Best Advertising Agencies in Montreal (2026)

Introduction

Montreal is the centre of French-language advertising in North America, and the 10 agencies below cover most of the ways a brand can buy campaign work in the city: network offices owned by Publicis, Omnicom, Havas and dentsu, Canada’s largest agency group in Cossette, and a set of Quebec-owned shops that run campaigns for banks, retailers, public bodies and non-profits.

The market moved on two fronts over the last 18 months. Quebec’s Charter of the French Language, strengthened by Bill 96, brought tougher rules on commercial signage and advertising into force in June 2025, which puts more weight on agencies that write in French first rather than adapting from English. Omnicom completed its acquisition of IPG at the end of 2025 and retired the DDB and FCB brands, folding DDB into TBWA and FCB into BBDO. In Canada, Omnicom had already grouped BBDO, DDB and TBWA under Omnicom Advertising Group Canada in July 2024.

Every agency here has an active Montreal office in 2026. Independent creative shops such as lg2, Sid Lee and Rethink appear on our list of creative agencies in Montreal, so this page leans towards network offices and advertising specialists. The list is unranked, since the right agency depends on the brief, the budget and how much of the work needs to happen in French.

The best advertising agencies in Montreal

1. Cossette

Plus Company · Downtown · cossette.com

Cossette is part of Plus Company, a group of agencies across more than 30 countries, and runs its Montreal office from avenue Viger Ouest, one of six Canadian locations alongside Québec City, Toronto, Halifax, Vancouver and Calgary. In 2025 it took Gold for Design Agency of the Year at Strategy’s Agency of the Year, a Grand Prix at the Prix Idéa for CNESST’s “Fil”, a Gold Cube at the ADC Awards for Les Roses FC de Montréal and Best of Show at MIA for the SAQ’s “Rosé FM”.

The 2026 work runs from a refreshed BRP identity launched around the Winter Olympics to Intact Insurance’s Team Canada partnership, VIA Rail’s baseball-themed train campaign and a Tourisme Montréal spot. Cossette Media, the agency’s media arm, named a new vice president in October 2026, which suits clients who want creative and media planned together.

2. Publicis Montréal

Publicis Groupe · Mile-Ex · publicis.ca

Publicis Montréal is the Quebec office of Publicis Canada, with its studio on rue Beaubien Ouest in Mile-Ex. It gives Quebec brands a local team inside Publicis Groupe, one of the largest advertising holding companies.

Publicis Canada’s recent roster includes Dairy Queen, Rogers, Heineken, Canadian Tire, HARIBO and Visa, and its Dairy Queen “Blizzard Banks” and Rogers “Welcome Card” work is among the 2026 Marketing Awards nominees. Much of that roster is national, so ask which accounts are run from Montreal.

3. Bleublancrouge

Humanise Collective · Saint-Henri · bleublancrouge.world

Bleublancrouge is a Montreal agency with a second office in Toronto and a studio on avenue Brewster in Saint-Henri. It is a certified B Corp and a member of the Humanise Collective.

Its client list is heavy with Quebec institutions and consumer brands: Desjardins (including the cooperative’s 125th anniversary campaign), the SAQ, Boréale, Geloso, Lise Watier, Alloprof and the AI institute Mila. It suits brands that want a Quebec-born agency with national reach.

4. Havas Montréal

Havas · Ville-Marie · mtl.havas.com

Havas Montréal has worked in the city since 1983 and describes itself as a local, fully integrated agency, covering advertising, strategy, design and branding, media and direct marketing. It has around 64 full-time staff, according to the Design Montréal directory.

Clients include National Bank, Couche-Tard, the CDPQ, Ivanhoé Cambridge, Air France-KLM, Bel, Decathlon and the STM. The mix of financial institutions, retail and public transport is typical of the Montreal market.

5. Tam-Tam\TBWA

TBWA (Omnicom) · Downtown · tamtamtbwa.com

Tam-Tam was founded in Montreal in 1986 and joined the TBWA network in 1997. It works from rue Peel downtown and sits within Omnicom’s Canadian advertising group, which brought BBDO, DDB and TBWA together in 2024.

Recent clients include Héma-Québec, which picked Tam-Tam\TBWA as one of its agency partners in 2023, Nissan Canada, Petro-Canada and Breakfast Club of Canada. With DDB now folded into TBWA, it is a sensible first call for Montreal brands that worked with the Omnicom network before the merger.

6. Dentsu Montréal

dentsu · Old Montreal · dentsu.com

Dentsu Canada runs its Montreal office from rue Saint-Pierre in Old Montreal, alongside offices in Toronto, Vancouver and Calgary. Dentsu Creative is the network’s advertising brand in Canada, and the group also runs media.

Dentsu Canada work includes campaigns for Intel, IKEA and Dyslexia Canada, and its “Chief Possibility Officer” campaign for Maison Perrier is a 2026 Marketing Awards nominee in the Digital category. It is a fit for advertisers who want media buying and creative from the same group.

7. Upperkut

Independent · Plateau-Mont-Royal · upperkut.com

Upperkut is a strategic agency on rue Drolet in the Plateau that builds campaigns for non-profits, professional bodies and public institutions. It handles strategy, creative, media, web, video production and public relations in-house.

Clients include the Ville de Montréal, the Commission de la construction du Québec, the Fédération des médecins spécialistes du Québec, Piétons Québec and the Association québécoise de prévention du suicide, whose three-year 2026 to 2028 campaign Upperkut is running. It also refreshed the identity of the CEGQ for its 30th anniversary.

