Best Branding Agencies in Shanghai (2026)

Introduction

Shanghai is where most brand consultancies run their Greater China business, and the 9 agencies below all have a working studio in the city in 2026. They range from the brand arms of WPP, Omnicom and Marsh McLennan to independents founded in Shanghai, Paris and Munich.

Two kinds of work dominate. Global brands entering or growing in China need Chinese names that survive trademark checks and read well across dialects, along with identities that work on WeChat, Xiaohongshu and Tmall. Chinese brands moving abroad need the reverse. The network side changed over the last year: Omnicom completed its acquisition of IPG at the end of 2025, and FutureBrand, previously IPG’s brand consultancy, was moved under McCann in November 2025 after its global leadership team left. WPP had already merged Superunion into Design Bridge and Partners.

Every firm here was checked for an active Shanghai office or studio from its own website or recent trade coverage. The focus is strategy, naming and identity specialists; multidisciplinary design studios sit on our design agencies page. The list is unranked, because the right fit depends on whether you need a Chinese name, a full rebrand or a long-term strategy partner.

The best branding agencies in Shanghai

1. Labbrand

Independent (Labbrand Group) · Putuo (M50) · labbrand.com

Labbrand was founded in Shanghai in 2005 and still runs its headquarters from the M50 creative park on Moganshan Road, with further offices in Paris, Singapore, New York and Kuala Lumpur. It is best known for Chinese brand naming, alongside research, brand strategy and design. Recent recognition includes three Transform Awards Asia in 2023 (with Petit Bateau and Deepal Auto) and a silver at the 2024 Transform Awards North America with XCMG Group.

Clients on its site include Marriott, Nespresso (Chinese product naming), Vita Coco, adidas, Atour Hotels and the EV brand VOYAH. Its verbal branding team has worked on Chinese names for Airbnb, LinkedIn, Marvel and Haribo. If a Chinese name is the core of your brief, this is the most specialised option on the list.

2. Landor

WPP · Jing’an · landor.com

Landor is WPP’s brand consultancy, and its Shanghai studio sits in the WPP Campus on Hengfeng Road in Jing’an. It is one of Landor’s APAC offices alongside Beijing, Hong Kong, Singapore and Tokyo, and covers strategy, identity and brand experience for Chinese and multinational clients.

The wider company describes itself as having around 1,200 people across 19 countries, with clients that include Apple, Lego, Microsoft, Nike and Procter & Gamble. Working inside the WPP Campus puts the team next to WPP’s Shanghai advertising and media agencies, which helps when a rebrand has to roll straight into a launch campaign.

3. Interbrand

Omnicom · Jing’an · interbrand.com

Interbrand’s Shanghai office is on West Nanjing Road in Jing’an, one of ten offices worldwide alongside New York, London, Tokyo and Seoul. The firm is best known for brand valuation and its annual Best Global Brands ranking, and it pairs that analytical side with brand strategy and identity work.

It suits clients who want a brand case tied to business value: portfolio reviews, brand architecture after mergers and repositioning for growth. Interbrand is part of Omnicom, which completed its acquisition of IPG at the end of 2025.

4. Siegel+Gale

Omnicom · Jing’an · siegelgale.com

Siegel+Gale lists Shanghai as one of seven offices, with New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco, London, Dubai and Tokyo. Its studio is on the 11th floor of 1788 West Nanjing Road, the same building as Interbrand. The firm’s approach rests on simplicity, applied to strategy, naming, identity and customer experience.

Its Shanghai strategy lead Feifei Xu, appointed in 2020, had previously worked with brands including Alibaba, Jinjiang, Audi, Shiseido, TCL and Swarovski. Siegel+Gale tends to suit businesses with complex offers, such as financial services, technology and B2B, that need a clearer story.

5. Lippincott

Marsh McLennan · Xuhui · lippincott.com

Lippincott’s Shanghai office is at The Center on Changle Road, one of nine offices that include New York, London, Hong Kong, Singapore and Seoul. Stefan Fillip, Senior Partner, heads the APAC business. The firm works on brand strategy, identity, innovation and customer experience.

The Shanghai office page features Lippincott’s work for Starbucks, refreshing the brand for a future beyond coffee, and for Standard Chartered, evolving an historic bank for a digital age. Both are good references for large service brands with a big footprint in China.

6. Design Bridge and Partners

WPP · Shanghai · designbridge.com

Design Bridge and Partners was formed by WPP from the merger of Design Bridge and Superunion, announced in 2022 and launched the following year. Superunion itself had combined The Partners, Lambie-Nairn, Brand Union, Addison and VBAT. Shanghai is a full-service studio and the base of the China team, led by managing director Nikki Lin, with smaller studios in Beijing and Shenzhen.

The agency works across brand strategy, identity and packaging, with 16 studios worldwide. It is a strong fit for consumer brands that need identity and packaging systems built together, particularly in FMCG, food and drink, and beauty.

7. Dragon Rouge

Independent · Former French Concession · dragonrouge.com

Dragon Rouge is an independent brand and design agency with roots in Paris, working since 1984. Its Shanghai office on Wukang Road is one of eight, alongside Paris, London, New York, Hamburg, Warsaw, São Paulo and Singapore.

