In this Wave's 2022 edition, Forrester scored agency siblings against each other, Ogilvy versus VMLY&R inside WPP, BBDO versus Omnicom Precision Marketing Group inside Omnicom, and the holding companies had to watch their own flagships compete on the same scorecard. The 2025 edition kept the model and sharpened the verdict: the two Leaders are two holding companies' best shots, and the criteria have quietly moved from advertising craft to commerce and performance.
The report under the name: The Forrester Wave: Marketing Creative And Content Services, Q1 2025
The Q1 2025 Wave, published March 2025 and led by principal analyst Jay Pattisall, evaluates ten providers on a seventeen-criterion framework covering creative strategy, creative intelligence, production, dynamic creative optimization, digital development, and customer feedback.
It is part of the series Forrester launched in 2022, five Wave evaluations aimed at resetting the agency services market. Three editions later, the reset has happened, and the field shrank from thirteen providers to ten.
The two Leaders, one from each side of the aisle
VML, the WPP flagship, took the highest Current Offering score in the field, with perfect 5 of 5 marks in Brand Advertising, Creative and Communications Strategy, and Innovation. Forrester's line: VML's "digital, technology, and creative strength shines in its leading creative commerce, influencer marketing, and brand advertising services."
Omnicom Precision Marketing Group tied for the top Strategy score, with top marks in creative and content production, creative commerce, influencer marketing, partner ecosystem, performance creative, pricing flexibility and transparency, and talent strategy. Its fit verdict is the clearest buyer sentence in the edition: "enterprise brands with the need to scale data-driven creativity should consider OPMG."
One Leader from WPP, one from Omnicom, and the criteria they won on are the agency industry's pivot written as a scorecard. Creative commerce, performance creative, influencer marketing: the craft-era categories are still scored, but the new maximum scores live where creativity meets the transaction.
Creative commerce is the term to unpack, because it is the edition's hidden thesis. It means creative work built to convert inside the buying environment, shoppable content, livestream selling, social storefronts, rather than advertising built to interrupt. An agency industry that grew up making commercials is now scored on how well its ideas sell inside the feed, and the two Leaders are the two groups that rebuilt for that reality.
The middle band and the newcomers
The Strong Performer band is where the holding-company restructure shows. Omnicom Advertising Group, launched January 1, 2025, took the second-highest Current Offering score with top marks in brand strategy, creative and content development, global delivery strategy, and performance creative. Dentsu Creative, McCann, Accenture, and Ogilvy filled out the band.
The Contenders carry the edition's other story. Media.Monks entered the Wave for the first time, and Publicis Worldwide, now part of Leo in the United States, closed the field.
For Omnicom specifically, this is the third consecutive Leader designation across Forrester's marketing services Waves, following Media Management Services in Q4 2024 and Commerce Services in Q2 2024. The multi-Wave sweep is the strongest evidence available that the services reset is consolidating around a small set of integrated groups.
That consolidation is the buyer's actual market. When one holding company leads three adjacent services categories simultaneously, the question stops being which agency wins each Wave and becomes whether the integrated group, with its shared data and shared contracts, is what the procurement is really choosing. The scorecard ranks the flags. The contract buys the fleet.
What the 2022 edition recorded
The July 2022 edition scored thirteen providers, with Leaders VMLY&R, Omnicom Precision Marketing Group, and Accenture Song. Its Strong Performers: Deloitte, Media.Monks, Ogilvy, BBDO, and Publicis Worldwide. Its Contenders: Dept, MullenLowe, R/GA, Leo Burnett, and dentsuMB.
The 2022 model was controversial by design, scoring multiple entities from the same holding company against each other, and the field reflected an industry of brands rather than platforms. Three years later, VMLY&R became VML, Omnicom's brands consolidated under new group structures, and the scorecard's center of gravity moved from whose campaigns win awards to whose infrastructure scales data-driven creativity at the transaction.
The honest limit of a sibling scorecard
A Wave that scores Ogilvy against VML inside the same parent produces an unusual risk profile for a buyer. The tier column is real, but the commercial reality behind both names is one holding company, one balance sheet, one shared data stack, and the distinction between the placements can be thinner than the scorecard suggests.
There is also the criteria drift to respect. The 2025 edition grades creative commerce and performance creative heavily, which means the scorecard rewards agencies built for the direct-response era. A brand whose problem is pure brand building, awareness, and craft will find the criteria weighted against its actual need, and should read the tier column accordingly.
Three questions for the creative services buyer
Which holding company are you actually hiring, and does the sibling score matter? The Leaders are flagships of WPP and Omnicom. Ask how much of the named agency's delivery runs on the parent's shared stack, because that is what you will actually receive.
Is your problem brand building or creative commerce? The criteria now reward the transaction-adjacent disciplines. If your budget is awareness, the scorecard is measuring a different job, and the Contender band may hold your real fit.
Who owns the performance data? Performance creative and creative commerce only work on shared measurement infrastructure. Ask where the data lives, who can see it, and what happens to your learning when the contract ends.
Analyst Source
Forrester Research
Category definition, vendor inclusion, and evaluation findings in this article draw on The Forrester Wave: Marketing Creative And Content Services, Q1 2025, published March 2025 and led by principal analyst Jay Pattisall, evaluating ten providers on a 17-criterion framework. VML and Omnicom Precision Marketing Group are the confirmed Leaders, with Strong Performers Omnicom Advertising Group, Dentsu Creative, McCann, Accenture, and Ogilvy, and Contenders Media.Monks and Publicis Worldwide. The prior Q3 2022 edition scored 13 providers with Leaders VMLY&R, OPMG, and Accenture Song. The evaluation is part of the five-Wave marketing services reset Forrester announced in 2022.
Source research
- The Forrester Wave: Marketing Creative And Content Services, Q1 2025 (RES182073), Forrester
- OPMG, VML Named Leaders in Forrester Wave Marketing Creative and Content Services Report, Adweek
- VML Named a Leader in Independent Evaluation Among Marketing Creative and Content Service Providers, VML
- Media.Monks Crashes Onto the Forrester Wave for First Time, LBBOnline
- Five Forrester Wave Evaluations Set The Stage For A Marketing Services Reset, Forrester blog
- Forrester Report Picks Leaders In Marketing Creative And Content Services, MediaPost
Forrester does not endorse any vendor named here, and tier placement should not be read as a recommendation to buy.
A close neighbor in Forrester's own coverage is Media Management Services, where forrester's first ever evaluation of this category was published into a market whose organizing principle, the traditional marketing funnel, had just collapsed, and it scores the agencies on what they built to replace it.