Description: This collection includes account files for 192 client companies of J. Walter Thompson London (hereafter JWT):
1. Addis Ltd
2. Aims of Industry
3. Airwick Ltd
4. Alcan Ltd
5. Allcock Manufacturing Company
6. J. Allen Rubber Co Ltd
7. Aquascutum Ltd
8. Armstrong Cork Co Ltd
9. Associated TV Ltd
10. Atcost Ltd
11. E.P.Barrus (Concessionaires) Ltd
12. Beecham Group Ltd
13. Thos. Bell & Son Ltd
14. Birmingham Small Arms Co Ltd
15. Blackburn & General Aircraft Ltd
16. Bowater-Scott Corporation Ltd
17. Bradford Dyers' Association Ltd
18. Braemar Knitwear Ltd
19. Brand & Co Ltd
20. Brillo Manufacturing Co Ltd
21. British Bakeries Ltd
22. British Horse Society
23. British Industrial Plastics Ltd
24. British Leather Federation
25. British Rail Shipping Services
26. British Transport Hotels Ltd
27. Brooke Bond (G.B.) Ltd
28. Burberry Ltd
29. Burroughs Machines Ltd
30. Butter Information Council
31. Californian Raisin Advisory Board
32. Campbell's Soups Ltd
33. Canada Mink Breeders' Association
34. Carreras Ltd
35. Carteret Products Ltd
36. Caxton Publishing Co Ltd
37. Champion Sparking Plug Co Ltd
38. Charrington United Breweries Ltd/Charrington Vintners
39. The Cheese Bureau
40. Chesebrough-Pond's Ltd (formerly Chesebrough Mfg Co Ltd)
41. Chiswick Products Ltd
42. CIBA Ltd
43. Covent Garden (Royal Opera House)
44. Courtaulds Ltd
45. Decimal Currency Board
46. Dent, Allcroft & Co Ltd
47. Dexion Ltd
48. John Dickinson & Co Ltd
49. Dimplex Ltd
50. District Bank Ltd
51. Douglas Aircraft Co Ltd
52. Dunlop Rubber Co Ltd
53. Elida Ltd (Elida-Gibbs)
54. Ellis & Goldstein Ltd
55. Elm Works Ltd
56. Elys (Wimbledon) Ltd (Department Store)
57. English Electric Co Ltd
58. English Speaking Union of the Commonwealth
59. Family Doctor
60. Joseph Farrow & Co Ltd
61. Feredo Ltd
62. Findus Ltd
63. Fire Offices' Committee
64. First National City Bank of New York
65. Flexees Ltd
66. Ford Motor Co Ltd (of Britain)
67. T.B. Ford Ltd
68. Fram Egg Producers Ltd
69. Freemans Ltd
70. Gardisette GMBH
71. Gardners Telemeter Ltd
72. D.& W. Gibbs Ltd
73. Gillette Safety Razor Co Ltd
74. Girard & Co Ltd
75. E. Gomme Ltd
76. Grenadier Guards (recruiting)
77. Grundig Ltd
78. Harella (L. Harris) Ltd
79. Harris Lebus Ltd
80. Hoechst Pharmaceuticals Ltd
81. Horlicks Ltd
82. Hudson & Knight Ltd
83. Hudson's Bay Co Ltd
84. Hulton Press Ltd
85. Humphreys & Glasgow Ltd
86. I.C.I. Ltd
87. S.C. Ingram Ltd
88. James A. Jobling & Co Ltd (Pyrex)
89. Johnson's Wax International Ltd
90. Karakul Industry Advisory Board (SW African Persian Lamb)
91. Kellogg Co Ltd
92. Kodak Ltd
93. Koo International Ltd (formerly Langeberg Sales Ltd)
94. Kraft Foods Ltd
95. Lambert Chemical Co Ltd (Listerine)
96. Lanitis Bros. Ltd
97. George Lee & Sons Ltd (Target Wools)
98. Lever Bros. & Associated Ltd (Unilever)
99. Lloyd Hamol Ltd
100. Lloyd's & Scottish Finance Ltd
101. Cyril Lord Ltd
102. J.Lyons & Co Ltd
103. McMichael Radio Ltd
104. Mace Marketing Services Ltd
105. Manfields & Sons Ltd
106. F.S.Matta Ltd
107. Mead Johnson Ltd (Metercal)
108. Meccano Ltd
109. Milk Powder Council
110. Ministries of Food, Labour and Transport
111. Monogram Electric Ltd
112. Murray Sons & Co
113. Nairn-Williamson Ltd
114. National Association of Boys' Clubs
115. National Coal Board
116. National Committee for Wines of France
117. National Corned Beef Bureau
118. National Trust
119. Nestle Co Ltd
120. New British Ever Ready Co Ltd
