The last 12 months have been a hard year for marketing agencies. Budgets have been cut while staff have been marooned at home. But it’s also been a time of opportunity, as companies across the country began their own digital transformation campaigns. And the UK’s digital agencies have risen to the challenge.

At The Drum, we publish the voices and stories of digital marketers every day. But we wanted to grasp the impact of this year on the digital agency sector as a whole – and understand the state of the digital marketing nation. So, over the last few months, we’ve undertaken a new sector-wide research project: The Drum UK Digital Census. Our expert research team has polled digital agencies, clients and staff, in a comprehensive survey of the UK’s digital agency sector.

Over the coming weeks, we’ll be revealing our findings – revealing which of the UK’s digital agencies have the best client relationships, the best reputation among rivals and the best creative performance, as well as a best-of-the-best reflecting performance across all three categories – and investigating how the UK’s digital agencies have adapted during this last year in a series of special reports.

cameron clarke – editor

Top 50 digital agencies by peers UK 2021
Top 50 best award winning digital agencies UK 2021
Top 50 best client rated digital agencies UK 2021

Top 50 UK most admired digital agencies by peers

Reputation is a fickle thing. A good name can keep you in work for years, lead the way to the best clients and turn your agency into a career destination for ambitious talent. But haloes are hard to earn – and harder to keep.

We wanted to discover which of the UK’s digital agencies were the most respected in the sector. So, who better to ask than their competitors and rivals? Our peer poll asked survey respondents to name the agencies they most respected (or feared!). With 2099 votes for over 320 agencies, it was a big list to sift through. Still, the swing-o-meter has come to rest and the ballots have all been counted. The agencies at the top of our ranked list received the most votes from their peers, indicating that they’re the most respected agencies in the country.

1 Brainlabs

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2 Jellyfish

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=3 adam&eveDDB

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=3 UsTwo

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5 AKQA

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1 Brainlabs

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2 Jellyfish

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=3 adam&eveDDB

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=3 UsTwo

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5 AKQA

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6 we are social

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7 Accenture Interactive

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8 Mediacom

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9 iProspect UK

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10 BBH

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=11 AnalogFolk

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=11 Deloitte Digital

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13 R/GA London

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=14 Journey Further

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=14 Wunderman Thompson

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=16 Croud

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=16 Impression

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=18 Clearleft

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=18 Dentsu London

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20 Jaywing

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=21 Karmarama

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=21 Kyan

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=21 TwentySix

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=24 Brave Bison

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=24 Found

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=26 383

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=26 Builtvisible

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=26 Essence

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=26 Hallam

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=30 Code ComputerLove

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=30 Curated Digital

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=30 iCrossing

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=30 Merkle

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=30 Propellernet

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=30 Stickyeyes

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=36 Cyber Duck

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=36 Lab

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=36 OMD UK

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=36 Somo

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=40 AMVBBDO

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=40 Ayima

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=40 Cube3

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=40 Dog

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=40 Huge London

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=40 MadeBrave

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=40 OLIVER

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=40 Publicis Sapient

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=40 Valtech

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=40 Verb Brands

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=40 Zazzle Media

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