Three historic agency names disappear in WPP agencies’ merger

The world’s largest creative agency was announced last week when WPP kicked off a plan to merge VMLY&R with Wunderman Thompson, creating a behemoth of 30,000 employees that will be rechristened VML. In anticipation of the merger, which becomes official on Jan. 1, 2024, Ad Age has created timelines commemorating a few of the many milestones of 159-year-old J. Walter Thompson, century-old Young & Rubicam and 65-year-old Wunderman, before those names live only in history books. Read more about each agency:J. Walter Thompson—a look back at its legacyY&R—a look back at the agency’s highlightsWunderman—a look back at the pioneering direct marketing agency Ad Age A-List & Creativity Awards Final deadline approaching for annual program Enter here WPP’s latest internal merger effort comes five years after the holding company’s push to combine creative agencies with more digitally focused shops. In 2018, Young & Rubicam merged with VML to form VMLY&R. In the same year, J. Walter Thompson and digital agency Wunderman merged and became Wunderman Thompson. Unlike those others, however, this latest combination stands to erase three legacy brand names: J. Walter Thompson, Young & Rubicam and Wunderman. The move has provoked more than a little nostalgia over a legendary group of agencies that collectively logged 324 years of advertising history. “I’m too young to have known James Thompson or Raymond Rubicam or John Young or Lester Wunderman,” wrote Evan Levy, president of Atlanta shop Fitzco, on LinkedIn. “I do know they gave their hearts and souls to build agencies that bore their names and made award-winning work and employed brilliant and creative people and threw great parties and reveled in pitches won and agonized over pitches lost and endured infinite late nights solving all the world’s problems together. If I concentrate, I can smell the pizza and cigarettes.” Ad Age World’s Largest Advertisers 2023 Ad spending, rankings and analysis for the top 100 advertisers Click here

Three historic agency names disappear in WPP agencies’ merger

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