121. New Holland Machine Co Ltd
122. New Scientist
123. News Chronicle
124. News of the World
125. Observer Ltd
126. Outboard Marine International
127. Overseas Containers Ltd
128. Oxo Ltd (includes Foster Clark, Fray Bentos, Liebig)
129. Pal Personna Blades Ltd
130. Pan American World Airways (Pan-Am)
131. Parker Pen Co Ltd
132. Pasolds Ltd
133. Pepsodent Ltd (includes Pin-Up Perms Ltd)
134. Peter Robinson Ltd
135. Phillips Petroleum Ltd
136. Planned Projects for Industry Ltd
137. John Player & Sons
138. Playing Card Bureau
139. Polpak Distributors Ltd
140. Polytechnic Touring Association Ltd (Poly Travel)
141. Premier Mail Order Co Ltd
142. Pristine Products Ltd
143. Provident Mutual Life Assurance Association
144. Prudential Assurance Co Ltd
145. Rank, Hovis McDougall (RHM) Ltd
146. Reader's Digest Association Ltd
147. Reckitt & Sons Ltd
148. Regent Oil Co Ltd
149. Rego Clothiers Ltd
150. Revo Electric Co Ltd
151. Wm Rhodes Ltd
152. Richard Shops Ltd
153. Rio Tinto Ltd
154. Rolex Watch Co Ltd
155. A. Romary & Co Ltd
156. Rose & Blairman Ltd
157. L.Rose & Co Ltd (includes Schweppes)
158. Rowntree & Co Ltd
159. Royal Hospital & Home for Incurables
160. Scott & Bowne Ltd (includes Murine Company of Chicago)
161. Scripto Pens Ltd
162. Sheffield Cabinet Co Ltd
163. Short Bros. Ltd
164. Sissons Bros. & Co Ltd
165. Smith & Nephew Ltd
166. South African Wine Farmers' Association Ltd
167. Sperry & Hutchinson Co Ltd
168. SSAFA (Soldiers', Sailors' & Airmen's Families Association)
169. Standard Brands Ltd
170. Star Weekly
171. Steel Co of Wales Ltd
172. The Stock Exchange
173. Telemac Ltd
174. Joseph Tetley & Co Ltd
175. Thawpit Proprietary Ltd
176. Theatre Royal (Drury Lane): Royal Academy of Dancing
177. Triumph Foundationwear International Ltd
178. Union-Castle Line
179. United Dairies Ltd
180. United States Shipping Lines
181. Van den Berghs Ltd
182. Vick International Ltd
183. Vono Ltd
184. Walker & Hall Ltd
185. Wm R. Warner & Co
186. Webb Corbett Ltd
187. Whitbread & Co Ltd
188. John White Footwear Ltd
189. James B. Williams Co (England) Ltd
190. W.D. & H.O. Wills (Tobacco) Ltd
191. Wine & Spirit Association of Great Britain (Incorporated)
192. The Winston Churchill Memorial Trust
Mainly dates from the 1940s-1960s, although there is some earlier (and later) material. The files include information for 'current' clients of JWT (as of the late 1960s) and also ex-clients.
These files are an extremely rare and significant resource within the UK advertising industry as it appears that agency records of this nature do not generally survive. A typical box file contains: marketing and research; meeting reports; memoranda; advertising plans and strategy and reports relating to many well known household brands and products. JWT had long and fruitful relationships with some of the most iconic household brands of the twentieth century and made their name in the British market with classic campaigns in the 1930s (e.g. Horlicks 'Night Starvation' or the '30-second' breakfast for Kelloggs) and the pioneering use of film, stage and society star testimonials for leading beauty brands e.g. Lux, Pond's. The client account files also includes material on the work undertaken by JWT for some of the most important advertisers of the post-war period, including Rowntrees and Unilever. JWT also provided its services, free of charge, to a number of charities.
