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Essence's first assignment for Google - producing digital creative for a UK campaign - came in October 2006. That same year, Essence rebuilt Carphone Warehouse's website and helped to launch Geek Squad in the UK.

28 people strong, in 2009 Essence partners with Google to launch Google's Chrome browser in 12 markets and develops the YouTube channel for the documentary Home, the first ever full length film streamed on YouTube, garnering 2 million views on its opening weekend.

Econsultancy awards Essence Most Innovative Agency at the Econsultancy Innovation Awards.

In 2010, Essence begins work for Google in North America and opens its first office in the US, a 4-person team in New York City.

The same year, Essence is one of only 4 agencies in the world given access to the Facebook ads API in a global alpha test and is awarded Media Agency of the Year in the NMA Awards.

With 165 people working across the UK and the US, in 2012 Essence is ranked Europe's fastest growing digital agency and helps eBay launch their first TV commercial in the UK. In the US, acquisitions of Black Bag Advertising and Point Reach help to establish Essence offices in San Francisco and Seattle.

Essence opens an office in Singapore to support work with Google across South East Asia, India, China, and Japan. The agency partners with the Financial Times as Agency of Record and establishes an independent technology practice, 2Sixty Labs.

Essence launches the 'Magic Mobile ads" campaign for Google in New York, LA, San Francisco, Seattle, Philadelphia and Dallas utilizing 23 pieces of dynamic content, drawn from 5 different APIs. A first for the industry, 95% of the campaign content was dynamic - right down to the time displayed on the device in the last frame.

For the fourth year in a row, Essence is ranked the fastest growing digital agency in the industry and is named the #1 Independent Agency by The Drum. The agency introduces the first programmatic guaranteed buy, a global first for Google, wins its first ever Lions at the Cannes Lions Festival of Creativity for work on Google Night Walk, and is featured by The Evening Standard for exemplifying the future of the advertising industry.

WPP announces it will acquire a majority stake in Essence, the world's largest independent buyer of digital media, and Essence becomes part the world's largest media investment group, GroupM. At the time of acquisition, Essence has offices in London, New York, San Francisco, Seattle, Singapore, and Tokyo, with 500 people, and $700 million in media spend across 70 markets.

For the first time, Essence is named an Agency to Watch by Advertising Age and Digital Media Agency of the Year by The Drum. 

Essence launches the first digital out-of-home campaign to ever be traded automatically with BitPoster and the Financial Times and launches the first ever control/exposed OOH measurement product with Kinetic to bridge physical and digital media.

Advertising trade publication AdExchanger names Essence the #1 programmatic agency in the world and GroupM announces a significant investment in the agency, helping to transform Essence into a truly full service media partner. Essence begins providing integrated media services to NBCUniversal, Target, BT, and Flipkart and adds offices in Los Angeles, Minneapolis, Toronto, Dusseldorf, Seoul, Mumbai, Bengaluru, and Melbourne.

Essence integrates machine learning into its proprietary media management platform Olive, creating the world’s first truly AI-enabled campaign management software and pioneers Self Driving Campaigns, the first fully automated end-to-end campaign planning, management, and optimization process.

These investments reduce the time required to get a campaign into market from weeks to less than ten minutes and create efficiencies in media planning and buying that are reinvested back into the business in training and strategy. On the back of these advances and continued business growth, Essence is named MediaPost’s OMMA Agency of the Year and Adweek’s Breakthrough Agency of the Year. 

After growing the agency to nearly 2,000 people in 10 countries, Essence Global CEO Christian Juhl is named Global CEO of GroupM, passing the baton to Chief Client Officer Kyoko Matsushita to lead Essence into its next era of growth and innovation.