Wunderman Thompson history

James H. Rose letter to William T. Samuels, 1865 February 27 : autograph manuscript signed.

Alfred B. Dyer letter to William T. Samuels, 1867 June 17-1867 June 22: autograph manuscript signed.

Thompson later became a solicitor of advertising and purchased the company from his employer in 1878.

He renamed the agency after himself, and it was incorporated as J. Walter Thompson Co. in 1896.

One of J. Walter Thompson's first successes was its 1912 campaign designed to convince women to use deodorant products, using the slogan "You can't vote.

To foster a scientific approach to advertising, the company established a research department in 1915 and hired eminent academics such as John B. Watson, the founder of behavioral psychology.

Under the leadership of Stanley Resor, who purchased the agency in 1916, J. Walter Thompson Co. pioneered a number of other advertising innovations, including the use of testimonials and fine photography in advertisements.

When General Motors Export Corporation became a client in 1927, the company saw the opportunity to expand beyond the United States and Great Britain.

Its international billings topped those from the United States for the first time in 1973.

In 1980 it became a subsidiary of JWT Group Inc., a Delaware-based holding company.

The JWT Group was acquired by the WPP Group, a British marketing firm, in 1987.

In 2005, the agency officially changed its name to JWT. JWT has continued to be an industry leader.

In 2009, for example, the world’s first video advertisements to be embedded in a print publication appeared in Entertainment Weekly magazine.