Getting a berth on the A-List is not a walk in the park. To qualify, this year’s agencies have already proven their chops by taking top honours in the world’s most prestigious awards shows. Many of the firms on this year’s list have nimbly responded to all the change afoot in the industry by crossing traditional silos and skillsets, redefining and expanding internal roles, focusing on business outcomes as well as communications outcomes and applying as much creativity to their culture as they do to their client work.

Whether independent or part of a larger network, they are lean, adaptive, hungry and entrepreneurial. They have relied on those qualities to grow their businesses, to innovate, and to win clients and in doing so, also achieved recognition for work that raised the industry bar. They will need those same traits to guide them as they steer into the winds of uncertainty generated by COVID-19.

It will be a year like no other.