What is Project Management and what does it do?

Project Management is one of the agency’s most important departments. It is responsible for the running the agency’s internal creative processes, overseeing the project from brief creation and creative development right through to the delivery of the finished print or digital execution.  It is the force that holds the project together and drives it forward, taking ownership of the problems and ensuring that it’s delivered on time and on budget.

The attitude of a Project Manager

A Project Manager by their very nature must be proactive with a ‘can do’ attitude. ‘No can do’ is not in the nature of a good PM. We are the people that find solutions to problems that enable good work to become great, or late running work to be delivered on time. A good PM must be flexible, adaptable and have a responsible attitude and should keep the team positive even when the going gets tough, which it does from time to time! We are resourceful by nature and are often faced with problems which require us to use new or different technology to achieve success. A good PM constantly seeks to increase learning and understanding of new channels and production techniques so that you can offer the creatives and the wider team options which perhaps they haven’t thought of or didn’t know existed.

What does the graduate role involve?

The training will last approx 1.5 years and in that time you will gain experience in Project Management, Creative / Digital Studio Resourcing, Digital Project Management and TV Production. You will be moved through these departments on a rotating basis so that after 18 months you will have a broad knowledge of all areas of Project Management and the agency’s production processes. You will, with support from senior members of the team, be responsible for live projects and their production and final delivery. During this period you should expect to have experience in the production of Print, Digital, Direct/CRM, Promotional/Event pieces and TV production.

Creative ideas are now commonly expressed in multiple channels. The Project Management department of the future will be lead by PMs who are capable of producing work across many different channels. JWT is one of the first agency’s to introduce a graduate scheme for Project Management and no other scheme offers the unique opportunity to gain experience in so many different areas of production.

Where do I sign?

How to apply

As soon as you’re ready to go through to the application form click here. Competition will be tough. But you’ve never been one to shy away from a challenge.

The deadline for applications is midnight on 10 June 2013, with interviews commencing 24- 27 June. If you’re successful at interview, we’ll invite you to our Knightsbridge offices for the final one day seminar which will be held on 10 July 2013. Please note that should you reach this stage, you must be available to attend on this day.

Successful applicants will start at JWT on 2 September 2013

HSBC launches a Legendary campaign to accompany the Lions Rugby Tour

HSBC is launching a multi-channel campaign, created by JWT London, to mark celebrating 125 years since The British & Irish Lions first sailed to Australia. As Principal Partner for The British & Irish Lions 2013, HSBC has recreated that epic voyage, with Coach Warren Gatland, his crew of Lions Legends and a cabin boy aboard a ship on their own Legendary Journey.

The work shows some of the heroes of Rugby, including Brian O’Driscoll, Jason Robinson, Willie John McBride, JPR Williams and Gavin Hastings, in their naval costumes and playing their own roles on the ship’s voyage. Amid the rugby legends is a young cabin boy – cast from Rosslyn Park as part of the grassroots programme – he can be seen weaving between the action and representing how HSBC bring a future focus to the historic narrative of The Lions Tour.

The journey of the ship and its Captain and crew is mapped on HSBC’s Youtube channel (which acts as a hub to the campaign) with a unique and pioneering digital experience that allows people to engage with each of the rugby legend’s own epic journey in their individual sporting histories. Viewers will be offered the option to click on hotspots over the 90” version of the film to dive into more detailed content about players. In tandem, press, twitter activity, Digital OOH and digital display narrate the journey of the Tour itself with reactive highs and lows being brought to life before and after each warm up and Test match game.

The HSBC Youtube experience launches from the 16th May and the Pogues set the soundtrack to the film, creating the rustic, naval rhythm and atmosphere of the journey at sea.

Axel Chaldecott, Global Creative Director at JWT London said: “In this campaign we have married the legends and the rich heritage that makes the Lions so special with a nod towards the future talent of the game with our young cabin boy – in a sense balancing the future focus of the bank with the strong Lions culture.”

Andrea Newman, Global Head of Advertising and Marketing Communications said “Legendary Journeys as an idea encapsulates our role as Principal Partner of the British and Irish Lions in their anniversary year…the campaign that JWT have created brings to life the heritage and pride of the Lions Tour whilst celebrating the legendary journey that players, fans and anyone following the Tour will be immersed into.”

View the trailer for ‘The Legendary Journey’ below.

Premier Foods brand, Ambrosia, is rolling out a new national TV and Cinema campaign which demonstrates how pudding is the real comfort food for the modern British family. It marks the first time Ambrosia Custard has advertised on TV for over ten years.

Created by JWT London, ‘This is Pudding’ will run on TV in the UK from 15^th March 2013 and in Cinema from 25^th March. The campaign aims to re-establish Ambrosia Custard as the thing that makes a pudding complete and also mark the brand as relevant to today by framing it within modern family life.

Mealtimes aren’t complete without pudding, and the campaign shows how Ambrosia turns an ordinary pudding into a proper pudding. Observing family moments in a beautiful, cinematic way, the campaign tells us, ‘This is Pudding’, and shows how topping a pudding with Ambrosia Custard is a little expression of care.

The campaign is JWT London’s first work for Ambrosia since being handed the advertising accounts for several Premier Foods ‘Power Brands’ last year. As well as Ambrosia, JWT is responsible for the creative development of Hovis, Mr Kipling and Oxo.

Claire Harrison-Church, Category Business Unit Director at Premier Foods, said: “Though they’ve always been loved, traditional British puddings are back in vogue, making this the perfect time for Ambrosia to prove its relevance. The aim of the campaign is to reawaken an emotional connection with Ambrosia by making it relevant to today’s modern family. The campaign reminds people just how delicious, wonderful and simple a pudding with Ambrosia Custard is.”

Tracey Follows, Chief Strategy Officer and Executive Partner at JWT London, added: “This work comes from our deep understanding of what comfort food is to the modern family and recognition that Ambrosia is what makes a pudding. Why settle for dessert when you can enjoy pudding.”

Oxo is launching a UK advertising campaign which aims to position the iconic stock brand as ‘The Magic Cube’.

Created by JWT London, the agency worked with the animator PES as creative consultant and the directing duo Conkerco. The national TV campaign airs for the first time on 1^st March 2013 and demonstrates how a sprinkle of an Oxo cube can transform any combination of ingredients to make a truly flavoursome meal.

The campaign is the first TV work to be created by JWT London for Premier Foods since being handed the advertising accounts for four ‘Power Brands’ last year. As well as Oxo, JWT is responsible for the creative development of Ambrosia, Hovis and Mr Kipling.

During November 2011 Patak’s launched a new TV advertising campaign continuing the story of how it’s the reason ‘Why Britain Loves Curry.’

Created by JWT London, the TV campaign shows the brand’s expertise in selecting and blending the best quality spices for their products.

Called ‘Young Spice’, the TV activity is set in the 1960s and again features Patak’s Chairman, Kirit Pathak, as a child. The 60 second TV ad shows Kirit, who is now a little older, playing hide and seek with his younger brother in the family’s spice warehouse.

Hovis is launching a new tactical national press and outdoor campaign created by JWT London.

The ad features a bacon sandwich with a hearty filling of tomato ketchup, sliced into quarters to resemble the St George’s flag. The line ‘Happy St George’s’ is used to complete the story. The ad will run in the UK on St George’s Day.

To signal a new era of communications for Baxters, JWT London developed a campaign that put ‘taste’ as the justification for Baxters price premium, by telling interesting ‘stories’ about Baxters’ ingredients, processes and people in a surprising and engaging way – key to the visuals was a wry, sophisticated tone that conveyed the premium ingredients and tastes that Baxters offers. Taste was the filter for all the creative executions and the elegance and tone of the press ads reflected the premium quality of the products.

Through explaining in sensually appealing way how and why Baxters soups are superior and different, the press ads instilled in our audience not only the belief that Baxters tastes better, but also that Baxters is worth paying a little more for.

JWT London is proud to launch the first wave of the Austerity Index, a new quarterly research study which explores the impact of ongoing austerity on Britain’s consumers.

We’re living through the slowest economic recovery in our nation’s living memory.

These are uncharted waters for brands. We have no precedents to fall back on, no textbooks or handbooks on which we can rely this time. So it’s never been more crucial for us to understand exactly how consumers in the UK are behaving and changing in response to the new reality.

The Austerity Index is JWT’s solution: an in-depth quarterly survey that analyses the impact of prolonged economic adversity on UK consumers and markets. The Austerity Index aims to diagnose Britain’s emotional and rational reply to austerity, delivering the answers that brands and organisations need today.

How severely are consumers being affected? Who is hurting the most? What are the coping mechanisms consumers are deploying? Where are Britons cutting back, trading down or even opting out of categories? And how should brands respond?

JWT will be tracking these and other measures every quarter, from now until the economy recovers. We will provide a unique battery of metrics which will track the pace of that recovery, including our proprietary Austerity Index metric. Let’s investigate what the nation thinks and feels about austerity today.

Download a PDF of the full report here.

Iain Duncan Smith’s assertion that he would be prepared to live off just £53 in benefits per week ‘if he had to’, has been greeted with incredulity in some quarters. JWT London’s Austerity Index survey demonstrates the reason why.

The agency’s latest research shows that even low income households in the UK need to spend well over that amount each week purely to cover the cost of their household essentials.

JWT analysed expenditure by individuals in low-income households, earning under £20,000 before tax per annum. This amount is almost half the national average, which currently stands at £37,700 according to the latest figures from the ONS. JWT’s survey revealed that each week, to pay for necessities like groceries, toiletries, petrol and travel expenses, they fork out an average of £91. That’s excluding any money for the mortgage, or rent payments or any bills.

Once they have covered off those essentials, over a third of those surveyed told us they had nothing whatsoever left over to spend on themselves or others as a treat at the end of the month. A further third have just £50 left over. This equates to a princely sum of just over £12 per week, which is barely enough to cover a small round of drinks in the local pub. Small wonder respondents told us they were making very significant efforts to cut back on anything which is not absolutely essential: 32% of them rated their efforts to restrict discretionary spending a full ten out of ten (see table below for the top ten categories where this group are making sacrifices).

Yet low income groups are surprisingly modest in their financial aspirations. When asked how much one person needs to earn in order to live a good life, they averaged just under £23,000. That’s more than £3,000 below the national average income per head.

Over 400,000 people have now signed a petition challenging Mr Duncan Smith to ‘put his money where his mouth is’.  This reflects the discontent felt by many JWT panellists at the government’s approach to austerity, particularly by those who are struggling financially: 72% of those on low incomes say the government is making life harder for them.

Tracey Follows, Chief Strategy Officer and Executive Partner at JWT London, commented:

‘Our data illustrates that Mr Duncan Smith is going to have to be exceptionally frugal if he is going to take up the challenge to live on £53 a week, by those who are petitioning him. In fact our data shows that across every economic group people are finding ingenious ways to economise on an everyday basis, and that no group has escaped the bite of Austerity Britain.’

Notes to Editors

520 UK adults surveyed in March 2013 using the JWT SONAR panel.

JWT Austerity Index

The JWT Austerity Index is an in-depth quarterly research survey that analyses the impact of prolonged economic adversity on UK consumers and markets. The Austerity Index aims to diagnose Britain’s emotional and rational reply to austerity, delivering the answers that brands and organisations need today.

Full results will be released this month and published here: www.jwt.co.uk/thinking

Download a PDF of the press release here.

The mobile is moving well beyond its role as a communication device, becoming an enabler for a wide range of experiences from TV viewing to shopping to banking. And mobile connectivity is disrupting industries from retail to auto to finance and beyond. The consensus is that change is occurring at an astonishing scale and speed.

In this report, JWT outlines key trends in evidence at the GSMA’s Mobile World Congress, held in Barcelona in late February, along with examples that illustrate these developments and implications for brands. The report also incorporates insights from interviews with several mobile experts and influencers.

JWT London has set-up a new creative awards scheme which celebrates the best post and pre-graduate work and gives individuals the opportunity to have a paid placement at the agency.

By visiting the Yes Awards site, individuals, who have not yet been employed within the advertising industry, can submit creative work which will be reviewed by a JWT London Creative Director on a monthly basis. Each monthly winner will then be invited to visit JWT London to meet that month’s judge for one-to-one career advice. There will then be an annual award – a ‘Big Fat Yes’ – where the winner will receive a three-month paid placement.

Users can submit an idea in any media by uploading either an image or sharing a video link online. The work must be an entrants own personal work and not linked with an agency or any other awards.

The Yes Awards has been set-up by JWT London creative team, Mark Campion and Adam Collins, who joined the agency in 2009. The creative duo are partly responsible for new creative graduate recruitment at JWT London.

Adam Collins, a Creative at JWT London said: ‘Our Executive Creative Director, Russell Ramsey, is a notorious ‘NO’ man. Because a ‘YES’ is so rare we decided to turn it into an award and give fresh talent the chance to have a foot in the door.’

Russell Ramsey, Executive Creative Director at JWT London, commented: ‘We’re delighted to launch this awards initiative and give a new generation of Creatives the chance to showcase their work.’

Visit the Yes Awards site here.

JWT London has promoted the award winning creative Christiano Neves to the Head of Art position at the agency.

Neves, who was previously Creative Director and also Deputy Head of Art, was part of the creative team behind the acclaimed Kleenex ‘Feelings’ print campaign which was named No.1 Press Campaign in the World in 2010 (Big Won Rankings). The creative work also achieved Cannes Lions Gold in 2010.

