Best Advertising Agencies in Manchester (2026)

Introduction

Manchester has the largest advertising scene in the UK outside London, and the eight agencies below cover the main ways brands buy it: network creative offices, a healthcare specialist, and independent media agencies that plan and buy TV, digital and out-of-home. They were chosen for 2025 and 2026 work, trade recognition and the strength of their client lists.

The city’s network map shifted over the past year. Omnicom completed its acquisition of IPG at the end of 2025, which brought McCann Manchester, the largest agency in Prolific North’s 2024 integrated ranking, into the same group as TBWA. McCann announced a city centre expansion in February 2026. Havas moved its Manchester agencies, including Havas Lynx and its media business, into a new Havas Village at No.3 Circle Square on the Oxford Road Corridor in late 2025. Independent media agencies have grown alongside them, with Edison Media named Business of the Year at the 2026 MPA Awards.

Every agency here has an active Greater Manchester office in 2026. The list is unranked: the right choice depends on whether you need creative, media or both, and on the size of your budget. Creative-led independents appear on our separate creative agencies list.

The best advertising agencies in Manchester

1. McCann Manchester

Omnicom (McCann network) · Prestbury and Manchester city centre · mccann.com

McCann Manchester is the biggest network advertising office in the North West. It topped Prolific North’s 2024 Top 50 Integrated Agencies with a headcount of 391 and placed sixth in the 2025 list. The agency has long been based in Prestbury, Cheshire, and announced an expansion into Manchester city centre in February 2026. It became part of Omnicom when the IPG acquisition completed at the end of 2025, and still trades under the McCann name.

The client list is heavy on retail and leisure. Aldi’s Kevin the Carrot Christmas campaigns run out of Manchester, alongside 2026 work for Betway, PureGym, KAYAK, Irish Ferries and LNER. Delamere Dairy appointed McCann as its strategic and creative partner in March 2026. Chairman Dean Lovett also oversees the Leeds office, so northern clients can draw on both teams.

2. TBWA\MCR

Privately owned, TBWA network · City centre · tbwamcr.com

TBWA\MCR is a creative brand agency in Canada House on Chepstow Street, working under TBWA’s Disruption methodology while being listed as privately owned in Prolific North’s rankings. It placed 28th in the 2025 Prolific North Top 50 Integrated Agencies, and its “Dodge the Finger” out-of-home work with Ocean Outdoor and Prost8 was shortlisted at the 2026 Prolific North Creative Awards.

Recent campaigns include Sofology’s “so fussy? Sofology.” platform, launched in September 2025 across TV, BVOD, YouTube and social, and “First stop Toolstation” in May 2026. Other clients include Goodfella’s, David Lloyd Clubs, Merlin Entertainments attractions such as the London Eye, Cotton Traders and Beaverbrooks.

3. Havas Lynx

Havas (Havas Health network) · Oxford Road Corridor · havaslynx.com

Havas Lynx is a healthcare communications agency founded in Manchester around 40 years ago. It has close to 400 specialists and ranked second in Prolific North’s Top 50 Integrated Agencies in both 2024 and 2025. Since late 2025 it has been based in the Havas Village at No.3 Circle Square, a 31,500 sq ft space it shares with Havas’s media, PR, production and design businesses.

The agency works for pharmaceutical clients, healthcare professionals and patient audiences, and runs an annual thought leadership programme on emerging healthcare trends. Its current campaign is Doctored Truths. Healthcare advertising carries regulatory review that consumer work does not, so it is a natural choice for brands that need that experience in-house.

4. Havas Media Network Manchester

Havas · Oxford Road Corridor · havasmedia.co.uk

Havas Media opened its Manchester office in 2015 after winning the BBC’s media account. It moved with the rest of Havas Manchester into the Havas Village at No.3 Circle Square in late 2025, which puts media planning and buying in the same building as Havas Lynx, Havas Red and the production studio Prose on Pixels.

Clients have included the BBC, Matalan and Stagecoach, and the office has run media for financial brands such as OpenMoney. It suits advertisers who want a northern media team with access to a global network’s buying and data.

5. EssenceMediacom Manchester

WPP Media · City centre · essencemediacom.com

EssenceMediacom is one of WPP Media’s agency brands, and Manchester is one of its four UK offices, at 1 New Quay Street. It was among the eight WPP agencies named for the group’s Manchester campus when it opened in 2023, WPP’s first UK campus outside London.

The agency plans and buys media across broadcast, digital and out-of-home, and its UK work includes campaigns for adidas, eBay, Coca-Cola and Benenden Health. Ask which accounts are run from Manchester, since many national clients are handled across several UK offices.

6. Excite OOH

Independent · King Street · exciteooh.com

Excite OOH is an independent out-of-home media agency with offices on King Street in Manchester and in Covent Garden. It plans, buys and produces outdoor campaigns, including programmatic digital out-of-home and special builds, and is an IPA member agency. It was ranked in Prolific North’s 2025 Top 50 Integrated Agencies.

Clients include Matchroom Boxing, for a global campaign supporting its rebrand, DPD for recruitment advertising, and KILROY for its UK launch. Its published guides on TfL and programmatic out-of-home pricing are a useful starting point for planning a first outdoor campaign.

