Universal McCann is a creative media agency that has a client list that includes Johnson & Johnson, Coca-Cola, Fiat Chrysler Automobiles, The Hershey Company, CVS Health, ExxonMobil, BMW and Sony. The agency is part of the Interpublic network and is a member of the IPG Mediabrands group with Initiative, Magna, Mediabrands Audience Platform and three other agencies. UM operates in more than 100 countries and employs more than 4,800 people. South Korea's largest advertising agency, Cheil Worldwide, is more than three times larger in turnover than its closest domestic rival.
The agency has 53 offices in 43 countries with 6,200 employees worldwide. Owned by Samsung Group, Cheil's list of top customers includes Adidas, GE, Coca-Cola, Lego, Microsoft, Shell and more. Leo Burnett is one of the most recognized and well-known advertising agencies in the world for its long history of advertising excellence. The agency was known for creating iconic characters for brands such as Uncle Ben, Jolly Green Giant, Tony the Tiger, Pillsbury Dough-Boy and Marlboro Man. Today, Leo Burnett continues to be known as a leader in advertising with 85 offices, more than 8,000 employees and a member of Publicis. Walter Thompson is the world's best-known marketing agency and has been creating creative solutions that make brands last for more than 150 years.
JWT, a true global agency, has more than 200 offices in more than 90 countries and has nearly 10,000 employees. The WPP agency is the registration agency for Church's Chicken USMC, Subway and KPMG to name a few. Created in 1997, Mindshare is one of the best media buying and planning agencies in the world. The agency is part of WPP's GroupM and has 116 offices in 86 countries in North America, Latin America, Europe, the Middle East and Asia. Mindshare acts as a registered media agency for Pandora Jewelry, TJX and Tyson Foods. In 1949 Bill Bernbach, Ned Doyle and Maxwell Dane founded the advertising giant DDB.
DDB is one of the most recognized advertising agencies and regularly receives awards and accolades. While maintaining a lower profile than other major agencies, DDB continues to work with major brands from Heineken to Ubisoft and Volkswagen while serving as the registration agency for McDonald's Jeep and more. Dentsu is Japan's largest advertising agency. The agency offers a wide range of services across eight business domains including marketing, digital, creative, promotions, media content public relations and global business. Dentsu was founded in 1901 and works with global brands such as Facebook.
With the ability to provide everything from strategy to logistics as well as branding and cybersecurity more and more companies are choosing to work with this multifaceted agency. Deloitte Digital is only scratching the surface of its capabilities and the agency continues to acquire talent recently acquiring San Francisco-based creative store Heat and Swedish agency Acne. Doner is one of the largest independent advertising agencies in the world. The agency has offices throughout North America as well as in London and operates in more than 30 countries. Dentsu is Japan's largest advertising agency and together with its biggest competitor Hakuhodo is more than 120 years old making it one of the oldest advertising agencies in the world. Saatchi & Saatchi which began as an emerging advertising agency in London in the 1970s has grown to become a global communication agency with 114 offices in 67 countries. Most recently it acquired Japanese agency Tambourine an e-commerce customer experience agency with around 70 employees specializing in leveraging Salesforce's cloud-based technology to improve digital services. This China-based advertising agency focused on brand management became the first Chinese publicly traded company in the field.
With more than 80 offices around the world this German communications agency is the only one that is present in all 28 EU Member States as well as economic centers around the world. Several of these agencies offer multiple disciplines; the primary discipline of each of these agencies is indicated by a color code after its name which is explained in a key at the bottom of this table. This list represents 50 largest agencies not networks or groups such as WPP Publicis Group Dentsu Inc Interpublic or Omnicom Group. At the beginning of this century management consulting firms such as PwC Digital or Deloitte Digital began competing with advertising agencies with an emphasis on data analysis. MEC which is fourth largest agency of WPP GroupM is a leading media agency with clients such as Vodafone Netflix Paramount Pictures Marriott Chanel GE or Xerox. Its inclusive Creative Democracy process has driven this agency for more than twenty years fostering award-winning creativity as well as a culture that consistently makes Wongdoody one of best places to work according to Ad Age Puget Sound Business Journal or Los Angeles Business Journal. Most advertising agencies also offer a wide range of other full-service marketing disciplines; other agencies specialize on one or two specific areas such as healthcare or public relations. While huge agency networks or holding companies are at forefront there has been convergence of consulting firms or technology giants entering this framework to compete as well as internal agencies. Digital-focused consultancies led by Accenture Interactive (renamed Accenture Song in April 2020) top Ad Age Datacenter rankings of these agency networks.