Prior to joining JWT London in 2008 Neves worked in his native Brazil at F/Nazca S&S, FCB Brazil, Age Isobar and DM9DDB.

Russell Ramsey, Executive Creative Director at JWT London, said: “I am delighted promote Christiano. He has done some fantastic work at JWT and he is genuinely one of the best in the business.’

Separately, JWT London has also promoted Nik Finan to the position of Digital Director. In his new position he will work closely with JWT London’s Digital Executive Creative Director, Ricardo Figueira, and he will assist the creative department with optimising digital innovation opportunities.

To engage radio listeners and to promote the brand, Kleenex aired an April Fools’ Day spot to announce the launch of a fictitious Kleenex product, a box of left-handed tissues.

Those who got the joke would have chuckled. Those who didn’t (and you hope there weren’t too many) were left puzzling how Kleenex managed such a thing.

You can listen to the radio spot via the audio player below.

Hovis has launched a new Easter-themed outdoor campaign created by JWT London.

The ad features two Hovis Wholemeal Farmers rolls which are positioned to resemble the ears of the iconic Easter Bunny. The line ‘Happy Easter’ is used. The ad runs in the UK from 26th March until Easter Sunday.

KIT KAT challenges Oreo for fan’s affection on Twitter

KIT KAT recently challenged Oreo to a game of ‘Noughts and Crosses’ that ignited the excitement of chocolate and biscuit fans around the world.

The story all started when KIT KAT and Oreo fan Laura Ellen sent out the following message:

Can tell I like chocolate abit too much when I’m following @kitkat and @oreo hahahahahah

— LauraEllen (@Laura_ellenxx) March 11, 2013

The team at JWT London, which handles KIT KAT’s global social media account, picked up this tweet and KIT KAT issued the following cheeky challenge to Oreo to #haveabreak:

The fight for @laura_ellenxx‘s affections is on. @oreo your move #haveabreak twitpic.com/cb1g84

— Kit Kat (@KITKAT) March 13, 2013

 
 
Laura was delighted with this gesture:
 

@kitkat @oreo OMG AM I IN HEAVEN — LauraEllen (@Laura_ellenxx) March 13, 2013

 
The world watched and waited and finally Oreo responded by showing just how much they love KIT KAT too:
 

Sorry, @kitkat we couldn’t resist … #GiveOreoABreak twitter.com/Oreo/status/31…

— Oreo Cookie (@Oreo) March 13, 2013

The KIT KAT/Oreo battle so far has reached 18 million people, with 6,600 mentions on Twitter (including RT’s) and also positive buzz in 24 languages.

JWT London was also responsible for the KIT KAT #breakfromgravity activity last year when Felix Baumgartner had to take a break from his record breaking space jump attempt due to bad weather (http://jwt.co.uk/news/kit-kat-break-from-gravity.html).

HSBC captures the spirit of the Hong Kong Sevens with new Serious Play campaign

HSBC has launched a brand new Serious Play campaign to support the financial group’s co-title sponsorship of the 2013 Cathay Pacific / HSBC Hong Kong Sevens tournament, which takes place this weekend (22-24 March) at the Hong Kong Stadium.

This year, HSBC has minted a commemorative Serious Play medallion for the fans at the event – one of the biggest weekends in the Hong Kong calendar. The Serious side represents the world class 7s Rugby and the Play side represents the weekend’s legendary carnival atmosphere. HSBC has minted 10,000 of them and are exclusively available to fans in the HSBC 7s Village.

The campaign, created by JWT London, focuses on the two sides of the medallion. The official stadium film charts its fantastical creation in a secret underground Mint beneath the Hong Kong stadium. Rugby players create the Serious side and the fans produce the Play side. The film launches on YouTube first and will then be shown throughout the weekend in the Stadium. The campaign is amplified with high impact outdoor sites, press and digital display across key platforms.

The film is set to the legendary party anthem Jump Around by House of Pain and features cameos from rugby legends Gavin Hastings and George Gregan.

The Cathay Pacific / HSBC Hong Kong Sevens tournament is the flagship event in the HSBC Sevens World Series with 28 international teams set to take part in 2013.

Andrea Newman, Group Head of Marketing & Advertising Communications at HSBC, said: “We are very proud to sponsor the Hong Kong Sevens – a headline event in our sponsorship calendar in our spiritual home. We want to show our support by celebrating the weekend with the people of Hong Kong. This year the campaign tells a remarkable story of our Serious Play commemorative medallion coming to life and for the lucky fans, a great memento from a superb weekend of rugby and celebration.”

Nation using every trick in the book to make ends meet

Austerity Britain is producing a nation of savvy budget tacticians who rely upon a slew of strategies to make their money go further in tough times.

These are the preliminary findings from JWT London’s Austerity Index, a new quarterly survey which will analyse the impact of prolonged economic adversity on British consumers and markets.

JWT London found that 92% of Britons are deploying one or more of a range of coping mechanisms to save money; from spending money-off coupons (58%), to using up loyalty points (53%), checking price comparison tools (54%) or shopping at discount stores (46%).

Brits are prepared to put in the spade work too, going to the additional effort of using cash-back sites when shopping online (24%) and switching their utilities suppliers (19%) and mobile tariffs(17%).

As well as making savings, many are finding new ways to generate cash. Selling unwanted items is another popular way to restock the coffers: 51% are selling, or planning to sell, items at car boot sales or online via auction sites like eBay.

JWT London’s findings suggest that being a thrifty consumer is now a way of life for many.  A domestic marginal gains theory is at work in homes up and down the nation: shaving a few pennies here, earning a pound there. The data shows that those in higher income households are even more likely to have adopted these habits (95% of them) than those in the lower-earning demographic (89% are doing so).

Figure 1: How do your personal finances make you feel? (pic credit: http://www.tagxedo.com)

Taking charge in this way is contributing to a greater sense of accountability for many. Feelings towards personal finances are predictably negative, but amidst the gloom there’s a glint of steely resourcefulness.  While 30% of people report feeling depressed, 27% feel in control.

It seems that when push comes to shove, Britain will cope with whatever austerity can throw at it, using every trick and tactic at its disposal. No surprise then that 62% agree that austerity has taught us something: how to live with less.

Tracey Follows, Chief Strategy Officer and Executive Partner at JWT London, commented:

“This is the slowest recovery in living memory and Britons continue to battle depressed incomes and spiralling prices.  JWT London thinks it’s crucial to understand exactly what’s really going on under the bonnet of Britain as a result.  How are people feeling?  Where are people economising and how much?  What are the coping strategies they are calling into play to keep their households afloat?  Our Austerity Index will deliver the answers to these questions. And our preliminary findings are fascinating, proving that super-savvy consumers have stepped up to the austerity challenge and taken forensic responsibility for their spending.”

-ends-

Notes to Editors:

1. Low income defined as households earning less than £20,000 and high income as those earning over £40,000.

2. JWT polled 520 UK adults during March 2013 via JWT SONAR.

3. JWT’s Austerity Index UK will be released end March/early April.

Download a PDF of the press release here.

National Centre for Domestic Violence (NCDV) has launched an unnerving national TV advertising campaign, which has been created by JWT London.

Called ‘House Hunt’, the campaign uses the everyday situation of an estate agent showing a couple around their dream home, but the usual sales patter is replaced by descriptions with a violent undertone. The estate agent’s descriptions include: ‘Double-glazed so no-one will hear your screams’ and ‘be careful on these steep stairs, easy to fall down. Accidentally, of course.’

As the estate agent finishes showing the couple around the house and proceeds to lock the door, the copy ‘1 in 4 women will suffer abuse behind closed doors’ is shown on screen followed by ‘there is a way out’. The ad ends by showing how viewers can get in touch with NCDV.

The work airs for the first time in the UK on 13th March 2013 and will run for three weeks. It can also be viewed on the charity’s YouTube channel. The ad was directed by Steve Cope through the production company Rattling Stick.

NCDV was established to help survivors of domestic violence obtain protection against an abuser, as well as offering services to the police, probation service, domestic abuse agency workers, legal profession and judiciary.

It specialises in providing free, fast and effective legal support to survivors of domestic violence, usually by helping individuals obtain injunctions from their local county court. This free service is provided to everybody, regardless of their financial circumstances, sexual orientation, race, gender, age, or political or religious belief or otherwise.

Steve Connor, CEO of NCDV, said: “Rather than showing actual physical abuse or the impact of domestic violence this campaign provokes a stronger emotive response by forcing the viewer to imagine the scenes of violence being described.”

Shell launches industry-leading marketing campaign for Shell Helix Engine Oil

In order to find out how Shell Helix Ultra would perform in some of the harshest environments in the world, Shell has partnered with Discovery Channel to create a three‐part television series in which Hollywood stars, paired with professional drivers, tackle the freezing wilds of Siberia, the baking Taklamakan desert in China and the dense jungles of Malaysia. This innovative marketing campaign, called “Shell Helix Driven to Extremes”, also has a strong digital dimension, including mobile apps, a Facebook game and a dedicated YouTube channel, with behind the scenes footage and details on the vehicles, the engines and the all‐important oil.

The campaign, including digital communications, has been created by JWT London. The series was produced by JWT London’s specialist branded content division, JWT Entertainment, in partnership with the production company North One.

“We are delighted to share this real‐life test of Shell Helix Ultra,” said Colin Abraham, Vice President Marketing, Shell Lubricants. “It is one thing to say that your engine oil can stand up to extreme challenges, but quite another to go to these intense locations, test and prove it on screen. It was a fantastic experience for us and I hope audiences will enjoy following the challenges and the triumphs in the three TV episodes. We are airing the series in 75 countries from March 2013. If you watch, you will see just how much the crews relied on the technical performance of the oil to keep their engines going, and to get home safely.”

In the first episode, the actor Tom Hardy, star of “The Dark Knight”, is paired with F1 legend Mika Salo. They head along the Kolyma Highway or “Road of Bones” in Siberia, where temperatures can drop as low as ‐60 degrees Celsius. Then, the actor Henry Cavill, star of “Superman”, is paired with MotoGP champion Neil Hodgson. They travel to China’s Taklamakan desert, known as the “desert of death” due to temperatures of over 40 degrees Celsius. The final episode sees the return of F1 driver Mika Salo, this time paired with Oscar‐winning actor and star of “The Pianist” Adrien Brody. They tackle the unforgiving Johor jungle in southern Malaysia during monsoon season, facing local wildlife, torrential rain and mudslides.

Digital content accompanying the series is live at www.youtube.com/shellhelix, lifting the lid on the making of the television episodes with exclusive clips. It also provides more on the purpose built vehicle and the technical performance of the engine oil, which is being stretched to the limit.

HSBC has launched a commercial as a follow up to the successful ‘Lemonade’ TV campaign which saw a young girl’s lemonade stand accept multiple currencies. The new ad builds upon the initial story to dramatise how international supply chains will generate growth for businesses.

‘The Lemon Grove’ was created by JWT London and will air from 4^th March 2013 across global and local markets, in-flight channels and online.

In the follow-up film, our young Lemonade seller travels to India to meet an equally ambitious and entrepreneurial lemon trader to become business partners. It’s only when a young French lemonade seller enters the story that we realise her business has grown from a simple American front lawn to connect with an Indian supplier and a French distributor.

The charming story demonstrates that HSBC recognises that the future of business growth is powered by international connections. HSBC’s international footprint and expertise are uniquely placed to deliver against this. The activity is part of HSBC’s wider ‘In The Future’ campaign which places international banking at the heart of HSBC’s capabilities. The activity will be supported by HSBC’s business divisions from traditional advertising through to customer engagement.

Andrea Newman, Global Head of Advertising and Marketing Communications, at HSBC said: ‘HSBC’s global footprint, knowledge and resources facilitate international business opportunities for its customers. The marketing aims to bring this to life with a sense of warmth, simplicity and optimism to inspire growth.’

If you are still studying or have graduated, are over 18 years of age, and are looking for work experience within the Account Management department at JWT, we run an excellent programme where you will definitely NOT be focussing on working out how to use the photocopier for two weeks.

Click here to download our application form. Once completed, please send your application form to London.workexperience@jwt.com.

Submission Deadlines

We are currently accepting applications for our September – December placements. Submission Deadline is Monday 1^st July 2013

Please only apply if you are looking for a placement during September – December. We will be accepting applications for 2014 later in the year.

During the weekends of 16th & 17th and 23rd & 24th February 2013 ground-breaking TV ads aired live from military operations on ITV as part of a brand new campaign to encourage more people to join the Territorial Army (TA).

In a first of its kind for the military, the innovative, attention-grabbing ads were broadcast live from operations in Afghanistan kick starting the brand new TA LIVE campaign.

The ads captured TA soldiers going about their everyday duties as Reservists in Afghanistan alongside their Regular counterparts. Each ad ran for approximately one minute and the viewer was transported directly to the front line. They witnessed first-hand how people with very similar lives to theirs are volunteering to serve their country as a fulfilling second career.

The TA LIVE campaign has been developed by JWT on behalf of Capita plc who work in a partnering arrangement with the Army to deliver recruitment services. Capita’s programme of activity represents a major investment in the transformation of military recruiting.

The ground-breaking advertising campaign was created by JWT London with production partner ITN Productions. JWT London has also created further multi-channel above-the-line and below-the-line communications including a custom YouTube channel, electronic direct mails, print toolkits, employer communications and several city centre recruitment events taking place across the UK.

