J. Walter Thompson
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| Public | |
| Traded as | |
| Industry | Advertising |
| Predecessor | JWT |
| Founded | New York, New York, U.S. (1864) |
| Founder | William James Carlton |
| Headquarters | New York, New York, U.S. |
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Area served
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Worldwide |
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Key people
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| Services | Creative, Digital, Full Service, Global, Interactive, Market Research, Marketing, Planning, Research, Specialized Communications, Strategic Communications, Total Branding Solutions Across all Communication, Trendspotting |
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Number of employees
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10,000 (January 2015) |
| Parent | WPP plc |
| Website | www |
J. Walter Thompson (JWT), part of the WPP Group, is the world’s best-known marketing communications brand. Headquartered in New York, J. Walter Thompson is a true global network with more than 200 offices in over 90 countries employing over 12,000 marketing professionals.
JWT’s services and offerings include brand building, social, activation, data, internal communications, digital transformation, media, innovation, trends, insights, analytics and sector expertise.
The company has been pioneering brands since 1864, and is known for its longstanding relationships with clients, among them Unilever/Lever Brothers (109+ years); Mondelēz International/Kraft Foods (89+ years); Kimberly-Clark (84+ years); Nestlé (81+ years); Kellogg's (80+ years); and Ford Motor (67+ years). Other notable clients include Avon, Treasury Wine Estates, Edgewell/Schick, Tudor, HSBC, Johnson & Johnson, Newell, Air Canada and the United States Marine Corps.
J. Walter Thompson traces its origins to the Carlton & Smith agency, which opened its doors in 1864, one of the first known advertising agencies in the United States. Founder William James Carlton started selling advertising space in religious magazines. Almost nothing is known about the Smith partner. In 1868, Carlton hired James Walter Thompson as a bookkeeper. Eventually Thompson found that soliciting and sales were much more profitable and he became a very effective salesman for the small company. In 1877, Thompson bought the agency for $500 and renamed it J. Walter Thompson Company. Notably, Thompson paid $800 for the Carlton and Smith furniture in the same transaction.
Thompson, who was serving as a U.S. Marine, had first been employed by Carlton & Smith to sell space in religious publications. Under his leadership, the agency became the exclusive buyer of advertising space in many American magazines and periodicals. By 1889, 80 percent of the advertising in the United States was placed through J. Walter Thompson.
Expansion followed. J. Walter Thompson became the first American agency to expand internationally with the opening of J. Walter Thompson London in 1899. The business subsequently expanded across the globe, being one of the first American agencies in Egypt, South Africa and Asia.
J. Walter Thomson was among the first agencies to employ writers and artists to create interesting advertisements for their clients, replacing the standard ads created by in-house businesses. It was also the first agency to provide a wide range of advertising services to clients, including, copy, layout, package design, trademark development and rudimentary market research. Many of these methods can be seen in notable work the agency has produced, including, work for Kraft Cheese that resulted in the creation of the grilled-cheese sandwich, a campaign for Swift & Co. that added measurements to sticks of butter, the Toys "R" Us Kid slogan and jingle, De Beers diamond ads (A Diamond is Forever) and the "I wish I were an Oscar Mayer Weiner" campaign.
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Wikipedia