Advertising agencies
UK companies organised by the CorpSignals industry, segment, and subsegment taxonomy.
Company snapshot
What this shows: the size and current activity of this classification, plus recent formations, company age, revenue coverage, and trade participation.
All companies
83783
Active companies
55763
Formed in latest 12 months
15011
Median active-company age
2.6 years
Revenue known
784
Importers
521
Exporters
322
Top values shown in the chart
| Category | Companies |
|---|---|
| All companies | 83,783 |
| Active companies | 55,763 |
| Formed in latest 12 months | 15,011 |
| Importers | 521 |
| Exporters | 322 |
Revenue coverage among active companies: 784 known, 54979 unknown (1.4%).
Company formations
What this shows: monthly incorporations and dissolutions from 1 January 2024, including companies of every current status.
Latest ten months shown in the chart
| Month | Formed | Dissolved |
|---|---|---|
| 2025-11 | 1,158 | 774 |
| 2025-12 | 1,011 | 931 |
| 2026-01 | 1,376 | 862 |
| 2026-02 | 1,034 | 997 |
| 2026-03 | 1,315 | 1,093 |
| 2026-04 | 1,275 | 727 |
| 2026-05 | 1,294 | 850 |
| 2026-06 | 1,186 | 644 |
| 2026-07 | 1,329 | 1,307 |
| 2026-08 | 451 | 672 |
Window: 2024-01 to 2026-08.
Company status
What this shows: all current Companies House status values. Companies House Active records with dormant accounts are shown as Dormant; the remaining Companies House Active records are shown as Active. Blank and missing values are combined as Unknown.
Top values shown in the chart
| Status | Companies |
|---|---|
| Active | 51,181 |
| Dissolved | 27,465 |
| Dormant | 4,582 |
| Liquidation | 534 |
| In Administration | 18 |
| Insolvency Proceedings | 2 |
| Receiver Action | 1 |
Active companies by UK region
What this shows: active companies with a known ITL2 region. The UK map falls back to a bar chart if map data cannot be loaded.
Top values shown in the chart
| ITL2 region | Companies |
|---|---|
| Inner London - East | 9,494 |
| Inner London - West | 8,380 |
| Greater Manchester | 2,811 |
| Outer London - West and North West | 2,774 |
| Outer London - East and North East | 2,170 |
| Surrey, East and West Sussex | 2,156 |
| West Midlands | 1,933 |
| Berkshire, Buckinghamshire and Oxfordshire | 1,753 |
| Bedfordshire and Hertfordshire | 1,570 |
| Outer London - South | 1,279 |
Geography coverage: 55330 known, 433 unknown (99.2%).
Revenue ranges
What this shows: active companies grouped into the platform’s ordered estimated-revenue bands.
Top values shown in the chart
| Revenue range | Companies |
|---|---|
| 0-1m | 26,170 |
| 1m-15m | 2,985 |
| 15m-54m | 99 |
| 54m+ | 159 |
Revenue-range coverage: 29413 known, 26350 unknown (52.7%).
Company size and employees
What this shows: active companies by published size category and by reported employee count.
Top values shown in the chart
| Company size | Companies |
|---|---|
| Micro | 17,753 |
| Small | 10,555 |
| Medium | 20 |
| Large | 239 |
| Holding | 73 |
| Dormant | 4,582 |
Company-size coverage: 33222 known, 22541 unknown (59.6%).
Top values shown in the chart
| Employees | Companies |
|---|---|
| 0 | 8,577 |
| 1–9 | 18,498 |
| 10–49 | 954 |
| 50–249 | 111 |
| 250+ | 15 |
Employee coverage: 28155 known, 27608 unknown (50.5%).
Active-company age
What this shows: how long currently active companies have been incorporated.
Top values shown in the chart
| Age band | Companies |
|---|---|
| Under 1 year | 14,574 |
| 1–3 years | 15,401 |
| 3–5 years | 6,946 |
| 5–10 years | 10,446 |
| 10–20 years | 5,885 |
| 20+ years | 2,511 |
Incorporation-date coverage: 55763 known, 0 unknown (100.0%).
Classification breakdown
What this shows: active companies across the next taxonomy level; direct assignments are labelled separately. The top 20 are shown and remaining values are combined as Other.
Top values shown in the chart
| Classification | Companies |
|---|---|
| Directly assigned to this segment | 55,763 |
International trade
What this shows: active-company participation in imports and exports, followed by the ten HS2 categories involving the most distinct companies.
