Who we are, what we believe, and the clients we work with

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Founded in 1976 Advance is now one of Denmark’s largest independent creative agencies. Proudly headquartered in Copenhagen, our perspective is distinctly global thanks to a healthy mix of Danish and international clients. Today, more than half of our work is produced for international audiences.

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Beliefs

In our work with clients, we believe less can be more. For a brand to identify its true uniqueness and commercial potential, it needs to strip away the layers that distract from its central mission. Let’s explain what we mean…

Less Supplier – More Partner

If you’re a supplier and you get a brief, you answer it. As a partner our job is to care enough to question it. We know there is always a business problem behind every communication brief. That’s why we use our creativity to first solve the business problem before creating communication.

Less Promises – More Delivery

Many brands over promise and under-deliver. When a brand doesn’t deliver, it shows it doesn’t care and when a brand doesn’t care, consumers certainly won’t bother to. We encourage our clients to promise less and deliver more by identifying the single, inherent promise that is unique to their brand and work to coherently integrate that promise into everything the brand does; from the products they sell, the services they offer, the customer experiences they provide, and of course...the communication they create.

Less Observation – More Insight

Building resonant brand platforms starts with the easy part... doing the necessary work to gather the observations, patterns and facts accumulated through quantitative studies, trends, forecasts and share data. The hard part starts – the part we take great care to spend time on – when we begin to uncover what lies behind and motivates these behaviours, allowing us to identify the deeper instincts and desires that ultimately provide the insights that prove compelling enough to connect consumers to brands.

Less Advertising – More Advocacy

We know how essential it is for brands to start seeing their consumers as ambassadors. As well as effective advertising campaigns, we create content that encourages and facilitates brand engagement and advocacy.

Less Control – More Collaboration

Our long experience as a lead agency and brand guardian has taught us that true guardianship is not about maintaining control, it’s about understanding that our clients need us to support their organisations at both the central and local levels. Having learned how to let go at the right time and to be there with the right support is not only why we create real, lasting results, it’s also the reason why we have the longest client relationships in the business.

Less Surface – More Substance

The days of brands faking it and buying fame are long gone. Transparency rules with audiences refusing to be sold to as they celebrate the good and criticize the bad, demanding to know, and ready to reveal the truth behind brands. We make sure our clients avoid making false promises or indulging in superficial wrapping by identifying and communicating the true value their brands provide.

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History

Our story started in 1976 when the Ted Bates network won a Playmobil pitch. But they immediately faced a challenge: how to resolve the conflict of interest that came from already having LEGO as a client in Denmark? The solution was to spin off a new agency – Advance. Over forty years later, we remain proudly independent, and we continue to work with LEGO. Many more clients have since joined the family and, with 60+ employees from all over the world, we're now one of the largest creative agencies in Denmark.

We’ve been fortunate enough to have worked with LEGO for over 40 years, playing a role in some of their most successful lines. We’re currently responsible for the launch of around half a dozen product lines annually. We develop global campaign toolboxes jointly targeted at kids and parents that comprise everything from packaging, web and social media content, to TVCs & influencer marketing campaigns.

Coloplast creates medical devices for intimate healthcare conditions. Global lead agency on Continence & Ostomy Care since 2009, we help the company maintain its leading position in a highly regulated and competitive industry. Key to that is our ability to create impactful communication tailored to the very different mindsets of healthcare professionals and users while building on the brand's core mission to make life easier for their users.

If is an insurance company with more than 3.6 million customers in the Nordics and the Baltics. After winning their business in early 2017, we helped create a new strategic communication platform for the Danish market focused on insights about helpfulness in Danish society. The platform, which encompasses off- and online elements, is designed to strengthen the company’s unique positioning with a view to long-term growth.

Piz Buin is a premium European suncare brand owned by one of our largest global clients, Johnson & Johnson. For the past decade, we have helped re-establish and grow this 70 year-old iconic brand with a category-redefining idea that has proven highly successful in engaging today’s sun lovers. We provide Piz Buin with full international brand guardianship services, from development of brand strategy to production and implementation of campaign assets across markets – above and below the line, and in all media.

The Compeed brand has been with us for over 15 years. In 2004 Johnson and Johnson acquired this premium wound care technology from Coloplast (another one of our global clients) and built it into Europe’s no. 1 blister plaster brand with an impressive five-fold growth. We are proud to have been a trusted brand guardian for J&J on this inspired journey and look forward to continuing to help develop the integrated strategies and assets that have made Compeed such an iconic product.

Ipren – formerly the no.1 OTC painkiller brand in Sweden – was suffering from a decade of dramatic decline in the market. Over the last five years, our impactful campaigns (TV, social and digital) have played a significant role in helping to return this nationally loved brand to its no. 1 position.

Due to the exceptional results from our Ipren campaign, Johnson & Johnson asked us to help them introduce sanitary napkins in the Nordics for their leading tampon brand o.b. We created a campaign with video, print and digital assets to establish the “Be comfortable in your own panties” idea. This is rooted in the insight that Nordic women are comfortable with who they are – and although they don’t mind a brand offering them a little added freshness in their lives, they certainly don’t buy into the industry tendency of trying to “empower” them.

Chr. Hansen is a global bioscience company that develops natural solutions for the food, nutritional, pharmaceutical and agricultural industries. The company aims to deliver innovative natural solutions that advance food, health and productivity. We play a key role defining communication strategies and developing campaign concepts.

Founded in Denmark in 1956 and still family-owned, Widex has grown into one of the world’s largest players in the hearing aid industry. We have helped develop several of their most successful global launches, often challenging the communication conventions of the industry in the process.

Nilfisk is one of the world's leading manufacturers of professional cleaning equipment. Our partnership encompasses the full spectrum of global communications services for both B2B and B2C, including strategic consultancy and value proposition development, corporate identity, and global creative campaigns.

Takeda is a global healthcare company. We help them build their OTC portfolio and individual product brands in both Norway and Denmark with activities across most digital platforms and at point of sale.

DOT is the organisation responsible for public transportation across Sjælland. As well as helping to establish the DOT brand across products and services, we play a key role in communicating the benefits of public transportation with highly visible and impactful campaigns across all media.

The Danish Energy Agency helps individuals and organizations reduce their energy consumption. We play a key role in helping them articulate and communicate their message with national campaigns. With more than ten years’ experience in the sector, our work is rooted in a deep understanding of the behavior drivers of key target groups.

Coop’s e-commerce platform is one of Denmark’s most successful online retailers. Since 2014, we’ve helped craft compelling visual identities for the beauty and grocery offerings as well as campaigns highly prized for their effectiveness and ease-of-implementation across the company’s own platforms.

Berendsen is a specialist textile, hygiene and safety solutions business with leading positions in most of the countries in which it operates. As well as strategic sparring, we play a key role in campaign and content development, and web design.

FB Dermatology – known in the market as Kleresca – is a newly established company from LEO Pharma and KLOX Technologies. Its current focus is to bring to market its patented BioPhotonic technology for skin rejuvenation. We have developed the communication concept and associated toolbox for a global roll-out.

Fødevarebanken is the leading food waste NGO in Denmark. They convert tons of good food that would otherwise be wasted into meals for the homeless and other socially vulnerable groups. Our hard-hitting campaign helped Fødevarebanken dramatically increase awareness of their cause while a partner programme we co-created continues to help them attract sponsors and donors.

TCC is a global retail marketing company that delivers tailored loyalty campaigns to retailers in more than 50 countries. As their local market specialist, we deliver integrated campaigns, market insights, and a variety of creative concepts for major Danish retailers.