Best Creative Agencies in Boston (2026)

Introduction

Boston has one of the oldest agency scenes in the US, and the 10 creative agencies below range from shops founded in the 1960s to a team that started in 2019. They work for the region’s healthcare, higher education, life sciences and financial services organisations as well as consumer brands such as Dunkin’, Progressive and Norwegian Cruise Line. They were chosen for recent work, 2025 and 2026 recognition, and the strength of their client rosters.

Ownership in the city has shifted a good deal. Omnicom completed its purchase of IPG at the end of 2025 and folded MullenLowe, one of Boston’s best-known agencies, into TBWA on 1 December 2025. Hill Holliday had already left IPG for the New Zealand-based Attivo Group in 2024. In October 2026 Chemistry, a private equity-backed agency, bought the South Boston independent Colossus and made it the base of a new Boston office. Independents remain strong: Indie Agency News named Allen & Gerritsen to its 2026 Top 40 Classic in June.

Every agency here has an active office in Boston or the inner suburbs 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.

The best creative agencies in Boston

1. Colossus (Chemistry Boston)

Chemistry · South Boston · chemistryagency.com

Colossus was set up in 2019 by Jonathan Balck, Greg Almeida and Travis Robertson, who had worked together at the Boston agency MMB. It grew to about 20 people and won a run of category awards, including Gold for Healthcare Campaign at Ad Age’s 2026 Small Agency Awards. In October 2026 Chemistry, which is backed by Breakwater Management, bought the agency outright and made it Chemistry’s fifth US office. The three founders stay on as partners.

The work is wide for a small team. Colossus made a New England Emmy-winning film about autism for the New England Center for Children, a Kendall Square rebrand with Moderna, Google, Microsoft and MIT, and a Museum of Fine Arts project for Kayem that placed hot dogs into historical American paintings for the nation’s 250th anniversary. Recent clients include Adobe Acrobat, Toast, Archer Roose, Wellness Pet Company and Astound Broadband. The move into a larger group is new, so ask how account teams and senior time will change.

2. Arnold

Havas · Fort Point · arn.com

Arnold is one of Boston’s long-standing large agencies and sits within the Havas Creative network. It moved with Havas Media from Downtown Crossing to the former GE headquarters at 5 Necco Street in Fort Point, a smaller and more hybrid space, and also runs a New York office.

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.

3. 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. Its main office is at 2 Drydock Avenue in the Seaport, with further offices in New York and Greenville, South Carolina. Anush Prabhu, formerly MediaCom’s global chief strategy officer, joined in January 2026 as CEO, and Dave Weist is president and chief creative officer.

The group now runs creative alongside media, decision science, healthcare and social production units. Recent case studies cover the Boston Celtics, Dunkin’, Cadillac, BMW Motorrad, Valvoline and Boar’s Head, and it worked with the Ad Council and the American Lung Association on PSAs about early lung cancer detection.

4. Allen & Gerritsen (A&G)

Independent · Financial District · a-g.com

A&G is an independent, fully integrated agency at 125 High Street, with a second office in Philadelphia. CEO Andrew Graff and chief creative officer Jennifer Putnam lead it, and it runs two related brands, A&G CeCo Digital and A&G Primal. Ad Age has twice named it the top place to work in media and advertising, and it reports an average client tenure of more than seven years.

In June 2026 Indie Agency News named A&G to its Top 40 Classic, with “Dying For Winter” for Meet Boston and “Now Entering: Dunkin’ MA” for Dunkin’ reaching the final 40. Other recent work includes a new voice for Boston Logan with Massport and a Museum of Science project, and past clients include Biogen, the Boston Symphony Orchestra, Cava and Toast.

5. 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. Dana Wantman is chief client officer in Boston.

Clients include Gorton’s, Expedia Cruises, Seva and Ireland’s Bus Éireann, and the agency won Gun Lake Casino Resort in September 2026. Ad Age included Connelly in a September 2026 piece on how agencies are rethinking experiential marketing.

6. Proverb

Founder-led · South End · proverbagency.com

Proverb was founded in 1997 by Daren Bascome, who grew up in Bermuda and studied communication design at MassArt. Chris Needham joined as managing partner in 2008. The agency is a certified Minority Business Enterprise and Disadvantaged Business Enterprise in Massachusetts, works from Fay Street in the South End and has appeared on the Inc. 5000.

It is strongest in brand and place work. Proverb helped reposition Bermuda for the Bermuda Tourism Authority, and its case studies include MFA Boston, Flour Bakery, the LabCentral Ignite campaign for life sciences and Franklin Cummings Tech. Lexus, The North Face, Citizens Bank, MIT Media Lab and the City of Boston have also been clients.

7. Boathouse Group

Privately owned · Waltham · boathouseinc.com

Boathouse was founded in 2001 by John Connors and Chris Boland and is a privately owned team of about 75 people working from one office on Charles Street in Waltham. Its executive creative director, Margaret McGovern, has had work recognised by The One Show, the Art Directors Club and Communication Arts, and Search Engine Land named Boathouse its PPC Agency of the Year in 2024 for work with Corebridge Financial.

