Accountants Moore Kingston Smith have been looking into which UK agencies and agency execs earn the most and top agency outside the big quoted ad holding groups is Wieden+Kennedy London with fee income per head of a dizzying £290,164. MKS reckons £110,000 – £130,000 is a pretty decent performance.
W+K says this is because the agency has recovered strongly from the pandemic (and a number of management changes.) W+K has been a big factor in London for decades although never that big by billings. This maybe explains why.
Top individual earner was someone at Milton House Investments, which owns companies including Tulchan Communications (a City PR firm) and Vox Media with £3.1m. Other high payers included Imagination (£1.2m), Mother (£1.1m), W+K (£918,00) and VCCP (£800,000.) Who said creativity didn’t pay?
The top execs at ad holding companies earn rather more, even if their agencies don’t always. WPP CEO Mark Read, awarded a CBE in the UK’s New Year honours, earned nearly £6.7m in pay and bonuses in 2022. Predecessor Sir Martin Sorrell once trousered £72m, although that seems a long time ago now.