TA LIVE illustrates the huge range of exciting opportunities available to Reservists and help encourage more people to consider joining the TA, which is set to increase to 30,000 members by 2018.

Further live ads can be found here.

As part of JWT’s global 100 Things to Watch list for the year ahead, JWT London presents the Top 20 Things to Watch in 2013. It’s a round-up of some of the latest sightings, manifestations and technologies which we expect to see breaking through this year in spheres like travel, food, retail and sustainability. This report complements our predictions on the broader shifts we’re forecasting for the year ahead in our Ten Trends for 2013.

1.    Alternative Brand Currencies
2.    Biometric Authentication
3.    Cloaking
4.    Coaching Brands
5.    Cutting out the Middleman
6.    Dads in the Aisles
7.    Data Scientists
8.    Emotion Recognition
9.    Food Sharing
10.  Frontier Markets
11.  Handwriting = Hieroglyphics
12.  Human Centered Tech
13.  Impact Sourcing
14.  Low Cost Robots
15.  Media that Gets to Know You
16.  Neuro-technology
17.  NFC Tags
18.  Patchwork Earnings
19.  Peer Power
20.  Vertical Farming

Hovis is tapping into the spirit of Valentine’s Day with a new tactical ad running in national press on 14^th February 2013.

The ad, created by JWT London, features two slices of Hovis Wholemeal bread, lightly toasted with a hearty serving of jam and arranged in a heart shape.

Blue Dragon has launched a TV and Digital marketing campaign to show how consumers can give their stir fry legendary status by using the range.

Created by JWT London, the UK campaign launched on 11^th February. Supported by the line ‘Make your stir fry legendary with Blue Dragon’ the campaign was created in response to the consumer need to create quick and healthy meals on a weekday, and that stir fry is something everyone can do, no matter what their level of culinary skill.

The TV activity shows the character Charlie who becomes an overnight sensation. When questioned about his success Charlie has no idea that Blue Dragon is the reason behind the popularity of his dish.

The Digital work, also created by JWT London, launches with the ‘Legendary Stir Fry Maker’ Facebook app. The app allows busy consumers to ‘spin a wok’ to generate Blue Dragon stir fry recipe suggestions. Users have the choice of inputting ingredients they have left in their fridge or cupboards to generate suggestions, or they can click ‘surprise me’ for total inspiration. The recipes, as well as a user’s secret stir fry ingredient suggestions, can then be shared with friends via the app.

The campaign is also supported by experiential and shopper marketing activity.

Tracey Follows, who interviewed 20 pioneers of planning from the 60s and 70s, asks how their methods can inform today’s future-facing industry.

This article first appeared in Campaign (cover date 8 February 2013). It can also be found on the Campaign website.

By Tracey Follows, Chief Strategy Officer & Executive Partner at JWT London

The 20s are back: dapper dressing, period drama and recession (perhaps depression). Even The Great Gatsby is back, though this time on our screens. And as many a Gatsby fan will know, the last lines of the book speak to the future as well as the past.

It was while I was rereading Gatsby that I was, with John Griffiths, also interviewing 20 of the UK’s First Generation Planners: those pioneers of planning working for Stephen King at JWT from about 1968 to the mid-70s. Much has been debated about the future of planning but, like any good planning approach, before we set off towards the future we should learn something from what has gone before. So, let’s “beat on, boats against the current… into the past”.

What is a planner?

No-one we spoke to could or wanted to answer this question. It was an emerging discipline back in 1968/69 and the “planners” we spoke to were hired from media, HR or research agencies such as BMRB, and even from clients, most notably Unilever. One common theme was that no-one seemed to come into planning without having done something else beforehand.

Agencies operated the commission system so one didn’t have to justify every single planning hour. This meant that heads of planning could hire someone and just “see how she works out”. If that person seemed to understand brands and human beings, they were hired. One former head of planning said: “I interviewed quite a lot of people using free association: tell me, what are those shoes about? Go! If they couldn’t do that, then they couldn’t plan.”

The job of planning

This diversity meant that every planner approached planning in a slightly different way. Some like Ev Jenkins did all of her own research to get close to consumers and it shows in the creative work (the Oxo family). Jack Krelle, who had started as a copywriter, brought his briefs to life visually because he believed that “too much marketing is done in the verbal world and we live in a non-verbal world”. One of his briefs was just a sketch of Weetabix as a pair of carpet slippers in a bowl, and Cornflakes as an alarm clock.

The planning task

JWT’s T-Plan was innovative at the time, because to consider the “response” you wanted from the consumer first, ahead of the messaging, was a new thought. It forced planners to answer the question: how will this influence someone? Can we really say as an industry these days that we, or our clients, are forensic about this? Do we know “how” all the communications work?

Planning v research

Across the communications industry, something in the response approach has been lost in the mists of time. Some of the greatest advertising from that golden era embedded sensorial and sensual elements, rather than relying on visiting the twinned towns of rational and emotional. The semiotician Greg Rowland recently said that the food industry has forgotten that “food is a physical thing”. In our rush towards the utility of the digital world, we have forgotten this, abandoning the product experience perhaps in favour of big life totems.

Planners were not beholden to research. Jenkins told the fascinating story of the Oxo family. The client was receiving sacks of hate mail telling him to take it off air because the ad wasn’t showing well-behaved happy families: “It was kids behaving badly on television, not being grateful or courteous, and that was what real families were like, but people were surprised… it was all a bit of a shock.” It was deliberate because the creative was developed to air within the context of Butterflies and Boys From The Blackstuff, which were new to our screens. It begs the question: are we “listening” too much to what consumers now have to say, rather than listening to what they don’t say?

One final lesson

Never underestimate the power of a good lunch in creating a good idea. When else do planners, with their clients, get to just “chew over” problems outside the angst of a meeting room? It’s clear that making time for “deep thinking” and in-depth discussion was the key to discovering the answer rather than a series of blind alleys. It was all about delivering ideas with intelligence and that is one thing that will never change.

Also appoints two high profile Planners

Tracey Follows has restructured JWT London’s planning department and made two key hirings. The move comes three months after Follows was hired as Chief Strategy Officer and Executive Partner.

The restructure of the 44-strong department is a reflection of the creative effectiveness culture and the internationalism of JWT. It has also been done to future-proof the agency’s planning approach to take on the significant growth in digital and data centric communications. The Planning department will now be divided into four connected functions – brand planning, engagement planning, response planning and planning foresight.

Neil Godber from BBH has been hired as JWT London’s Deputy Head of Planning. Neil is a rising star in the industry and was the joint Grand Prix winner at the last APG awards in 2011, for his Dixons campaign, ‘the last place you’d go’, which also won at Cannes and D&AD. He is also the lead planner on Audi, Barclays, Gordon’s Gin and KFC at BBH.

Kris Flemington from VCCP also joins as Head of Response Planning. Follows first worked with Flemington when she a client at BT and he was at Ogilvy One. Follows later hired him at VCCP to head up direct response and digital planning on the O2 business. At JWT he will be responsible for growing the data analytics and digital direct teams across the whole agency.

Follows said: “We’re in transformational times so we need a broad church of planners who bring all kinds of intelligence from very diverse planning backgrounds. Kris and Neil are both extremely talented modern day thinkers who were attracted to the intellectual heritage of the JWT brand.”

Dean Baker reckons even if most brands don’t aim to be media owners, content is still key to building their reputation and boosting sales.

This article first appeared in Campaign (cover date 11 January 2013). It can also be found on the Campaign website.

By Dean Baker, Head of JWT Entertainment at JWT London

It’s a hugely exciting, much-debated world in content and much of what the industry has dealt with in the past 12 months has provided solid learnings for the year ahead. As a result, it’s a burgeoning area for ambitious brands.

When we formed JWT Entertainment, we tried to reduce content to a really simple thought: how can marketers use content as opposed to advertising to build their brands’ relationships with their consumers? It’s a reversal, for sure, as it puts consumers at the centre rather than the brands, and it leads to engaging audiences rather than disrupting consumers who were engaged with something else.

Content is the new method of telling a story. Storytelling is something we’ve always done as agencies, but rich, creative content now allows us to bring these stories to life. And we are not just talking about film here. When we define content, its purpose is to build a relationship with a brand, to engage, entertain and excite. So, with this in mind, let’s look forward to the next 12 months…

Strategy

Content isn’t a box to check. It isn’t a one-off tactic – it must be used for the long-term strategy. Also, we must not lose sight of the fact that the overwhelming majority of brands aren’t broadcasters or media owners such as NBC, YouTube and Netflix. Most don’t care about creating Boardwalk Empire or Homeland. They want to build their brand, change perception, increase sales – whatever their business needs, it probably isn’t an Emmy, a Bafta or a Booker.

Marketers don’t wake up and think “Today I am going to create a hit TV series, web series, game” etc. What keeps them awake at night is market position. So anything they can do to cut through to their consumers in a meaningful, accountable way, they will include in their marketing mix.

Agencies and marketers need to understand the role that content has to play in the overarching strategy. This is crucial if content is to reach its full potential.

Context

Let’s try to give a little context to where we find ourselves today. The birth of the YouTube generation, the phenomenon of Facebook, the global dominance of Apple driving new platforms for engagement. Add to the mix five broadcast networks, hundreds of cable and satellite networks and, perhaps even more significantly, Netflix, iTunes, video on demand and so on… In 2013, more distribution platforms will be added to the list and, in five years’ time, the landscape is likely to be unrecognisable. So agencies and brands need to move fast to keep up.

Brands need to set goals and design content that works against a trans-media model that is relevant to their consumers. It’s of fundamental importance to a brand that its content is available to consume across multiple touchpoints on different platforms. But it’s more than this – building the campaign in a transmedia way allows filmed content, music, written word and social media to all work together to amplify reach and engage consumers, wherever they happen to be. The sum of the parts truly becomes so much more significant than each individual component. In 2013, brands must look to transmedia models that begin to build communities and forge meaningful relationships with their consumers.

Collaboration and Leadership

Previous years have witnessed a content turf war. This needs to end during 2013, and let’s all be hopeful that it does. We do things better when all agencies collaborate and have a properly integrated approach to content creation. This is how I look at it: in the end, it’s all about creative ideas and great content. Working with ideas, writers, directors – that’s our business, it’s what we do. We make stuff. We create content with exciting, engaging ideas that build our clients’ brands. In a few years’ time, the world will look different again, there will be even more devices, even more platforms – but it’s irrelevant. To use a much overused phrase: content is king. And how or where you engage with it, on whichever platform or device, is immaterial.

However, it doesn’t matter how great the content is or how relevant it is to the brand if it doesn’t find an audience – it is a meaningless waste of marketing bucks. The role media agencies play in making content a success is significant. To misquote Field Of Dreams: “If you build it, they won’t come” – because they simply don’t know about it unless the media agencies have played their role in the collaboration. They also need to have defined a strategy to activate the content and distribute it, whatever the content might be.

The Future for Brands

Brands that are brave and pioneering, which try to understand – even shape – the emerging content models, will play a vital role in developing new ways to engage audiences. Brands that don’t explore the space or dismiss it as irrelevant to their business risk losing relevance with their consumers. They will fall behind – or, for some, fall further behind – if they continue to think like this.

Brands this year need to elevate the importance of content: connect it to everything else, surround it with other marketing activity and ensure that it’s properly amplified. Only then will it achieve its full potential.

This opens up the opportunity to develop content that directly engages a brand’s audience. To have a vital role in the development of content, as opposed to sticking their ad disruptively in the middle of it or sticking a logo on a finished product. This year will be about bringing more brands to the writer’s room and moving the needle in this hugely exciting new world of content creation.

Branded content and entertainment has truly become key to brand communication that creatively engages its consumers. The convergence of marketing and entertainment feels like it is just coming of age. Roll on 2013.

Image credit: Colin Stout

JWT has released its seventh annual list of 100 Things to Watch for the year ahead.

Many of JWT’s Things to Watch are technology-centric, including the proliferation of “appcessories,” digital ecosystems, flexible screens and responsive Web design. The list also includes new foods or ingredients to watch (faux meat, teff), new types of goods or businesses (quiet products, shopping hotels), new behaviours (mindful living, privacy etiquette) and ideas with the potential to ladder up to bigger trends.

