Germany’s advertising 'capital'

With its international atmosphere, Frankfurt is the perfect environment for creative work. It is not surprising that you find agencies from all modern communications sectors here. Countless small advertising agencies as well as the very large ones: JWT (formerly J. Walter Thompson), McCann-Erickson, Leo Burnett, Ogilvy & Mather, Publicis, Saatchi & Saatchi, Young & Rubicam. Wunderman and Ogilvy One Worldwide are the largest German direct marketing agencies.
OgilvyOne Worldwide is the number one communications agency. FrankfurtRhineMain is also the most creative location in Germany for New Media with agencies such as Blue Mars, Neue Digitale, Saatchi & Saatchi, Scholz & Volkmer, Ogilvy Interactive and Syzygy.

Customer proximity taken literally
The FrankfurtRhineMain region is one of the most economically powerful regions in Europe. Procter & Gamble and Ferrero, the two largest advertising customers, are based in Frankfurt. Of course, financial communications play a crucial role in the German financial and banking metropolis: PR and advertising agencies serve a broad range of customers and work areas.

Many service providers have established themselves around the advertising agencies, notably advertising and image film companies. Neue Sentimental Film Mood and Motion and Tempomedia, two of the largest German advertising film companies, operate worldwide from their headquarters in Frankfurt. The "vdw award", the advertising film “Oscar”, is presented by the Association of German Advertisers (Verband Deutscher Werbefilmer) every year in Frankfurt.

For the next three years, beginning in 2010, the central meeting of the German creative industry, the "Art Director's Club", will take place in Frankfurt. In this week the trendsetters and creative heads of the German and international advertising industry meet in Frankfurt.

Exchange and stimulation
The Design Consultancy (Rat für Formgebung) and the German Designer Club (DDC - Deutscher Designer Club ) offer various opportunities for exchanging specialist knowledge.
The General Association of Communication Agencies (GWA - Gesamtverband Kommunikationsagenturen), which is Germany’s most important industry association in the advertising sector, is based in Frankfurt. The Marketing Club Frankfurt has the largest number of members of any such club in Germany. The trade journal HORIZONT, one of the most important national trade publications for advertising and media, is based here, likewise the German Museum of Advertising (Deutsches Werbemuseum). Marketing Services, an international marketing and communications trade fair, was established in Frankfurt and takes place in the city every two years.

Public Relations
4 of the top 10 German PR agencies are represented in Frankfurt. Likewise, the association of the leading German PR agencies Gesellschaft Public-Relations Agenturen e.V. (GPRA) has its main office in the city. The GPRA has founded the German Akademy for Public Relations (DAPR - Deutsche Akademie für Public Relations GmbH) which offers a comprehensive range of further education and training courses in public relations work.

Journalism
Being close to so many business and news agencies greatly simplifies the flow of communications. National and international journalists and correspondents report daily on business and financial market developments. The financial and economic press is based in Frankfurt – e.g. the Wall Street Journal Europe, the dpa-Deutsche Presse Agentur, the Börsenzeitung, the Platow Brief and the Financial Times. The international press agencies Bloomberg, Associated Press (AP), Dow Jones Newswire, dpa-AFX Wirtschaftsnachrichten, AFX-News, Frost & Sullivan or vwd (Vereinte Wirtschaftsdienste) have their central German offices in Frankfurt.

A meeting forum for many journalists and editors is the International Business Journalists Forum of Frankfurt, the International Club of Frankfurt Business Journalists (Internationaler Club Frankfurter Wirtschaftsjournalisten - ICFW), and the Frankfurt Press Club.

Key players & organisations

• Agencies: JWT, Leo Burnett, McCann-Erickson, Ogilvy & Mather, Publicis, Saatchi & Saatchi, Young & Rubicam
  
• Direct marketing agencies: OgilvyOne Worldwide, Wunderman
  
• New Media agencies: Blue Mars, Neue Digitale, Scholz & Volkmer, Syzygy
  
• Public Relations agencies: A & B ONE, Burson-Marsteller, Deekeling Arndt Advisors, Edelman, fischerAppelt Kommunikation, Fleishman-Hillard, Hering Schuppener, Hill & Knowlton, Leipziger & Partner, Pleon GmbH, Trimedia, Weber Shandwick, SEA.