMLY&R and Wunderman Thompson in October of 2023, was an American marketing and communications company specializing in advertising, digital and social media, sales promotion, direct marketing and brand identity consulting, formed from the merger of VML, founded in 1992, and Y&R , founded in 1923. It was a subsidiary of WPP plc multinational advertising and public relations holding company.
JWT Jakarta, formerly known as JWT AdForce, is the Indonesian office of the JWT global advertising and marketing company, which is part of the WPP Group.
XM Gravity Indonesia is one of the subsidiary company of the WPP Group, the world's largest advertising company by revenues that employs around 162,000 people in 3,000 offices across 110 countries. This investment is a step closer to WPP Group's goal in reaching 'Asian Domination'.
WPP-Scangroup is a subsidiary of WPP and is listed on the Nairobi Securities Exchange. It is the largest marketing and communication group operating a multi-agency model across multiple disciplines in Sub-Saharan Africa. The group comprises the ad agencies Ogilvy Africa, SCANAD, JWT and BluePrint Marketing; media firms GroupM, MediaCom Africa, Mindshare and MEC; public relations agencies Ogilvy PR and H+K Strategies; market research agency Millward Brown; specialty communication firms Roundtrip and Geometry Global; and digital companies OgilvyOne, Squad Digital and SCANAD Digital. In all, over 1200 people are employed across the various organizations.
Essence was a global data and measurement-driven full service agency that merged with Mediacom in January 2023 to form Essence Mediacom,. Prior to the merger, Essence had 20 offices in 12 countries and a staff of approximately 2,000. Essence managed over $4B in annualized media spend globally, with clients such as Google, The Financial Times, Target, NBCUniversal, BP, FrieslandCampina, L’Oreal and Tesco Mobile. In 2015 Essence became majority owned by WPP, and a part of GroupM, the WPP media investment management operation.
GTB, formerly known as Team Detroit, is an advertising agency based in Detroit, Michigan. It is the primary creative agency for the Ford Motor Company. GTB is a subsidiary of WPP, one of the Big Four advertising firms.
UniWorld Group, Inc., branded as UWG, is a full-service advertising agency headquartered in Brooklyn, New York, with satellite offices in Atlanta, Detroit, Miami, and Los Angeles. It is the longest-standing multicultural ad agency in the United States, founded in 1969. In 2014, the company rebranded itself as UWG.
VML is an international marketing and communications company specializing in brand experience, commerce and technology, and customer experience. VML was formed from the merger of Wunderman Thompson and VMLY&R. It is a subsidiary of WPP plc, a multinational advertising and public relations holding company.