From 1919 to 1967 the JWT philosophy with regard to the planning of all campaigns was based on the Thompson 'T-Square' five-step approach, developed by its highly influential American Chairman, Stanley Resor, in about 1912 i.e.
1. What are we selling?
2. To Whom are we selling?
3. Where are we selling it?
4. When are we selling it?
5. How are we selling it?
'The integration of the Thompson T-Square and the advertising production process was made workable by the use of "Account Groups" and "Review Boards". According to "Advertising World" the London office's Account Groups were unique for an agency of its size during the inter-war period. The principle employed was that no individual staff member should be able to dictate campaign policies - instead a group of people should supply and evaluate the campaign's planning information and then form it into a finished product. In essence, marketing personnel collected the information for the T-Square and then fed this back to the advertising members of the group. It was they who created the campaign. Senior directors maintained frequent contact with the Account Groups and gave overall advice on the direction of the campaign at "Review Board Meetings"' (West, p.205) and Review Board documents will often be found in the client account files. A separate JWT group, containing experts from all relevant departments (e.g. Art, Copy, Marketing, Public Relations, TV) was therefore set up for each product handled to examine every facet of the business in question and to make recommendations e.g. Lux Liquid and Lux Soap Flakes (both Lever Brothers' products) would have different Groups. A Group was appointed for each product and so a client might have several different groups working on his products. The day-to-day work of each Group was co-ordinated by the Account Representative (known internally as the 'Rep'), whose role was to represent JWT to the Client and the Client to JWT. Once a year the Group accounted for their work to senior members of the Agency at the Annual Review Board. 'The function of the board would be to evaluate and guide the campaign. In this way Thompson's utilised the experience and knowledge of its senior staff, and with the group system attempted to raise the overall standard of work' (West, p.206). The creative planning of each campaign was based on the preliminary work of the Marketing Department working in close liason with the Clients' own Marketing executives. JWT's own definition of a client company can be found in an internal Report on JWT London from August 1961. This states that 'A Client is taken here as being an operating company with an independent executive board (i.e. Reckitts and Colman, Sissons, Chiswick Products and Joseph Farrow Ltd are treated as separate Clients, though they are all controlled financially by Reckitts and Colman)' (Memorandum, Box 578).
However, by the 'early 1960s Thompson's was beginning to acquire a reputation for producing rather dull and conservative campaigns...The Review Boards system, where senior executives assessed and directed the work of account groups, played a major role in the lack of creativity at the agency' (West, p.211). The system was shaken up by the new Managing Director, Tom Sutton, and in 1964 he instituted a system of Plans Boards 'where experienced, but not necessarily executive-grade staff' would guide and evaluate the progress of a particular campaign (West, p.211). The next important development was the elevation of 'Stephen King's "Creative Workshops" to an integral part of campaign planning' (West, p.212). King's theories were developed into the 'T-Plan' which replaced the 'T-Square' as the London office's main formula for planning campaigns from 1967 onwards. The former consisted of just two key questions to replace the T-Squares's five i.e.
1. Where are we and why are we there? (The nature of the client and the brand in the market place)
2. Where do we want to be? (The role of advertising, the target group and the desired response required)
'As the T-Square had led to the use of account groups as a means of integrating the marketing and advertising functions, the T-Plan was to effect Thompson's production process further with 'account planning'. The impetus for the new development came from the Media Department' (West, p.213).