Top values shown in the chart
| Trade participation | Companies |
|---|---|
| Importer only | 335 |
| Exporter only | 136 |
| Both | 186 |
| Neither | 55,106 |
Top imports HS2 categories
Top values shown in the chart
| HS2 category | Companies | GBP | Available dates |
|---|---|---|---|
| 85 — Electrical machinery and equipment | 172 | £42,899,063,513 | 2016-01-01 – 2026-05-01 |
| 94 — Furniture, Lighting, and Prefabricated Buildings | 123 | £7,808,214,242 | 2016-01-01 – 2026-05-01 |
| 84 — Machinery, boilers, and mechanical appliances; parts | 107 | £23,060,094,197 | 2016-01-01 – 2026-05-01 |
| 95 — Toys, games, and sports equipment | 98 | £3,818,036,067 | 2016-01-01 – 2026-05-01 |
| 90 — Optical and medical tools and devices | 93 | £3,657,012,412 | 2016-01-01 – 2026-05-01 |
| 61 — Clothing and accessories made by knitting or crocheting | 91 | £6,855,161,155 | 2016-01-01 – 2026-05-01 |
| 62 — Clothing and accessories, not knitted or crocheted | 82 | £2,624,153,695 | 2016-01-01 – 2026-05-01 |
| 48 — Paper and Paperboard Products | 80 | £1,785,658,351 | 2016-01-01 – 2026-05-01 |
| 96 — Miscellaneous manufactured goods | 76 | £530,888,613 | 2016-01-01 – 2026-05-01 |
| 63 — Various textile products, sets, used clothing, and rags | 69 | £2,525,253,265 | 2016-03-01 – 2026-05-01 |
Top exports HS2 categories
Top values shown in the chart
| HS2 category | Companies | GBP | Available dates |
|---|---|---|---|
| 85 — Electrical machinery and equipment | 120 | £11,644,559,757 | 2016-01-01 – 2026-05-01 |
| 84 — Machinery, boilers, and mechanical appliances; parts | 85 | £8,098,134,248 | 2016-01-01 – 2026-05-01 |
| 94 — Furniture, Lighting, and Prefabricated Buildings | 81 | £1,185,545,493 | 2016-01-01 – 2026-05-01 |
| 95 — Toys, games, and sports equipment | 67 | £977,365,054 | 2016-01-01 – 2026-05-01 |
| 49 — Printed materials like books, newspapers, and pictures | 65 | £2,990,493,861 | 2016-01-01 – 2026-05-01 |
| 90 — Optical and medical tools and devices | 63 | £2,234,338,970 | 2016-01-01 – 2026-05-01 |
| 61 — Clothing and accessories made by knitting or crocheting | 61 | £1,030,110,103 | 2016-01-01 – 2026-05-01 |
| 96 — Miscellaneous manufactured goods | 57 | £89,341,699 | 2016-01-01 – 2026-05-01 |
| 48 — Paper and Paperboard Products | 55 | £511,472,575 | 2016-01-01 – 2026-05-01 |
| 62 — Clothing and accessories, not knitted or crocheted | 53 | £611,580,846 | 2016-01-01 – 2026-05-01 |
Business and digital traits
What this shows: active companies identified with selected ownership, business-model, and online-presence traits.
Values shown in the chart with data coverage
| Trait | Companies | Known | Unknown | Coverage |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Family business | 2,467 | 52,515 | 3,248 | 94.2% |
| Holding company | 11 | 52,515 | 3,248 | 94.2% |
| Solo founder | 37,054 | 52,515 | 3,248 | 94.2% |
| Ecommerce | 92 | 565 | 55,198 | 1.0% |
| Website | 686 | 712 | 55,051 | 1.3% |
| 510 | 712 | 55,051 | 1.3% |
Leading active companies
What this shows: the ten active companies with the highest non-missing revenue, with company number used as the deterministic tie-breaker.
Top values shown in the chart
| Company | Revenue |
|---|---|
| Wpp Media Uk Limited | £783,842,000 |
| Essencemediacom Holdings Limited | £206,598,000 |
| Wpp Media Motion Entertainment Limited | £191,668,000 |
| Mindshare Media Uk Limited | £174,942,000 |
| Wavemaker Limited | £169,482,000 |
| Essence Global Limited | £141,251,000 |
| Mediaplus Uk (london) Ltd | £92,206,509 |
| The Specialist Works Limited | £87,713,299 |
| Digital Cinema Media Limited | £77,497,000 |
| Optimise Media (uk) Limited | £56,816,951 |
Revenue coverage: 784 known, 54979 unknown (1.4%).
Related classifications
What this shows: sibling classifications ranked by distinct active companies, excluding the current node. The top 20 are shown and remaining values are combined as Other.
Top values shown in the chart
| Classification | Companies |
|---|---|
| Management consluting | 286,194 |
| Professional services n.e.c. | 84,830 |
| Creative and Industrial Design | 52,007 |
| Accounting and audit | 45,221 |
| Non-trading company | 41,490 |
| Non-industrial engineering | 40,766 |
| Geospatial services | 35,852 |
| Head office services | 31,122 |
| Bookkeeping | 25,784 |
| Financial management | 22,804 |
| Architechts | 21,393 |
| Public relations | 16,704 |
| Media sales | 14,620 |
| Scientific and technical R&D | 13,970 |
| Environmental consulting | 13,940 |
| Tax consulting | 13,396 |
| Industrial engineering | 12,759 |
| Solicitors | 12,503 |
| Copyright agents | 10,419 |
| Specialist photography | 9,204 |
| Other | 64,005 |
SIC classification
SIC 73110 — Advertising agencies
Includes
creation and realisation of advertising campaigns:, creating and placing advertising in newspapers, periodicals, radio, television, the Internet and other media, creating and placing of outdoor advertising, e.g. billboards, panels, bulletins and frames, window dressing, showroom design, car and bus carding etc., aerial advertising, distribution or delivery of advertising material or samples, creation of stands and other display structures and sites, conducting marketing campaigns and other advertising services aimed at attracting and retaining customers, promotion of products, point-of-sale marketing, direct mail advertising, marketing consulting
Excludes
publishing of advertising material, see ##58.19, production of commercial messages for television and film, see ##59.11, production of commercial messages for radio, see ##59.20, market research, see ##73.20, advertising photography, see ##74.20, convention and trade show organisers, see ##82.30, mailing activities, see ##82.19