JWT’s 100 Things to Watch in 2013, unranked and in alphabetical order:

1.         3D Bioprinting
2.         Adult Playgrounds
3.         African Tech Stars
4.         Allergen-Free
5.         Alternative Brand Currencies
6.         Ambushed by Amazon
7.         Appcessories
8.         The Arabic Web
9.         B2C/P2P Partnerships
10.       Bee Venom
11.       Biometric Authentication
12.       Blocking Social Media Bores
13.       Chia Seeds
14.       Click-and-Collect Shopping
15.       “Cloaking”
16.       Coaching Brands
17.       Cool Techie Camps
18.       Crowdsourced Translation
19.       Cutting out the Middleman
20.       Cyber War
21.       Dads in the Aisles
22.       Data Scientists: The New Hotshots
23.       Decline of Chinese Bling
24.       Desalination
25.       Detoxifying Life
26.       Digital Ecosystems
27.       Drones
28.       ecoATM
29.       Egg Freezing
30.       Emotion Recognition
31.       The End of Voicemail
32.       Faux Meat
33.       Fitness Beyond the Gym
34.       Flexible Screens
35.       Food Sharing
36.       Frontier Markets
37.       G20 Devolves to G-Zero
38.       Gender-Blurred Toys
39.       Geofencing
40.       Green Growth
41.       Handwriting = Hieroglyphics
42.       Hotels in Africa
43.       Human-Centered Tech
44.       Humane Food
45.       Hyper-Personalized Customer Service
46.       Impact Sourcing
47.       Imperfection
48.       Individual Attention
49.       Instant-Erase Apps
50.       JOMO (Joy Of Missing Out)
51.       Live-Streaming Life
52.       Low-Cost Robots
53.       Low-Tech Device Charging
54.       Media That Gets to Know You
55.       Medical Smartphones
56.       Menu-Free Dining
57.       Midcalorie Foods
58.       Mindful Living
59.       Mobile-Optimized Goes Mainstream
60.       MOOC Stars
61.       Nature As Antidote
62.       Neurotechnology
63.       New Digital Royalty
64.       News Bites
65.       NFC Tags
66.       Objects With Attitude
67.       Offset Thinking
68.       Online Groceries
69.       Paperless Education
70.       Passwords 2.0
71.       Patchwork Earnings
72.       Personal Data Ownership
73.       Prime Time for Second Screen
74.       Privacy Etiquette
75.       Quiet Products
76.       Reduced-Guilt Candy
77.       Responsive Web Design
78.       Retailers Enable Recycling
79.       River Cruising
80.       Self-Service
81.       Serialized Digital Fiction
82.       Set Jetting
83.       Shopping Hotels
84.       Social Media Hacks
85.       Standup Desks
86.       Stress-Monitoring Apps
87.       Sugru
88.       Tablet Shopping
89.       Tech-Enabled Farm-to-Fork
90.       Teff
91.       Trade School
92.       Trust Ratings
93.       User-Based Insurance
94.       Variable Pricing
95.       Vegetable Boxes
96.       Vertical Farming
97.       Video Games As Art
98.       Window Shopping
99.       Wireless Charging
100.     Yogurt Shops

Hovis is launching a tactical advertising campaign in time for Christmas.

The campaign, created by JWT London, features three Hovis loafs which have been positioned to spell out ‘Ho Ho Ho’. The line ‘Merry Christmas from Hovis’ is used.

The work will run in national UK newspapers on Sunday 23^rd December 2012.

Mr Kipling has launched a national Christmas advertising campaign promoting its seasonal range.

The outdoor campaign, created by JWT London, features the two new Christmas products Mince Pies with Brandy Sauce, and Black Forest Whirls, as well as favourites such as Christmas Cake Slices and Frosty Fancies.

‘A Miniature Kipling Christmas’ shows miniature figurines enjoying the festivities. The campaign is made up of four executions called ‘Salvation Army’, ‘Christmas Trees’, ‘Ice Skating’ and ‘Snowball Fight’.

The ‘Salvation Army’ ad features cake dispensers, which are located in a number of key locations and distribute free slices of Mr Kipling Christmas Cake at the touch of a button. The sites are scented with evocative festive aromas and will also play a version of ‘We Wish You A Merry Christmas’ recorded exclusively for Mr Kipling by the Salvation Army. A donation will be given to the Salvation Army for each cake slice dispensed.

Media planning and buying for ‘A Miniature Kipling Christmas’ has been handled by Starcom. The ‘Salvation Army’ cake dispenser activity was secured by Starcom through JCDecaux Innovate.

The work builds upon the ‘Jubilee Celebrations’ work, also created by JWT London, which ran earlier this year and celebrated the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee.

Free Cake Dispenser

Salvation Army

Christmas Trees

Ice Skating

Snowball Fight

Embers of the Olympic Flame Still Glow

It’s now three months since the two hundred and four copper petals of Thomas Heatherwick’s Olympic cauldron were dismantled and shipped off to the participating nations. The stadia are empty, the volunteers are gone and the only Olympic medallist still on primetime TV is gymnast Louis Smith, currently shimmying away on Strictly Come Dancing.

So you might expect the good feeling surrounding the event to have been dampened, at least a little bit.

JWT London polled the nation in the final instalment of our Olympic Mood Tracker to see if Britain was still revelling in the patriotic glow of a year filled with momentous achievements, or whether we were suffering a monumental comedown.  We admit, we were expecting to be brought back to earth.

Yet, despite the floods, the foundering economy, Leveson and Operation Yewtree, national pride is still buoyant since our last wave of data, remaining just above 8 out of 10. And that is before the nation heard the exciting news of The Royal Bump!

Our other key measure, which tracks whether Brits believe the Games will be a good thing for Britain shows that faith in the Olympic legacy has also been sustained, with an overwhelming 85% still convinced.  So far, so good.  But what form do we think the legacy will take?

­Our data suggests that Britain has uncovered a rich seam of confidence as a result of London 2012: 67% believe we will have greater pride in the nation (more on that to come) and that the world will have a more positive image of Britain, 54% believe our national identity will be stronger, and 53% think people will feel more British.  Resoundingly, the legacy of the Games is this: Britain is a nation that finally feels good about itself and can hold its head up on the world stage.  We are even convinced our sporting success will continue: 55% say Britain’s athletes will perform even better in future.

When it comes to sports participation, the figures are a little more subdued but still significant:  27% have been inspired to take up a new sport, with one brave respondent claiming to be a novice hammer thrower.

But as our word cloud shows, it’s cycling that has truly captured our imagination. With the success of the GB cycling team and role models such as Chris Hoy and Sarah Storey smashing records, it’s hardly surprising that 2012 has been the year of the bike. No doubt Bradley Wiggins’ Tour de France glory played its part too, along with the success of city cycling schemes and the government’s Cycle to Work initiative.

New sports taken up by Britons since London 2012

When it comes to facilitation, though, it’s a different story:  although a fifth say they have seen a greater emphasis on sports in schools, less than one in ten people have seen any new facilities or new space made available for sport in their local area. Two-thirds have seen no change whatsoever in the provision of sports facilities or opportunities.  Clearly there is an opportunity here for appropriate brands to partner with communities and enable people to fulfil their sporting aspirations.

One much-reported consequence of London 2012 was a transformation in public attitudes towards disability.  JWT’s data underlines this: Britons chose this as their overriding personal legacy from the Games, with 46% saying their attitudes to disability had changed for the better.  Beyond this, it seems that Jessica Ennis’s six-pack has spurred some on to make a few lifestyle changes with 37% pledging to do more about their health, and 33% committing to being more active and eating more healthily.  And it’s not just a physical peak we aspire to: 30% now feel driven to achieve their personal best in life, rising to 44% for 18-34s.

If that’s not inspiration for a generation, we’ll eat our hats.

Tracey Follows, Chief Strategy Officer & Executive Partner at JWT London, commented: “Us Brits can be somewhat cynical at times, so it’s a surprise to see how our pride in being British has endured and how overwhelmingly positive we remain about the Olympic legacy. This shows how utterly transformative the Games were; our notions of who we are and our place in the world have definitely changed. It will be interesting to see how we feel about it all a year from now.”

Note: JWT surveyed 375 British people at the start of December 2012. Regional samples have been weighted to be nationally representative.

Final Legacy of the Games for Britain: Top 10

Final Legacy of the Games For You: Top 10

Picture word cloud credit: wordle.net

Shell has launched a global interactive video to encourage consumers to think about the role and importance of energy in their day-to-day lives.

The activity is part of Shell’s ‘Let’s Go’ corporate brand initiative and builds upon the global above-the-line ‘Energy Mix’ campaign.

The interactive work (see below) uses the narrative of the TV executions, created by JWT London, and allows the user online to decide where the action goes next. This allows the user to gain more information about the energy being used, where the energy comes from and also Shell’s energy contribution today and tomorrow.

JWT London worked in close partnership with Interlude to create the digital activity, which runs on YouTube, Shell.com and also Facebook. By allowing further interaction the aim is to encourage users to acquire more information about the energy debate and learn about Shell’s contributions to broadening the global energy mix to deliver a more sustainable energy future.

JWT worked with Interlude to make the real time interaction possible, with MediaCom managing placement of the work online.

Interlude created the technology that powers online real time interaction creating seamless video storytelling.

Malena Cutuli de Tur, Global Brand Communications Manager at Shell, said: ‘The real time interaction is only possible due to Interlude’s cutting edge technology. To date this technology has primarily been used for entertainment and pop promos. Shell is delighted to have been able to partner with Interlude to use this technology as part of the ‘Let’s Go’ campaign. It has allowed us to create content that will appeal to a younger audience, an audience that need to be part of the debate about our energy future”.

Debenhams is launching a multi-million pound Christmas campaign – the retailer’s first since 2006.

The TV campaign, which has been created by JWT London, airs for the first time on Wednesday 7^th November and shows a woman’s journey home for Christmas. The ad, called ‘Christmas Made Fabulous’, stars Designers at Debenhams newcomer Jenny Packham, alongside favourites Julien Macdonald and Henry Holland.

During the ad the audience shares in a series of Christmas moments such as party-goers celebrating on a balcony, a little girl dancing with her granddad and a man haplessly wrapping his gifts for his girlfriend on the train.

The ad builds on the brand’s successful ‘Life Made Fabulous’ TV campaign with the familiar sight of Designers at Debenhams working in their studios as the ad’s heroine peers through windows or passes by Henry’s, Julien’s and Jenny’s workshops.

Billie Piper remains the voice of the ad campaign; with the words ‘Wherever you are this Christmas, make it fabulous with Debenhams’ giving a festive twist to the familiar ‘Life Made Fabulous’ strapline.

It might be the most closely-fought election in recent history for the US, but in the UK it’s already a foregone conclusion.

According to JWT London’s pre-election research, an overwhelming 85% of those surveyed would vote for Barack Obama if they could, concurring with political heavyweight Wayne Rooney who tweeted his support last week. 86% are convinced that he can do a better job as President than challenger Mitt Romney. And in a real vote of confidence, the same percentage think his victory would be better for the UK and 79% think it would be better for Europe.

Such is our faith in Obama, that even when asked to select the best political leader from amongst all the current major US and UK politicians, he won hands-down with 60% of the vote.

The drama may be playing out on the other side of the Atlantic, but Brits are still following the action: over half of our respondents (53%) said they are taking an active interest in proceedings. The contest resonates over the pond because, despite the much-vaunted rise of the BRICS, the USA is still viewed as the global superpower, with the majority of Britons (54%) choosing it as the world’s most influential nation.

Yet despite our professed interest, it appears we Brits don’t have a particularly solid grasp of the details. Although 100% of respondents could correctly identify the two presidential candidates, a third were unable to link Obama and Romney with the correct political party.

With sketchy knowledge of the candidates’ political positioning, the UK’s vote appears to be based largely on personality. And it’s a black and white picture we are painting, straight out of Hollywood:   superhero versus super-villain.

Obama, the good guy, is upstanding and moral; perceived as intelligent (61%), charismatic (53%) and friendly (53%); Brits think he is likely to be kind to animals (87%), be a good husband (85%), respect women (88%) and buy the Big Issue (81%).

Romney on the other hand is the archetypal baddie: arrogant (42%), disconnected (33%) and ruthless (32%); he’s more likely to have an affair (81%), cut someone up in traffic (85%) and even pinch stationery from the White House (73%). Naughty Mitt.

So why do we hold such strong opinions, especially about Romney, a man about whom we arguably know relatively little? He seriously lost favour with Britain back in July when he questioned whether London could host a successful Olympic Games on the eve of the event. His case has not been helped by the British media, who have delighted in highlighting his gaffes, continually portraying him as a hapless Bush-esque figure. Compare this to Obama’s decent, hardworking, sleeves-rolled up persona. According to JWT’s panel, he’s the host of the party that 86% of us would rather attend because ‘it would have more people I could relate to’ and ‘better music and conversation’.

And we’re keen to keep the Anglo-American party going all night: 77% agree that the relationship between the US and the UK is extremely important for the UK politically and we should continue to invest in it. In fact, if nations were schoolchildren in the global playground, 78% of us would choose to make friends with the US before any other country. Perhaps, as mentioned earlier, we recognise the power and influence of America, and its potential to offer the UK protection (73% agree). That said, we’re not so head-over-heels in love with our transatlantic cousins that we won’t cosy up to other nations too; 85% of us think that the UK should now be focusing on building strong relationships with countries other than the US, especially China (67%) and Germany (27%).

So if Obama stays at the helm for another four years, it looks like the US and UK will continue to be great playmates. But don’t worry Barack, if it doesn’t go to plan next Tuesday, you can always cross the pond and forge a political career here. The Brits would welcome you with open arms!

Tracey Follows, Chief Strategy Officer and Executive Partner at JWT London, said: ‘Something about Obama really chimes with the British public and the mood of the nation right now. Essentially he looks like a decent, hardworking family man who is in touch with the person on the street. We know Brits are a grounded bunch, and it’s Obama’s down-to-earth, good guy persona that they respond to. There seems to be a real appetite for this kind of political image in Britain today.’

Note: JWT London surveyed 178 British citizens in October 2012 using the bespoke SONAR panel. Regional samples have been weighted to be nationally representative.

Download the pdf version here.

Adlanders should follow the advice at Wired12 and disobey to increase creativity and shape the future.

This article first appeared in Campaign (cover date 2 November 2012). It can also be found on the Campaign website.

