Best Advertising Agencies in Boston (2026)

Introduction

Boston has seven advertising agencies worth a close look in 2026: the large network offices that still make and buy national campaigns from the city, a performance media specialist, a healthcare advertising unit and two independents that run creative and media under one roof. They were chosen for recent work, 2025 and 2026 recognition, and the strength of their client rosters.

The big agencies here are smaller than they were. The Boston Globe reported in April 2026 that Digitas had about 500 local staff in 2025, Arnold about 300 and Hill Holliday about 150, all well down on 2015. Omnicom completed its purchase of IPG at the end of 2025 and folded MullenLowe, which had been based in the city since 2009, into TBWA on 1 December 2025. In August 2026 Omnicom Media merged Mediahub, the media agency that began as Mullen’s media unit, with Hearts & Science to form Hearts United. Havas has gone the other way and gathered several of its Boston businesses into one building at 5 Necco Street in Fort Point.

Every agency here has an active office in Boston in 2026. The list runs in no fixed order of merit, since the right choice depends on your brief, budget and how you like to work. Idea-led creative shops are covered on our creative agencies page, and full-funnel and PR firms on the marketing agencies page.

The best advertising agencies in Boston

1. Arnold

Havas · Fort Point · arn.com

Arnold is one of Boston’s long-standing large agencies and sits within the Havas Creative network. It shares the former GE headquarters at 5 Necco Street with Havas Media, after the two moved from Downtown Crossing, and it also runs a New York office. The Boston Globe counted about 300 Arnold staff in the city in 2025 and described the agency as growing again under George Sargent.

Progressive is its best-known client, and Arnold’s “Dr. Rick” spots for it advise young homeowners. Recent work includes a PNC Bank film with the pitcher Paul Skenes, a January 2026 Norwegian Cruise Line campaign reviving the line “It’s Different Out Here”, and a February 2026 partnership between Maxfli and the golfer Ben Griffin. De Beers Natural Diamonds is also on its roster.

2. Hill Holliday

Attivo Group · Seaport · hhcc.com

Hill Holliday was founded in Boston in 1968 and spent about 25 years inside IPG before the New Zealand-based Attivo Group bought it in January 2024. Attivo has since built up its media side: Sasha Savic, who previously led UM, MediaCom and Havas Media, joined in September 2025 as CEO of Attivo US and Attivo Media, and Anush Prabhu, formerly MediaCom’s global chief strategy officer, became CEO of Hill Holliday in January 2026. Dave Weist is president and chief creative officer.

The agency runs creative alongside media, decision science, healthcare and social production units, so planning, buying and analytics can sit with the team that makes the work. Recent case studies cover the Boston Celtics, Dunkin’, Cadillac, BMW Motorrad, Valvoline and Boar’s Head.

3. Connelly Partners

Independent · South End · connellypartners.com

Connelly Partners was established in 1999 and remains independent. It works from Waltham Street in the South End, with further offices in Dublin and Vancouver, and has more than 180 staff. In August 2025 it bought McCarthy Mambro Bertino (MMB), its South End neighbour, whose national work included Subway and Boston Beer. MMB keeps its name as a marketing group under co-founder Fred Bertino, and its former creative lead David Register is now Connelly’s executive creative director.

Media thinking features heavily in the agency’s 2026 output, with published notes on connected TV, out-of-home and the first Retail & Commerce Media Upfront. Clients include Gorton’s, Liberty Bank, Yale New Haven Health and Ireland’s Bus Éireann and Shannon Airport, and the agency won Gun Lake Casino Resort in September 2026.

4. Digitas Boston

Publicis Groupe · Boston · digitas.com

Digitas is Publicis Groupe’s connected marketing agency, and its Boston office is one of the largest in the network, with more than 500 staff according to Campaign. A Boston role advertised in May 2026 asks staff to work from the office three to four days a week. Across the network, 2026 recognition includes Adweek 50 honours for chief solutions officer Melissa Berger and a Young Lions media win.

The agency combines data, media, social, commerce and creative for large consumer brands. Boston clients have included CVS Health, Dunkin’ and Polaris, and recent network work includes RaceTrac’s “One Trac Mind” and Sephora’s “Rush of Beauty”. It suits national advertisers that want Publicis data and media buying behind their campaigns.

5. GYK

Independent · Downtown · heygyk.com

GYK, long known as GYK Antler, is an independent integrated agency with an office at 93 Summer Street in Downtown Boston and its headquarters in Manchester, New Hampshire. Travis York is CEO and Pam Hamlin is president, and Adam Telian leads a dedicated media team. The agency is part of the York Creative Collective, and it lists a Boston Business Journal 2026 Best Place to Work award. The Boston Globe named it in April 2026 among the city’s smaller firms doing award-winning work.

Its Boston clients lean towards sport and transport. GYK made “Opening Night: Blood, Sweat & 100 Years” for the Boston Bruins’ centenary season and the “TRACKed” film for the MBTA Commuter Rail, run by Keolis. More recent work includes a Dry January campaign for Sweet Baby Ray’s in January 2026 and a Flannel Friday ale for Harpoon and L.L.Bean in July 2026. Hasbro, Sallie Mae, Ken’s Foods and CamelBak are also clients.

