by MarkLives (@marklives) WPP has announced that Wunderman and J. Walter Thompson will unite to form Wunderman Thompson, positioned as a creative, data and technology agency. According to WPP, the two already share many core clients.
The newly formed agency will be led by Mel Edwards as GCEO; she is currently GCEO of Wunderman. Tamara Ingram, J. Walter Thompson CEO, will become the chairperson. Wunderman Thompson clients will include Adobe, Amazon, Google, IBM, Microsoft, Salesforce and SAP.
“To achieve transformative outcomes, clients today need inspiration that is rooted in data-driven insight,” says Edwards. “I’m really excited to be able to deliver that within one agency. Wunderman Thompson offers precisely what clients want: brilliant creativity, expertise in data and sophisticated technology skills. I couldn’t be more honoured to lead this new organisation and its exceptional people.”
Wunderman Thompson will be an agency of more than 20 000 people in 90 markets. It will be fully operational in early 2019. It’s not yet clear how the announcement will affect the South African agencies or their respective leadership teams.*
In September 2018, WPP also announced the launch of VMLY&R after merging VML and Y&R.
*Update 26 September 2019: On 6 September 2019, Wunderman South Africa updated its Facebook Page name and branding to Wunderman Thompson South Africa.
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