Essence was a global data and measurement-driven full service agency that merged with Mediacom in January 2023 to form Essence Mediacom,[3] . Prior to the merger, Essence had 20 offices in 12 countries and a staff of approximately 2,000. Essence managed over $4B in annualized media spend globally, with clients such as Google, The Financial Times,[4] Target,[1] NBCUniversal,[1] BP, FrieslandCampina,[5] L’Oreal and Tesco Mobile. In 2015 Essence became majority owned by WPP, and a part of GroupM, the WPP media investment management operation.[6]
Quick Facts Company type, Industry ...
Essence |
Company type | Subsidiary |
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Industry | Information Technology, Advertising, Marketing |
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Founded | 2005 (2005) |
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Founder | Andrew Shebbeare
Andy Bonsall
Matt Isaacs |
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Fate | Acquired by WPP plc, Nov 2015
Merged with Mediacom, Feb 2023 |
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Successor | Essence Mediacom |
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Number of locations | Australia, China, India, Indonesia, Japan, Singapore, South Korea, USA, Canada, Germany, UK |
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Key people | Matt Isaacs (CEO until 2014)
Christian Juhl (CEO 2014 - 2019)
Kyoko Matsushita CEO (2019 - 2023) |
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Revenue | $4 billion (total billings)[1] |
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Number of employees | 2000[1] |
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Parent | GroupM[2] |
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Website | essenceglobal.com |
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Essence specialized in strategy, digital marketing, digital creative, media planning and buying, mobile advertising and analytics. It also included a dedicated technology business, 2Sixty Technologies, which developed platforms that underpinned the agency's services to clients as well as building bespoke technologies for clients including Google.[7] 2Sixty was subsequently merged with other GroupM technologies to form Choreograph.[8]
Matt Isaacs was CEO until May 2014 when he became Executive Chair and was succeeded as CEO by Christian Juhl.[9] Andrew Shebbeare was appointed Chair in Jan 2019. Kyoko Matsushita took over from Christian Juhl as CEO from October 2019, when Juhl moved to be CEO of GroupM.[10]
Essence was founded by Matt Isaacs, Andrew Shebbeare and Andy Bonsall who previously worked together at Accucard, a VC/PE backed credit-card company. Accucard was acquired by Lloyds Banking Group where they developed an in-house digital marketing arm called Create Services.[11]
In 2005 they created their own digital agency in London, Essence, with their first client being Carphone Warehouse boss, Sir Charles Dunstone.[12]
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, NA and APAC.[13]
Essence has worked for domestic and international brands including L’Oreal, TalkTalk,[14] eBay,[15] Betfair,[16] Expedia,[17] Barclays,[18] YouTube,[19] Method,[20] DoubleDown Interactive,[21] HP, Viber,[22] Visa[23] and Intuit.[24]