Best Creative Agencies in Shanghai (2026)

Introduction

Shanghai is home to mainland China’s largest concentration of creative agencies, and the six below are among the strongest independent and idea-led shops working there in 2026. They were chosen for recent work, a verified Shanghai studio and the quality of their client rosters.

The city is the regional base for most global agency groups and the place where much of China’s brand work for luxury, beauty, sportswear, cars and consumer platforms is made. The network side changed after Omnicom completed its acquisition of IPG at the end of 2025 and retired the DDB, FCB and MullenLowe brands. At Campaign’s Greater China Agency of the Year awards, held in Shanghai in December 2025, Leo was named Creative Agency of the Year and TBWA\GROUP China took gold for China Creative Agency. Alongside those networks, a group of independent and partner-led shops keeps winning briefs from both global brands and Chinese companies taking their names overseas.

This page covers independents and integrated idea shops. Network advertising flagships such as Ogilvy, BBDO, Leo and TBWA appear on our list of Shanghai advertising agencies. Every agency here has an active Shanghai office in 2026. The list is in no order of merit, since the right choice depends on the brief, the budget and how you like to work.

The best creative agencies in Shanghai

1. Wieden+Kennedy Shanghai

Independent · Former French Concession · wk.com

Wieden+Kennedy opened in Shanghai in 2005, and the office on Changle Road is one of ten in the independent W+K network, alongside Portland, Amsterdam, New York, Tokyo and London. It works across Greater China and, on some accounts, the wider Asia Pacific region.

Nike is a core client, with films such as the Lunar New Year spot “The Great Chase” and “Believe a Beijinger” for the Beijing99 basketball event. For HP OMEN, the office relaunched the gaming PC brand across China and Asia Pacific with “Achieve Gamefulness”. Most of the work on show leans towards sport, gaming and youth culture.

2. Mother Shanghai

Independent · Xuhui · mothershanghai.com

Mother Shanghai is the China office of Mother, the independent creative company founded in London in 1996, and sits on Gao’an Road in Xuhui. Pamela Chen joined as managing director and partner in May 2024, working with executive creative directors and partners Winson Woo and Wanshi Lu.

Recent work includes “Love, Mother”, a 2025 Mother’s Day collection of T-shirts and tote bags designed with UNIQLO for its UTme! platform, and “Song of the Earth”, an April 2026 Earth Day film for Qiao Fu Da Yuan shot on the black soil of Wuchang. The agency’s site also shows work for Tencent, The Woolmark Company, Supercell and Airbnb.

3. Anomaly Shanghai

Stagwell · Former French Concession · anomaly.com

Anomaly runs offices in Los Angeles, New York, Toronto, London, Paris and Shanghai, and is part of Stagwell. The Shanghai team works from Wulumuqi South Road, where it has also run Anomaly OPEN Space, a gallery used for exhibitions such as “Woven Wonders” in 2024.

In March 2025 the office launched Starbucks China’s “Crafted with care in every cup”, a brand film and video series built around the company’s roughly 60,000 baristas and their own stories. MINI China has also worked with the office. Anomaly suits brands that want a creative partner able to work on product and experience as well as advertising.

4. BBH China

Publicis Groupe · Huangpu · bartleboglehegarty.com

BBH China opened in 2006 with eight people and has grown into a mid-sized international shop of around 85 staff, working from Ji’an Road in Huangpu. It is one of six BBH offices worldwide, with Dublin, London, Mumbai, New York and Singapore. At Campaign’s Greater China Agency of the Year 2025, BBH’s Owen Ou was named Young Creative Person of the Year.

Past appointments include MINI China in 2021, Kraft Heinz in 2020 and Athletic Greens in 2022, and the agency has a long record of work for international brands entering or growing in China. It is a good fit for brands that want a strategy-led creative partner with global reach and a team small enough to stay senior.

5. F5 Shanghai

Independent · Huangpu · ffive.com.cn

F5 Shanghai was founded in 2016 by Adams Fan, formerly a senior creative at DDB Shanghai, Ogilvy Shanghai and Leagas Delaney. The agency has won four Cannes Lions with eight further shortlists, and Fan sat on a Cannes Lions jury in 2025. The Shanghai Municipal Commission of Commerce lists F5 as a professional service provider for Shanghai companies going global.