By Tracey Follows, Chief Strategy Officer & Executive Partner at JWT London

Wired12 was going to be very different from the Wired11 event. As soon as the editor and host, David Rowan, introduced the first day, describing the 50-strong speaker line-up as “the people who are not accepting the world as it is and are shaping the future”, one could feel the expectations – as well as the optimism – of the audience rise. So many attendees were people trying to transform old businesses or start up new ones in a post-digital world. Maybe Wired12 would have all the answers? Well, it had one answer, the only answer required in order to succeed: disobey.

The message was clear throughout: as long as you believe in yourself and disregard the rules imposed on you, you will succeed. 2011 had been about the power of technology; 2012 was more about the power of the creative individual – those who make their own rules.

Getting fired up

First up was Thomas Heatherwick, the English designer responsible for the beautiful cauldron that set our passion for the London 2012 Olympics alight. He captivated us with the story of how he researched previous Olympic flames and noticed how they were all so small and insignificant, stuck at the front or back of massive stadia. However, on his visit to the Stratford Olympic Stadium, it became clear to him that the power of a circle is in the centre “where something very small can feel very significant”. Among the advice given to him by the Olympic organisers was: “Whatever you do, make sure you have no moving parts.” We now know what he thought of that as he designed 204 copper petals to be raised skyward forming the most awe-inspiring Olympic cauldron ever.

Seeing the illusion

Alexa Meade, a talented, self-taught painter, talked about how she knew she wanted to paint but also knew she did not want to paint on canvas. She started to paint the shadows on the grass in her garden and on the eggs of a fry-up as she thought: ‘How can I turn an egg into a painting?” Her work now shows painted people submerged in milk, where the paint leaks off the model to mix into the milky background, where the viewer is not sure whether they are looking at a photograph of a woman in milk or a painting of a woman in milk. She challenged the audience to see the lines that define them as an illusion, and to be open to the changing shape of things around them.

Driven on

In Western society, when we disobey the rules, they are usually self-imposed rules and the reward for doing so is greater than the risk. Not so for Manal al-Sharif, who made a video of herself driving a car around Saudi Arabia with her face uncovered that has clocked up nearly 900,000 YouTube views to date. As a female in Saudi Arabia, driving a car is something she could get arrested for and, like most women there, she has more than 30 contacts in her phone just for drivers. She now runs a campaign called Women2Drive. But she added an important lesson, the lesson of 20/20/60: “Twenty per cent will support you from the start, 20 per cent will do anything they can to stop you and 60 per cent, the silent majority, will just watch the game. It is hard to convince the other 20 per cent, but that silent majority is waiting to see what happens, and it is your responsibility to try to get them to support your idea.” And convince us she did, receiving a standing ovation.

Ripping up the template

David Karp, the founder of Tumblr, created it because he thought sharing a photo should be as easy as uploading a photo. So he expanded the code, disregarding the rules around blogs being made up of templates and formatted pages. Today, the result is 80 million blogs on Tumblr, none of which is formatted. Karp highlighted the “new economics of creativity” whereby people are not creating, publishing and distributing creative ideas in return for money so much as they are trying to leverage an audience to try to get a book deal, a gig, or be seen by a promoter. The old rules of the market were also being overturned by Lily Cole, and her “Impossible” journey into the gift economy where “saying thank-you is our only currency”.

Data is power

The importance of data as the new currency was at its most compelling during an interview with Troy Carter, the Atom Factory founder and manager of Lady Gaga. According to Carter, “the future of social is the micro-network” and that is why he is developing Gaga a platform that is built around her Little Monsters fan data (at least 22 million Twitter followers and 50 million Facebook fans). Carter said that by holding that fan data, rather than giving it away to the likes of Facebook, they can tailor tour venue set lists to each audience’s favourite songs, or even turn fan artwork into Gaga merchandise, because “fans like to buy work by other fans”.

Hack attack

What about those for whom total disobedience is the only way to view life? Mikko Hypponen gave a shocking overview of what is actually happening in the cyberwar and specified the activities of the German government that allegedly uses the R2D2 Trojan to spy on its citizens, collecting personal data from their passports, turning on their webcams to take pictures of them and profiling their online behaviour. Few people seem to realise that government hacking like this is even happening. The next speaker, Keren Elazari, an Israeli security expert, then hacked the phones of the audience just to make the point.

Food recoded

Hackers, of course, disobey systems, finding weak points they can exploit to send a different message or create a different product from that which was originally intended. Pablos Holman of Intellectual Ventures Lab said of putting the hacking mentality to good use: “I’ve been thinking about the way people eat. Imagine (a system) printing you a meal customised for you, injecting your pharmaceuticals and correlating to your diet to create something good for you. It could introduce an optimisation that is missing from the system.” At the other end of the food spectrum, the celebrated chef Ferran Adria presented his new system for cooking: Bullipedia. In a way, he captured the nature of disobedience and its collision with the power of the computer. He said: “Cooking is a language that interacts with other disciplines … (and) the world of cuisine requires a new coding.”

New rules for adland

And is that not the case for the advertising industry and agencies? Don’t they require a new coding, one that encourages disobedience as a way to increasing creativity? A coding that allows us to override the client, consumer and category “rules” we routinely follow. Advertising, which has been one of the most powerful motivators of behaviour change, shifting social norms and influencing people into widespread action, was an all-too-apparent absentee from an event such as this. This year had much to teach us about the triumph of creativity over mediocrity, mundanity and adversity and that it is incumbent upon us as an industry to ensure we have something to bring to the party in the future or, rather, to the “future party”. I, for one, have been inspired to be more disobedient more of the time. Anyone else up for creating their own rules?

In its October trend report, JWT explores how happiness is coming to be seen as a core component of health and wellness.

‘Health & Happiness: Hand in Hand’ examines the rising notion that a happier person is a healthier person — and, in turn, a healthier person is a happier person. The report looks at what’s driving awareness around the health-happiness connection, how this development is playing out in culture and how marketers can leverage it.

Findings from the survey include:

• Consumers are connecting health and happiness: Around 9 in 10 British and American respondents believe that happiness can have a positive impact on one’s health and vice versa. And on the flip side, a majority linked feeling unhappy with feeling unhealthy. As many as 87% agreed that, “Better health can have a positive impact on your happiness.”

• Happiness is considered an important ingredient for health: Two-thirds of respondents said being happy is an important part of being healthy, and a majority also cited key components of happiness (having a positive attitude, spending time with friends and family, maintaining a work-life balance, making time for interests and hobbies).

• Brands can play a part in boosting happiness: Nearly half (46%) agreed that “brands can have a positive impact on your own happiness,” and more than 6 in 10 Millennials agreed.

JWT’s trend reports are the result of quantitative, qualitative and desk research conducted by JWT throughout the year. For this report, JWT interviewed experts in the areas of psychiatry, psychology, sociology and consumer behavior, and surveyed 1,247 adults aged 18-plus in the US and UK using SONAR™, JWT’s proprietary online tool.

Hovis has launched a national Halloween-themed advertising campaign promoting the recently relaunched Hovis Seven Seeds loaf.

Created by JWT London, the work features the infamous Halloween pumpkin which is in the process of having its seeds removed – something that the pumpkin it is not very happy about. As the Hovis Seven Seeds loaf is baked using pumpkin seeds, the line ‘One of the Seven Seeds’ is used. The aim of the creative is to reinforce the healthy addition and delicious taste and texture of the Seven Seeds loaf.

The campaign launched on Tuesday 30th October and the work will run throughout the UK across outdoor and in print media. The ‘Pumpkin’ activity is the first creative work produced by JWT London for Hovis since being handed the advertising account for the brand earlier this year. As well as Hovis, JWT is responsible for the creative development of Ambrosia, Mr Kipling and OXO.

Hovis Seven Seeds relaunched in September 2012, having originally launched in 2007 as Hovis Seeds Sensations.

On Saturday 13th October 2012, to give Felix Baumgartner and his team a fun break, a Kit Kat was sent into space in an unparalleled show of support.

Created by JWT London, the activity ran ahead of Felix Baumgartner’s record-breaking skydive on 14^th October from the edge of space.

Felix had been delayed on several occasions during the week due to the weather. As Felix and his team waited for the perfect conditions to carry out the skydive, Kit Kat sent up four fingers to the edge of space in a show of support and to keep spirits high.

The iconic four finger confectionery brand started its ascent from Cambridgeshire (UK) at 11:20am, rising to a height of 116490ft (35.5km / 22miles).

Camera footage, which tracked the Kit Kat’s ascent and descent, was shared via the brand’s social media channels. It was posted on the Kit Kat Facebook page (http://www.facebook.com/kitkat) and on Twitter (http://twitter.com/kitkat), where users were encouraged to use the hash tag #BreakFromGravity. The footage is can also be found on YouTube (bit.ly/QkzTyw) below.

Wednesday 17th October 2012

3.30pm – 6.30pm

On Wednesday 17^th October JWT will be flinging open its doors and welcoming aspiring future stars of Advertising to take a look behind the scenes at the agency. You might even find that this introduction offers the perfect inspiration for creating a stellar JWT Grad Scheme application…

The afternoon is your unique opportunity to:

-      Find out more about JWT’s incredible history and exactly why it’s such an exciting place to work now.

-      Learn about the industry as a whole from advertising insiders

-      Attend talks from a variety of Heads of Departments and grads

-      Pose questions to previous grads and current JWT employees

-      Take a tour of our fantastic Knightsbridge offices and enjoy a drink in the agency bar

-      Discover all the JWT Account Management Grad Scheme has to offer

Demand is high, so advance booking is essential. Places are allocated on a first come, first served basis. For further details and to book a place please email london.graduaterecruitment@jwt.com.

UPDATE (15th October): Due to high demand the Open Day is now fully booked. Details about the JWT Account Management Graduate Scheme can be found here.

In this trend report, JWT revisits the phenomenon of FOMO (Fear Of Missing Out), the uneasy and sometimes all-consuming feeling that you’re missing out – that your peers are doing, in the know about or in possession of more or something better than you.

The report updates JWT’s May 2011 trend report with new quantitative and qualitative data. For this report, JWT interviewed experts and influencers in technology and academia, and conducted a survey in the US and the UK using SONAR™, JWT’s proprietary online tool. The survey polled 1,270 adults aged 18-plus and 110 teens.

Findings include:

The Millennial Generation is most affected by FOMO: As many as 70% of adult Millennials (aged 18-34) in the US and UK said they could completely or somewhat relate to FOMO, with nearly 4 in 10 reporting they experience it often or sometimes. A majority of teens also relate to the concept (65%), with 40% saying they experience FOMO often or sometimes. Young adults and teens expressed feelings of missing out more than any other generation when seeing via social media that their friends are doing something they’re not, buying something they’re not or finding out something before they do.

Millennials are aware that social media is FOMO-inducing: In the US and UK, 54% of teen and adult Millennials agreed that it’s easy to feel left out on a site like Facebook, and nearly half said social media has amplified any fear of missing out they might have.

Life in overdrive: too much to do, read, buy, watch, etc.: Just over half of respondents said they never have ample time or energy to delve into new interests and often only get to skim the surface. This is especially true among adult Millennials (66% in agreement) and Gen Xers (60%). And people are overwhelmed by how much they need to digest to stay up to speed, especially the hyper-connected adult Millennials (55%); teens and Gen Xers don’t fall far behind (48%).

Nestlé is using cutting edge geolocation technology to track down six lucky winners across the UK and Ireland. Inside selected packs there will be a GPS device which, when enabled, notifies the delivery team who will locate them within 24 hours and hand over a cheque for £10,000 (€12,000). More details can be found at www.facebook.com/kitkatuk.

The TV ad, which shows how the promotion works, aired for the first time on 17 September 2012 and is supported by Outdoor, Radio and Social Media.

The campaign has been created by JWT London.

If you want to work for one of the world’s top advertising agencies, to be part of an international network of inspiring people who are passionate about the art of creating, then you’ve come to the right place.

If you’d like to hear about a ‘not-so-average’ graduate year or are ready to apply for the Grad Scheme, click here.

For more information on the scheme, continue reading…

Who are we?

We put Mr Kipling into cakes. We created the iconic line ‘Have a Break. Have a Kit Kat’. We fill airports with inspiring HSBC work. We’re one of the largest and longest-standing ad agencies in the world. We have built long-term relationships with an enviable client list.

What does it mean for you? We are taking applications for one of the most thorough and prestigious grad schemes in the industry. And with our extensive global network and group of specialist agencies, the opportunities are there for the taking.

You won’t be making the tea.

What do graduates do here?

At JWT we challenge ourselves and each other, constantly, to make fantastic pieces of communication in whatever form that takes. We look to the world around us, be that locally or internationally, for inspiration. We explore and discover, collide ideas and theories until we are happy that our solution cannot be bettered and then we make our thoughts a reality. As an account manager, you will be at the heart of this process of ‘making’.

We are recruiting for Trainee Account Managers. Account Management is the focal point of the agency’s relationship with the client. You’ll work to meet their business agenda with a sound communications strategy, ultimately developing an effective creative solution.

Account Managers are the axles in the wheels of the agency. As such, they work with all other departments, from planning and creative to TV and digital production, championing the strategy from concept to execution, and driving the project from beginning to end. This means that one minute you could be on a shoot inside the M25 and the next on a video conference with Honduras.

What do we look for?

We’ve taken on graduates from all sorts of degree disciplines, from Mandarin to Mechanical Engineering to Medieval History. As far as we’re concerned you could be a Quantum Physicist – as long as you bring a fresh perspective to what we do.

