Best Advertising Agencies in Dublin (2026)

Introduction

Dublin holds almost all of Ireland’s advertising business, and the nine agencies below are among the most active in the city in 2026. They were chosen for recent campaigns, 2025 and 2026 recognition, and the strength of their client rosters.

The past year has been good for Irish work. Publicis Dublin won a Grand Prix at Cannes Lions 2026 for Heineken Ireland’s “The Pub That Refused To Die”, which The Irish Times reported as Ireland’s third, and WPP Media forecast 9.7% growth in the Irish advertising market for 2026. The structure of the market has also moved. Omnicom completed its acquisition of IPG in late 2025 and has since been restructuring, including the planned closure of FleishmanHillard’s Dublin PR office, announced in August 2026. The industry body IAPI rebranded as the Creative & Communications Association in July 2026.

Network offices make up most of this list, alongside Ireland’s largest marketing group and two Irish agencies with a strong advertising record. Every agency here showed an active Dublin presence 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 advertising agencies in Dublin

1. Publicis Dublin

Publicis Groupe · Dublin 2 · publicis.ie

Publicis Dublin describes itself as one of the largest and most awarded creative advertising agencies in Ireland, and 2026 gave it a strong case. It won a Cannes Lions Grand Prix and four bronze awards, and it sits fifth in The Drum’s World Creative Rankings list of the most awarded agencies in the UK and Ireland. At the 2025 ICAD Awards it took Gold for “Pub Succession” and “Dial Before You Dig”.

Heineken is its best-known client relationship, with work made alongside LePub. Other clients include Electric Ireland and ESB (it also won their digital business in January 2026), PTSB, Virgin Media, the HSE and Flogas. MG Motors and Farizon appointed it in April 2026, and a new Laya Healthcare campaign launched in October.

2. TBWA\Ireland

Omnicom · Rathmines · lbbonline.com/companies/tbwadublin

TBWA\Ireland is the Omnicom network’s Dublin agency, previously known as TBWA\Dublin. BBDO Dublin merged into it in January 2024, creating a combined team of over 100 people in the Kodak building in Rathmines, which also houses the production and studio unit BOLT. It took an ICAD Gold in 2025 for “The Mincéirí Archives”, and two of its juniors, Hannah Murphy and Kate Dempsey, won gold in the Young Lions Print competition at Cannes 2026.

AIB is a major current account, with “Built For Life” launching in October 2026. Clayton Hotels ran the “Up Close & Personal” bedcast with Ardal O’Hanlon through the agency in July. The wider roster includes Jameson, Burger King, Audi, the HSE and TG4. Its work for AIB and for The Alzheimer Society of Ireland was shortlisted at Cannes in 2026.

3. Havas Dublin

Havas · Dublin · havas.com

Havas Dublin is the Irish creative agency of the Havas network, led by CEO Chris Upton. Adrian Fitz-Simon is executive creative director, and in August 2026 creative director Gary Boylan was promoted to creative partner to lead the department alongside him. “Story Songs” won an ICAD Silver in 2025. Havas Media Ireland handles media within the same network.

Dunnes Stores appointed it creative agency of record after a pitch in September 2025. It launched Mediahuis Ireland’s CrimeWorld.ie with “Get Into Crime” in January 2026, running across TV, digital audio, print and outdoor. Boylan also helped create the global “Home of Life’s Simple Pleasures” platform for Birra Moretti.

4. Droga5 Dublin

Accenture Song · Dublin · droga5.com

Droga5 Dublin is part of Accenture Song, whose Irish business gained a new lead, James Scott-Lennon, in September 2026. The agency won Gold at the Effie Awards Europe in December 2025 with its work for Dublin Samaritans. It also took an ICAD Silver in 2025 for Lidl.

Recent work includes a new European brand platform for Smyths Toys built around its catalogue (October 2026), a Samaritans campaign that turns missed calls into media (July 2026) and a Vhi campaign on its healthcare services (April 2026). Concern Worldwide’s “It’s Our Concern” platform launched in 2025. Smyths gives the agency a pan-European account run from Dublin.

5. Forsman & Bodenfors Dublin

Stagwell · Dublin · forsman.co

Forsman & Bodenfors Dublin is the Irish office of the international agency, with Jane Madden appointed managing director in 2024. It won the Grand Prix at the Irish Audio Awards in March 2026 and an ICAD Silver in 2025, and it has several entries on the 2026 ICAD shortlist.

The Road Safety Authority is its longest-running visible relationship, with campaigns on drink driving, country roads and e-scooters, and “Take 2” launching in August 2026. New business in 2026 includes ESB Networks’ digital account in February and the BnM creative and strategy account in April. Allianz is another recent client.

6. BBH Dublin

Publicis Groupe · Dublin · bbh.co.uk

BBH Dublin carries the name of the London-founded network into the Irish market. It was one of three advertising agencies to win Gold at the 2025 ICAD Awards, for Tesco Mobile, and also took Silver and Highly Commended awards that year.

Its 2026 ICAD shortlist entries include work for Tesco and Monzo. It sits in the same holding company as Publicis Dublin, which is worth checking if your category has conflict rules.

7. Core Creative

Core · Dublin 2 · onecore.ie

Core Creative is the creative practice of Core, which describes itself as Ireland’s largest marketing communications company. It marked its fifth anniversary in March 2026 with a new leadership team. Core was shortlisted at the Effie Awards Europe in October 2026, and Core Creative has around a dozen entries on the 2026 ICAD shortlist.