Recent projects include the brand launch of the Mass General Brigham Cancer Institute as a standalone cancer centre and an American Diabetes Association campaign about the stigma around type 2 diabetes. Eversource, Eastern Bank, AMC Theatres and The Boston Foundation are among its clients, and it publishes an annual survey of CEOs on how they view marketing.

8. Jack Morton

Omnicom · Financial District · jackmorton.com

Jack Morton is a brand experience agency with almost 90 years behind it, 20 offices and Boston roots. It came to Omnicom with the IPG acquisition, and the Boston Globe reported that no changes to it were expected. The Boston office on Oliver Street handles brand activations, events, integrated campaigns and tradeshows, with specialist teams for healthcare and sponsorship.

Boston-office work includes projects for Meta, Cadillac, TikTok, adidas, Eaton and Supercell. Across the network, recent experiences include Chevrolet at CMA Fest 2026 and DoorDash Ads at Cannes in 2025. It suits clients whose ideas need to live in physical spaces as much as on screens.

9. Fuseideas

Winchester · fuseideas.com

Fuseideas is a creative agency with its Boston-area office in Winchester and further offices in Portland, Maine and Buffalo. It works across campaigns, brand and experiential, and has a broad mix of tourism, education, sports and consumer clients.

Recent work includes the launch of the Solo SteelFire griddle, a full-funnel campaign for Killington, a Visit Baltimore campaign and a Play-Doh and Papa John’s pizza scooter playset. Hasbro, National Grid, the NHL, MLB and M&T Bank also appear on its client list.

10. Forge Worldwide

Partner-led · Back Bay · forgeworldwide.com

Forge Worldwide describes itself as a strategically focused brand, advertising and digital agency, and works from Dartmouth Street in the Back Bay. It is a good fit for mission-led organisations that need brand positioning and campaigns handled by one team.

Its clients are concentrated in education, healthcare and non-profits: UMass Dartmouth, Johnson & Wales University, Harvard Medical Faculty Physicians, Avel eCare, the National Fire Protection Association, the MSPCA and Zoo New England.

What to look for in a Boston creative agency

Start with the sector. Boston agencies do a large share of their work for hospitals, universities, life sciences companies and financial services firms, which builds skill with long approval chains and regulated messaging. If your brand sells to consumers, look for recent public-facing work, such as the Dunkin’, Progressive and tourism campaigns several shops here have made.

Ownership shapes how an agency works. Independents such as A&G, Connelly Partners and Proverb tend to give clients senior attention and make decisions quickly. Arnold (Havas), Jack Morton (Omnicom) and Hill Holliday (Attivo) bring wider networks, media and production capacity. Colossus has just moved into Chemistry, so check how that will affect the team you meet.

Check who will do the work, by name. The 2025 Omnicom and IPG merger, the end of the MullenLowe brand and new leadership at several agencies mean rosters in Boston have changed. The people in the pitch room should be the people on your account, and it is reasonable to ask for that in writing.

Finally, look at how the agency handles the day-to-day: where files live, how feedback is gathered and how approvals are tracked. Healthcare and education clients often route work through clinical, legal and brand reviewers, which multiplies the versions in play. Agencies with a clear review process, and one place where clients can find the latest work, are easier to work with over a long relationship.

How Fabric helps creative agency teams

Fabric gives an agency one workspace for its files, client feedback and team knowledge, with AI search across all of it. Boston agencies often run hospital, university and consumer accounts side by side, and the agency setup is built around that pattern: one space per client, with briefs, assets, decks and call notes kept together.

Large production files sit in Fabric’s cloud drive, which streams files on demand so they take no local disk space. Editors and designers can open heavy files without waiting for a full download. Search works by meaning across documents, images and transcribed recordings, and results jump to the right page or timestamp. Similar search finds related images by composition, colour and subject, which helps when a team needs a past campaign or a reference.

For client delivery, 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 a review goes to several stakeholders at one 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 images.

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. New account staff get the history without asking around. Files are protected with AES-256 encryption, and Fabric holds CASA Tier 2 certification; agencies working with healthcare 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 creative agency in Boston?

There is no single answer, as the right agency depends on the brief. On 2026 recognition, Colossus won Gold for Healthcare Campaign at Ad Age’s Small Agency Awards, and Allen & Gerritsen was named to Indie Agency News’s Top 40 Classic with two campaigns in the final 40.

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.

Who owns Hill Holliday now?

The New Zealand-based Attivo Group, which bought Hill Holliday from IPG in January 2024. The agency keeps its Hill Holliday name and its main office in the Seaport.

Are there independent creative agencies in Boston?

Yes. Allen & Gerritsen and Connelly Partners are both independent, Proverb is founder-led and certified as a minority-owned business, and Boathouse Group is privately owned. Colossus was independent until Chemistry bought it in October 2026.

Where can I find Boston’s network advertising agencies?

This page leans towards idea-led and integrated shops. For network offices and advertising specialists, see the best advertising agencies in Boston.

Related lists

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