You need to be able to stand up for your own point of view; but also be good at listening to other people. You need to think on your feet and constantly find new and more effective ways of doing things. And you need to be every bit as fanatical about great ideas as we are. What’s more you’ll bring bags of enthusiasm and commitment – because this is never a nine-to-five job.

At JWT, all our people live by the 4 Cs – Courageous, Curious, Creative, Courteous. We look for others who share these qualities, who are intent on seeking out new ideas and making them happen.

What are we famous for?

Things we’ve done

Throughout our long history, we have been pioneers in the industry. We were the first agency to create edible advertising, measure the effectiveness of a TV commercial and send tourists into Space.

Our client list includes many of the household names you’ve grown up with. Brands like Kit Kat and Andrex  have been with us for decades. Others include Shell, Debenhams, HSBC, Nokia and Smirnoff, as well as newer arrivals here to grow like Reggae Reggae Sauce, Patak’s, Royal Caribbean, Ambrosia, Hovis and The Army.

The long-term relationships we have built with so many of our clients are a testament to the consistent quality of our ideas and the commitment of our Account teams.

What’s in it for you?

How long before you turn up at Cannes?

That’s really up to you. Our graduate training programme is designed to fast track you into a senior role. And if you’re anything like the trainees we’ve had in previous years, it won’t be long before you’re making waves in the industry; our trainees have risen to become Managing Directors and CEOs here at JWT.

You’ll have a structured development programme, starting with an intensive three-month induction that will introduce you to the agency, the industry and the client business you start working on. You’ll spend a week in each of the key agency disciplines (planning, creative and production) and, in addition to the core functions, will learn about areas such as media, sports sponsorship and internal communications.

You’ll also benefit from strategy development and presentation skills training, as well as a thorough grounding in the nuts and bolts of your day-to-day job. And after the first three months, you’ll have ongoing reviews and further training opportunities.

The first year culminates in two events: the week-long residential JWT International Craft Skills Seminar to consolidate your learning so far, where you’ll work alongside counterparts from across the JWT global network; and the Chrissie Barker Award, which goes to the highest performing graduate at the end of their first year. The prize is a two-week placement at a JWT office of your choice, anywhere in the world.

Money isn’t everything. There are massages too.

We’ll start you off with a competitive salary and a bonus on your first day. Plus 23 days holiday, life assurance, long-term disability insurance and health cover. Your salary will increase in line with your performance – along with other benefits like further holidays and bonuses. Then there are all sorts of little extras, from discounts at local gyms to subsidised massages. Our office in Knightsbridge has a subsidised restaurant and bar and a roof-top terrace with views over Harrods and Harvey Nicks.

Where do I sign?

How to apply

As soon as you’re ready to go through to the application form click here. Competition will be tough. But you’ve never been one to shy away from a challenge.

The deadline for application forms to reach us is midnight on Thursday 1 November, with interviews week commencing 19 November. If you’re successful at interview, we’ll invite you to a two day seminar on 4 and 5 December. Successful applicants will start here at JWT on Monday 2 September 2013.

Good Luck!

Summer is fading and with it we bid farewell to the momentous Olympic and Paralympic Games of 2012. So to complete our eight month-long mood tracker, we carried out two Paralympic-specific surveys which book-ended the action. Once again, we tracked the three consistent measures of pride, excitement and good-for-Britain as well as probing people’s impression of London 2012 as a whole.

Well, we gladly hold our hands up and admit we were wrong when we suggested that 7 out of 10 might be as proud as Brits get at being British. Over the past two weeks, pride has climbed to its highest point during the entire tracker.  In the first Paralympic wave it reached 7.8, but continued to increase to a spectacular 8.2 out of ten by the end of the Paralympics. The awesome performance of our Paralympic athletes including Ellie Simmonds, David Weir, Jonnie Peacock, Sarah Storey and many more, surely stirred that final push of pride inside us. Perhaps we also feel so proud given that it was the Brits who effectively launched the Paralympics, with a competition between patients at Stoke Mandeville in the 1940s, and hosting it on home soil for the first time is a reminder of that fact.

Years of planning, building and training came down to two extraordinary months, in which the world descended on London to see the best athletic ability on the planet, and London 2012 was all pulled off without a hitch. Well done Britain. That really is something to be proud of.

Excitement has remained at an impressively high level following the Olympics. Although it fell slightly from its post-closing ceremony high down to 60%, this was still 9% higher than pre-Olympic anticipation. Besides, it continued to rise throughout the Paralympics, finishing on a massive 73%.

At the end of the Paralympics, the South was the region with the highest levels of excitement (78%). Perhaps proximity to the event caused excitement to grow. A total of 2.5m tickets were sold, more than ever before for the Paralympics, and as tickets were bought on much more of a last-minute basis than the Olympics, it is likely that the events were mainly attended by locals. What’s more, most of the free events surrounding the Games were held in the South, so it really was the hub of the Paralympic action.

In our first Paralympic survey, 76% of people thought the Paralympics were a good thing for Britain, a small drop of 5% since August, but nonetheless 16% higher than just before the Olympics began in June. It didn’t stop there though: in an unprecedented surge of positivity we have ended London 2012 with a phenomenal 85% of Brits agreeing that the Paralympics will be good for our nation. This is the highest this measure has reached across the entire mood tracker, including in August when all three measures jumped significantly. What’s more, over half (54%) strongly agree with the sentiment, which is more than agreed in total back in February when the tracker began (51%).

Our cynicism has well and truly fallen away and the Paralympics seem to have played an important role in achieving this. After all, these Paralympic Games have been hailed as a game changer in Britain. Seb Coe stated that “In this country… we will never think of disability in the same way”. In fact, having seen both Games back to back, Brits feel quite strongly that they ought to be treated with greater equality: 68% think that the Paralympic Games should be joined up with the Olympic Games into one event and 60% think that tickets should be valued at the same price. We want our athletes to be recognised and remunerated more appropriately going forwards: 75% think that Paralympic athletes should receive equivalent funding to their Olympic counterparts. Richard Whitehead was quoted saying: “I wanted to show the Olympic and Paralympic athletes are on the same platform now”, and it seems he may have achieved this goal. That is certainly a positive change for our nation.

Faces of the Games

London 2012 drew our attention to a host of previously unsung heroes; athletes whom, following their spectacular efforts over the past couple of months, we have taken into our hearts. With regards to Paralympians, 73% of people agree that they feel inspired by them, rising to 79% in the 18-34 age group. Brands take note: this inspirational quality will translate well into marketing; 79% agreed that Olympic and Paralympic athletes make very credible ambassadors for brands and 65% agreed that would rather see advertising featuring an athlete than a celebrity. It will be interesting to see if this is just a short-lived sentiment, though several athletes have already represented brands this summer, for example Jessica Ennis for Olay and Jonnie Peacock for BT. It has even been rumoured that ITV has approached a number of Olympic stars to appear as guest mentors on the X Factor. It would appear that Olympic glamour has outstripped the glitz of reality television. It also seems that football’s days may be numbered as the big money-spinner of the sporting world; 61% agree that the performance of the Olympic and Paralympic athletes has made them feel intolerant of footballers and their behaviour and over half (58%) would like to see brands sponsor less mainstream sports such as rowing or judo.

So after six months of ‘Olympic moaning’ from when our tracker launched in February to the start of the Games in August, we well and truly shelved our misery and threw all our efforts into enjoying what proved to be an immensely successful Games. Over half (53%) agreed that they felt less stressed about everyday life and just enjoyed the experience. And after all the blood, sweat and tears, the medals and the heart-racing moments, how did the Olympic and Paralympic Games of 2012 make us Brits feel? Interestingly, our respondents selected the same top three emotions for both the Olympics and Paralympics: proud (75% for Olympics and 68% for Paralympics), inspired (38% for Olympics and 48% for Paralympics) and impressed (32% for Olympics and 38% for Paralympics). That’s not a bad review for what has been dubbed “the greatest show on earth” – directed, produced and, ultimately, starring Britain.

Watch JWT London Executive Partner James Whitehead talk about the Tracker on Sky News below

Click here to view JWT’s Mood Tracker collection.

Note: JWT surveyed 350 British citizens twice, once at the start of the Paralympics and then again following the closing ceremony. Regional samples have been weighted to be nationally representative.

Survey questions in wave 1:

1. On a scale of 1-10 (where 1=not at all proud and 10=extremely proud) can you tell us how proud you are to be British?

2. How far would you agree that you are excited about the Paralympic Games this summer?

3. How far do you agree that the Paralympic Games will be good for Britain?

4. How far would you agree that you feel inspired by the athletes competing in the Paralympic Games?

5. Thinking about the official sponsors of the Paralympic and Olympic Games, please indicate how strongly you agree or disagree with the following statements.

6. Thinking about the official sponsors of the Paralympic and Olympic Games, please indicate how strongly you agree or disagree with the following statements.

Survey questions in wave 2:

1. On a scale of 1-10 (where 1=not at all proud and 10=extremely proud) can you tell us how proud you are to be British?

2. How far would you agree that you felt excited by the Paralympic Games?

3. How far do you agree that the Paralympic Games will be good for Britain?

4. Thinking about the Olympics and the Paralympics, how far do you agree with the following statements?

5. Thinking back over the course of the Olympics and Paralympics, how far do you agree with the following statements?

6. Thinking back over the course of the Olympics and Paralympics, how did the events make you feel? Please select your top 3 emotions for each.

Watkins Books, one of the world’s oldest and leading independent bookshops specialising in mind, body and spirit, has launched a revolutionary new iPhone app. Created by JWT London, Fenopalm is the world’s first interactive video palm reading app powered by a social network.

Using image recognition techniques Fenopalm scans a user’s palm and analyses the head, heart and life lines, zodiac sign and index-to-ring-finger ratio. It then examines a user’s Facebook API to utilise information surrounding social and work life, relationships and friendships, as well as geolocation data to take into account the time of day and the local weather conditions when the reading is being taken. The outcome of the analysis is a bespoke interactive video featuring renowned palm reader Swami Krishna.

Moreover, the free app will also recommend books and events from the unique Watkins Books catalogue based on a user’s profile and will be given a shareable text report of Swami’s reading.

The press release can be downloaded here.

As the Greatest Show on Earth packs up and rolls out of town, the results of the final wave of JWT’s Olympic Mood tracker are in.

This month, we finally saw the huge upsurge in excitement about the Games that we’ve been expecting. We might have moaned and tutted our way through the build-up but once the first medals were in the bag, we threw ourselves into the whole event with gusto.

As a result, an overwhelming majority now believe the Games will prove to be a good thing for Britain, up by a further 21% since our last wave. But in what way do Brits think we’ll benefit? We decided to probe a little further this month and the results are fascinating.

As the Olympic withdrawal symptoms well and truly kick in, pride in Britain remains strong (7.70 out of 10) with a negligible drop of 0.08.

The fact that there has been no further uplift since the Games began is perhaps less of a surprise than it first seems.

As JWT’s recent report Britain…the Best Bits revealed, we Brits are a self-deprecating lot. Reserved in nature, we don’t really like to be gung-ho and blow our own trumpets too much.

Compare the sheepish bell-ringing of Tour de France winner Bradley Wiggins at the Opening Ceremony with the bold posturing of some of the sprinters.  For us, perhaps a score of 7 out of 10 is as proud as we get.

Notably, the 55+ age group has been the proudest across every single wave of our mood tracker, peaking in June, which neatly coincides with the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee. This begs the question – does pride in one’s nation grow with age? Or does the younger generation simply care less about notions of Britishness?

Excitement has been ticking along nicely on a gradual incline since February.  But this month we asked Brits how excited they were during the Games.*

A massive 81% agreed that they were on the edge of their seats, an upsurge of 30% on July alone.

Those who strongly agreed that they found the Games exciting shot up even more sharply, from 19% to 46%, showing depth and strength of sentiment.

Over the 16 days of the Games, it did seem that the nation was riding a tidal wave of euphoria. We started our journey with a few niggles – the wrong flag here, some lost keys there, a few bewildered coach drivers here, there and everywhere – but gradually we began to believe that nothing would go seriously wrong. Perhaps, it might even go right?

After a nervous few days waiting for Team GB’s first gold, there came a veritable avalanche of them. Front pages were splashed with images of British successes day after day and GB soared to an unexpected third place in the table.

Added to this there was the upbeat mood of the volunteers and the cheery contribution from the military – we could scarcely believe how well it went.

We pressed our respondents on which aspects of the Games impressed them most and they were enthusiastic across the board, from the Opening Ceremony to the BBC coverage. But appropriately it was the athletes who stole the show with Team GB’s performance most highly rated (8.6 out of 10), followed by the many outstanding sporting achievements on show (8.4).

Our favourite golden moment from the Games was fittingly that of Jessica Ennis, the face of the Games, on whose shoulders so many hopes rested. Mighty Mo Farah managed to take both second and third place in our list with his epic victories in the 10,000m and 5,000m.

A huge uplift in the final metric in our tracker shows that if the nation had any lingering doubts over the contribution the Games would make, they have been well and truly swept away on a tide of good feeling.  And LOCOG can pat themselves on the back, as their motto ‘inspire a generation’ seems to have hit home with the 18-34s – a whopping 91% of them are in agreement that the Olympics will be a good thing for the nation.

Taking into account all the mud thrown at these Games – security worries, the travel disruption, the ticket fiasco and of course the ballooning cost of hosting the event – it’s something of an achievement to have won over the British public so handsomely. Just 1 in 10 disagreed that the Olympics will be a good thing for Britain.