Much of its work helps Chinese brands build a presence abroad: Midea’s “Heatball Fight” for Nordic markets premiered at IFA Berlin 2026, and other clients include Lenovo, Pfizer, China Mobile and the Saudi Tourism Authority. In September 2026 it formalised a multi-year creative alliance with London’s Leagas Delaney, whose first joint project gave caviar producer Kaluga Queen the global brand proposition “Crown the Moment”.

6. FRED & FARID Shanghai

Independent · Shanghai · fredfarid.com

FRED & FARID was founded in Paris by Fred Raillard and Farid Mokart, and Shanghai was its first international office, opening in 2013. The group now describes itself as based in Los Angeles, New York, Paris and Shanghai.

The Shanghai office works across Chinese platforms and international brands. Recent campaigns include Guinness’s “A Whole Universe” in China, a Chinese New Year film for Douyin featuring Andy Lau, and a music video for Absolute Purity. Clients have included Porsche China, Diesel Greater China and Pierre Fabre China. Its most recent public campaign credits date from 2023, so ask who leads the Shanghai team today.

What to look for in a Shanghai creative agency

Start with where the work will run. A campaign for China is planned around WeChat, Douyin, Xiaohongshu, Bilibili and Tmall or JD live commerce, each with its own formats and pace. Ask to see work made for those platforms, and how the agency handles the bilingual side of a brief, from strategy decks in English to copy written in Chinese.

Decide which direction the work travels. Some Shanghai shops specialise in helping international brands find cultural relevance in China, and others, like F5, increasingly build global campaigns for Chinese brands going overseas. The skills overlap but are not the same, so look for case studies that match your direction.

Check who will run your account, by name. Senior creatives in Shanghai move between networks and independents often, and several leaders have changed agencies since 2024. The people presenting the pitch 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 files live, how feedback from teams in Shanghai and overseas is gathered, and how approvals are tracked. Review rounds that cross time zones and languages lose days to version confusion in email and chat threads. Agencies with a clear review process, and a single place where clients can find the latest cut or layout, 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. Agencies running several accounts at once can use the agency setup to keep 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 video files open without a full download. Search works by meaning across documents, images and transcribed recordings, and colour search finds visual assets by shade. For references such as past campaigns, similar search surfaces related work from a selected image or file.

Client feedback runs through sharing. Share a file or folder with the client as a commenter, and they can review it from the link without creating an account. With annotations, reviewers leave timestamped comments on video and audio, draw on a video frame or an image and attach a comment to the drawing, and highlight text in PDFs and documents. The team marks each comment completed as it is dealt with, so a review round works like a checklist. There is more on this in why agencies stop sending Google Drive links to clients.

For final delivery, any file or folder can be published as a web page, view-only, with password protection if needed. Link analytics shows when each named recipient opened a link and how long they spent with it. On Team plans, client pages are kept up to date 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 client pages on Team plans. See plans for teams.

Frequently asked questions

What is the best creative agency in Shanghai?

There is no single answer, as the right agency depends on the brief. Wieden+Kennedy Shanghai is a strong choice for sport and youth culture, given its Nike work, Mother Shanghai and Anomaly Shanghai for brand-led campaigns and collaborations, and F5 Shanghai for Chinese brands going global.

Are there independent creative agencies in Shanghai?

Yes. Wieden+Kennedy, Mother, F5 Shanghai and FRED & FARID are all independently owned. Wieden+Kennedy, Mother and FRED & FARID are part of international independent groups, while F5 was founded in Shanghai in 2016.

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

The terms overlap. This page covers independents and idea-led shops that often work beyond advertising, on products, collaborations and brand platforms. Network offices that focus on large integrated campaigns are on our list of advertising agencies in Shanghai.

Which Shanghai agencies help Chinese brands go global?

F5 Shanghai builds much of its work around this, with campaigns for Midea, Lenovo and others outside China, and a 2026 alliance with Leagas Delaney in London. Several international agencies with Shanghai offices, including Wieden+Kennedy and Mother, can also run work across markets through their wider networks.

What happened to DDB and FCB in Shanghai?

Omnicom retired the DDB, FCB and MullenLowe network brands after completing its acquisition of IPG at the end of 2025. Their Shanghai teams moved into Omnicom’s remaining agency brands, so former clients should check which agency now holds their account.

Related lists

Creative agencies in other cities: New York · London · Singapore · Hong Kong · Tokyo

More in Shanghai: 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