Best Creative Agencies in Dublin (2026)

Introduction

Dublin has a compact creative agency scene, and six independent or founder-led shops stand out in 2026 for recent work, account wins and the strength of their client rosters. Dublin is also Ireland’s whole agency market, so these agencies compete for Irish consumer and state brands as well as work for the European headquarters of US tech firms in the Docklands.

Independents have had a busy year. Boys+Girls took the lead creative account for Lidl Ireland and Northern Ireland from Folk VML in July 2026, The Brill Building and Ad Vantage Media won a three-year brief from the Royal Dublin Society in June, and Javelin won TU Dublin the same month. Bonfire took a minority investment from the Belfast group Ardmore while keeping its independent brand. Two familiar names have moved into international groups: Rothco is now Droga5 Dublin, within Accenture Song, and In The Company of Huskies is now Forsman & Bodenfors Dublin, owned by Stagwell.

Every agency here has shown Dublin activity in 2026. Network offices are covered on our advertising agencies list. 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 Dublin

1. Boys+Girls

Independent · Portobello · boysandgirls.ie

Boys+Girls opened in 2009 and is based at Bloomfield House in Portobello. Its founders are Margaret Gilsenan, Rory Hamilton, Patrick Meade and Pat Stephenson, with Meade as chief executive. In July 2026 it won the lead creative account for Lidl Ireland and Northern Ireland after a multi-stage pitch, bringing work previously spread across several agencies into one place. It will lead the next phase of Lidl’s “More to Value” platform.

Recent work includes “We’ve Got the Very Thing” for Very.ie, “Bakes It Better” for Jacob’s, and “Re-turn It Right” for the deposit return scheme Re-turn. Other clients include An Post, Three Ireland, SuperValu and Bulmers. Circle Content, its social-first agency, produces content and film alongside the main team, which is useful if you want one group to handle both.

2. The Public House

Independent · Dublin 8 · thepublichouse.ie

The Public House is an independent creative agency founded by Colin Hart, who has moved into a company director role while a group of partners runs the agency day to day. Kerrie Sweeney, formerly a global client leader at TBWA, is managing director and Rob Maguire, previously at Droga5 and Chemistry, is executive creative director. In October 2026 it offered marketers a free archive of rejected ideas under the name “Idea de los Muertos”.

Its 2025 account wins were Pinergy, Fáilte Ireland, Trócaire and the Irish Defence Forces, joining FBD Insurance, Cadbury, Dunnes Stores, 48 and Barnardos. Its work for EPIC, The Irish Emigration Museum won Gold at the first Effie Awards Ireland in 2021.

3. Javelin

Irish-owned independent · Smithfield · javelin.ie

Javelin is a full-service advertising agency at The Warehouse on Coke Lane in Smithfield, and describes itself as Irish-owned and independent. In June 2026 it won the creative account for TU Dublin, a university with close to 30,000 students across five campuses, after working with the institution for some time on student projects and mentoring. Marketing.ie also lists Javelin among the three Irish entries in the 2025 Global Best of the Best Effie Awards.

Public-sector and commercial work sit side by side on its roster. Case studies cover the Department of Justice, the Department of Transport and Ireland State Savings, along with Toyota Ireland, SSE Airtricity, AA Ireland and Keogh’s Crisps. That mix makes it a sensible agency to look at for behaviour-change briefs.

4. Bonfire

Independent, with an Ardmore minority stake · Ely Place · bonfire.ie

Bonfire was founded in 2005 by Seán Hynes and Ian Doherty and works from 22 Ely Place. Doherty retired in 2025. In June 2026 Ardmore, the Belfast-based marketing group and a member of the Worldwide Partners network, took a minority stake to fund a growth plan that includes expanding the office. Bonfire remains an independent Irish brand, and the deal also gives Ardmore a base in the Dublin market.

Clients include Johnson & Johnson, Kia, Tullamore Dew and the Irish Pharmacy Union. Its work for the older people’s charity ALONE won a Small Budget Gold at the 2021 Effie Awards Ireland and went on to an Effie Europe shortlist in 2022. It is worth asking how the Ardmore tie-up changes what the agency can offer across the island.

5. The Brill Building

Founder-led · Dublin and the West of Ireland · thebrillbuilding.ie

The Brill Building is an integrated brand and creative agency led by founder Roisin Keown, its chief executive and executive creative director. It works from Dublin and the West of Ireland, and in June 2026 said it plans to complete a dedicated creative space in Dublin 8. It describes itself as Ireland’s most awarded new creative agency. “The Shop That Nearly Wasn’t” for Breakthrough Cancer Research took two Golds and a Silver at the 2021 Effie Awards Ireland.