Anyone who spent the last two weeks in Britain would testify to a growing buzz of elation which felt delightful but also almost alien to us. As a nation, we have no British day of celebration in our calendar and so many factors do more to divide our countries than unite them. But for once, we felt as one.  As a Norwegian visitor commented to the Guardian last week, ‘this is the first time I have felt British people are really celebrating Britain.’

It is principally our feelings about Britain which have seen a positive change though; ever-cynical Brits are less convinced that there will be long-term practical benefits.  When we asked our respondents how they thought Britain might change after the Olympics, a boost to British pride (77% agree), an enhanced international reputation (73%), as well as a stronger sense of national identity (72%), topped the list.  But tellingly, most Brits don’t believe that the Games will have a beneficial impact on Britain’s economic recovery (only 25% agree).  The return on investment, it seems, is predominantly emotional rather than financial.

So as the torch is extinguished, the strains of ‘Imagine’ finally fade out and the last Union Jack is folded away – for a couple of weeks at least – was it all worth it?  Our respondents seem to think so, giving the Games a cracking success rating of 8.4 out of 10.  In fact 61% scored it a 9 or above.

Overall, we believe there’s a whiff of optimism in our results. Brits aren’t blind to the realities of the problems which face our nation, but we have discovered a new joy in our country and what it can achieve when it puts its mind to it.  We can’t be sure where all this positivity will lead – and already surveys are predicting that the fuzzy glow will quickly subside – but come on, it was one hell of a ride.

Click here for July’s Olympic Mood Tracker

Note: JWT surveyed 350 British citizens on 13 August 2012. Regional samples have been weighted to nationally representative.

Survey questions:

1.                    On a scale of 1-10 (where 1=not at all proud and 10=extremely proud) can you tell us how proud you are to be British?

2.                    Do you think the Olympic Games will be a good thing for Britain?

3.                    Did you find the Olympic Games exciting?

4.                    How do you think Britain might change after the Olympics?

5.                    To what extent did the following aspects of the Olympics impress you?

6.                    Do you think the Olympic Games were a success?

7.                    Team GB won 29 gold medals at the 2012 London Olympics – but which performances were your favourites?  Please choose your *THREE* favourite gold medal-winning performances from the list below.

*  In waves 1-6 of our research this question read “How far would you agree that you are excited about the Olympic Games this Summer?”

In its August trend report JWT explores how China’s leading crop of brands is chipping away at some of the key factors standing in the way of global success.

China is actively seeking to export more than just the rest of the world’s manufactured goods. But before the country can develop a cohort of strong brands, its marketers will have to remake what “Made in China” means to consumers.

“Remaking ‘Made in China’” details the external and internal factors hindering the efforts of Chinese brands to take root in developed markets, examining the negative perceptions among Western consumers as well as reasons that most Chinese firms can’t yet compete with global brands. It also details some of the strategies that leading Chinese brands, from Lenovo and Li-Ning to Haier and Huawei, are deploying to knock down these roadblocks to expansion. Researched on the ground in Shanghai, the report includes the results of a JWT survey that explored how American and British consumers feel about China and the products and brands coming out of the country.

The report is the result of research conducted by JWTIntelligence throughout the year. Specifically for this report, JWTIntelligence fielded a quantitative study in the U.S. and the U.K. using SONAR™, JWT’s proprietary online tool, from May 31-June 4, 2012, surveying 503 Americans and 503 Britons aged 18-plus. In addition, we conducted on-the-ground research in Shanghai, Beijing and Hong Kong, and interviewed several experts and influencers, including Tom Doctoroff, JWT North Asia area director and Greater China CEO for JWT Shanghai.

Hackney Brewery has released limited edition beer mats to celebrate the launch of its Golden Ale.

Created by JWT London, the beer mats prompt pub goers to ‘GO FOR GOLDEN’ as they compete in beer mat games.

A diver tumbles as you play ‘flip and catch’, a gymnast balances as you try to build a ‘house of mats’ and the weightlifter feels the strain as you stack the weights on top of him. The charming illustrations, by Bruce Emmett, are litho printed on old heavy German beer mat stock.

Hackney Brewery’s Golden Ale and limited edition beer mats can be found in numerous pubs in East London.

The Diver

The Gymnast

The Weightlifter

Go for Golden

JWT London’s Joe Petyan discusses the future of Account Management and the evolution of The Suit.

This article first appeared in Campaign (cover date 3 August 2012). It can also be found online.

By Joe Petyan, Executive Partner at JWT London

My most vivid learning experience as a JWT graduate trainee, way back when, was the wholly unexpected whistling sound that a cut-glass ashtray makes as it is thrown at you and misses your head by inches. The copywriter was rightly incensed by the news I’d just communicated from client HQ. It was David’s art director, Geoff, who was the pacifier: “Don’t take it personally. We all know yours is the worst job in the agency.”

Some years later, when I was the head of account management, I would similarly be told that the only job worse than being an account guy was being the head of the department. Yet, here and now, leading JWT with my partners Russell (Ramsey), James (Whitehead) and soon Tracey (Follows), I still consider myself an account man. And not without a certain sense of pride.

So why, if the sentiment around the role doesn’t seem to change over time, do people do the job? And, more importantly, with the oh-so-often trotted-out negative labels (bag carrier, empty suits etc), surely the end will inevitably come to this outmoded discipline?

To me, there are five reasons why the account person is fundamental to an agency and why the future is brighter for the discipline than many would imagine:

1. Clients need business partners

“Yes people” won’t cut it. More than ever, clients are looking for trusted partners who understand their business, the nuances and have an opinion to give. This is something that good account people know and work mercilessly. It gives them advantage, too.

Without descending into Gordon Gekko Wall Street quotes, knowledge is power, and knowing more creates empathy and partnership with clients. It builds trust. It also provides direction and clarity in what can sometimes be a jumbled and pressured internal agency environment.

2. Account people are agents of change

I challenge anyone who says that now isn’t an exciting time to be in account management in our industry. Opportunity is everywhere. Innovation is almost as overused a word as integration. And it is the account person who stands at this axis, championing new technologies and creative thinking, overcoming the barriers and the scepticism, being entrepreneurial and forward-looking.

How better to make provision for the future than being part of a team that designs it for agencies, clients and their brands?

3. Without a fulcrum, there is no leverage

Where account people become more than just useful is when they are the fulcrum of the business. They are lucky in that only they really touch every step of the process, from business challenge through to creation and evaluation. They are helping to create user journeys. This gives them more knowledge (see point 1), allows them to innovate (see point 2) and makes them the glue that binds the channel-neutral, multimedia, multidisciplined melange that we operate in.

Account people are now overseeing the creation of products, apps, tools and digital interfaces as much as they are creating advertising. Collaborating and fostering collaboration is key to this. Should you be lucky enough, take all this and apply it to multifaceted brands on an international stage and you have a very special fulcrum indeed.

4. Stiff upper lips

It’s a bit hackneyed, but I still talk to our graduate intake about Ernest Shackleton. I just can’t help myself. Every account person, junior or senior, good or moderate, male or female, young or old, needs a bit of Shackleton in him or her.

Because, in an account person’s life, there are rocks close to the surface, and over them great waves break, spouting 30 to 40 feet in the air. An agency’s little boat gets tossed around in the raging sea and, when dawn appears, there is often no land in sight. And when disaster seems imminent, it is the account person who steadies the team and makes sure that panic and madness do not set in. Of course, the client relies on this, safe in the knowledge that when the chips are down, glass ashtrays are being flung and there is much wailing and gnashing of teeth, the account person will shine a light (and, make no mistake, the agency’s finance directors rely on this, too).

So, when everyone’s on holiday, or at the Olympics, and it appears impossible that the agency can deliver what it needs to, it takes the account person to dig deeper, work longer, argue more passionately and make it happen.

5. Accountability

A simple truth about our industry is that it is more accountable than ever before. From procurement negotiation to results-based analysis of activity, the best agencies can quantify the impact of their labours. But our sense of accountability to the client business doesn’t necessarily universally translate to a duty of care among everyone in an agency. Oh that it did. Teflon abounds.

And that’s where the good account person really stands out.

Because by making himself or herself accountable, the account person lives and embodies the four points previously discussed. With digital inroads of recent years now converting into a new, more balanced and considered communications equation on client agendas, we need more account people who are willing to make themselves accountable for whatever they, or their colleagues, touch.

Conclusion

To me, a continued debate about the future of account management misses the point. Yes, agencies will experiment with structures, we’ll see an inevitable blurring with disciplines such as project management as technologies facilitate different ways of working. A good account person always harbours a desire to do the planning, too. But agencies and clients will always need people who partner well, who lead change, who connect the dots in our thinking and creativity, who can be relied on and who’ll stand up and be counted.

Ultimately, the buck always stops with an account person. And that fact alone will guarantee the future of the role.

The Olympics is finally upon us and as our latest Tracker shows Brits are once again both prouder and more excited, dispelling the myth that we are a population characterised by our stiff upper lip.

Despite the fact that opinion on whether the Olympics will be good for Britain remains unchanged, 60% is certainly not insignificant. In fact, in order to explore this metric and excitement levels further, this month we dug a little deeper. We asked our respondents about the ways in which the Olympics will benefit Britain and the extent to which they will be following the Olympics. The results highlight the fact that Brits will be glued to events over the next few weeks and will also be keeping a close eye on the legacy the Games will leave.

We are the proudest we have ever been – pride in being British reached an all-time high of 7.78 out of 10 this month (an increase of 0.12 points from June). That’s a rise of 0.45 points since our first wave in February. Those specifically backing Britain in July are females and 18-34 year olds, whose pride has peaked at 7.84 and 7.59 respectively over the last 6 months. But it is the oldest age group (55+) who remain the most proud of all demographics at 8.60. And it is this cohort who has shown the biggest uptick over all 6 waves (nearly a whole point, from 7.61 in February).

The upward creep in levels of British pride has gone hand in hand with proximity to the Games. It appears that the negativity surrounding Britain as host nation is being gradually disregarded for more positive stories hitting the headlines. And what a flurry of positivity there’s been of late. With millions of people celebrating the impending Olympics by lining the route of the Torch Relay, along with a historic British win at the Tour de France, it’s no wonder we feel proud to be British right now.

Excitement has continued to build in July with a 3% increase to 51%. With the opening ceremony imminent and the qualifying trials completed, it’s hardly surprising that over half of Brits are now excited about the Olympics. Yohan Blake’s recent triumphs against Usain Bolt over 100m and 200m distances suggest that this is an open competition where anything can happen. If a World Record holder can be beaten, the anticipation of what else might occur is certain to keep us on the edge of our seats. After all, there are a host of young British hopefuls going for gold this summer, and with predictions of more medals than 2008, Britain is holding its breath.

The nation’s enthusiasm is also reflected in how people plan to follow the Olympics – nearly 80% of the country will be engaging in some way. The majority of people (49%) are going to watch the games live on television, a greater percentage than those who will simply tune into the highlights (42%), suggesting that people don’t want to miss out on any of the action.

Despite the prediction that over a third of Britons would book their summer holidays to coincide with the Olympics and escape the chaos, according to our survey, over half of the population (55%) plan to stay in Britain over this period. Brits evidently want to immerse themselves in this once-in-a-lifetime experience.

On the surface it may seem as though there has been no change in opinion on whether the Olympics will be good for Britain with the overall measure static at 60%, however on closer inspection there have been some shifts, notably amongst the over 55 age group. This demographic has jumped considerably from 51% to 59%. It seems this optimism was reflected in the Queen’s speech to the International Olympic Committee: “Hosting the London 2012 Games has provided inspiration to our children and communities, whether by motivating them to take up physical activity or encouraging them to demonstrate the Olympic values of excellence, respect and friendship in their daily lives, places of learning and local communities”. Perhaps it is this inspiration and these values which are influencing the positive mind-set of the over 55s.

When asked how the Olympics will actually benefit us, a majority (56%) indicated that it will be the resulting increase in tourism that will have the biggest, beneficial impact. Visit Britain has already predicted that we will see over 30 million additional tourists this year.

Coming in second at 34%, and endorsing the Queen’s speech, Brits believe that more people will be inspired to take up sport. If this is the case, it could bode well for Britain’s prospects at the Rio 2016 Olympics.

Finally, around a third believe that the Olympics will fuel our sense of national identity (33%) and help improve our image around the world (30%), regardless of the recent security fiasco surrounding the event. The London Games, it seems, will enhance Britain’s reputation both domestically and internationally.

It has taken us six months to get here, but now that the Olympics are finally upon us, and we are starting to make plans for the next fortnight, we feel genuinely upbeat about London 2012. Stadium doors have opened, athletes have touched down on British soil and everywhere we turn billboards are rousing our national spirit. It is hard not to get caught up in the mood of optimism sweeping the nation. So, despite the shadow being cast over the country by economic turmoil and an abysmal summer – apart from the current heat wave – the Olympics seem to be providing a welcome antidote.

Watch JWT London Executive Partner Joseph Petyan talk about the Tracker on Sky News below

Click here for June’s Olympic Mood Tracker

Note: JWT surveyed 350 British citizens in July 2012. Regional samples have been weighted to nationally representative.

Survey questions:

1.                    On a scale of 1-10 (where 1=not at all proud and 10=extremely proud) can you tell us how proud you are to be British?

