A-P Consultancy Performance Index 2026: Scorecards & analysis
Full scorecards and analysis from Earned First’s 2026 Asia-Pacific Consultancy Performance Index, benchmarking PR firms across business, creativity, innovation and culture to identify the region’s top-performing consultancies.
Last week's announcement of the 2026 Asia-Pacific Consultancy Index Champions marked the culmination of Earned First's second annual benchmarking of the region's most impactful and innovative PR consultancies, drawn from more than 60 Asia-Pacific submissions.
Firms were evaluated across five key performance areas: Business Performance (25%) | Creative Impact & Client Outcomes (25%) | Innovation & Thought Leadership (20%) | Talent & Culture (20%) | Industry Leadership (10%). Thirty-four consultancies were shortlisted across 15 categories, spanning Excellence, Geographic and Network categories as well as the Overall ranking, with Index Champions reflecting the highest scores in each. Talent & Culture scores were heavily weighted towards Workplace Monitor participation, reflecting anonymous employee scores across a comprehensive range of metrics.
The 2026 landscape is substantially different compared to 2025. Twelve of the 34 shortlisted consultancies enter the Index for the first time, five of them in the top 20: Value360, APCO, Sefiani, Bud Communications and HyperM.
Independents, meanwhile, dominate the top of the table. The four highest scores belong to the Hoffman Agency, Avian We., Mutant and Vero, and 17 of the top 20 sit outside the major listed marketing groups. The eight shortlisted firms owned by WPP, Publicis, Omnicom, Havas and Dentsu averaged 68.1 in total, against 70.5 for the rest of the field; MSL India, in fifth, is the highest placed of them. In keeping with all of our analysis about publicly-held players, the firms setting the pace this year overwhelmingly sit outside the big holding groups.
Below, we look at how the field has moved since 2025, followed by full scorecards for all 34 shortlisted consultancies, ranked by total score, with analysis for the top 20. Where a firm was shortlisted or recognised through a specific market business (Burson in North Asia and Burson Genesis in India & South Asia; We. Red Bridge in Greater China), that result is noted in the firm's honours line, and the scorecard shown is the firm's regional assessment.
Arun Sudhaman
Qualitative analysis of the trends reshaping Asia-Pacific public relations