Sky Ireland is a prominent client, with Roy Keane fronting a broadband campaign in May 2026. Currys Ireland and Allianz Ireland also ran 2026 campaigns through Core, and SuperValu and Centra joined the creative roster in August. Media sits in sister practices such as Zenith, Starcom and Spark Foundry, so this suits clients who want creative and media planned together.

8. Javelin

Independent, Irish-owned · Smithfield · javelin.ie

Javelin is an independent advertising agency in Smithfield offering strategy, creative work and campaign rollout. It won two competitive accounts in mid-2026: TU Dublin in June, and Safefood in July after a multi-stage tender, covering strategy, creative, implementation and social content. It took an ICAD Bronze in 2025 and has “Photato Booth” on the 2026 shortlist.

Its featured clients mix state and commercial work, including Ireland State Savings, the Department of Transport, the Department of Justice, Toyota Ireland, SSE Airtricity and AA Ireland. Public-sector marketers will find it has a good deal of relevant experience.

9. Boys+Girls

Irish agency · Portobello · boysandgirls.ie

Boys+Girls works from Bloomfield House in Dublin 8 and has long built its pitch around effectiveness, describing itself as Ireland’s most effective creative agency on the basis of WARC and Effie league tables from 2021 and 2022. It was shortlisted at the Effie Awards Europe in 2025 and took ICAD Bronze in 2025 for “Pay Attention to Your Pee”.

Recent campaigns include “Namaste” for Jacob’s (October 2026), a Marie Keating Foundation skin cancer campaign (July 2026) and new work for Re-turn (January 2026). Its case studies cover An Post, Bulmers, Three Ireland and Colourtrend. It also appears on our list of creative agencies in Dublin.

What to look for in a Dublin advertising agency

Start with how media is handled, because the Dublin market splits on this. Core puts creative and media under one group, and Havas has its own media arm. Omnicom’s creative and media agencies run separately, as do Publicis’s, while independents such as Javelin work with whichever media partner you already use. Decide whether you want a single point of accountability before you shortlist.

Match the agency to your procurement route. State and semi-state bodies buy advertising through formal tenders, and the 2026 wins at Safefood, TU Dublin and BnM all came through selection processes of some kind. Agencies with a public-sector record know the paperwork and the reporting that follow. Commercial and pan-European briefs, such as Smyths Toys, ask for a different kind of experience.

Check who will run your account, by name. Several agencies here changed senior creative or management roles in 2026, and the holding-company restructuring that followed Omnicom’s acquisition of IPG is still working through the market. Effectiveness evidence is worth asking for too: the Effie Awards Europe and the Creative & Communications Association’s effectiveness work give you something firmer than a showreel to compare.

Finally, look at how campaigns get made and approved. Most of the work here runs across TV, audio, print and outdoor at once, often with outside production companies, so one campaign can mean dozens of cuts and formats in circulation. Ask where those files live, how client feedback is collected and who tracks sign-off, since legal and compliance reviews are common for banks, insurers and state clients.

How Fabric helps advertising 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 suits the way advertising accounts run: one space per client, with briefs, scripts, decks, media plans and finished cuts kept together.

Campaign masters and rough cuts 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. That helps when a commercial production produces many versions for TV, social and outdoor. Search works by meaning across documents, images and transcribed recordings, and similar search finds related visuals when a team needs references from a past campaign.

Client review runs through sharing. Share a file or folder with the client as a commenter, and no sign-up is needed. They can leave timestamped comments on video and radio spots, draw on a video frame or a print layout and attach a comment, and highlight and comment on scripts and PDFs. The team marks each comment completed as it is dealt with, so a round of amends works like a checklist. There is more on this in the review and approval workflow.

For finished work, any file or folder can be published as a web page, which is view-only, with optional download. Password protection covers unreleased campaigns, and link analytics shows when each named recipient opened a pitch deck 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. 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 advertising agency in Dublin?

There is no single answer, as the right agency depends on the brief. On 2026 recognition, Publicis Dublin won a Cannes Lions Grand Prix for Heineken Ireland and ranks fifth among the most awarded agencies in the UK and Ireland in The Drum’s World Creative Rankings. Droga5 Dublin won Gold at the Effie Awards Europe in December 2025.

What happened to McCann Dublin?

McCann Dublin closed in March 2023, when it and its parent company, AV Browne in Belfast, entered administration and staff were made redundant. It had been known as McCannBlue until 2019. It is listed as an Omnicom company in some older directories, so it is worth checking the date on any profile you find.

What happened to BBDO Dublin?

BBDO Dublin merged with TBWA\Dublin in January 2024, with the combined agency trading under the TBWA name and BBDO moving into its Rathmines building. The agency now goes by TBWA\Ireland, and is still part of Omnicom.

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

The two overlap a good deal, and several firms could sit in either group. This list leans towards network offices and agencies whose main output is campaign advertising, while our list of creative agencies in Dublin leans towards independents and integrated idea shops.

Do Dublin advertising agencies work outside Ireland?

Yes, some do. Droga5 Dublin runs a European brand platform for Smyths Toys, and Havas Dublin’s creative team helped build Birra Moretti’s global platform. Publicis Dublin’s Heineken work is made alongside LePub, the Publicis agency in Milan.

Related lists

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

More in Dublin: Creative agencies · Marketing agencies · Branding agencies · Social media agencies · Video production · Post-production

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