Best Agencies: 2020 A-List

A-list Awards 2020 Given the state of the world, the arrival of our annual Ad Age A-List issue arguably couldn’t be better timed. This package is a celebration of the best our industry served up in 2019. Cannes may be canceled and the Clios pushed back until next year. (Ad Age’s own awards gala was to have been last week, but it’s also on hold.) Still, we can salute the good work and talented folks who make this industry so special, so creative. In these pages you’ll find the people, brands and agencies who inspired and moved us last year—and they are the people, brands and agencies who will lead the industry forward through this plague. Even if some of their jobs have since fallen victim to COVID-19. For the third consecutive year, Wieden+Kennedy tops the list for its category-defining work for Nike, for cultivating Ford as a client, for winning McDonald’s while maintaining KFC. For the work. It boils down to a simple ethos: “Rules get broken,” as Colleen DeCourcy, co-president and global chief creative officer, tells I-Hsien Sherwood in his piece about our first-ever A-List three-peat. Since this year is also a nice big round number, it provides us with the additional opportunity to anoint the Agency of the Decade, Droga5, in this case another rule-breaker which has had one hell of a run—culminating in its sale to Accenture, news that broke during last year’s A-List photo shoot. If ever we needed a time for some positive narratives, it’s now. There will be no “returning” to life as it was, as Jason DeLand, co-founding partner of Anomaly recently said. “This is an opportunity to bounce forward.” It’s time not only to break rules; we as a collective whole have a unique opportunity to totally rewrite them. + A-List 2020 Agency of the Year Decade Standouts & To Watch Comeback Multicultural International Creative In-House Media Data/Analytics Design Executive Chief Marketing Officer Production Company Given the state of the world, the arrival of our annual Ad Age A-List issue arguably couldn’t be better timed. This package is a celebration of the best our industry served up in 2019. Cannes may be canceled and the Clios pushed back until next year. (Ad Age’s own awards gala was to have been last week, but it’s also on hold.) Still, we can salute the good work and talented folks who make this industry so special, so creative. In these pages you’ll find the people, brands and agencies who inspired and moved us last year—and they are the people, brands and agencies who will lead the industry forward through this plague. Even if some of their jobs have since fallen victim to COVID-19. For the third consecutive year, Wieden+Kennedy tops the list for its category-defining work for Nike, for cultivating Ford as a client, for winning McDonald’s while maintaining KFC. For the work. It boils down to a simple ethos: “Rules get broken,” as Colleen DeCourcy, co-president and global chief creative officer, tells I-Hsien Sherwood in his piece about our first-ever A-List three-peat. Since this year is also a nice big round number, it provides us with the additional opportunity to anoint the Agency of the Decade, Droga5, in this case another rule-breaker which has had one hell of a run—culminating in its sale to Accenture, news that broke during last year’s A-List photo shoot. If ever we needed a time for some positive narratives, it’s now. There will be no “returning” to life as it was, as Jason DeLand, co-founding partner of Anomaly recently said. “This is an opportunity to bounce forward.” It’s time not only to break rules; we as a collective whole have a unique opportunity to totally rewrite them. Agency of the Year No. 1: Wieden + Kennedy No. 2: Goodby, Silverstein & Partners No. 3: Johannes Leonardo No. 4: TBWA No. 5: Mindshare No. 6: BBDO No. 7: McCann Worldgroup No. 8: Code and Theory No. 9: Weber Shandwick No. 10: Humanaut Agency of the Decade Droga5 Agency Standouts Anomaly Mother FCB Work & Co Terri & Sandy Fig Gut ICF Next Agencies To Watch The VIA Agency Badger & Winters Edelman VaynerMedia VMLY&R Mojo Supermarket The Martin Agency Cashmere Comeback Agency of the Year R/GA Multicultural Agency of the Year The Community International Agency of the Year adam&eveDDB Creative Agency of the Year TBWA/Media Arts Lab In-House Agency of the Year Squarespace Media Agency of the Year Mediahub Data/Analytics Agency of the Year Essence Design Agency of the Year Collins Executive of the Year Brian Whipple,Accenture Interactive Brand CMO of the Year Fernando Machado,Burger King Production Company of the Year SMUGGLER Production Company A-List No. 2: Somesuch Production Company A-List No. 3: MJZ Production Company A-List No. 4: Furlined Production Company A-List No. 5: O Positive Production Company A-List No. 6: Stink Production Company A-List No. 7: Biscuit Filmworks Production Company A-List No. 8: Hungry Man Productions Production Company A-List No. 9: m ss ng p eces Production Company A-List No. 10: Tool of North America Production Company Standouts Anonymous Content Iconoclast Nexus Studios Park Pictures Partizan Prettybird Pulse Films RadicalMedia Reset Unit9 Production Companies To Watch Division7 The Creativity Awards winners are coming soon. This counterpart to the A-List celebrates the ideas, the people and the companies that pushed the industry forward. Click here to see the finalists, selected by a jury of top industry leaders. The ultimate winners will be announced at our upcoming gala. Details will be coming shortly. Web Production by Corey Holmes. Illustration by Tam Nguyen

Best Agencies: 2020 A-List

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