Its “Zenergy” campaign for Bord Gáis Energy was named best advertising campaign in Ireland in 2025 at the All Ireland Marketing awards, according to LBB. The Royal Dublin Society appointed it with Ad Vantage Media for three years in June 2026, after a three-way pitch that included the incumbent, Goosebump. Other clients include Kilkenny Design and the National Dairy Council. Since the team runs across two locations, ask where yours will be based.

6. Thinkhouse

Founder-led · Dublin · thinkhouse.ie

Thinkhouse is a Dublin agency built around youth culture, founded by Jane McDaid, who is also head of creative innovation. Its Youth Lab produces research and insight that feed client work. In October 2026 it launched “Powering the Youth Economy” with AIB, handling strategy, creative, production, PR, social, digital and creator work, starting from insights on Ireland’s 630,000 people aged 16 to 24.

It shared credit with Publicis Dublin and Dentsu on Heineken’s “Pub Succession”, which won three Silver Lions at Cannes in 2025. LBB lists Thinkhouse as the PR partner on that project. Other recent work includes Orchard Thieves’ “Be More Fox” and GOAL NextGen’s “Cards for Humanity”. It suits brands whose audience is under 30 and whose work needs to travel through social and creators.

What to look for in a Dublin creative agency

Start with ownership, as Dublin’s agencies now range from fully independent shops to offices of Accenture Song, Stagwell and the holding companies. Network offices bring international clients and reach. Independents here tend to offer direct access to founders and senior staff, and the partial Ardmore stake in Bonfire shows a middle route is opening up.

Check the geography of the account. Plenty of Irish briefs cover both Ireland and Northern Ireland, as Lidl’s does, and some agencies run teams outside Dublin. If you need island-wide or European delivery, ask who handles it and from where.

Ask who will work on your account, by name. The Public House has moved to a partner-led structure, one of Bonfire’s two founders retired in 2025, and several senior people have moved between Dublin shops. In a small market, the same few creative leaders can appear in more than one pitch over the years, so recent references carry weight.

Look at the day-to-day as well. Dublin agencies often work with outside production, post and sound companies, and the Very.ie campaign credits separate partners for production, post, sound and media. That means files and feedback pass through several hands. An agency with a clear review process and one place to find the latest version will be easier to work with on 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. The agency setup follows how a shop in Dublin tends to run: 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. Designers and editors 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 relevant page or timestamp, which helps when a team is looking for a line from an old client call.

Client feedback runs through sharing. Share a file or folder as a commenter and the client can respond without signing up, using threaded comments and annotations: timestamped comments on video and audio, a drawing on a video frame, a drawing on an image with a comment attached, and highlights on PDFs and documents. The team marks each comment completed as it is dealt with, so a review round works like a checklist.

For delivery, any file or folder can be published as a web page. Published links are view-only, with optional download, which suits finished work and credentials decks. Link analytics shows when each named recipient opened a link and how long they spent with it.

On Team plans, self-writing docs can maintain a page for each client from meetings, Slack and the workspace, covering decisions, deliverables and open items. Link analytics is 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 Dublin?

There is no single answer, as the right agency depends on the brief. On 2026 momentum, Boys+Girls stands out for winning Lidl Ireland and Northern Ireland, and Thinkhouse and The Brill Building both have strong recent work for AIB and Bord Gáis Energy respectively.

What happened to Rothco?

Rothco was sold to Accenture Interactive in 2018 and later rebranded as Droga5 Dublin, part of Droga5’s international network within Accenture Song. It won a Silver and a Bronze Lion at Cannes in 2025 for “The 26th Minute” for Samaritans Ireland.

What happened to In The Company of Huskies?

Stagwell acquired the agency, which became F&B Huskies and then completed its move to the name Forsman & Bodenfors Dublin in April 2024. It is now one office of the Forsman & Bodenfors group.

Where are the network agencies such as TBWA\Ireland and Publicis Dublin?

Network offices are covered on our list of the best advertising agencies in Dublin. Both of those had a strong ICAD Awards in September 2025: TBWA\Ireland topped the winners list with eight bells, and Publicis Dublin took seven, including two Golds.

Are Dublin independents competitive at the awards?

They have a strong record on effectiveness. All seven Golds at the first Effie Awards Ireland in 2021 went to independent agencies, six of them Irish, and four agencies on this list were among the winners. Network offices took most of the top places at the 2025 ICADs, so it depends on which measure matters to you.

Related lists

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

More in Dublin: Advertising agencies · Design agencies · Branding agencies · Social media agencies · Content studios · Video production

Run your agency on Fabric: Fabric for creative teams · Fabric for agencies · Review and approval