Essence Global
Essence was a global data and measurement-driven full service agency that merged with Mediacom in January 2023 to form Essence Mediacom, . 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, 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.
| Company type | Subsidiary |
|---|---|
| Industry | Information Technology, Advertising, Marketing |
| Founded | 2005 |
| Founder | Andrew Shebbeare
Andy Bonsall Matt Isaacs |
| Fate | Acquired by WPP plc, Nov 2015 Merged with Mediacom, Feb 2023 |
| Successor | Essence Mediacom |
Number of locations | Australia, China, India, Indonesia, Japan, Singapore, South Korea, USA, Canada, Germany, UK |
Key people | Matt Isaacs (CEO until 2014)
Christian Juhl (CEO 2014 - 2019) Kyoko Matsushita CEO (2019 - 2023) |
| Revenue | $4 billion (total billings) |
Number of employees | 2000 |
| Parent | GroupM |
| Website | essenceglobal.com |
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. 2Sixty was subsequently merged with other GroupM technologies to form Choreograph.
Matt Isaacs was CEO until May 2014 when he became Executive Chair and was succeeded as CEO by Christian Juhl. 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.