Wunderman Thompson tries to put merger challenges behind

2019 was our first year grading Wunderman Thompson as a combined agency, and suffice to say it was an eventful year for the merged entity formed from J Walter Thompson and Wunderman. As new APAC leader Annette Male, who joined in March from Digitas, took on the daunting challenge of combining two sprawling and culturally different operations, priority went to revamping the leadership, finding new office space and banding together behind a common methodology. 

Check out Wunderman Thompson's Agency Report Card now to see:

• The agency's overall grade for 2019
   
• Grades and detailed discussion of performance across five categories:
   
• Leadership: A qualitative assessment of leadership performance, key regional decisions, management stability and contributions to industry by agency leaders.
• Creativity: Compelling and effective campaign work, judged qualitatively. Regional and global awards recognition is included, with higher weighting given to wins at major shows. Work demonstrative of high effectiveness for clients is also considered.
• Innovation: A qualitative assessment of Asia-based initiatives and innovations based on their improvements to the agency, people, clients and industry.
• Business growth: Assessed by the value of accounts won and lost in 2019, as calculated by the agencies and R3’s New Business League, published in Campaign Asia-Pacific, along with recognition of new project work and organic growth through retained clients. 
• People and diversity: Agency efforts to attract, retain and develop a high calibre of talent with a commitment to staff diversity and wellbeing are examined qualitatively.
   
• The grade the agency gave itself, and why
   
• How the agency performed versus its 2018 scores
   
• The agency's self-declared areas of specialisation.

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