The agency landscape 2026
Who the industry's published rankings recognise this year, globally and in five regions: how the six lists were made, how to use them to find a partner rather than a famous name, and what they cannot tell you.
Independent reporting on integrated marketing communications
One message, every channel.
We explain the discipline, report on the industry and list its platforms and agencies by a published method. Every fact has a source, anyone can contribute, and corrections are made in the open.
From the Report
The latest from the Report
Reports on the agencies, the platforms and the market, read from published sources and from the directory itself, by the editors and the community.
Read the ReportThe basics
What is integrated marketing communications?
Planning every way a brand speaks, from advertising and PR to social, email and events, so that all of them tell one story and each one does its part. You meet it every day without noticing.
Start with IMC foundations- Paid
- Earned
- Shared
- Owned
- Integrated
The launch you saw everywhere
The same idea on a billboard, in your feed and in the shop window, each doing a different job.
The email that followed your visit
It picked up where the website left off, in the same voice.
The answer that sounded the same everywhere
When something went wrong, the statement, the posts and the customer service replies all said one thing.
How it works
How an integrated plan comes together
Five steps from a business objective to a plan every channel can carry, and back again.
Read: planning and strategy- 1 Objective
- 2 One message
- 3 The mix
- 4 Run and adapt
- 5 Measure
Objective
Start from one business objective and the audience it depends on, written so you can tell later whether it was met.
One message
Agree the idea every channel will carry: the brand's promise, the proof behind it, the tone it speaks in.
The mix
Choose the disciplines that reach that audience along its journey, and give each one a job: to inform, persuade, remind or prove.
Run and adapt
Each channel says the same thing in its own form and language, and the team adjusts as responses come in.
Measure
Judge the whole against the objective, not each channel on its own, and carry what you learn into the next plan.
Common needs
Or start from a common need
Each one opens a ready-made brief you can change. The number is how many platforms fit it today.
Describe your own- Launch a product across channelsOne launch story told in social, email and digital advertising.7 fit todaySee matches
- B2B leads from content and emailContent that earns attention and email that follows up, connected to the CRM.11 fit todaySee matches
- Social media run in ArabicA team that publishes and answers in Arabic for audiences in the Gulf.5 fit todaySee matches
- Prove what the budget achievedMeasurement across paid search and digital advertising, for a marketing leader.13 fit todaySee matches
- Loyalty for an online shopEmail and loyalty that bring customers back, connected to the shop.12 fit todaySee matches
- Watch and protect a reputationMedia relations and social listening for a communications team, in French.7 fit todaySee matches
Explore
Start from a discipline
Every way a brand speaks: what each discipline is for, and the platforms that support it.
Every listing, every filter- Advertising (TV, radio, print, cinema)Paid messages in mass media: television, radio, print and cinema.
- Out-of-home and digital out-of-homeMessages in public space: billboards, transit, street furniture and digital screens.
- Digital advertising13 listingsPaid media online: display, programmatic, online video, connected TV and retail media.
- Search (SEO and paid search)5 listingsBeing found when people look: organic search and paid search ads.
- Social media8 listingsThe brand's presence and conversation on social platforms, customer care included.
- Influencer and creator marketing5 listingsWorking with creators whose audiences trust them.
- Content marketing15 listingsUseful or entertaining content a brand publishes itself: articles, video, podcasts and thought leadership.
- Email marketing11 listingsMessages to people who asked to hear from you, from newsletters to automated journeys.
- Messaging marketing8 listingsMarketing by text message and messaging apps, sent only with the recipient's consent.
- Public relations3 listingsEarning attention and trust through the media and the public: media relations, corporate and crisis communications.
- Events and experiential3 listingsMeeting people in person or online: live events, virtual events and trade shows.
- SponsorshipAssociating a brand with a sport, a culture or a cause it supports.
- Direct marketingMessages addressed to a person: direct mail and telemarketing.