6. Havas Edge

Havas · Fort Point · havasedge.com

Havas Edge is a performance media agency founded more than 30 years ago in the San Diego area, with its headquarters in Carlsbad, California, and its second office on the second floor of 5 Necco Street in Boston. It is part of Havas’s Edge Performance Network. The agency plans, buys and optimises advertising against measures such as return on ad spend and customer acquisition cost.

Services cover linear and connected TV, programmatic, digital, data science and a health media hub for pharmaceutical brands. Clients include DraftKings, The Hartford, Norton LifeLock, Aetna, Tripadvisor, Shutterfly, Blue Nile and SimpliSafe, and it reports an average client tenure of 5.7 years. It suits brands that buy a lot of TV and want every placement tied to a sales or sign-up number.

7. Havas Life Rare

Havas Health & You · Fort Point · havasrare.com

Havas Life Rare is a healthcare advertising agency that works only on orphan drugs and rare disease markets. It is part of Havas Health & You and sits within its Boston office at 5 Necco Street, which Havas calls H4B Boston. Managing director Kristin Marvin Keller co-chairs the RARE Corporate Alliance run by the advocacy group Global Genes.

The agency covers a rare disease product’s whole life, from early commercial analysis and advocacy strategy to brand launch and loss of exclusivity. Its creative team makes disease education and promotional advertising for healthcare professionals, patients and caregivers. Boston’s biotech cluster makes it a natural fit for local drug developers preparing a first launch.

What to look for in a Boston advertising agency

Decide first how much of the media you want the agency to handle. Arnold works next to Havas Media in Fort Point, Hill Holliday has Attivo Media behind it, and GYK has its own media team. Havas Edge is a pure performance buyer. If you already have a media agency, a creative-only shop may be simpler, and the creative agencies list covers those.

Check the agency’s experience in your sector. A large part of Boston’s advertising budget comes from hospitals, insurers, financial services firms and life sciences companies, and pharmaceutical work in particular goes through medical, legal and regulatory review before anything runs. Ask to see recent work that cleared that kind of process, and how long it took.

Ask who will work on your account, by name. Boston’s big agency offices have shrunk over the past decade, and the Omnicom and IPG merger, the end of the MullenLowe brand and new leadership at Hill Holliday changed rosters again in 2025 and 2026. The people in the pitch room should be the people doing the work, and it is reasonable to ask for that in writing.

Finally, look at how the agency handles the day-to-day: where scripts, cuts and media plans live, how feedback is gathered and how approvals are tracked. A single TV spot can pass through brand, legal and media reviewers in several rounds, often with versions for different lengths and channels. Agencies with a clear review process, and one place where clients can find the latest version, are easier to work with over a long relationship.

How Fabric helps advertising agency teams

Fabric gives an agency one workspace for its files, client feedback and team knowledge, with AI search across all of it. Advertising teams usually run several clients at once, and the agency setup is built around that pattern: one space per client, with briefs, media plans, scripts, decks and call notes kept together.

Finished spots, raw footage and print masters sit in Fabric’s cloud drive, which streams files on demand so they take no local disk space, and heavy video opens without a full download. Search works by meaning across documents, images and recordings, and transcription makes the dialogue in TV and radio spots searchable, with results that jump to the right timestamp. Similar search finds related images by composition, colour and subject, which helps when a team needs every past execution with a particular look.

For client review, any file or folder can be published as a web page and protected with a password. Link analytics shows when each named recipient opened a link and how long they spent with it, which is useful when one round goes to brand, legal and media stakeholders at the same client. Clients can leave threaded comments through a shared link without creating an account. Reviewers can highlight and comment on PDFs and documents, leave timestamped comments on video and audio, and draw on any image or video frame. There is more on running rounds in review and approval.

On Team plans, self-writing docs can maintain a page for each client from meetings, Slack and the workspace itself, covering decisions, deliverables and open items. Files are protected with AES-256 encryption, and Fabric holds CASA Tier 2 certification; agencies working with healthcare and pharmaceutical clients should still confirm their own requirements with their legal and security teams.

Password protection and link analytics are included on Pro and Team plans, and self-writing docs on Team plans. See plans for teams.

Frequently asked questions

What is the best advertising agency in Boston?

There is no single answer, as the right agency depends on the brief and on how much media buying you need. Digitas and Arnold are among the largest network offices in the city, Hill Holliday has added senior media leadership under Attivo, and GYK and Connelly Partners are the independents that combine creative and media.

What happened to MullenLowe in Boston?

After Omnicom completed its acquisition of IPG at the end of 2025, it retired the MullenLowe brand and folded the agency into TBWA on 1 December 2025. MullenLowe had been based in Boston since 2009, after decades on the North Shore.

What happened to Mediahub?

Omnicom Media merged Mediahub with Hearts & Science, and the combined agency launched as Hearts United on 28 August 2026. Nicole Estebanell, previously CEO of Mediahub U.S., leads it in the US. Mediahub continues under its own name only in Australia.

Who owns Arnold and Hill Holliday?

Arnold is part of Havas and shares its Fort Point building with Havas Media. Hill Holliday has been owned by the New Zealand-based Attivo Group since January 2024, after about 25 years inside IPG.

Where can I find Boston’s independent creative agencies?

This page leans towards network offices and media and performance specialists. For idea-led independents, see the best creative agencies in Boston, and for full-funnel and PR firms, the best marketing agencies in Boston.

Related lists

Advertising agencies in other cities: New York · Los Angeles · Chicago · London · Seattle

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