Essence Global


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, The Financial Times, Target, NBCUniversal, BP, FrieslandCampina, L’Oreal and Tesco Mobile. In 2015 Essence became majority owned by WPP, and a part of GroupM, the WPP media investment management operation. Essence specializes in strategy, digital marketing, 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 digital marketing arm called Creative Services.
In 2005 they created their own digital agency in London, Essence, with their first client being Carphone Warehouse 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, NA and APAC.
Essence has worked for domestic and international brands including L’Oreal, TalkTalk, eBay, Betfair, Expedia, Barclays, YouTube, Method, DoubleDown Interactive, HP, Viber, Visa and Intuit.

Timeline