- Sales promotion1 listingsShort-term reasons to act now: offers, coupons, trade promotion and point of sale.
- CRM and loyalty6 listingsManaging the relationship after the first sale: lifecycle messages and loyalty programmes.
- Affiliate and partner marketing3 listingsPartners who promote you and are paid for the results they bring.
- Community and word of mouthPeople who talk about the brand with each other: brand communities, referral and advocacy.
- Internal communicationsCommunicating with employees, and the employer brand they carry outside.
Martech
Browse platforms by category
From marketing automation to social listening: every category of tool, and how many are listed in each.
Filter by any attribute- Marketing automation10 listings
- CRM4 listings
- Customer data platform (CDP)5 listings
- Email marketing8 listings
- Messaging marketing7 listings
- Social media management4 listings
- Social listening6 listings
- Influencer platform5 listings
- Advertising platform (buying, DSP, ad management)5 listings
- SEO tools2 listings
- Web analytics4 listings
- Attribution and marketing mix modelling2 listings
- Experimentation and personalisation4 listings
- Web content and digital experience (CMS, DXP)5 listings
- Digital asset management (DAM)1 listings
- Creative and design2 listings
- Video and podcast1 listings
- PR and media (databases, monitoring, distribution)3 listings
- Events platform3 listings
- Surveys and research2 listings
- Marketing work management2 listings
- Affiliate and partner management2 listings
- Loyalty and referral2 listings
- Conversational marketing and chat1 listings
The practice
What integration asks of a team
Four habits that turn a set of channels into one plan.
Find your stackOne objective
Every channel works toward the same result, so their plans and their budgets can be weighed against each other.
One message, adapted
The idea stays the same; the form changes with the channel, the culture and the language.
One view of the customer
What a person did in one channel informs what they hear in the next, within the consent they gave.
One team
Brand, communications, performance and agencies plan together rather than handing work over the wall.
Learn
Fresh from the library
Plain-language foundations, primers and guides, with a source for every claim.
Browse the libraryThe agency landscape 2026
Who the industry's published rankings recognise this year, globally and in five regions: how the six lists were made, how to use them to find a partner rather than a famous name, and what they cannot tell you.
The crisis communication checklist: prepare, respond, recover
What to have ready before a crisis, what to do in the first hours, and how to recover and learn after it: the crisis team, stakeholder map, holding statements and approvals; verified facts, one voice and regular updates; and an after-action review. After CIPR, PRSA and UK Government Communication Service guidance, Coombs's situational crisis communication theory and ISO 22361.
The launch checklist: before, during and after, across every discipline
The checks that keep a launch from failing at the joins: objectives and briefs, claims and codes, consent and accessibility, product and service readiness before launch; synchronised go-live and monitoring during it; and a measured review after it.
Myths and facts
Four things people often get wrong about integration
Each one answered in a sentence or two.
Start learningMyth
Integrated means the same ad everywhereFactIt means one idea, told in the form each channel needs. A poster, a post and an email can look nothing alike and still say the same thing.
Myth
Integration is only for big brandsFactA small business with a website, a social account and an email list integrates the moment all three tell the same story.
Myth
Integration is the agency's jobFactThe objective and the brand belong to the business. Agencies can coordinate the work, but integration needs both sides at the same table.
Myth
More channels means more integratedFactAdding channels adds places to be inconsistent. Integration is about how the channels you use work together, not how many there are.
Independence
Nobody can buy their way onto your shortlist
IMC Report has no products of its own and no partners. No vendor or agency can pay to be listed, scored or ranked.
- No partners No partnership, reseller or referral relationship with anyone listed.
- No affiliate links Links to vendors are plain links; nobody is paid when you click or buy.
- No paid placement Listing, scoring and ranking cannot be bought. Nothing is featured or pinned.
- Relationship-blind ranking The engine reads only your brief and each listing's facts, and an automated test fails if any relationship field moves a result.
Evaluate · Participate
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