WPP Acquires New Commercial Arts

WPP announces that it has acquired New Commercial Arts (NCA), a leading independent creative and customer experience agency. NCA will join Ogilvy’s global creative network to further accelerate the agency’s momentum in the UK market.

NCA was founded in 2020 by a team including industry leaders James Murphy and David Golding and became one of the fastest-growing agencies in the UK in 2023. Since its inception, NCA has worked with local and global clients including Sainsbury’s, MoneySuperMarket, Vodafone, Nando’s, Paramount+, Alzheimer’s Society and Cityfibre.

James and David previously founded adam&eve in 2008 and built it into one of the most influential agencies to launch in the UK, with success on the international stage. NCA employs approximately 90 people and is currently based in Fitzrovia in London and Merchant City in Glasgow, in partnership with the Glasgow School of Art.

Both Ogilvy UK and NCA will come under the leadership of James Murphy as CEO Ogilvy Group UK. This marks a return to Ogilvy for James who began his career as a graduate trainee with the agency.

Fiona Gordon, who has led a resurgence for Ogilvy in the UK as CEO since 2021, has been promoted to global CEO of advertising at Ogilvy. In this new role Fiona will report to Ogilvy global CEO Devika Bulchandani, working closely with global chief creative officer Liz Taylor and Ogilvy’s worldwide Creative Council.

Mark Read, CEO of WPP, said, “NCA is one of the UK’s most exciting new agencies with a great team, an impressive roster of clients and a track record of elevating beloved British brands. Its capabilities and client base make NCA highly complementary to Ogilvy; bringing together these two very successful agencies will drive growth both for our clients and our own UK business.”

James Murphy, co-founder and CEO of NCA and incoming CEO of Ogilvy Group UK, said, “Ogilvy is rightly recognised as the world’s pre-eminent creative network, and to be joining with the remit to unlock our collective potential in the UK market is irresistible. For our team and our clients this will be a game-changer in what we can bring to their careers and their brands. Plugging into Ogilvy and WPP’s network will give us access to data and AI tools at scale through WPP Open and to a broad set of Ogilvy capabilities that were simply out of our reach as an independent – from influencer marketing, PR, CRM, commerce and service design to business transformation and brand innovation through Ogilvy Consulting.”

Devika Bulchandani, global CEO of Ogilvy, said, “James, David and their partners are pioneers in our industry. When they created New Commercial Arts, they deliberately chose the word commercial because growing our clients’ brands and businesses is core to what our industry does – an ethos mirrored in David Ogilvy’s famous words: ‘We Sell, Or Else’. Fiona's stellar leadership has been instrumental in propelling Ogilvy UK forward, playing a critical role in the growth and momentum of our global network. I’m thrilled that her impact will now be felt on a global stage.”

Fiona Gordon, newly appointed Global CEO of Advertising at Ogilvy, added, “I’m invigorated every day by the boundless potential of creativity to not only propel businesses forward but to leave an indelible mark on culture. To have the opportunity to collaborate more closely with Dev, Liz, and Ogilvy’s Worldwide Creative Council to harness the creative brilliance of our network on behalf of our clients is a tremendous opportunity. In my new role I’m excited that the UK will make a vital contribution as a key market.”

Ogilvy UK ranked as the #1 agency in the UK on WARC’s 2024 Creative 100 list, the definitive benchmark for creative success based on results from the most prestigious global and regional industry competitions. The agency currently has capabilities that span Advertising, Customer Experience, PR & Influence, Health and Consulting. Ogilvy Consulting was named in the Financial Times’ 2024 list of the UK's Leading Consultants for the seventh consecutive year and has been recognised for its award-winning Behavioural Science practice, which hosted the 12th annual Nudgestock event, the world’s biggest festival of behavioural science and creativity, in July. Most recently, Ogilvy PR’s Influence team was recognised as the Best Large Influencer Marketing Agency at the Global Influencer Marketing Awards. Ogilvy UK’s clients include Unilever, Mondelēz, Sainsbury’s and F1; and it recently added Molson Coors to its client portfolio.

Ogilvy was named the Network of the Year at the 2024 Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity and was recognised by WARC as the World’s #1 Creative Agency Network (2020-2024) and Most Effective Creative Network in consecutive years (2023, 2024).