Global indie agency rankings: Wondrlab and LS Digital top ranked from APAC

Wonderhood Studios' victory following the Coral creative pitch has secured it a place in Campaign Advertising Intelligence’s global indie rankings for the first time in 2023.

Meanwhile, account wins by media agencies during September and October, the latest period for available data, has led to seven shops making their debut in the rankings.

Campaign’s global indie agency rankings are available every two months and rank agencies by estimated net new-business billings in the year to date. Advertising Intelligence tracks new business on a global level and partners COMvergence on media wins and R3 on creative wins, as well as taking direct submissions from agencies.

Creative

Four shops have entered the creative league for the first time in 2023, with Munich-based agency Serviceplan jumping straight to second place, pushing New Commercial Arts down. In September, Serviceplan won the global business for airline Lufthansa, estimated at $200m in new-business billings.

Wonderhood Studios achieved eighth position after winning the $28.5m Coral account in the UK in September. 

Another entrant was New York-based performance marketing agency Pearmill, which joined the league in ninth position after winning ketamine therapy provider Mindbloom and software company PerformYard.

Meanwhile, brand-building and comms agency ScienceMagic joined the table in 19th place after winning perfume company Creed and menstrual brand Rif Care. The shop has since confirmed it has gone into voluntary liquidation.

Wieden & Kennedy maintained its lead, keeping first place with $431.4m in net billings across the year. In September and October, it generated an additional $295m of new business from 18 client wins. The most notable of these was a McDonald’s brief in Canada worth $40m.

Media

The media side of the league experienced far more movement than the creative during September and October, with almost half the agencies in the table being new entrants. The top 10 positions were largely unaffected, though India's LS Digital and Australia's Atomic 212 both improved their standings, but lower down there were considerably more changes.

Germany-based Mediaplus claimed sixth place (up from eighth) with seven new wins in the period, totalling $26.8m. The top-billing account of these was a confidential FMCG client in Germany, worth $7.9m.

Cincinnati-based Curiosity landed the media account for Gorilla Glue, which owns both the adhesive brand and O’Keefe’s skincare. This was tracked as the largest indie media win in September and October, with an estimated $29.6m in billings attached to the brief. Curiosity came into the rankings at 13th.

The Shipyard was ranked 11th following three US wins: healthcare company Prestige Brands, San Diego Zoo and retail furniture chain American Freight. The wins collectively generated $36.2m in billings for the US-based indie.

Billings from wins could appear some time after the new announcement due to the data verification process, while the figures may also be amended at a later date. Some account names were not disclosed due to client confidentiality. 

(Source: Campaign Global)