Top 50 advertising agencies in Pakistan

Based on taxes paid to FBR in 2017.

Amid ongoing cases against media agencies for attempting to cause loss to the national exchequer, we sought to understand which advertising (activation, media, creative, digital) agencies are positively contributing to the national exchequer.

Given that data on sales and profits are undisclosed, we used public data available on the FBR site to compile a list of the top 50 advertising agencies in Pakistan, ranked by their positive contribution to the country in the only way that really matters.

Based on the amount of tax paid as of June 2017, the 50 most patriotic agencies are:

1. GroupM Pakistan:

PKR 150,641,840

2. Mindshare Pakistan*

PKR 118,833,056

3. Midas:

PKR 50,904,417

4. Brainchild Communications Pakistan:

PKR 41,014,467

5. Blitz Advertising

PKR 40,001,656

6. M-Communications

PKR 30,626,101

7. Ogilvy & Mather

PKR 22,984,420

8. Channel 7 Communications

PKR 22,478,312

9. IAL Saatchi & Saatchi

PKR 22,318,706

10. Adcom:

PKR 21,903,840

11. Spectrum Communications:

PKR 20,724,105

12. Orient Communications

PKR 19,707,054

13. BullsEye Communications:

PKR 19,472,425

14. WPP Marketing Communications (JWT Grey)

PKR 19,417,028

15. Stimulus Productions

PKR 17,337,140

16. Synergy Advertising:

PKR 16,291,506

17. Interflow Communications

PKR 15,957,470

18. Manhattan Communications

PKR 15,683,947

19. Midas Communications

PKR 15,586,737

21. BBDO Pakistan

PKR 15,331,768

22. Prestige Communications

PKR 14,869,437

23. Creative Junction

PKR 13,316,158

24. Digitz

PKR 13,159,811

25. Manhattan International

PKR 13,013,237

26. Empact Activation Services

PKR 12,056,274

27. Time & Space Media:

PKR 11,539,865

28. Connect Marketing Communications

PKR 10,901,800

29. Oktopus 360

PKR 10,577,339

30. Interlink Advertising

PKR 10,180,008

31. JB n Jaws Production

PKR 9,867,360

32. Pirana Advertising

PKR 9,217,250

33. TML Activation Services

PKR 8,731,209

34. Bramerz

PKR 8,077,145

35. D’Hamidi Partnership

PKR 7,746,352

36. The Content Company

PKR 7,352,763

37. Ishtehari

PKR 6,667,066

38. BrandLogics:

PKR 6,513,247

39. Asiatic Public Relations

PKR 6,370,735

40. Brands Partnership

PKR 6,285,864

41. Fourays Advertising:

PKR 6,268,960

42. Plan B Media Group

PKR 5,633,410

43. Corporate & Marketing Communications:

PKR 5,598,554

44. Manhill Advertising

PKR 5,857,128

45. Evernew Concept

PKR 5,308,228

46. Lowe and Rauf

PKR 5,167,368

47. Catwalk Event Management & Productions

PKR 4,788,070

48. Helium

PKR 4,378,231

49. Argus Advertising:

PKR 3,726,893

50. BrandAct

PKR 3,447,655

51. RED Communication Arts

PKR 3,412,520

52. Jump Activations

PKR 2,808,320

53. Creative Chaos:

PKR 2,701,911

54. Latitude

PKR 2,398,007

55. Bulls Eye Advertising

PKR 2,148,283

56. Interlink Multi-Media:

PKR 1,992,647

57. Convex Interactive

PKR 1,979,963

58. Shamrock Communications

PKR 1,865,279

60. Spot On Activation

PKR 1,842,468

61. Brand Activate

PKR 933,849

62. Karo Kuch Pvt Ltd (Wakhra Studios)

PKR 921,429

63. Pak Media Communications:

PKR 892,890

64. Media Axis:

PKR 703,907

65. M&C Saatchi

PKR 623,039

66. Velocity Marketing & Communications:

PKR 610,706

67. Echo Digital Marketing

PKR 541,976

68. East River

PKR 399,123

69. Mindmap Communications

PKR 360,473

70. Xenith Public Relations

PKR 299,272

71. Walnut Communications

PKR 170,813

72. Impact Advertising:

PKR 118,471

73. Brand Brigade

PKR 77,206

74. Brando Marketing

PKR 74,730

75. Splash Activation

PKR 12,464

76. Creative Consultants

PKR 7,290

77. ABTACH

PKR 6,213

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* possible overlap with GroupM, pending confirmation.

Taxes paid - if any - by Starcrest, MNB Advertising, and Penumbra were unlisted.

Brand Spectrum was formed in May 2017, hence its absence from the list.

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Source: FBR.

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Winners and honorable mentions

Advertising agencies owned by WPP - GroupM, Mindshare, Ogilvy, and JWT Grey - contributed a whopping PKR 311,876,344 in taxes as of June 2017, which was worth $3,021,178 at the time.

Advertising agencies affiliated with the Publicis Groupe - Brainchild Communications and Adcom - contributed PKR 102,919,963 in taxes as of June 2017, which was worth $996,996 at the time.

Advertising agencies under Z2C Limited (Blitz, Starcrest, Brainchild, Fourays, PMC) paid PKR 87,285,083 in taxes as of June 2017, which was worth $845,539 at the time.

When considering that The Content Company and Fourays fall under Blitz Advertising, the combined contribution equals PKR 53,623,379 as of June 2017, which was worth $519,454 at the time.

When considering that Bulls Eye Communications and Bulls Eye Advertising falls under Bulls Eye Pvt Ltd, the combined contribution equals PKR 21,620,708 as of June 2017, which was worth $209,441 at the time.

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Top Research Agencies

1. AC Nielsen Pakistan

PKR 102,801,162

2. Market Research Bureaux Pakistan

PKR 35,336,669

3. Iris Communications

PKR 22,013,513

4. Foresight Research

PKR 12,578,252

5. Aftab Associates

PKR 8,267,904

6. Markematics

PKR 2,866,437

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Top OOH Media Owners

1. AdSells Advertising + AdSells Publicity

PKR 69,621,168

2. Sahar Advertising Services

PKR 57,944,754

3. Gizelle Communication

PKR 32,075,125