Best Creative Agencies in Melbourne (2026)

Introduction

Melbourne has one of the strongest independent agency scenes in Australia, and the 9 creative agencies below are a good cross-section of it. They were chosen for recent work, 2025 and 2026 recognition, and the depth of their client rosters.

The city’s clients give its agencies a particular mix of briefs: road safety for the TAC, banks and super funds, food and drink brands, universities, and the sporting calendar from the AFL to the Australian Open and the Melbourne Cup. The network side of the market changed over the past year, as Omnicom completed its acquisition of IPG at the end of 2025 and retired the DDB, FCB and MullenLowe brands. Independents kept winning in the meantime. Thinkerbell was named Mumbrella’s Full Service Agency of the Year in July 2026, and Collingwood’s SICKDOGWOLFMAN placed second among small agencies in Campaign Brief’s 2025 rankings.

This page concentrates on independents and integrated idea shops; network offices are covered on the Melbourne advertising agencies list. Every agency here has an active Melbourne office in 2026, and the list is unranked, since the right choice depends on your brief, budget and how you like to work.

The best creative agencies in Melbourne

1. Thinkerbell

Independent · Richmond · thinkerbell.com

Thinkerbell describes itself as an Australian independent integrated creative company, and its pitch, “Measured Magic”, pairs behavioural science with creative work. Its Melbourne office, Thinkerbell South, sits in Richmond, alongside a Sydney office in Redfern and one in Auckland. It won Mumbrella’s Full Service Agency of the Year in July 2026, following AdNews Independent Agency of the Year in 2025.

The client list is long and very Australian: Vegemite, Australian Bananas (the Banana Gym Pass returned in October 2026), Australian Avocados, BCF, Magnum and Blundstone. Closer to home, it made the Victorian Racing Club’s Melbourne Cup campaign and a Victoria Police recruitment campaign in 2026, and Endeavour Group appointed it for Dan Murphy’s and BWS in July 2026. It also handles PR, so it suits clients who want earned media and advertising from one team.

2. The Royals

Independent · Cremorne · theroyals.com.au

The Royals is an independent creative company with studios in Cremorne and Surry Hills. It works across brand strategy, advertising and design, and won the University of Melbourne’s creative account in a competitive pitch in late 2023, taking it from Wunderman Thompson.

Recent work includes Dairy Farmers’ “Scrolling Girl”, which Campaign Brief featured among the best ads of 2026, along with campaigns for Australian Unity, DON Smallgoods, Mercedes-Benz, Spotify and McMillan Shakespeare’s Oly novated leases. The mix of financial services, food and education clients reflects the Melbourne market well.

3. Akcelo

Sydney-headquartered · Collingwood · akcelo.com

Akcelo combines creative work with experience design and technology, and runs studios in Sydney, Collingwood, Vancouver, London and Santa Monica. Campaign Brief ranked it seventh on its The Work 2026 Australian Hot List. It acquired the mobile-first agency POPULA in September 2025.

Its best-known work includes McDonald’s “Squid Game: Dare to Play”, World Rugby’s “Go All Out”, Gatorade’s “Water Wasn’t Made For This” and Anytime Fitness “Find Your Fitphoria”. For Melbourne, the TAC extended its MotoGP road safety partnership with Akcelo through 2026. Teams that need a campaign and the digital product behind it will find both under one roof.

4. Special

Independent · Melbourne · specialgroup.com

Special is an independent creative network that started in Auckland and now lists offices in Sydney, Melbourne, Wellington, Los Angeles, London and New York. Its awards include Cannes Lions Independent Agency of the Year, Campaign’s Global Creative Agency of the Year and Effie recognition as the world’s most effective independent agency.

The Australian client list includes Uber Eats (with work across Australia, Japan and Taiwan), KFC, Carlton United Brewery, ANZ, Virgin Australia, Bonds, R.M. Williams, Kayo and the AFLW. Work spans advertising, design and experience, and PR and activation, so ask which of these the Melbourne team leads on and which come from Sydney.

5. Taboo

Independent · Cremorne · taboo.com.au

Taboo calls itself an independent collective and works across advertising, design and experiential from Cremorne. Experiential work makes up a large share of its portfolio, often built around a brand’s events and retail spaces.

The TAC is a long-standing client: “Vanessa’s Place”, featured by Campaign Brief in April 2026, combined experiential, design and advertising, and sits alongside “Left Unfinished” and the TAC Split Second competition. Other clients include Up Bank, Mecca (MECCALAND), Tennis Australia at the Australian Open, Coopers, Brown Brothers, Lavazza and BYD.

6. Cummins&Partners

Independent · St Kilda · cumminsandpartners.com

Cummins&Partners is an independent creative agency with its main Australian office on Fitzroy Street in St Kilda, plus offices in Paddington and New York. The New York office gives it a reach that few Melbourne independents have.

Case studies cover Alfa Romeo, Jeep, Leapmotor, Kettle Chips, AusNet’s emergency response, the Royal Flying Doctor Service and Victoria’s Road Safety Advisory Council (“Bro code”), along with the viral Koalas of NYC project. Its client roster also includes Beyond Blue, McCain, Specsavers, Crown, Movember and Australian Red Cross.

