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]
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 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]
Notable work
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]