Services cover strategy, insight, visual identity, innovation, packaging, retail and sustainability. Being independent and mid-sized, it suits European and Chinese brands that want senior attention and a strategy-to-shelf process without a network structure.

8. Hua & Hua

Independent · Putuo · huayuhua.com

Hua & Hua (华与华) is a Shanghai-headquartered brand strategy firm founded by the Hua brothers, with offices in Global Harbour on North Zhongshan Road. It describes itself as a strategy consultancy, product development company and advertising agency in one, and is known in China for its “super symbol” method of building brands around a simple mascot or sign.

Clients include Mixue Ice City (whose Snow King mascot is its best-known work), Xibei, Hanting Hotels, Chubang soy sauce, Dongpeng Special Drink and Four Cats Coffee. It takes only annual, full-scope engagements rather than single projects. The 13th Hua & Hua Million Creative Awards are scheduled for December 2026 at Shanghai Tower.

9. INCREON

Independent (owner-managed) · Pudong (Zhangjiang) · increon.com

INCREON is a branding and naming consultancy founded near Munich in 2000 and owner-managed since then. It runs core teams in Munich and Shanghai, where INCREON Shanghai is based in the German Centre in Zhangjiang Hi-Tech Park, led by CEO China Sebastian Born.

The firm focuses on industrial, technology and B2B companies, covering naming, corporate identity, brand design and marketing communication. Clients shown on its site include Siemens, Mercedes-Benz, Krauss-Maffei, Sanofi and Julius Blum. It is a practical choice for German and European manufacturers building their brand in China.

What to look for in a Shanghai branding agency

Start with language. A Chinese name has to work in Mandarin and the main dialects, pass trademark screening and avoid unwanted meanings, while still fitting the global brand. Ask how the agency tests names, who checks trademarks, and whether native-speaker linguists sit on the team or are brought in.

Check how the identity will be used on Chinese platforms. A system that works on a global website still needs to hold up in a WeChat mini-programme, a Xiaohongshu post, a Tmall flagship store and live-commerce streams. Agencies with recent Chinese platform work will show you these applications, not only the logo and guidelines.

Be clear about the engagement model. Global consultancies usually work on defined projects with a strategy phase, an identity phase and a handover. Some Chinese firms, such as Hua & Hua, work only on annual retainers that run from strategy through to advertising. Neither is better in itself, but they suit different budgets and different internal teams.

Finally, ask how the work will be reviewed and handed over. A rebrand produces hundreds of files: naming shortlists, logo rounds, guidelines, templates and packaging artwork, often reviewed by teams in Shanghai and a global headquarters at once. Agree early where the latest versions will live, how comments are collected, and who signs off each stage.

How Fabric helps branding agency teams

Fabric gives a branding team one workspace for its files, client feedback and project knowledge, with AI search across all of it. The brand identity setup keeps strategy decks, naming rounds, logo explorations and guidelines together in one space per client.

Identity work produces heavy files, and Fabric’s cloud drive streams them on demand so they take no local disk space. Search works by meaning across documents, PDFs and images, and colour search finds assets by shade, which helps when a team is looking for every past exploration in a particular red. Similar search surfaces related visual work from a single selected image.

For review rounds, share a folder with the client as a commenter. Shared links work without sign-up, and with annotations the client can highlight and comment on guidelines and PDFs, draw on a logo or packaging image and attach a comment to the drawing, or leave timestamped comments on a brand film. The team marks each comment completed as it is resolved, so feedback works like a checklist. When the identity is signed off, the final brand guidelines can be published as a web page for wider teams to view, with password protection if needed.

On Team plans, per-client pages are kept up to date from meetings, Slack and the workspace, covering decisions, deliverables and open items. That helps on long engagements where naming decisions made months earlier still matter.

Password protection is included on Pro and Team plans, and per-client pages on Team plans. See plans for teams.

Frequently asked questions

What is the best branding agency in Shanghai?

It depends on the brief. For Chinese naming, Labbrand is the most specialised firm on the list. For large global rebrands, Landor, Interbrand, Lippincott and Siegel+Gale all run Shanghai offices, and Hua & Hua is one of the best-known Chinese-founded brand strategy firms.

Which Shanghai agencies create Chinese brand names?

Labbrand has a dedicated verbal branding team and has named brands such as Airbnb, LinkedIn and Nespresso products in Chinese. INCREON, which runs a team in Shanghai, also lists naming as a core service, particularly for industrial and B2B brands.

What happened to Superunion in China?

WPP merged Superunion with Design Bridge to form Design Bridge and Partners. The combined Shanghai studio is the base of the agency’s China team, with smaller studios in Beijing and Shenzhen.

How much does a rebrand cost in Shanghai?

Agencies rarely publish rates, and fees depend on scope: a Chinese naming project costs far less than a full strategy, identity and packaging programme. Ask for a phased proposal so you can compare strategy, naming and design costs separately.

Is a branding agency the same as a design agency?

The two overlap. Branding agencies lead with strategy, naming and identity, while design agencies cover a wider range of design work across print, digital, spaces and products. For multidisciplinary studios, see our list of design agencies in Shanghai.

Related lists

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

More in Shanghai: Creative agencies · Design agencies · Advertising agencies · Marketing agencies · Social media agencies · UX design agencies

Run your agency on Fabric: Fabric for agencies · Brand strategy agencies on Fabric · Best tool for managing brand assets