From the 1920s onwards, JWT would tradtionally open a new account by providing a 'Plan and Data Questionnaire' for the client to complete in order to ascertain key background information about the company and the market. This document generally included the following categories:
1. Products
2. Distribution
3. Sales organisation
4. Sales
5. Prices
6. Competition
7. The Market
8. Advertising
From the 1920s to the early 1960s JWT categorised much of the client account material (referred to as 'data' ) collected and created during the planning of campaigns using an internal coding system, which was necessary as a means of organizing the large amount of data accumulated in increasing quantities as an association with a client progressed. The system of arrangement, based on a letter and number sequence, reflects the sequence and key elements of planning an advertising campaign and illustrates the 'full-service' nature of the advertising agency business: research (market, consumer, product); marketing analysis (including legal issues); sales organisation; merchandising; appropriation planning; advertising plans and policy; media planning (e.g. whether to utilise press, outdoor policy, films, radio); public relations. Unfortunately a full copy of the original classification scheme has not been discovered and it has therefore been reconstructed from a study of the material within the coded files. The arrangement system appears to be as follows:
A10 'The market': marketing and research
A30 Technical/Product development
A31 Product tasting tests; competitors' product lines
A40 'Packaging' (e.g. pack comparisons, labelling)
A50 Sales and distribution (e.g. sales positions, visits to client shops)
A51 Sales figures
A60 Promotions (e.g. coupons, exhibitions)
A61 Product price rises/pricing/price lists
A62/63 Competitive activity (e.g. competitive advertising, competitive expenditure)
A64 Competitive sales figures
A70 New product ranges
A700/710 Advertising plans (e.g. advertising and marketing recommendations)
A711 Review Board
A712 Appropriation figures/advertising expenditure
A713 Client company operations
A720 'Media' (Press advertising)
A721 Questionnaires
A722 'Test campaigns'
A730 Outdoor publicity (e.g. posters)
A740 Cinema advertising
A752 TV advertising
A760 Shop advertising (e.g. displays)
A780 Public relations
B20 Copy
B21 Testimonials
D Promotional material for client products (e.g. brochures, leaflets)
D61 Price changes/lists (client products)
D70/71 Publications (by client)
F For filing
G Call Reports pre-1962 (records of all client contact e.g. telephone calls, meetings, letters) - arranged in separate series from 1962-1967
H History (i.e. client company history)
X/Y 'Letter of terms file': company and client account background information (e.g. annual reports, directors' meetings, company history, terms of account)
Z Overseas market (e.g. export, overseas advertising) and client company background
Z2 New products
Z3, Z4 Client company background
Z5 Client-Agency relations/Service fee/Commission/New client terms and conditions
With the commencement of a new client account a 'data record' or 'plan and data form' would be created: 'The purpose of this form is to provide a convenient, comprehensive and orderly vehicle for the all of the salient information affecting the product in question - its distribution, competition, sales opportunity etc.' (from 'Data record' document within John Treasure collection).
In some cases there are 'mixed' files which contain data from more than one category. From the early 1960s data tends to be arranged by subject name or numbered within a year rather than coded. The original system of arrangement has therefore been reflected in the cataloguing process and the original file enclosure retained where applicable. For a good example of a fully coded series of data files see HAT50/1/133/1 (Pepsodent Ltd) or HAT50/1/20/3 (Brillo Ltd). Sometimes it appears that only part of a series of numbered files has survived e.g. Nairn-Williamson Ltd data files (HAT50/1/113/2/2).
The client account files extant for each company can range from a single file of call reports to several boxes containing dozens of files for large well-established clients such as Unilever or Rowntrees. In some cases client account files are included within HAT50/2 (as an integral part of the company executives' papers) and this material can be cross-referenced with the main HAT50/1 sequence. A few empty folders (empty on receipt) were also found in the client account files and these have been noted in the 'arrangement' field at sub-series level where applicable.
The compilation of JWT 'call reports', which constituted an incredibly detailed record of all contact (i.e. meetings, letters and telephone conversations) with the client, were the responsibility of the agency's team of Representatives, universally known as 'Reps'. In his unofficial history of JWT ('Fifty in 40'), Tom Rayfield described how these reports were created: 'This requires the writing of a document after every meeting to record what they can recall of what happened and to demonstrate their powers of decision-making, advocacy, diplomacy and negotiating skills. These documents are called by different names at different agencies. Amongst these are 'meeting report' to 'contact report' or 'conference report' (Young & Rubicam) or 'service report' (Leo Burnett) and 'call report'. [The latter], JWT's name for them, suggests accurately the proper relationship between salesman and customer' (pp.476-477). At the JWT Paris office they were known as 'compte-rendus' (see examples in Courtaulds client account files) and in German as 'Kontaktberichte'. In a company internal 'Representatives' Handbook' from 1972 it was stated that Reps were 'responsible for much of the client communications, verbal and written, but also general and specific record keeping and quality control on the account. This control should ensure a first-class service to the client and may take the form of a comprehensive marketing recommendation, constant reviews of the advertising strategy or a record of the client's marketing and advertising data'.
Level: Series
Reference: HAT50/1
Alt Ref No.: Hatrecord
Extent: c 470 boxes
Agency: J. Walter Thompson (JWT)
Related Material: There is also some client account material within the executives' papers in HAT 50/2 but as these form an integral part of their own files, they have been retained within the orginal sequence.