J. WALTER THOMPSON COMPANY NEWS VOLUME XXIV, NO. 13 FOR STAFF MEMBERS ONLY MARCH 28, 1969 Aubrey and Edens elected to JWT executive committee NEW YORK—Stever Aubrey, executive vice president and manager of NYO, and Robert L. Edens Jr., executive vice president and manager of Chicago, have been elected to the Executive Committee of the JWT Board of Directors. Their election last Friday was announced by Dan Seymour, president and chief executive officer. This brings the membership of the Executive Committee to ten. Edens at helm in Chicago Aubrey manager of NYO CHICAGO—When Bob Edens joined JWT- NEW YORK—Stever Aubrey, new mem­ Chicago in 1966 to take over the newly ber of the JWT Executive Committee and executive vp is also manager of NYO and created post of creative director, Dan Robert L Seymour said at that time: "Bob Edens is is headquartered in an llth floor office unquestionably one of the top creative men Edens, Jr. here. in the advertising business today. Far be­ From the time he was management yond the strength he will bring to our supervisor on the huge Eastman Kodak ac­ Chicago office, we know he will contribute count, with all its ramifications and sepa­ importantly to the creative output of our rate budgets, to his present election, Stever Company as a whole." cant for the job would be judged. It said, has concerned himself with two main proj­ John Monsarrat, group executive vp in part, "he must be compatible with JWT ects: 1) to get the best people possible in charge of Chicago, put it another way people generally . and be a strong to work at JWT; 2) to inspire, encourage when he made public the memo setting creative spokesman and salesman . the and develop creativity on the part of our forth the criteria against which an appli- (Continued on page 2) people. How well these goals have been achieved was realized by JWTers when an advertis­ JWT international billings announced ing trade editor recently reviewed a reel NEW YORK — The country-by-country The international billing of the Com- of JWT television commercials and wrote: breakdown of JWT's international billing pany is a $10.9 million dollar increase "The world's largest ad agency is also has been released for publication today. over the worldwide figure of $227 million the world's most prolific producer of TV The final figures, which will appear in dollars for 1967. This growth is consider­ commercials. JWT completes at least 3 Advertising Age on Monday, show that the able bearing in mind that we have had to new ones every working day . accounts Company billed a total of $237.9 million offset the devaluation of sterling that took for 1 out of 8 network commercials on dollars overseas in 1968. This, added to place at the end of 1967. the air . spends some $12 million in the $400.1 million U.S. billings, kept JWT Below is a breakdown of the advertising production costs alone . the reel shown as the world's largest advertising agency billing for JWT offices outside the United cut across many product areas . showed for another year. States for 1968 and 1967: many of the different creative approaches Advertising In Advertising In JWT Offices Millions of Dolla rs (U.S.) JWT Offices Millions of Dollars (U.S.) 1968 1967 1968 1967 ARGENTINA $ 7.1 $ 5.2 ITALY 7.5 7.0 Stever Buenos Aires Milan Aubrey AUSTRALIA 17.9 16.9 JAPAN 7.7 6.2 Sydney Tokyo Melbourne MEXICO 7.8 6.3 AUSTRIA 2.8 2.2 Vienna Mexico City and revealed—maybe unwittingly—the ex­ BELGIUM 3.3 3.3 NETHERLANDS 7.7 6.1 tent of JWT's turnabout from the lumber­ Brussels Amsterdam ing giant of the 50's ... to its present BRAZIL 16.0 12.5 PAKISTAN 1.4 1.2 younger, more nimble, more contemporary Rio de Janeiro Karachi stature . nearly always the makers of Sao Paulo PERU 1.7 1.4 smart, well-directed, sharply edited selling CANADA 18.0 16.6 Lima vehicles." Montreal PHILIPPINES 4.5 3.6 Toronto Stever believes that the Company's Vancouver Manila growth over the past few years, and es­ CEYLON .78 .54 PUERTO RICO 2.3 2.3 pecially in 1968, is due to two major fac­ Colombo San Juan tors: the recognition by our clients that CHILE 2.8 2.4 SOUTHERN AFRICA 10.0 9.5 we are good managers of our business and Santiago Johannesburg theirs, and acknowledgement that we are DENMARK 1.9 1.4 Capetown truly one of the more creative agencies. Copenhagen Durban And it is this subject of creativity that FRANCE 8.8 8.6 Port Elizabeth Paris Salisbury is so close to Stever. He knows from al­ GERMANY 25.7 28.8 Lusaka most continual "new business" sessions Frankfurt SPAIN 2.9 2.0 with prospective clients that more and GREAT BRITAIN 57.1 54.0 Madrid more they are coming to demand creativity London SWITZERLAND 1.7 1.0 of an advertising agency. INDIA 6.9 6.0 Zurich What is creativity? Bombay Madras VENEZUELA 3.6 3.2 It has many definitions, depending on Calcutta New Delhi Caracas (Continued on page 2 Aubrey and Edens elected to JWT executive committee Edens at helm in Chicago (Cont.) Aubrey manager of NYO (Cont.) kind of person whom other creative men cies getting started and doing well for the person you ask. and women respect and with whom the themselves. If you were to ask a Thompsonite, you younger talent of great promise would like It's easy for big companies in any field would get the answer, "There is no such to be associated." of endeavor to get so rich and soft that thing as a Thompson ad." they're easy prey for lean, hungry "bar­ The kind of man Bob Edens is was Thompson philosophy demonstrated when he was made manager barians," with more desire. of the Chicago office a year later. He held It's history's oldest lesson. And the only Stever puts it this way: "We create ad­ a meeting of the JWT-Chicago staff in way to beat it is to be tougher on yourself vertising to sell goods, services and ideas. the Boulevard Room of the Sheraton- than your competition would be. We develop the kind of advertising that Chicago Hotel to report on progress. His The biggest advertising agency in the suits a particular marketing need. Then we theme: "The agency is doing well." world got that way by thinking like the use our professional knowledge of com­ smallest advertising agency. He reported on the new accounts picked munications to tell our product message Hungry! effectively, efficiently and with maximum up by the Chicago office and pointed out Signature: J. Walter Thompson, Chi­ that other clients had to be turned down impact so the greatest number of custom­ cago, Sydney, San Francisco, Manila, all ers will see, hear or read it." because of product conflicts. around. "How do you grow?" Last year, 1968, Bob Edens announced Each of NYO's five creative groups is turning out "remarkable work," in the In answer to the latter, he asked: "How that the Chicago office had contracted for space in the new John Hancock Office opinion of Stever. "It is," he says, "second do you grow?" to none in our business." The answer: "By making the clients you Building in Chicago, having outgrown its already have grow." present quarters in the Wrigley Building Stever explains that while each creative where it had been for so many years. group can do all types of advertising thor­ Bob Edens went on to tell the meeting, oughly and well, each can also call on the "We expect to continue to grow for many, Advertising career tremendous resources and services of the many years and the reason is right here in Bob was born in Bartlesville, Oklahoma this room. We are the successful agen­ company as a whole. "That's why we are and grew up in Florida. He was graduated not recognized as an agency of specialists cy we are because of you. Every job we from Yale, Class of '48, and then joined do here is important: we need each other the mailroom of a New York agency (not but rather as an agency that can handle all to make this company go." JWT). After serving several other NY accounts equally well," he notes. As part of the "go" campaign for the agencies as vp and creative director, he JWT growth Chicago office, Bob introduced a series of moved to the Midwest and to Chicago as house ads which started running late in vp, creative director and corporate direc­ He points out that JWT's growth of September of 1967. tor of Leo Burnett Company. $47.4 millions of dollars in advertising, A creative man his entire agency career, worldwide, last year, was the result of ad­ One had copy as follows: Bob says of his newest election: "I am ditional business from existing clients as Head: FAT, DUMB & HAPPY pleased to be a member of the Committee well as new business from new clients. Copy: When you are 75 years old (as and help make all of us here in Chicago "Both kinds," he says, "are equally satis­ we are in Chicago this year (1967), you more involved with the entire worldwide fying." can't help thinking about all the new agen­ operation of JWT." Stever was born in downstate Illinois in the town of La Salle, but he grew up in JWT-Brazil booth a hit at advertising congress Highland Park, a suburb of Chicago.