7. Edison Media

Independent · Swinton, Salford · edisonmedia.co.uk

Edison Media is an independent full-service media agency covering out-of-home, broadcast, guerrilla, digital and organic content. It won Business of the Year at the 2026 MPA Awards, and The Drum ranked it 12th in its Top 150 Indie Agencies. It also appears in Prolific North’s 2025 Top 50 Integrated Agencies.

JD Sports is its best-known client, with campaigns alongside Nike, adidas, Under Armour and the Scottish FA. The JD x adidas work won Best Large Budget Campaign at The Drum Awards and Best Brand Activation at the 2025 Prolific North awards. Other clients include Manchester City, BoohooMan, Regatta and Visit Blackpool.

8. Media Agency Group

Independent · MediaCityUK · mediaagencygroup.co.uk

Media Agency Group is an independent media agency based at the Digital World Centre in MediaCityUK, with a second office in Mayfair. It climbed to eighth in Prolific North’s 2024 Top 50 Integrated Agencies and placed 12th in 2025, with a 2024 headcount of 28.

Its work leans on TV and out-of-home, including wrapped buses, Underground formats, taxis and city centre digital screens. Recent campaigns include Heidi Health’s London launch, a Saie Beauty product launch and Knowsley Safari’s “Tiger Takeover” in Liverpool, and its digital division works under a separate brand.

What to look for in a Manchester advertising agency

Decide first whether you need creative, media or both. Manchester’s network offices such as McCann and TBWA\MCR lead with ideas and production, while Edison Media, Excite OOH and Media Agency Group lead with planning and buying. Some brands hire one of each and ask them to work together, which works well when roles are agreed early.

Look at where the work is made. Several network agencies run national accounts across Manchester, Leeds and London, so ask which team holds your account day to day and how many people sit in the North West. The 2025 and 2026 office moves, including the Havas Village and McCann’s city centre expansion, have made many of these teams easier to visit.

Check sector experience. Healthcare advertising needs medical and regulatory review, which is why specialists such as Havas Lynx exist. Retail and sports clients, a large part of Manchester’s market, tend to need fast turnaround around promotions and match days, and agencies that handle Aldi or JD Sports are used to that pace.

Finally, ask how campaigns move from script to sign-off. TV spots, out-of-home artwork and social cut-downs go through many rounds with clients, legal and media owners. Agencies with a single place for the latest edit, clear approval steps and a record of who signed off what tend to deliver on time.

How Fabric helps advertising agency teams

Fabric gives an advertising agency one workspace for its campaign files, client feedback and team knowledge, with AI search across all of it. The agency setup suits the way ad teams run several accounts at once: one space per client, with briefs, scripts, edits, artwork and call notes kept together.

Broadcast masters, raw footage and print-ready artwork sit in Fabric’s cloud drive, which streams files on demand so they take no local disk space. Editors can open heavy video files without a full download. Search works by meaning across documents, images and transcribed recordings, so a team can find a line from last year’s voiceover or every asset in a campaign colour. There is more on how production teams use this in Fabric for commercials.

For client review, any file or folder can be published as a web page and shared with password protection. Link analytics shows when each named recipient opened a pitch deck or rough cut and how long they spent on it. Clients and media owners can leave threaded comments on any file through a shared link without creating an account. Commenters can also leave timestamped comments on video and draw on any video frame. The review and approval guide covers how agencies set up sign-off rounds.

On Team plans, self-writing docs can maintain a page for each client from meetings, Slack and the workspace, covering decisions, deliverables and open items. That helps when accounts are shared across Manchester, Leeds and London 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 biggest advertising agency in Manchester?

By headcount, McCann Manchester is the largest. It topped Prolific North’s 2024 Top 50 Integrated Agencies with 391 staff, ahead of Havas Lynx with 373. Both remained in the top six of the 2025 list.

What happened to McCann Manchester after Omnicom bought IPG?

Omnicom completed its acquisition of IPG at the end of 2025 and retired several network brands, but McCann continues to trade under its own name. McCann Manchester has kept working for clients such as Aldi, Betway and PureGym through 2026, and announced a Manchester city centre expansion in February 2026.

Where are Manchester’s advertising agencies based?

They are spread across the city centre and Greater Manchester. TBWA\MCR is on Chepstow Street, Excite OOH on King Street, and the Havas agencies at Circle Square on the Oxford Road Corridor. Media Agency Group is at MediaCityUK in Salford and Edison Media in Swinton, while McCann has long been based in Prestbury, Cheshire.

Should I hire a creative agency or a media agency?

It depends on what you already have. A brand with a strong creative idea but no buying power needs a media agency such as Edison Media or Media Agency Group. A brand that needs the idea itself should start with a creative shop, and independents doing that work are listed on our page of the best creative agencies in Manchester.

Is there a specialist healthcare advertising agency in Manchester?

Yes. Havas Lynx, founded in Manchester, is one of the UK’s largest healthcare communications agencies, with close to 400 specialists working for pharmaceutical clients, healthcare professionals and patients.

Related lists

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

More in Manchester: Creative agencies · Marketing agencies · Social media agencies · Video production · Content studios · Post-production

Run your agency on Fabric: Fabric for agencies · Fabric for creative teams · Best client portal tools