Wunderman Thompson had a colorful 2022—literally. The five-year-old WPP-owned agency made a splash with “Speaking in Color,” in which AI is used to turn words into color matches, thereby creating that perfect hue of “just before sunset blue” or “lemony lime green.”
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How Wunderman Thompson is using AI to program its future
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Standing, left to right: Preeya Vyas, global chief experience officer; Jason Carmel, global lead of creative data; Laura Cona, chief growth officer of North America; Tom Murphy, chief creative officer of North America; Audrey Melofchik, CEO of North America; and Sasan Saeidi, CEO of New York.
Seated, left to right: Susan Golkin, executive creative director of New York; Renata Maia, global chief creative officer of WT Health; and Patrick Wisnom, CEO of WT Health.
Credit:
Noah David Smith
Done for client Sherwin-Williams and employing optical recognition technology adjustable by users, the campaign won the inaugural Creative B2B Grand Prix at Cannes.
Wunderman used AI in a campaign for Sherwin-Williams.
Credit:
Sherwin Williams
It’s an example of how Wunderman is operating with an eye to the future. Along with its work for Sherwin-Williams, the eight-office agency—which maintains a New York headquarters—also used AI for Remembrance Week to honor veterans and build awareness for their sacrifices. “Remastered Memories” used AI to generate images around battlefield scenes from more than a century of wars.
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Wunderman is also exploring the metaverse; it debuted its own virtual world for CES in early 2022 for virtual attendees. And WT Metaverse now helps the agency onboard new employees and functions as a focus group for generating research and data.
Some of Wunderman’s more high-profile work also saw high-profile results. For example, a 2022 Super Bowl spot for Hellmann’s with Jerod Mayo, a New England Patriots football coach, quite literally tackled food waste, resulting in 2.15% share growth for the condiment brand in the four weeks following the Big Game, Wunderman reported. The campaign, which included a “very hittable” Pete Davidson, generated 6.78 billion earned media impressions.
By diversifying its revenue mix across a balance of disciplines—revenue is divided equally among communications, digital marketing and a combination of production, strategic consulting and e-commerce—Wunderman is serving a wide range of clients with a variety of needs. Last year’s new client wins included social agency of record duties for Audible, influencer marketing for Stitch Fix and data marketing for Coca-Cola. In total, Wunderman said it gained 300 new business opportunities in 2022.
