Industry | Advertising, Digital Marketing |
---|---|
Founded | 1958 (New York City) |
Founder | Lester Wunderman |
Fate | Merged with J. Walter Thompson to form Wunderman Thompson |
Successor | Wunderman Thompson |
Headquarters | New York City, New York |
Key people | Lester Wunderman (Founder) |
Parent | WPP |
Wunderman was a New York City-based global digital agency. It was part of Young & Rubicam Brands and a member of international advertising group WPP Group ( NYSE: WPP).
On November 26, 2018, WPP announced it was merging Wunderman with ad agency J. Walter Thompson to form Wunderman Thompson, and the merger was formalized in February 2019. [1] [2]
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In 1958, direct marketer Lester Wunderman, alongside his brother Irving Wunderman, and colleagues Ed Ricotta and Harry Kline, opened Wunderman, Ricotta & Klein (WRK). [3] [4] Founder Lester Wunderman is widely considered to be the creator of modern-day Direct Marketing—a term he first used in 1961. [3]
In 1973, Wunderman, Ricotta & Kline was acquired by Young & Rubicam, at the time the world's largest ad agency. [3]
In the late 1980s, the group became Wunderman Worldwide. [5]
In 1992, the company merged with Cato Johnson to become Wunderman Cato Johnson. [6]
In 2000, the firm became part of WPP's $5.7B acquisition of parent Young and Rubicam. [3]
In August 2012, Wunderman launched a joint venture named PT Wunderman Pamungkas Indonesia.
In January 2015, Wunderman acquired a majority stake in Peruvian digital agency Phantasia. [7]
In January 2017, Wunderman purchased a majority stake in Brazilian agency Pmweb Comunicacao Ltda. [8] In June, the company acquired Spanish digital agency The Cocktail. [9] In July, Wunderman and fellow WPP agency POSSIBLE were merged to form a digital marketing and advertising unit. The POSSIBLE brand was to remain separate, but would answer into Wunderman. [10] In September, Wunderman took a controlling stake in Pierry, a US-based company that specialized in marketing campaigns for Salesforce Marketing Cloud. [11]
In September 2018, Wunderman acquired online retailer Amazon-focused content and campaign agency, 2Sales. [12]
In the first quarter of 2019, Wunderman merged with America's first advertising agency J. Walter Thompson Co., founded in 1864, and unveiled its new identity as Wunderman Thompson in February 2019. [2] [13]
In February 2020, Wunderman Thompson announced the acquisition of leading marketing technology consultancy XumaK (with offices in Guatemala, USA and Colombia), in a move that further strengthens its martech and consultancy capabilities. [14]
In 1961, the American Association of Advertising Agencies (4A's) asked Wunderman Ricotta and Kline to become the first direct-mail agency to join its ranks, symbolizing the advertising industries acceptance of direct marketing as a discipline. [15]
Among the agency's early innovations are the Columbia Record Club, the 1-800 toll-free number for businesses (developed for a Toyota campaign, the United States Post Office campaign for Mr. ZIP [16] and the ZIP code, and the magazine subscription card.) [17]
A long-time relationship with American Express eventually led to the first customer rewards program—a breakthrough means of keeping customers loyal to a brand, a program that also transformed the travel and retail industries. [17]
In 2002, Wunderman won the inaugural Cannes Lions Direct Grand Prix. [18] Since then numerous members of Wunderman (now Wunderman Thompson) have served on, or acted as Cannes Lions juries chairmen including Daniel Morel and Eco Moliterno. [19] [20]