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overview
holdings
landmarks
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overview
This
page considers the global WPP group.
It covers -
introduction
The
global WPP group encompasses the J. Walter Thompson, Ogilvy
& Mather, Tempus, Grey Global and Young & Rubicam
advertising agencies. The conglomerate also includes public
relations, media planning and buying, marketing and research
services through Hill & Knowlton, Burson-Marsteller,
MindShare and The Kantar Group. The corporate site is
here.
evolution of the group
WPP czar Martin Sorrell was the 'third brother' at Saatchi
& Saatchi (now part of Publicis)
from 1975 to 1986 before acquiring UK shopping cart manufacturer
Wire & Plastic Products (WPP). He used WPP as a vehicle
for acquiring 'below-the-line' advertising-related businesses.
In 1987 he made a successful US$566m hostile bid for the
venerable J. Walter Thompson. Two years later he expanded
the group through the US$825m purchase of the equally
prestigious Ogilvy & Mather, despite opposition from ad
icon David Ogilvy (1911-1999).
In 2003 WPP successfully bid for the ailing Cordiant
group, acquired for a mere US$17 million (plus assumption
of debts). It acquired Grey Global in 2004 with cash and
shares worth just over US$1.3bn (£720m). As of 2000
Grey had sales of US$1,247 million and earnings of US$19
million.
shape
An indication of WPP's shape and extent is provided here.
Y&R
The group includes Madison Avenue agency Young & Rubicam,
co-founded by Raymond Rubicam (1892-1978) and John Orr
Young in 1923.
O&M
David Ogilvy (famous for quips such as "The consumer
is not a moron, she is your wife") founded New York-based
agency Hewitt, Ogilvy, Benson & Mather in 1948 after entering
the industry at age 38. The name changed to Ogilvy Benson
& Mather in 1953, became Ogilvy & Mather International
in 1965 through a merger with Ogilvy's original backers
London agency Mather & Crowther, and was renamed Ogilvy
& Mather Worldwide in the mid-80s before being put into
Mr Sorrell's shopping cart.
Grey
Grey Global Group, acquired in 2005 for US$1.2 billion,
traces its origins to Grey Advertising. Grey was founded
by Larry Valenstein (1899-1964) in 1917 as Grey Studios,
a New York-based direct mail company. Expansion by Valenstein
and Arthur Fatt (1904-1999) was initially fuelled by publication
of the Furs & Fashions magazine in 1921,
with a name change to Grey Advertising in 1925.
Grey's early clients were initially drawn from the fashion
and softgoods sectors but from the mid 1940s it gained
increasing recognition among manufacturers of consumer
products (in part through an emphasis on market research),
signalled by a relationship from 1956 with Procter &
Gamble. Grey opened its first non-US office (in Montreal)
in 1959. Billings that year reached US$44.61 million.
In 1962 Grey opened a Los Angeles office (Grey-Western)
and took a stake in UK agency Charles Hobson. In 1963
it established Grey Public Relations and opened an office
in Japan, thereafter expanding into Germany, France, Belgium
and Italy. In 1965 Grey became the fourth US ad agency
to go public. It opened offices in Australia, Venezuela
and Spain.
From 1969 Grey sought to drive expansion through acquisition
of subsidiaries outside the US. In 1970 it established
Grey Medical as a healthcare communication specialist
and acquired Crescendo Productions, followed by Statter,
Inc. Offices were opened in Ausstria, The Netherlands
and Argentina. It bought Chicago-based North Advertising
(later Grey-North) and established offices in Brazil and
South Africa before launching Grey Entertainment &
Media as an entertainment ad specialist.
During the mid-1970s Grey acquired consumer researcher
Market Horizons and television syndicator Lexington Broadcast
Services. It formed Steinman & Grey as a (shortlived)
Swiss joint venture in 1976, acquiring Font & Vaamonde
in the US and affiliates in Uruguay, Chile and Hong Kong.
In 1980 it launched Grey Direct for direct marketing and
acquired New York-based Conahay & Lyon, followed by
Rada Recruitment Communications and Beaumont-Bennett Group.
Grey Strategic Marketing, concerned with long-term planning,
was established in 1983, as was Grey Reynolds Smith in
Canada.
In 1986 Grey sold Grey Medical shortly after acquisition
of medical advertising specialist Gross Townsend Frank
Hoffman. 'Realignment' during the rest of the decade saw
sale of LBS Communications (formerly Lexington Broadcast
Service) for US$38 million in 1988 and purchase of Gindick
Productions, an audiovisual corporate communications specialist
in 1988. As of 1991 it operated in 40 countries through
188 offices.
In 1999 Grey established MediaCom Digital (subsuming its
eMMetrics email marketing unit) and acquired online media
buyer Beyond Interactive. 2000 saw launch of offices in
Mexico and China, followed by establishment of the Grey
Global Group holding company and rebranding of advertising
operations with the Grey Worldwide tagline.
memoirs and studies
There has been no major academic study of WPP or biography
of Martin Sorrell.
For O&M there are entertaining accounts in Ogilvy
on Advertising (New York: Crown 1983), Confessions
of an Advertising Man (New York: Atheneum 1963) and
Blood, Brains & Beer: the Autobiography of David Ogilvy
(New York: Wiley 1997) by David Ogilvy.
For a somewhat jaundiced view of JWT see Richard Morgan's
J Walter Takeover: From Divine Right to Common Stock
(Homewood: Dow Jones-Irwin 1991). For Wunderman see Being
Direct (New York: Random 1996), a richly anecdotal
memoir by Lester Wunderman (1920- ).
H&K is disussed in The Voice of Business: Hill
& Knowlton and postwar public relations (Chapel Hill:
Uni of North Carolina Press 1998) by Karen Miller and
the more tendentious Power House: Robert Keith Gray
& the selling of access and influence in Washington
(New York: St Martins 1992) by Susan Trento.
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