It’s time to recognize the top-performing indie shops from The Drum’s global awards program this year.
The Romans were out most-awarded independent agency in 2025 (Lidl/The Romans)
The Drum’s global awards program is as blind to agency size and set-up as it is to geography. Across our three regional shows for The Drum Marketing Awards (in EMEA, APAC and the Americas) and our global year-end Awards Festival, we award work from every corner of the world, and every corner of the marketing industries.
The awards go to the best work, regardless of who made it and where they are. That means that small indies find themselves on equal footing with global behemoths: they have just the same chance to impress our judges, take home a trophy, and end up celebrated in this, The Drum Honors 2025.
Today, we take a look at those indies that may be outnumbered but never outgunned. Here, in a single place, are the independent shops in the top 10 of our ‘elite ranking’, a measure that takes into account how many awards each has won this year across all categories (advertising, design, PR and communications, media, experiential, B2B, social, content, and digital experience, and marketing) alongside other factors including how many categories were entered.
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What makes this top 10 list unique is that methodology, which allows us to compare performance across disciplines. In the top 10, you’ll see out-of-home agencies, creative shops, health specialists, and digital powerhouses.
The eagle-eyed will also see a good few names from the PR world – not a reflection of dominance of PR categories in our wider awards festival, but of PR shops’ successful spread throughout the marketing world to create and be involved in work across the gamut, from social to content and far beyond.
Taking the top spot: PR shop The Romans, which appropriately enough also took home Independent Agency of the Year (sponsored by Microsoft Advertising) at November’s Awards Festival Grand Finale. The Romans also bagged gongs at The Drum’s Awards for Social Media, Social Purpose, Experiential, Content, and Advertising. At The Drum Awards for PR, it took home the President’s Award for ‘Lidl by Lidl’.
In second place, fellow PR firm Edelman saw similar wide-ranging success with wins across PR, Social Media, Social Purpose and Advertising. It took home a Grand Prix in our Experiential awards for ‘The Unburied Casket’ with Women for Change.
Third-placed agency Billups, an out-of-home shop, stood out with work for Nike and Sea-Doo.
The full list of our top 10 independent agencies for 2025 is below.
| Rank | Agency |
|---|---|
| 1 | The Romans |
| 2 | Edelman |
| 3 | billups |
| 4 | Hopeful Monsters |
| 5 | Klick Health |
| 6 | Fight or Flight |
| 7 | WiredCo. |
| 8 | PrettyGreen |
| 9 | Earnies |
| 10 | Artists Equity |
Want more? Check out all of the top winners from this year’s The Drum Honors, browse case studies of all the winning work from this year’s The Drum Awards festival, and mark your calendar for February, when we’ll unveil 2026’s World Creative Rankings.
Earnies
We're passionate about the power of earned, and champion the art of media relations in all that we do. This includes our own PR, where we've been named Best New...
billups
billups is reinventing out-of-home planning and placement for the performance age. Blending art and science, billups leads the industry with patented scientific...
Artists Equity
Artist-led studio prioritizing creators
Hopeful Monsters
We believe there are two types of brands in the world. Brands that evolve slowly, following the same old rules. Then there are Hopeful Monsters. A rare species on...
Fight or Flight
Today, B2B brands battle for attention in the same crowded space as everything else. Fight or Flight is a creative communications agency that enables B2B brands...
WiredCo.
Welcome to WiredCo., the home of ideas that move people digitally, humanly. We’re B&T's Independent Agency of the Year, Campaign Asia's Social, Content and Specialist...
Klick Health
Klick Health is the world’s largest independent commercialization partner for life sciences, focused on hacking the boundaries of health by developing, launching,...
The Romans
Partnering with The Romans is the moment you say goodbye to boring PR.
There are approximately 131,271 PR agencies on Planet Earth. Choosing the right one...
PrettyGreen
PrettyGreen is an independent creative communications agency with big brand ambition and a boutique agency soul, with specialists across PR, Social, Influencer Marketing...
Edelman
Edelman is a global communications firm that partners with businesses and organizations to evolve, promote and protect their brands and reputations. Our 6,000 people...