Digby Wills Ltd

History

1951-1966, London

This small agency was established in 1951 in two small rooms in High Holborn, London. At first only a copy and art service was offered but by the end of 1966, when the company was sold to Norman Craig & Kummel, it had built up a client list that included Beecham Foods, Bayer Pharmaceuticals (Winthrop), Carbi Pharmaceuticals. Saab Cars, Elbeo stockings, VP Wines and Shure Microphones.

Their real big break came when they started taking advertising space in Harper's & Queen for PLJ (Pure Lemon Juice in a bottle), aiming at the health and beauty market. The campaign was immediately so successful that the product went from a turnover of £30,000 in 1954 to £1,300,000 in 1959. It was possibly the reason why Beecham Foods purchased PLJ in the early 1960s. Beechams subsequently added another product to the agency's account list with an opportunity of developing TV commercials. Elbeo support stockings were another coup, resulting in the establishment and development of Elbeo in the UK. The account for Bayer pharmaceutical products, which included Panadol (Paracetemol) was also won as well as a Central Office of Information account 'Post Early for Christmas' at a time when the GPO was a government facility.

J G Ballard, author of Empire of the Sun, was employed as a copywriter at Digby Wills in 1952.

This collection was donated to HAT by Digby F Wills in 2000.

Archive Content

Date range: 1951-1966

Scope/Formats

Comprises guardbooks and files concerning most of the company's advertising campaigns e.g. PLJ, Elbeo support hose, Pittards gloves, Shloer apple juice, Kenya Coffee House, QC Wines, Shure Microphones, Olympia typewriters, Rexel Office equipment, Colourcast cookware, Beecham and Bayer pharmacutical products, Road Safety, Saab cars, Schick razors, GPO, central heating and agricultural products.

There is background information to some of the campaigns e.g. market research, company reports.

The collection includes Digby F Will's personal sketchbooks and portfolio, all containing non-advertising subjects.

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