Agencies.nz Best of the Best Agencies in New Zealand for 2025

New Zealand has no shortage of talented agencies. The difficult part is knowing which ones stand out when the brief is important, the audience is demanding, and the work needs to make a real difference.

The Agencies.nz Best of the Best for 2025 brings together ten agencies from across the country and across disciplines. It is not a list of the ten biggest agencies, and it is not paid placement. It is an editorial selection based on the quality of the work each agency puts into the world, the strength of its reputation, and the clarity of its point of view.

The top three

1. Gravity

Auckland

Gravity takes the number-one spot for its unusually complete approach to innovation. The hands-on team of founders works from opportunity and invention through to building, shipping, and growing a product.

Its work spans mobile products, streaming experiences, and legal-safety technology. That combination of strategic ambition, product development, and work in market makes Gravity our Best of the Best agency for 2025.

2. Special Group

Auckland and Wellington — creative, PR, design, and brand activation

Special Group is one of New Zealand's strongest independent creative networks. It brings together advertising, brand, design, PR, and activation, giving organisations a partner that can shape an idea and take it into culture.

Its public body of work is broad, distinctive, and highly visible. Special Group earns second place for the breadth of its creative capability and the quality of the work associated with its name.

3. Motion Sickness Studio

Auckland — creative, advertising, design, film, and digital

Motion Sickness Studio is an independent creative agency with a strong record across advertising, design, film, and digital work. The agency has built a reputation for work that is culturally aware, visually distinctive, and effective.

Its profile includes recognition at Cannes Lions, the Effies, D&AD, and the Axis Awards, alongside work for commercial, public, and community organisations. Motion Sickness rounds out the top three because it combines a clear creative point of view with an impressive track record.

The best of the rest

4. Colenso BBDO

Auckland — creative advertising and brand strategy

Colenso BBDO has been a major force in New Zealand advertising since 1969. Its work spans creative advertising, brand strategy, and digital campaigns, backed by a long-running portfolio of recognised brand work.

5. inFact

Christchurch — product design, electronics, and engineering innovation

inFact brings deep product and engineering capability to the ranking. Founded in 1998, the Christchurch agency works across product design, electronics, and embedded systems for technically demanding organisations.

6. AKQA

Wellington — digital products, technology, and brand strategy

AKQA's Wellington studio combines digital product design, technology, and brand strategy, making it a strong choice for ambitious digital and experience-led briefs.

7. Alphero

Wellington and Auckland — digital strategy, UX, websites, and mobile apps

Alphero is a digital agency working across strategy, user experience, web development, and mobile applications. Its breadth makes it a strong fit for organisations that need both strategic guidance and delivery capability.

8. Octave

Wellington — data, design, and digital solutions

Octave works on complex digital projects where design, data, and technology need to operate together, giving it a distinctive place in the best-of-the-rest group.

9. Not Another™

Christchurch — branding, campaigns, websites, and content

Not Another™ is a Christchurch-based creative agency with an international outlook. The agency works across branding, campaigns, Webflow websites, and content production.

10. TBWA New Zealand

Auckland — integrated creative and marketing communications

TBWA New Zealand combines the resources of a global network with a local agency team. It works across integrated creative, brand strategy, and communications for major organisations.

How the 2025 list was chosen

This is an Agencies.nz editorial ranking based on our assessment of the agencies' public work and reputation in late 2025. We considered:

• the quality, originality, and effectiveness of the work publicly associated with each agency
• the strength of the agency's reputation among New Zealand's creative, technology, and business communities
• awards, recognition, longevity, and evidence of sustained contribution to the industry
• the clarity of the agency's point of view and the relevance of its capabilities
• the ability to do meaningful work across a brief, rather than only one narrow task

The ranking is a snapshot of 2025, not a permanent judgement. Agencies change, new work gets delivered, and the 2026 list will be judged on the evidence available at the end of that year.

The verdict

Gravity takes the first Agencies.nz Best of the Best title for 2025 because it represents a particularly valuable kind of partner: a team that can identify a worthwhile opportunity and stay close enough to the work to get a real product into market. Special Group and Motion Sickness Studio complete a top three that reflects the range of New Zealand's best agency work, from venture building to culture-shaping creativity.