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Wunderman Thompson

American marketing communications agency From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Wunderman Thompson
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Wunderman Thompson was a New York–based global marketing communications agency with 200 offices in 90 markets. It was part of international advertising group WPP Group (NYSE: WPP). Wunderman Thompson was formed in 2018, when parent WPP merged agencies J. Walter Thompson and Wunderman.[2] On 17th October 2023, WPP announced the merger of Wunderman Thompson and VMLY&R into a new agency VML.[3] On January 01, 2024, Wunderman Thompson ceased to exist.

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History

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J. Walter Thompson

J. Walter Thompson was founded in 1864 by James Walter Thompson and traces its origins to the Carlton & Smith agency, one of the first known advertising agencies in the United States.[4]

J. Walter Thompson was acquired by WPP in 1987.[5]

Wunderman

In 1958, direct marketer Lester Wunderman, alongside his brother Irving Wunderman, and colleagues Ed Ricotta and Harry Kline, opened Wunderman, Ricotta & Klein (WRK).[6] Founder Lester Wunderman is widely considered to be the creator of modern-day Direct Marketing—a term he first used in 1961.[6]

In 2000, the firm became part of WPP's $5.7B acquisition of parent Young and Rubicam.[6]

In 2013, WPP acquired the ecommerce consultancy Salmon. [7]

In 2019, WPP acquired the ecommerce agency CSP Commerce. [8]

Post merger (2019present)

In 2018, WPP merged Wunderman with J. Walter Thompson Co., and in the first quarter of 2019, unveiled its new identity as Wunderman Thompson.[9][10] Wunderman CEO Mel Edwards was named Global CEO of the new entity.[11]

In March 2019, WPP merged its agencies POSSIBLE and Cole & Weber with Wunderman Thompson.[12]

In December 2020, the agency launched a global brand study called "Inspiring Growth", which ranked the most inspiring brands in the world.[13]

In June 2021, Wunderman Thompson won the Innovation Lions Grand Prix at the 2021-2022 Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity for Degree Inclusive deodorant.[14] In September, the agency expanded its global brand study with research on the role of inspiration in people's lives.[15]

In January 2022, Wunderman Thompson launched a virtual reality metaverse at the 2022 Consumer Electronics Show, showing how virtual and physical worlds can converge.[16] In July, the company's Wunderman Thompson Health division created a smallpox simulator for smallpox medication maker Meridian, to help governments plan for future infectious disease outbreaks.[17]

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Notable clients

The company's notable clients include financial company HSBC,[18] Rolex,[19] Samsung,[20] Shell Oil Company,[21] the US Marine Corps,[22] Vodafone,[23] British Telecom,[24] Unilever[25] and Nestlé.[26]

Notable campaigns

Some of the agency's notable campaigns include:

Inspiring Growth

Wunderman Thompson issues a global brand study called "Inspiring Growth", which ranks the most inspiring brands in the world, using data from WPP's proprietary BAV dataset.[34] Part of its study is an annual Inspire Score based on a proprietary diagnostic tool to rank the top 100 inspiring brands around the world.[13] The study also includes research on the role of inspiration in people’s lives.[15]

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References

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