the background and history of advertising agencies in uk

Saatchi & Saatchi

Saatchi & Saatchi is a global advertising agency. It was listed on the London Stock Exchange and was once a constituent of the FTSE 100 Index but in 2000 it was acquired by Publicis which is headquartered in Paris.

The Company was founded by brothers Maurice (now Lord Saatchi) and art collector Charles in 1970. The Saatchi brothers were born into a Jewish family in Baghdad, Iraq (the name "Saatchi" means "Watchmaker" in Iraqi Arabic). The Jewish minorities in Iraq, which was once part of Ottoman Empire, gained their surnames from their professions.

Saatchi brothers were noted for their campaign "Labour isn't working" on behalf of the Conservative Party before the 1979 UK general election and for the advertisements for British Airways, Silk Cut and other state-owned interests privatised by the Conservatives in the 1980s.

In their early days the agency was known as one of the more creative in London and employed people who went on to be stars of their industry including Tim Bell and Martin Sorrell. Their early growth was also helped by a policy of settling the invoices from small suppliers as late as possible, while promptly paying large, high-profile companies.

With the support of American investors, Saatchi & Saatchi pursued a policy of buying out competing firms with lucrative established contracts. In 1995, a boardroom coup saw the brothers leave the company and set up a new firm M&C Saatchi.

BBDO

BBDO is a worldwide advertising agency network, with its headquarters in New York. Formed through a merger of BDO (Barton, Durstine & Osborn) and Batten Co. in 1928, BBDO Worldwide has been named the "Most Awarded Agency Network in the World" by The Gunn Report in 2007, for the second year running.

BBDO, with 17,200 employees in 287 offices in 77 countries, is the largest of three global networks (BBDO, TBWA, DDB Worldwide) of agencies in Omnicom's portfolio. BBDO was named Agency of the Year in 2005 by ADWEEK, Advertising Age, and Campaign Magazine.

BBDO was founded in 1928 by:

* George Batten
* Bruce Fairchild Barton
* Roy Sarles Durstine
* Alex Faickney Osborn

During the years of Alex Osborn's association with the BBDO, it became one of the leading advertising agencies in the United States, with a total of 52 offices throughout the world. Its annual billing increased from $1 million in 1919 to $20 million in 1939, when Osborn became executive vice-president, and to $207 million in 1957.

JWT

JWT is the current name of the United States largest and world's fourth largest advertising agency. It is one of the key companies of Sir Martin Sorrell's WPP Group and is headquartered in New York.

The company that was to become JWT was originally founded by William James Carlton in 1864.

Carlton's original company was renamed by James Walter Thompson in 1877 to The James Walter Thompson Company, which eventually became J. Walter Thompson.

In 2005, the agency was "relaunched" by dropping the name J. Walter Thompson in exchange for JWT.

Ogilvy & Mather

Ogilvy & Mather is an international advertising, marketing, and public relations agency based in New York City and owned by the WPP Group. The company operates 497 offices in 125 countries around the world and employs approximately 16,000 professionals.

Ogilvy & Mather has seven divisions: (CRM and interactive), OgilvyInteractive (interactive; under OgilvyOne), Neo@Ogilvy (digital and direct media; under OgilvyOne), Ogilvy PR (public relations), Ogilvy Healthworld (health care communications and marketing), and OgilvyAction (analytics and experiential marketing).

As of 2007, the chairperson and CEO of Ogilvy was Rochelle B. (Shelly) Lazarus. She held the position since 1996.

Ogilvy & Mather was founded in 1948 by David Ogilvy, as "Hewitt, Ogilvy, Benson & Mather." The company became a leading worldwide agency by the 1960s.[citation needed] Central to its growth was its strategy of building brands like American Express, BP, Ford, Barbie, Maxwell House, IBM, Kodak, Nestlé and Unilever brands Pond's & Dove.

Integrated in the firm's corporate culture is Ogilvy's concept of "360 Degree Brand Stewardship", defined as "a willingness to use the broadest array of tools and techniques to understand, develop and enhance the relationship between a consumer and a brand."

In 2004 the OgilvyOne division launched a digital summit called Verge. This has become a major agency-led forum for clients and industry experts to discuss the challenges and possibilities of digital marketing. The agency has taken the conference to over 20 of the world's leading markets. In documents made available to the public through the tobacco industry's 1998 Master Settlement Agreement, Ogilvy and Mather played a key role in promoting the image of the Tobacco Institute.