7. SICKDOGWOLFMAN

Small agency · Collingwood · sdwm.com.au

SICKDOGWOLFMAN (often shortened to SDWM) works from Peel Street in Collingwood. Campaign Brief ranked it the number two Small Agency of the Year and number ten Agency of the Year in 2025, and its site lists a Spikes Asia Grand Prix, a Grand Clio in music and an AGDA distinction.

Peters Ice Cream is its best-known client: the Maxibon work, including a man turned into a cookie with a prosthetic suit and a Stranger Things tie-in, has been a regular LBB Work of the Week. It also works for Deakin University, the TAC, WorkSafe and Slather, and rebranded the Sydney Swans. In 2026 it won Original Source and hired James Wills as creative director.

8. The Hallway

Founder-led · Melbourne · thehallway.com.au

The Hallway is a creative agency with Sydney and Melbourne offices, led by founder and CEO Jules Hall, who has built its approach around linking creativity to commercial results. It won a Design Lion at Cannes in 2024 for The Cardboard Cake, a Bronze Spike in 2025 and AWARD pencils the same year.

Clients include BINGE, Suncorp Bank, Google, GWM Haval, Anytime Fitness and ANZ. It launched a brand platform for Dexus in April 2025 and a new identity and campaign platform for Webjet in October 2025, which suits property, travel and financial brands looking for strategy and brand work together.

9. Sunday Gravy

Independent · St Kilda · sundaygravy.com.au

Sunday Gravy is a small independent advertising agency based on Chapel Street in St Kilda. It has a short public footprint, but two of its pieces were featured in Campaign Brief’s list of the best Australian ads of 2026 so far.

Those were the Coopers Mild Ale “Coober Pedy Classic” and a self-titled agency piece, both from early 2026. It is best suited to brands that want a small senior team and a direct line to the people making the work; ask for a full credentials deck, as its website shows little.

What to look for in a Melbourne creative agency

Start with where the work is made. Several agencies with Melbourne offices are run from Sydney, and some Melbourne studios are small satellites of a larger team. Ask how many people sit in the Melbourne office, who leads it, and whether your account will be run from there.

Look for experience with the briefs that are common here. Road safety, public health, universities and super funds all come with their own approval chains, research requirements and compliance reviews. An agency that has worked with the TAC, a university or a regulated financial brand will already know how long those approvals take and how to plan around them.

Be clear about scope. Melbourne’s independents range from advertising-led shops to agencies that also run PR, experiential, design or digital product. If you need one team for everything, check which disciplines are in-house and which are handled by partners, and agree on who owns production.

Finally, ask how the day-to-day runs: where files live, how feedback is collected and how approvals are recorded. Campaigns for Melbourne clients often involve several stakeholders across marketing, legal and government, and a clear review process with one place to find the latest version saves time 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. Most of the agencies above run several accounts at once, and the agency setup is built for that pattern: one space per client, with briefs, assets, decks and call notes together.

Large production files sit in Fabric’s cloud drive, which streams files on demand so they take no local disk space, and heavy files open without a full download. Search works by meaning across documents, images and transcribed recordings, and colour search finds visual assets by shade. When a team needs references such as a past campaign, similar search surfaces related work from a selected file.

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 on it, which is useful for pitch decks and review rounds with several stakeholders. Clients can leave threaded comments on any file through a shared link, without creating an account. They can highlight PDFs and documents, leave timestamped comments on video and audio, and draw on images.

On Team plans, self-writing docs maintain a page for each client from meetings, Slack and the workspace, covering decisions, deliverables and open items. New account staff can pick up the history without asking around.

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 Melbourne?

There is no single answer, as the right agency depends on the brief. On 2025 and 2026 recognition, Thinkerbell was named Mumbrella’s Full Service Agency of the Year, Akcelo made Campaign Brief’s 2026 Hot List, and SICKDOGWOLFMAN ranked second among Campaign Brief’s small agencies for 2025.

Are network agencies such as Clemenger BBDO included?

This list focuses on independents and integrated idea shops. Network offices in Melbourne, including the Omnicom, WPP and Publicis agencies, are covered on the best advertising agencies in Melbourne list.

Which Melbourne creative agencies work on road safety campaigns?

Several agencies on this list have worked for the TAC. Taboo made “Vanessa’s Place”, Akcelo runs the TAC’s MotoGP partnership, and SICKDOGWOLFMAN has produced TAC work including “Towards Zero Round”. Cummins&Partners has worked for Victoria’s Road Safety Advisory Council.

Where are Melbourne’s creative agencies based?

Most are in the inner suburbs. Cremorne and Richmond have the largest cluster (The Royals, Taboo and Thinkerbell), Collingwood has Akcelo and SICKDOGWOLFMAN, and St Kilda has Cummins&Partners and Sunday Gravy.

How much does a Melbourne creative agency cost?

Fees vary widely with scope. Small independents often work on project fees, while larger agencies running integrated accounts usually work on retainers. Ask for a scope and fee proposal against a written brief, and agree how success will be measured before work starts.

Related lists

Creative agencies in other cities: Sydney · New York · London · Los Angeles · Toronto

More in Melbourne: Advertising agencies · Design agencies · Branding agencies · Marketing agencies · Social media agencies · Video production

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