WPP today announced the acquisition of New Commercial Arts (NCA), a leading independent creative and customer experience agency. NCA will join Ogilvy’s global creative network to further drive the agency’s growth in the UK market.
Founded in 2020 by a team including industry leaders James Murphy and David Golding, NCA has quickly risen to become one of the UK’s fastest growing agencies by 2023. The agency has worked with high-profile clients including Sainsbury’s, MoneySuperMarket, Vodafone, Nando’s, Paramount+, Alzheimer’s Society and Cityfibre.
Murphy and Golding also co-founded Adam&Eve, one of the most influential agencies launched in the UK in 2008 and which has achieved international success. NCA has around 90 staff and is based in Fitzrovia, London, and Merchant City, Glasgow, in partnership with the Glasgow School of Art.
Both Ogilvy UK and NCA will now be led by James Murphy as CEO of Ogilvy Group UK, marking his return to Ogilvy, where he began his career as a trainee. Fiona Gordon, who has led Ogilvy’s UK resurgence as CEO since 2021, has been promoted to Global CEO of Ogilvy Advertising. Fiona will work closely with Devika Bulchandani, Global CEO of Ogilvy, and Liz Taylor, Global Creative Director, to strengthen the global creative network.
“NCA is one of the UK’s most exciting agencies, with an exceptional team and an impressive portfolio of clients. Their capabilities and client base perfectly complement Ogilvy, and the combination of these two successful agencies will drive growth for both our clients and our UK business,” said Mark Read, CEO of WPP.
James Murphy, Co-Founder and CEO of NCA, said: “Ogilvy is recognised as the world’s leading creative network and the opportunity to unlock our collective potential in the UK market is compelling. For our team and clients, this will be transformative, expanding opportunities with access to WPP’s data network and AI tools through WPP Open and a broad suite of Ogilvy capabilities, from influencer marketing, PR, CRM, service design and business transformation to brand innovation with Ogilvy Consulting.”
