WPP acquires New Commercial Arts in the UK, James Murphy is CEO of Ogilvy Group UK

WPP  has announced that it has acquired New Commercial Arts (NCA), a leading independent creative and customer experience agency. NCA will join Ogilvy’s global creative network to further accelerate the agency’s momentum in the UK market.

Both Ogilvy UK and NCA will come under the leadership of James Murphy as CEO of Ogilvy Group UK. This marks a return to Ogilvy for Murphy who began his career as a graduate trainee with the agency.

Fiona Gordon, has been promoted to global CEO of advertising at Ogilvy. In this new role Gordon will report to Ogilvy global CEO Devika Bulchandani, working closely with global chief creative officer Liz Taylor and Ogilvy’s Worldwide Creative Council.

Mark Read, CEO of WPP, said: “NCA is one of the UK’s most exciting new agencies with a great team, an impressive roster of clients and a track record of elevating beloved British brands. Its capabilities and client base make NCA highly complementary to Ogilvy; bringing together these two very successful agencies will drive growth both for our clients and our own UK business.”

James Murphy, co-founder and CEO of NCA and incoming CEO of Ogilvy Group UK, said, “Ogilvy is rightly recognised as the world’s pre-eminent creative network, and to be joining with the remit to unlock our collective potential in the UK market is irresistible. For our team and our clients this will be a gamechanger in what we can bring to their careers and their brands."

"Plugging into Ogilvy and WPP’s network will give us access to data and AI tools at scale through WPP Open and to a broad set of Ogilvy capabilities that were simply out of our reach as an independent – from influencer marketing, PR, CRM, commerce and service design to business transformation and brand innovation through Ogilvy Consulting.”

Devika Bulchandani, global CEO of Ogilvy, said, “James, David and their partners are pioneers in our industry. When they created New Commercial Arts, they deliberately chose the word commercial because growing our clients’ brands and businesses is core to what our industry does – an ethos mirrored in David Ogilvy’s famous words: ‘We Sell, Or Else’. Fiona's stellar leadership has been instrumental in propelling Ogilvy UK forward, playing a critical role in the growth and momentum of our global network. I’m thrilled that her impact will now be felt on a global stage.”