The History of Advertising Trust (HAT Archive) has been awarded a National Cataloguing Grant to catalogue its collection of client account files created by the J. Walter Thompson (JWT) advertising agency between the 1920s and 1970s.  As the Project Archivist, I commenced work at the end of March 2011 with the aim of launching an online catalogue via HAT’s website in March 2013. Supported by HAT’s in-house archive and technical team, including Alistair Moir, the new Collections Records Officer, this pioneering project will also facilitate a broader cataloguing programme that will offer the public more information, access and engagement with HAT’s extensive archive collections.

• Two members of JWT staff at work - late 1950s

J. Walter Thompson, founded in the USA in 1878, was the first advertising agency to take a ‘scientific’ approach to planning campaigns with particular emphasis on the importance of in-depth market research.  JWT (London) was established as a full-service advertising agency in 1926 and soon acquired a ‘reputation, based on its American parentage, for hard-hitting, effective advertising, founded on solid research’ (Rayfield, ‘Fifty in Forty’, p.27).  The JWT client account research files, donated to HAT by the agency in the 1980s, are extremely rare and significant within the UK advertising industry, as it appears that most of these types of business files have not survived.  Over 450 box files document JWT’s management of its campaigns for nearly 200 clients and a typical box file contains market research, product development, consumer panel feedback, notes on competitive activity, sales figures, client correspondence, meeting reports, advertising plans and strategies and themed reports relating to many social and economic aspects of British life during the 20th century.  It is evident why JWT became known widely within the industry as the ‘University of Advertising’ and the significance of this collection has been compared by researchers to that of the Mass Observation Archive held by the University of Sussex.

In addition complementary work is being undertaken at HAT, in tandem with the NCG project, to catalogue and conserve JWT’s own collection of over 700 guard books (1926-1990s), containing press advertising proofs and TV/Radio scripts, as well as material relating to company history e.g. press cuttings, office social events, seminars.   JWT had long and fruitful client relationships with some of the most iconic household brands of the twentieth century and the guard books contain proofs for classic ads such as the Horlicks ‘night starvation’ campaign (first use of continuity strips adapted for advertising purposes), the ‘30-second breakfast’ for Kelloggs and the pioneering use of film and stage star testimonials for leading beauty brands.

JWT London has also deposited further historical material at HAT including company minute books (1930s-1980s), billings registers (1936-1943), advertising schedules for Radio Normandy and Luxembourg (1935-1941), a photographic archive of JWT London personnel (1940s-1960s) and other staff records.  This archive is complemented by other collections at HAT, including the papers of George Butler (JWT Art Director 1932-1962) and John Treasure (JWT Chairman 1967-1974).

• Photoshoot for Lux Toilet Soap or Pond’s Cold Cream advert

Advertising agency archives form the core of HAT’s collections.  Several major companies are represented from the Top Ten agencies of their day and the juxtaposition of these collections facilitates the study of each agency within a wider context.  However, only JWT London has its campaign research and strategy records still largely intact.  HAT’s JWT collection therefore attracts a broad spectrum of research enquiries and is complementary to other archive collections e.g. JWT’s USA and other international office records, held at the Hartman Centre for Advertising History at Duke University, North Carolina.  Leading academics in the field of marketing history have already made extensive use of the JWT archives at HAT and as a result of the NCG award, along with HAT’s online catalogue development, many more researchers in the UK, as well as throughout the world, will at last be able to access and study JWT London’s unique archives.  Jeremy Bullmore CBE, Head of JWT’s Creative Department (1964-1975) and Chairman (1976-1987) and recent winner of the Mackintosh medal for outstanding services to the advertising industry, says, ‘This is terrific news.  And unlike most news, it will go on being terrific for ever: that’s the real value of an exceptional archive. For HAT to have been awarded this grant for this particular project is cause for real celebration’.

The JWT client account files have already provided me with some fascinating insights into the creative processes behind well-known campaigns (e.g. the repositioning of Lux as a lifestyle brand in the 1920s or the birth of ‘Mr Kipling’ in the 1960s!) and I look forward to bringing them to a wider audience with the launch of HAT’s much anticipated online catalogue in Spring 2013.

JWT helps get the work done ...

When a project, as vital to the advertising and marketing industry as the cataloguing of JWT’s client research materials, receives recognition from the National Archives, it is doubly encouraging to HAT to receive extra funding from the agency itself, towards essential conservation materials for use during the cataloguing work.  Many thanks indeed to JWT’s Toby Hoare, whose recognition of the project’s value stems from his knowledge of HAT’s rich collections and resources.

Eve Read (JWT Project Archivist)
The History of Advertising Trust
eve@hatads.org.uk