World Creative Rankings 2023: the top holding companies and networks revealed
We announce the most-awarded agency groups from around the globe as part of The Drum’s 2023 World Creative Rankings.
Wunderman Thompson’s work for Unilever pushed parent group WPP up this year’s rankings
WPP-owned agencies garnered the most critical acclaim from industry awards juries last year, analysis from The Drum’s research team shows.
In particular, WPP-owned Ogilvy was the most-awarded agency network in the World Creative Rankings, owing in part to a strong showing from its American, UK and Indian agencies.
Mark Read, chief executive officer of WPP, said: “Our ideas and ingenuity are why clients come to us. It’s why WPP continues to be a powerhouse of creativity that attracts the most curious minds and most talented people, and I’m incredibly proud of WPP and Ogilvy for being named most creative company and agency network respectively.”
The rankings are compiled by exhaustively analyzing the performance of thousands of pieces of creative work across 19 major industry awards programs, including The Drum Awards, throughout 2022.
After revealing the most-awarded agencies in the world, as well as regional breakdowns for the US, APAC and EMEA, we can now explore the most-acclaimed holding companies.
| Rank | Holding company |
|---|---|
| 1 | WPP |
| 2 | Omnicom |
| 3 | IPG (Interpublic Group) |
| 4 | Publicis Groupe |
| 5 | Havas Group |
| 6 | Dentsu |
| 7 | Accenture |
| 8 | Stagwell |
| 9 | Hakuhodo DY |
As well as measuring the creative performance of holding companies at large, we can also see which agency networks performed best over the past year. Ogilvy leads the pack, while BBDO, DDB and Leo Burnett followed close behind.
| Rank | Network |
|---|---|
| 1 | Ogilvy |
| 2 | BBDO |
| 3 | DDB |
| 4 | Leo Burnett |
| 5 | FCB |
| 6 | VMLY&R |
| 7 | McCann |
| 8 | Publicis |
| 9 | Dentsu |
| 10 | TBWA |
| 11 | Havas |
| 12 | Wunderman Thompson |
| 13 | David |
| 14 | Gut |
| 15 | Saatchi & Saatchi |
| 16 | Cheil |
| 17 | Grey |
| 18 | BETC |
| 19 | Jung von Matt |
| 20 | Droga5 |
World Creative Rankings:
Explore the best-performing campaigns, agencies and brands in this year’s World Creative Rankings.