I feel the same way about WOM that I feel about this. If you separate one agency out to handle social-responsibility issues, what does it say about your other agencies? Shouldn't this be integral to everything your agency does? Should it really be farmed out and separated from everything else you do? As we wrte about in Authenticity is the Key, everything you do needs to be an authentic part of who you are, not a good slogan created by an ad agency.
When WPP Group's JWT opened an offshoot agency called Ethos JWT four years ago, it mainly picked up ad assignments from nonprofit groups. Ethos quickly found, though, that there was a much richer market helping companies develop social-responsibility campaigns.Today, Ethos works with companies including HSBC Holdings, Merck Frosst Canada, a division of Merck & Co.; and Canadian restaurant chain Tim Hortons. While Ethos is a small boutique firm within JWT, it is rapidly growing, with first-half revenue up about 40% from a year earlier. That makes it one of the fastest-growing parts of the company, according to JWT.
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