Best Advertising Agencies in Sydney (2026)

Introduction

Sydney is where most of the big holding companies run their Australian advertising businesses, and several of them now share a few blocks of Pyrmont. The 11 agencies below are network offices and advertising specialists, chosen for recent work, 2025 and 2026 recognition, and the strength of their client rosters.

The network map changed a good deal over the past year. Omnicom completed its purchase of IPG at the end of 2025 and retired the DDB, FCB and MullenLowe brands; in Australia, DDB was folded into Clemenger BBDO, which now runs as one national agency. McCann continues in Australia, where HERO holds the licence. At Cannes Lions 2026 Australia won 11 Lions, down from 31 the year before, and Leo Australia was named Pacific Regional Agency of the Year after its Titanium Grand Prix for Suncorp.

Every agency here has an active Sydney office in 2026. The list is in no fixed order of merit. Independent idea shops such as Thinkerbell, Special and Bear Meets Eagle On Fire are covered on our creative agencies page.

The best advertising agencies in Sydney

1. Clemenger BBDO

Omnicom · Sydney · clemengerbbdo.com

Clemenger BBDO absorbed DDB Australia in December 2025 to form a single national agency, with offices in Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane. The former DDB leaders run it: Sheryl Marjoram (Sydney) and Mike Napolitano (Melbourne) are co-CEOs, and Stephen de Wolf is chief creative officer. DDB had been Campaign Brief’s Australian Agency of the Year for 2025, and Clemenger led the finalists at the 2026 Australian Effie Awards.

The roster is broad. Samsung launched the Galaxy S26 with the agency in March 2026, and recent work includes campaigns for Stan, Swisse, Mazda’s CX-5, Steggles and COLORBOND, plus “Long Way for a Beer”, an entertainment series for Great Northern. With two large agencies combined, ask which team your account will sit with.

2. TBWA\Sydney

Omnicom · Pyrmont · tbwa.com.au

TBWA\Sydney works from Pyrmont Street and is one of the three creative brands Omnicom kept after the IPG deal. Kimberlee Wells is national CEO of TBWA\Australia. “The Sunburnt Car” for mycar Tyre & Auto, which made an invisible driving risk visible, won Gold in Outdoor and Silver in Industry Craft at Cannes Lions 2026.

Clients include NAB, Telstra, Specsavers, Mastercard, Who Gives A Crap and Modibodi. The wider TBWA network was Adweek’s Global Agency of the Year in 2025.

3. Leo Australia

Publicis Groupe · Pyrmont · leoburnett.com.au

Leo Australia, formerly Leo Burnett, works from 21 Harris Street in Pyrmont with a second office in Melbourne. At Cannes Lions 2026, “Haven”, an AI-powered climate risk tool for Suncorp, won the Titanium Grand Prix plus two Silvers and a Bronze, and the agency was named Pacific Regional Agency of the Year. Clare Pickens is CEO and Andy Fergusson is chief creative officer.

Suncorp and AAMI are long-standing accounts. Johnnie Walker, Destination NSW, Prime Video, Honda, Bonds and Headspace are also on the client list.

4. Publicis Worldwide Australia

Publicis Groupe · Pyrmont · publicis.com.au

Publicis Worldwide shares the Harris Street building with Leo and kept its own name in mid-2025 when Publicis brought the two networks closer together in Australia. It is the smaller of the group’s creative agencies here, with a mix of brand and public-sector work.

Recent campaigns include PayPal’s largest Australian ad to date, with Will Ferrell making an in-flight announcement, and “Here’s to Reason” for The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age. Nine, Subway, Tourism and Events Queensland and the International Olympic Committee also feature in its work.

5. Saatchi & Saatchi Australia

Publicis Groupe · Sydney · saatchi.com.au

Saatchi & Saatchi Australia is Publicis Groupe’s third creative brand in Sydney. Leif Stromnes was appointed chief strategy officer for Australia and New Zealand in November 2025.

Toyota is the anchor client: the agency launched the RAV4 “Mr. Blue Sky” platform in April 2026 and has run HiLux and safety-testing work over the past year. Ampol, Arnott’s (the “Bikkie Belt” snack holster), Youfoodz and the Animal Welfare League are also on the roster.

6. Ogilvy Australia

WPP · Sydney · ogilvy.com.au

Ogilvy’s Australian business is run from Sydney, with Kirsty Muddle as CEO for Australia and New Zealand. It offers creative, PR and a production arm, Ogilvy Character Studio, and won several new accounts in 2026, including Lite n’ Easy (creative and CX, July) and Movember (PR, June).

Recent work includes ING’s “Saving Is In”, a KFC postcard campaign, a Snap Map promotion for Fanta and St John’s “Good Good”. Ogilvy suits brands that want advertising and PR from one team.

7. VML Australia

WPP · Sydney · vml.com/australia

VML was formed from Wunderman Thompson and VMLY&R and has more than 350 people across six offices in Australia and New Zealand, Sydney among them. It ranked first in Australia and New Zealand in Campaign Brief’s The Work 2025, with 35 Australian acceptances, and third on the 2026 Australian Hot List. Paul Bradbury became ANZ CEO in January 2026.

VML Sydney’s “Magnif-Eye” for 1001 Optometry, which turned phone camera rolls into eye tests, won a Silver in Health & Wellness at Cannes Lions 2026. Kit Kat, Monash University, Anglicare and Kubota are other recent clients.