8. Agence Rinaldi

Independent · Montreal · agencerinaldi.com

Rinaldi is an independent integrated agency with 30 years in Montreal and membership of AMIN Worldwide, a network of independent agencies that shares resources across markets. It covers advertising, marketing and communications for consumer and financial brands.

Recent work includes Subaru Canada’s fleet programme, Raymond James, Shreddies and Pepito Sangria, and the client list also takes in Quebecor and Groupe Geloso. It suits mid-sized brands that want senior attention and an agency with partners abroad.

9. Republik

Independent · Downtown · republik.ca

Republik is a Montreal agency for social impact, working from rue Saint-Alexandre downtown. It combines brand platforms, campaigns and digital content with sustainability advice, and it publishes an annual trends report on sustainability in marketing (the 2026 edition is out).

Recent projects include brand platforms for Chlorophylle and Baumier and a campaign on sustainable oat farming for Oatbox. Its client list also includes VIA Rail, Cascades, Lassonde, Unibroue and Équiterre. Its published guidance on Bill C-59 is useful reading for brands making environmental claims.

10. Cartier

Independent · Plateau-Mont-Royal · agencecartier.com

Cartier is a Montreal advertising agency on boulevard Saint-Laurent with a strong public-sector practice. It ran Élections Québec’s “Exercer son droit de vote” work, including material for the 2025 municipal elections, and the “Le français sans artifices” campaign for Quebec’s Ministère de la Langue française.

Retail clients include Mark’s (L’Équipeur in Quebec), with “Juste parfait”, and Sport Chek, with “Soccer. United.”. It also works for the Ordre des CPA du Québec and Tempo. Its government work makes it a good reference for any brand that needs French-first copy under Bill 96.

What to look for in a Montreal advertising agency

Start with language. Most Montreal agencies work in French and English, but there is a clear difference between a team that writes in French first and one that adapts English work for Quebec. Since the June 2025 Bill 96 rules on commercial advertising, French-first copy carries more weight, and brands should ask to see original French campaigns rather than adaptations. For questions about what the rules require of a specific campaign, check with your own legal team.

Look closely at who owns the agency and where the account sits. Several network offices in Montreal are part of national groups whose biggest clients are run from Toronto. That can bring scale and media buying power, though it is reasonable to ask which people in Montreal will lead the work and how much of the strategy is set locally. The Omnicom changes of 2024 and 2025 also mean some brands are now with a different agency name than the one they signed with.

Ask how creative and media connect. Groups such as Cossette, Havas and dentsu run media in-house, while smaller independents often partner with a media agency. Either can work. Agree on how results will be measured before the first brief, and make sure both teams see the same numbers.

Finally, look at how the agency runs reviews. A campaign that ships in two languages has twice the files and twice the approval rounds: scripts, French and English edits, adaptations for each format. Agencies with a single place for the latest version and a clear record of who approved what save a lot of time over a long relationship.

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 Montreal agencies run accounts: one space per client, with briefs, French and English scripts, edits, decks and call notes kept together.

Campaign files are large, and Fabric’s cloud drive streams them on demand, so TV edits and design files take no local disk space and open without a full download. Search works by meaning across documents, images, PDFs and recordings, so a team can find last year’s French adaptation without knowing the file name. Audio and video transcription makes spots and radio scripts searchable, with results that jump to the right timestamp.

Review happens through sharing. An agency shares a file or folder with the client as a commenter, and the client opens it without creating an account. With annotations, they can leave timestamped comments on a video or audio cut, draw on a video frame or an image and attach a comment to the drawing, or highlight a PDF script. The team marks each comment completed as it is handled, so the feedback works like a checklist. The review and approval workflow shows how this fits a production schedule.

For final delivery, any file or folder can be published as a web page with password protection, and link analytics shows when each named recipient opened it and how long they spent. Published pages are view-only, so they suit pitch decks and final assets once comments are closed. On Team plans, self-writing docs keep a page for each client with decisions, deliverables and open items drawn from meetings, Slack and the workspace.

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 Montreal?

It depends on the brief. On recent recognition, Cossette has the strongest 2025 and 2026 record among the agencies here, with Strategy’s Design Agency of the Year Gold in 2025 and several 2026 Marketing Awards nominations. Network offices such as Publicis Montréal and Havas Montréal suit brands that need national or international reach, while Upperkut and Cartier are strong on public-sector and non-profit campaigns.

What happened to DDB Montréal and FCB Montréal?

Omnicom retired the DDB and FCB brands after completing its acquisition of IPG at the end of 2025, folding DDB into TBWA and FCB into BBDO worldwide. In Montreal, Omnicom’s TBWA agency is Tam-Tam\TBWA. Brands that worked with DDB or FCB in Montreal should ask Omnicom which team now holds their account.

Do Montreal advertising agencies work in English as well as French?

Most do. Agencies such as Cossette, Bleublancrouge and Publicis Montréal run national campaigns in both languages, often with separate French and English creative teams. For Quebec-only work, ask whether the campaign will be written in French first or adapted from English.

How is an advertising agency different from a creative agency in Montreal?

The line is loose. On these lists, advertising agencies are network offices and campaign specialists, many with media in-house, while our creative agencies in Montreal page covers independent idea shops such as lg2, Sid Lee and Rethink. Many firms do both, so judge them on the work.

How do Montreal agencies handle Bill 96?

Since June 2025, stricter rules apply to French on commercial signage and in advertising. Agencies with French-first teams, and public-sector clients such as Élections Québec or the Ministère de la Langue française, are used to working within them. Compliance for a specific campaign is a question for your own legal advisers.

Related lists

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

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

Run your agency on Fabric: Fabric for agencies · Review and approval · Stop sending Google Drive links to clients