Essence is a global data and measurement-driven full service agency. The agency has 20 offices in 12 countries and a staff of approximately 1,900. Essence manages over $4B in annualized media spend globally, with clients such as

Google Google LLC () is an American Multinational corporation, multinational technology company focusing on Search Engine, search engine technology, online advertising, cloud computing, software, computer software, quantum computing, e-commerce, ar ...

The Financial Times The ''Financial Times'' (''FT'') is a British daily newspaper printed in broadsheet and published digitally that focuses on business and economic current affairs. Based in London, England, the paper is owned by a Japanese holding company, Nikke ...

Target Target may refer to: Physical items * Shooting target, used in marksmanship training and various shooting sports ** Bullseye (target), the goal one for which one aims in many of these sports ** Aiming point, in field artillery, fi ...

NBCUniversal NBCUniversal Media, LLC is an American multinational mass media and entertainment conglomerate corporation owned by Comcast and headquartered at 30 Rockefeller Plaza in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, United States. NBCUniversal is primaril ...

, BP, FrieslandCampina, L’Oreal and Tesco Mobile. In 2015 Essence became majority owned by

WPP WPP may refer to: * WPP plc, a British multinational advertising and public relations company * WPP domain, a protein domain found in plants * Wavefront parallel processing, a video coding technique * White Patriot Party The White Patriot Part ...

, and a part of

GroupM WPP plc is a British multinational communications, advertising, public relations, technology, and commerce holding company headquartered in London, England. It was the world's largest advertising company, as of 2019. WPP plc owns many compan ...

, the WPP media investment management operation. Essence specializes in strategy,

digital marketing Digital marketing is the component of marketing that uses the Internet and online based digital technologies such as desktop computers, mobile phones and other digital media and platforms to promote products and services. Its development dur ...

, digital creative, media planning and buying, mobile advertising and analytics. Kyoko Matsushita has taken over from Christian Juhl as CEO from 1 October 2019, Juhl has moved to be CEO of GroupM.

Corporate history

Essence was founded by Matt Isaacs, Andrew Shebbeare and Andy Bonsall who previously worked together at Accucard, a credit-card company backed by LloydsTSB, where they developed an in-house

arm called Creative Services. In 2005 they created their own digital agency in London, Essence, with their first client being

Carphone Warehouse The Carphone Warehouse Limited was a mobile phone retailer based in London, United Kingdom. In August 2014 the company became a subsidiary of Currys plc (previously named "Dixons Carphone"), which was formed by the merger of its former parent C ...

boss, Sir Charles Dunstone. In 2006 Essence was hired by Google for a UK media and creative assignment. Today Essence is the digital media agency of record for Google in

EMEA EMEA is a shorthand designation meaning Europe, the Middle East and Africa. The acronym is used by institutions and governments, as well as in marketing and business when referring to this region: it is a shorthand way of referencing the two ...

, NA and APAC. Essence has worked for domestic and international brands including L’Oreal, TalkTalk,

eBay eBay Inc. ( ) is an American multinational e-commerce company based in San Jose, California, that facilitates consumer-to-consumer and business-to-consumer sales through its website. eBay was founded by Pierre Omidyar in 1995 and became ...

Betfair Betfair is a British gambling company which operates the world's largest online betting exchange. Its product offering also includes sports betting, online casino, online poker, and online bingo. Founded in 2000, the business is split into two ...

Expedia Expedia Inc. is an online travel agency owned by Expedia Group, an American online travel shopping company based in Seattle. The website and mobile app can be used to book airline tickets, hotel reservations, car rentals, cruise ships, and ...

Barclays Barclays () is a British multinational universal bank, headquartered in London, England. Barclays operates as two divisions, Barclays UK and Barclays International, supported by a service company, Barclays Execution Services. Barclays traces ...

YouTube YouTube is a global online video sharing and social media platform headquartered in San Bruno, California. It was launched on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. It is owned by Google, and is the second most ...

, Method, DoubleDown Interactive, HP,

Viber Viber, or Rakuten Viber, is a cross-platform voice over IP (VoIP) and instant messaging (IM) software application owned by Japanese multinational company Rakuten, provided as freeware for the Google Android, iOS, Microsoft Windows, Apple macOS ...

, Visa and

Intuit Intuit Inc. is an American business software company that specializes in financial software. The company is headquartered in Mountain View, California, and the CEO is Sasan Goodarzi. Intuit's products include the tax preparation application Tu ...

Timeline

* 2005: Essence is founded in London * 2010: Essence opens NYC office * 2011: Essence acquires Punktilio in London * 2012: Essence acquires Black Bag Advertising in San Francisco * 2012: Essence acquires Point Reach in Seattle * 2013: Essence opens Singapore office * 2014: Essence opens Tokyo office * 2015: Essence is bought by

WPP Group WPP plc is a British multinational communications, advertising, public relations, technology, and commerce holding company headquartered in London, England. It was the world's largest advertising company, as of 2019. WPP plc owns many compan ...

* 2016: Essence opens offices in Sydney, Chicago, Shanghai and Delhi * 2017: Essence opens offices

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the wor ...

Düsseldorf Düsseldorf ( , , ; often in English sources; Low Franconian and Ripuarian: ''Düsseldörp'' ; archaic nl, Dusseldorp ) is the capital city of North Rhine-Westphalia, the most populous state of Germany. It is the second-largest city in ...

and

Seoul Seoul (; ; ), officially known as the Seoul Special City, is the Capital city, capital and largest metropolis of South Korea.Before 1972, Seoul was the ''de jure'' capital of the North Korea, Democratic People's Republic of Korea (North Korea ...

* 2018: Essence opens offices i
Bengaluru, Jakarta, Melbourne, Mumbai
* 2019: Essence named as Mediapost's agency of the yea

* 2019: Kyoko Matsushita named as new CEO, Christian Juhl moves to be new

CEO.

References

{{WPP Mass media companies established in 2005