8. Dentsu Creative Australia

Dentsu · Sydney · dentsu.com/au

Dentsu Creative Australia was formed in June 2022 from BWMdentsu, dentsuMB, Isobar, Haystac and Cox Inall, and is based in Sydney. The wider business reorganised in 2026, integrating Merkle and moving away from the Carat and iProspect brands in Australia.

Recent work includes an orchestral hot cross buns spot for Woolworths, a 1980s-themed campaign for nib, an oversized pearl installation for Pandora and campaigns for Geely and Chery. Tourism and Events Queensland retained the group in May 2026 with an expanded media remit.

9. BMF

Enero Group · Sydney · bmf.com.au

BMF was founded in Sydney and is owned by the ASX-listed Enero Group. It was among the leading finalists at the 2026 Australian Effie Awards, and in September 2026 it opened in Melbourne with Scott Nowell, a co-founder of The Monkeys, as creative chair.

ALDI and Westpac are long-running clients; Westpac’s “Double You” launched in February 2026. In 2026 BMF also won Amazon’s Ring, Superloop and a place on Asahi Beverages’ roster, and created Western Sydney University’s first brand platform in a decade.

10. Droga5 ANZ

Accenture Song · Sydney · droga5.com

Droga5 ANZ is the former The Monkeys, which Accenture bought in 2017 and renamed in December 2024. It works from Sydney, Melbourne and New Zealand. As The Monkeys it won a Titanium Grand Prix at Cannes for “The First Digital Nation”, for Tuvalu, and its Sydney Opera House film “Play It Safe”, with Tim Minchin, won Best Video Campaign at the B&T Awards.

Droga5’s first work for Optus ran in April 2026, directed by Andreas Nilsson. SEEK, SBS, NRMA, VB and Australian Lamb are other recent clients.

11. M+C Saatchi

M&C Saatchi Group · Sydney · mcsaatchi.com.au

M+C Saatchi has offices in Sydney, Melbourne and Auckland and is part of the London-listed M&C Saatchi Group. Sophie Gallagher joined from Clemenger as group strategy director in February 2026.

Recent work includes a blood-draining guernsey installed outside the Sydney Swans headquarters for Lifeblood and a three-part docu-series about jockeys. A planned management buy-out of the Australian and New Zealand business was signed in July 2026 and called off in September, so confirm the leadership team before a pitch.

What to look for in a Sydney advertising agency

Start with ownership and the 2026 reorganisations. Former DDB clients now sit inside Clemenger BBDO, Publicis runs three creative brands in Sydney, and several agencies changed senior leaders this year. Ask for the current org chart and the names of the people who will run your business.

Check which city leads the account. Most of the agencies above split national work between Sydney and Melbourne, and some run Brisbane, Perth or New Zealand offices too. Agree which office owns strategy, creative and production, and where the senior creative team sits.

Ask how media and production are handled. Some clients now split creative and media between groups (in July 2026 Cheil won Samsung Australia’s creative while Publicis Groupe won its media). Network agencies can offer sister media agencies and in-house production, but ask which services are included and which are billed separately.

Finally, look at how review and approvals run. A national campaign can produce dozens of cut-downs, state versions and legal checks, each with its own feedback round. Agencies with a clear review process and one place for the latest files spend less time chasing sign-off.

How Fabric helps advertising agency teams

Fabric gives an agency one workspace for files, client feedback and team knowledge, with AI search across all of it. The agency setup suits the way advertising accounts run across Sydney and Melbourne teams: one space per client, with briefs, scripts, decks, edits and call notes together.

Campaign production creates large files. Fabric’s cloud drive streams them on demand, so they take no local disk space and heavy video files open without a full download. Search works by meaning across documents, images and recordings, and audio and video transcription makes spots, interviews and casting tapes searchable, with timestamps that jump to the right moment.

For client review, any file or folder can be published as a web page with password protection, and link analytics shows when each named recipient opened it and for how long. Clients can leave threaded comments through a shared link without signing up. With annotations, reviewers can mark up PDFs and documents such as scripts and legal copy, and leave timestamped comments on video.

On Team plans, self-writing docs keep a page for each client from meetings, Slack and the workspace, covering decisions, deliverables and open items.

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 Sydney?

It depends on the brief. On 2025 and 2026 recognition, Leo Australia won the Titanium Grand Prix at Cannes Lions 2026 and was named Pacific Regional Agency of the Year, TBWA\Sydney won a Gold Lion for mycar, and VML ranked first in Campaign Brief’s The Work 2025.

What happened to DDB Sydney?

Omnicom retired the DDB brand after buying IPG at the end of 2025. In Australia, DDB was merged into Clemenger BBDO in December 2025, and DDB’s Sydney and Melbourne chiefs now co-lead the combined agency.

What happened to The Monkeys?

The Monkeys, owned by Accenture since 2017, was renamed Droga5 ANZ in December 2024. It still works from Sydney and Melbourne, with clients including Optus, SEEK and SBS.

What is the difference between an advertising agency and a creative agency in Sydney?

The labels overlap. This page covers network offices and advertising specialists, which tend to offer media links, production and national scale. Independent idea shops such as Thinkerbell, Special and Howatson+Company are covered in the best creative agencies in Sydney.

How should I brief a Sydney advertising agency?

Share the business problem, budget, timing and how success will be measured, plus which states and channels the campaign must cover. Ask each agency to name the team, say which office leads, and show how production, review and approvals work.

Related lists

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

More in Sydney: Creative agencies · Marketing agencies · Branding agencies · Social media agencies · Video production · Post-production

Run your agency on Fabric: Fabric for agencies · Fabric for commercial production · Best creative proofing tools