Thompson, J Walter

Definition:
(1847-1928). James Walter Thompson founded his advertising agency in New York in 1867. At that time, America (unlike Britain) had almost no advertising in magazines. Thompson persuaded the publishers of general periodicals and women's magazines that they should accept advertising, which could greatly subsidize their production costs. Having done so, he bought all the ADVERTISING SPACE himself and re-sold it, both to advertisers and other advertising middlemen. He was thus a classic, entrepreneurial SPACE BROKER, rather than an agent for the advertisers, as were his predecessors Charles BARKER in London and George P. ROWELL in Boston. As late as 1898, the J. Walter Thompson agency still controlled the sale of almost all magazine advertising space sold in the USA. But Thompson was no cowboy entrepreneur. In a period characterized by exaggeration and dishonesty he released space only to advertisers of services and products he considered reputable. He was a strong believer in the significance of women as consumers before the view was generally fashionable, and his is generally agreed to be the first advertising agency to introduce systematic account planning (though others, much later, became famous for practising it). During the early 20th century, J. Walter Thompson became established as the largest and most important advertising agency in the world, by steadily opening offices overseas. Until quite recently it remained the first-ranking agency in America, in Britain, in the world and in virtually every country where it operated. Young & Rubicam has now overtaken it as America's largest, and Dentsu as the world's largest; the top spot in London has been taken by the home-grown upstart, SAATCHI & SAATCHI. Worse still, it lost a takeover battle in 1987 to the equally home-grown and even more recent WPP Group built by Martin SORRELL. But JWT remains near the top in all three lists, and retains the respect of other agencies. Its London office stood at number two in CAMPAIGN magazine's 'Top 300' list, with BILLINGS of £264.0 million and 520 employees, it takes ninth place in the world rankings, and figures among the top half-dozen agencies in seven European countries. In the 1970s, in the USA, the agency demonstrated its professionalism by leading an industry boycott of advertising spots in unacceptably violent television programmes. Its action is credited with being the single most influential factor in the eventual reduction of the level of violence on American television screens.

Cross-References:
[billing] [Holloway, Thomas] [Campaign] [Sorrell, Martin] [Saatchi & Saatchi] [Rowell, George P] [Barker, Charles] [space broker] [advertising space]

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