Case Study

Brief Introduction

    J. Walter Thompson, called JWT for short, is the world’s best-known marketing

    communications brand, with nearly 150 years' experience pioneering new frontiers in brand-building marketing communications. JWT’s global network capability spans 90 countries and 200 offices. It is one of the key companies of Sir Martin Sorrell's WPP Group and is headquartered in New York.

    Since its inception, JWT has been famous for continuous self-innovation and to create advertising business. JWT is based on Thompson Total Branding, and combines with advertising, direct marketing, promotion, sponsorship and public relations activities, dedicating to helping customers achieve short-term sales growth and create long-term brand value.

JWT claims to be the first agency to:

    •build the first full-service advertising agency.

    •create the first international network.

    •pioneer ad careers for women. It hired the first female creative director in 1908. •create the first-ever testimonial ad (it was for Pond's Cold Cream), in 1925. •invent the grilled cheese sandwich for its client Kraft in 1930. •produce the first-ever TV commercial in 1939.

    •develop account planning in 1968.

    •create the first advertisement in Second Life (Ford Argentina). •be the first agency to create its own television Christmas special in 2009 Target

    JWT's remit is to create ideas people want to spend time with. It provides organizations with advertising, marketing and employee communications services. Measurement tools, consulting resources and strategic approaches are employed to put people in jobs and keep the workforce engaged. They are always looking for resourceful and innovative individuals who can embrace challenges. Their creative office environment, retrofitted with its own bar, contributes to their philosophy and helps them create memorable work for our clients. JWT's pioneering spirit enables the agency to forge deep relationships with clients including HSBC, Shell, Nokia and Microsoft which benefit from JWT’s deep knowledge of local cultures and vast

experience of building brands.

    Featured Strategies

    1. JWT Brand Journalism

    JWT Brand Journalism incites meaningful dialogue, even trust, between consumer and company. Central to JWT Brand Journalism is the recognition that a company and its consumers both play a role in crafting a brand's identity and narrative. Joining the conversation and contributing to it is more effective than attempts to simply sell or coerce. Through its JWT Brand Journalism efforts, JWT provides an effective way for brands to interact with consumers who are accustomed to tuning out marketing messages.

     Converting Cultural Shifts to Opportunities 2. JWT Intelligence —

    JWT Intelligence is a center for provocative thinking that is a part of JWT, the world's best-known marketing communications brand. They make sense of the chaos in a world of hyper-abundant information and constant innovation—finding quality amid

    the quantity.

    They focus on identifying changes in the global zeitgeist so as to convert shifts into compelling opportunities for brands. They have done this on behalf of multinational clients across several categories including pharmaceuticals, cosmetics, food, and home and personal care.

2.1 —100 Things to Watch

    JWT’s “100 Things to Watch” is a wide-ranging annual compilation from our JWT

    Intelligence group that reflects broader trends we’ve been tracking. It also shows how accelerating demographic, economic and technological shifts are manifesting in our everyday lives. JWT Intelligence is a center for provocative thinking - focusing on identifying changes in the global zeitgeist so as to convert shifts into compelling opportunities for brands.

2.2 — 10 Trends Report

    JWT’s “10 Trends” report is an annual year-end forecast of key trends that will drive

    or significantly impact consumer behavior for the near future. It is released in December and is produced by our JWT Intelligence group. JWT Intelligence is a center for provocative thinking - focusing on identifying changes in the global zeitgeist so as to convert shifts into compelling opportunities for brands. JWT's "10 Trends for 2011" is the result of quantitative, qualitative and desk research conducted throughout the year and for this report. It also pulls input from nearly 50 JWT planners across about two dozen markets and interviews with experts and influencers across sectors including retail, media, technology, gaming, urban planning, psychology and academia.

2.3 — Anxiety Index

    Brand answers for an anxious world

    Launched in Feb 2003 during the run-up to the war in Iraq, the Anxiety Index is a tool created by JWT that tracks the levels and intensity of consumer anxiety and the drivers of anxiety. When consumers are anxious they tend to exert more control over areas of their lives that are within their control, which is reflected in the brands they choose. The JWT Anxiety Index helps brands to better understand their customers’ anxieties and address them proactively. When consumers are anxious—whether

    about their health or safety or their finances—they tend to exert more control over

    areas of their lives that are within their control, whether that means using more coupons at the supermarket or assuming greater management of their health care. Often, control applies to brand and product choices. This means brands must understand their consumers’ anxieties and address them proactively.

    In short, as one of the largest advertising agencies in the United States and the fourth-biggest in the world, JWT is leading the ad industry to internationalization,

     diversification and sharpening with their own unique way.