2.                    How far would you agree that you are excited about the Olympic Games this Summer?

3.                   How far do you agree that the Olympic Games will be good for Britain?

4.                   How will the Olympics be good for Britain?

5.                   Where do you plan to be during the 2012 Olympics?

6.                   To what extent will you follow the 2012 Olympics?

JWT London has been appointed by Nestlé to handle the UK digital marketing account for the Kit Kat brand.

The agency has handled the Kit Kat advertising account since the incarnation of the iconic confectionery brand. JWT London invented the line ‘Have a Break. Have a Kit Kat’, with the first ever ad to feature the famous line appearing during 1957.

The appointment will mean that JWT will also be responsible for digital activity including website, online advertising and social media execution. For the latter work will include on-going community management across Kit Kat’s social media platforms, such as Facebook.

James Whitehead, Executive Partner at JWT London, said: “Kit Kat is a great prize – it’s already amongst the top 10 most engaged brands on Facebook and we will be helping Nestlé achieve their ambition to turn this much loved brand into a World class operator digitally.”

With the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee celebrations and the London 2012 Olympic Games, Britain has been thrown into the spotlight. With this in mind, JWT London decided to take a closer look at the nation, its people and its future.

In order to do this we spoke to those who know it best. So using our proprietary research panel SONAR, we ran two surveys speaking to 263 and 221 British consumers respectively. The insights that follow are based on their feelings and opinions.

Despite the doom of the global economy and the literal gloom of the weather outside, British people are feeling positive. The overwhelming sentiment throughout our findings is one of heart-warming pride and patriotism. From the monarchy to multiculturalism to moaning, we cherish all that makes our rich and colourful nation what it is today. So read on and celebrate with us the best bits of Blighty.

Click here to download a PDF of the book or you can flick through it below.

In its July trend report JWT spotlights the increasing importance of play in today’s productivity-obsessed world.

‘Play As a Competitive Advantage’ examines the varied benefits of play and outlines the impediments to play in our always-on culture. It spotlights how companies are injecting the idea of play into their business models and how marketers are promoting adult play in their messaging. It also includes the results of a survey that explored how people feel about the role of play in their lives.

The report is the result of research conducted by JWTIntelligence throughout the year. Specifically for this report, JWTIntelligence surveyed 503 Americans and 503 Britons aged 18-plus using SONAR™, JWT’s proprietary online tool. It also interviewed experts and influencers about the importance of play.

JWT London has appointed Tracey Follows as Chief Strategy Officer (CSO). She will be joining Joseph Petyan, Russell Ramsey and James Whitehead as the fourth Executive Partner leading the agency. She is joining from VCCP where she is currently Executive Planning Director.

Tracey will be JWT London’s first CSO and brings a wealth of experience and talent to the agency, having worked both agency and client side. Tracey joined VCCP in 2009 from Lowe and rose to Executive Planning Director working across VCCP’s client portfolio. She previously worked at BT as Head of Consumer Communications and was International Advertising Manager at T-Mobile. Her agency experience spans most categories and some brand highlights include easyjet, O2, John Lewis, Jammie Dodgers and Johnson & Johnson.

Russell Ramsey, Executive Partner and Executive Creative Director JWT London, said: “Tracey is the best planner in the industry. She is going to be a perfect fit in our leadership team.”

Tracey commented: “I am genuinely excited to be joining JWT at this time, and be part of a talented team, working together to create imaginative, original work for all of JWT’s clients. It’s an agency with an unparalleled heritage and I really want to play a big part in shaping this agency’s future.”

As giant Olympic rings are hoisted into place on Tower Bridge, our monthly mood tracker shows that Olympic fever is finally starting to take hold. Excitement and the belief that the Games will be good for Britain have both shot up. No doubt, the growing media frenzy might have something to do with this: with just over 4 weeks until events kick off, you can’t go anywhere without seeing or hearing something about the Olympics.

Pride in being British is holding firm this month but we did expect more of boost after the flag-waving fever of the long Jubilee weekend. After all, no one pulls off nationwide celebrations quite like the British; who else would hold a pop concert, a 1000-boat flotilla and a firework display in torrential rain?

When we look deeper though, pride has increased across the board with one glaring regional exception – Scotland.  Scots pride in being British dropped by almost a whole point from 7.65 to 6.87 this month. If we look at the British average excluding Scotland, the overall figure would have reached 7.8.  So perhaps the Jubilee had a negative effect on the spirits of those north of the border? With pretty much every commemorative event happening in London, it’s not hard to see how the Jubilee could have been perceived as an England-centric event.

Excitement has risen since the last mood tracker, with an increase of 4% in line with a number of preliminary Olympic events. Earlier this month the British Olympic Association selected the athletes that will be competing in London 2012 and on 17^th May Greece officially handed over the Olympic torch to London – well, to David Beckham to be precise, and nobody gets us excited quite like Becks.

Regionally, excitement is most pronounced in the Midlands. As Loughborough is acting as the headquarters for most of the GB team, anticipation is almost certainly radiating out, fuelling hopes for a record number of medals.

It seems that Brits are finally coming round to the idea that the Olympics will be a good thing for us. With an increase of 7%, a majority of 60% now think that the Olympics will have a positive impact on Britain.  What’s more, this sentiment has most notably increased amongst 18-34 year olds (68% – up 18% from last month). As we’re edging ever more closely towards July and the opening ceremony when all eyes will be on Britain, maybe the younger generation, generally less cynical than the older generation, are looking forward to being in the spotlight.

So what can we take from this month’s tracker? Well it looks like Lord Coe was right when he said “The nature of British people is that they don’t get overly excited about things too quickly” – for it has taken 5 months for us Brits to finally feel a flutter in our bellies.

UPDATE (16 JULY 2012): Watch JWT London’s James Whitehead talk about the Tracker on Sky News below

Click here for May’s Olympic Mood Tracker

Note: JWT surveyed 350 British citizens in June 2012. Regional samples have been weighted to be nationally representative.

Survey questions:

1.       On a scale of 1-10 (where 1=not at all proud and 10=extremely proud) can you tell us how proud you are to be British?

2.       How far would you agree that you are excited about the Olympic Games this Summer?

3.       How far do you agree that the Olympic Games will be good for Britain?

JWT London picked up three awards for work on three separate brands at the 2012 Marketing Society Awards for Excellence. The award ceremony, hosted by Marketing and sponsored by BT, took place on 11 June.

Work for Kraft Foods saw JWT named Winner in the Brand Extension category for the launch of Kenco Millicano. The  advertising campaign, created by JWT London, demonstrated the adoration the new coffee product provokes in people.

Kenco Millicano – Passion

JWT was also Highly Commended for the ‘Experiment’ work for Bayer’s Bepanthen brand and also the ‘Let your random side out’ activity for Rowntree’s Randoms.

Bepanthen – Experiment

Rowntree’s Randoms ‘Let your random side out’ – Skydive

HSBC was Highly Commended in the B2B marketing category for its pan-European, multi-channel Trade Connections campaign. JWT played an integral role in the activity, which centred on the bank’s expertise in connecting business customers with global opportunities, particularly in emerging markets.

Another JWT client, Kimberly-Clark, was also Highly Commended in the Marketing Leadership category.

A full list of Marketing Society winners can be found here.

Yorkie is returning to TV screens after almost ten years, with a new comical UK advertising campaign created by JWT London.

Launching 4^th June 2012, ‘Shopping Bags’ builds upon the ‘It’s not for girls’ activity by launching a new UK positioning ‘Man Fuel for Man Stuff.’ It is the first time that ‘Man Fuel for Man Stuff’ has appeared in advertising.

The new campaign is born out of a simple observation that men feel like superheroes when overcoming the most mundane of tasks. In the TV ad a man is faced with carrying the shopping bags from his car to the house and attempts to carry everything in one go.

‘Shopping Bags’ was directed by Guy Manwaring through Sonny London, with post production handled by Finish. Media planning and buying is handled by Mindshare.

Diamond Jubilee jollity is starting to sweep the nation and 61% of Brits agree that the event will be good for the country, compared to just 53% of people who believe that the Olympics will bring a boost to Britain.  Research by JWT London’s Business Intelligence unit shows that our newly optimistic outlook is down to the boost we think the Jubilee will bring to tourism and a better image of Britain around the world.  We’re also expecting a greater sense of community and national pride.

Although just 1 in 5 of us has already planned a Jubilee party, there’s an uncharacteristic dearth of grouches and curmudgeons among us too – just 2% of Brits say they plan to get away from all the fuss.

In fact, our Queen is cresting a wave of popularity in her 60^th year as monarch; 25% of Brits singled out the Royal Family as the institution that makes them most proud to be British, over and above perennial favourites including the NHS and the BBC.

The Queen herself was chosen as our greatest living British icon (44% agree) trouncing the likes of the nation’s new sweetheart Kate Middleton and David Beckham. More than 70% of us think the Queen is a great ambassador for Britain who sets a good example to the nation and encourages national unity.  And in times of austerity it’s important to note that two-thirds of us say she’s worth every penny in taxes.

As for the occasion itself, just taking the time to get together with others is what seems to strike a chord with many and this particularly resonates with younger (18-39, 56%) and older respondents (60+, 57%). More than twice as many in these groups choose bringing the community together as a reason to celebrate compared to those in the 40-59 age bracket (27%).   Our middle-aged group particularly wants to mark the historic occasion – perhaps wanting to share this once-in-a-lifetime experience with family (80%).

Alison Ashworth, Head of Planning at JWT London commented: “We Brits can sometimes be a downbeat bunch, so much so that we even believe one of our defining national traits is our tendency to moan. But for all the cynicism and ambivalence, the Queen’s Jubilee is bringing about an uncharacteristic optimism for most people in Britain.”

Note: JWT London surveyed 300 British consumers in May 2012 using our bespoke UK SONAR research panel.

Click here to view the press release

Why do you plan to celebrate the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee? (Ranked on Total)

Following the Queen’s Jubilee, what do you think will be different about Britain in the future?

Thinking about the Queen, how much do you agree or disagree with each of the following?

In the fourth month of our Olympic mood tracker, results are mostly stable, although there has been a drop in those who think the Games will be good for Britain. This might just be reflective of our typically muted British outlook; although pride and excitement are strong, we’re not exactly jumping up and down, flying the Union Jack from our rooftops. Nobody would believe we were true Brits if we got too excited, after all…

We are as proud of Britishness as we were this time last month with a negligible drop of 0.05. Pride is generally buoyant across the board, with results of at least 7 for every demographic. And if we look back to February, we can see that at population level, pride has actually risen by 0.28.

Pride amongst the over 55’s, however, has risen to 8.26, an all-time high across all demographics. It is likely that the older generation’s pride has been pumped by the upcoming Jubilee. Having lived through more of Queen Elizabeth’s reign than their younger counterparts, these people have greater respect for her. In fact, JWT research carried out for the Royal Wedding last year showed that 84% of those over the age of 60 respect the Queen, higher than all other age groups.

Despite the passing of the 100 day countdown and the launch of the torch relay, Britain’s excitement about the Olympics has not been further ignited, staying steady at 44%. After all, we are the nation of the underwhelmed, notoriously difficult to rouse, and flippant about even the most momentous events. So what will it take to get Brits enthused? And will excitement ever climb past 50%? A typically British response would be: *shrug*.

There has, however, been a slight increase in excitement amongst men, from 41% to 45%. They could be gradually gearing up for a big summer of sport, with not only the Olympics, but the Euro 2012 tournament to satisfy their appetites. On the flipside, the prospect of nothing but sport on our TV screens all summer could be driving the decline in some women’s enthusiasm: those who agree strongly that they are excited about the Olympics have fallen from 21% in February to just 12% this month.

The feeling that the Olympics will be good for Britain is somewhat on the wane. This month, 6% fewer people agree that the games will benefit us. Perhaps they are bitter about the latest release of tickets; once again it spelled disappointment for many. In fact, The Mirror reported recently that 76% of Britons think the ticket sales were mismanaged from the start. Resentment has been mounting with each ticket release as fans have been consistently assured that they would have priority in the next round, but continue to feel frustrated and side-lined in the process.

Regionally opinion in the South has changed most this month. Whereas in April 66% agreed that it was positive, this month only 56% agree. It is possible that the change is down to the ramping up of public information campaigns, warning locals of the disruption that they should anticipate during August. The reality of the inconvenience is perhaps beginning to dawn on Southerners.

On the whole it’s been a fairly peaceful month in terms of our Olympic mood. There was no uptick in pride as we expected, but perhaps the double Bank Holiday will perk us up next month. Watch this space…

Click here for April’s Olympic Mood Tracker

Note: JWT surveyed 350 British citizens in May 2012. Regional samples have been weighted to be nationally representative.

Survey questions:

1.       On a scale of 1-10 (where 1=not at all proud and 10=extremely proud) can you tell us how proud you are to be British?

2.       How far would you agree that you are excited about the Olympic Games this Summer?

3.       How far do you agree that the Olympic Games will be good for Britain?

Aspire, the UK charity that supports people who have suffered devastating spinal cord injuries, has launched a direct marketing campaign to increase brand partnerships.

Created by JWT London, the activity takes the form of illustrations which tell the true stories of people that Aspire has helped. The three executions run across email and target Brand Marketers within Sport, Automotive and Male Grooming categories. The aim is for Aspire to open a conversation with the recipient of the emails in order to build brand partnerships.

The three stories are delivered as hand illustrated, scrollable emails, which invite recipients to scroll through and play a part in revealing each new line in the story. The recipient is then given a sense of their power to make a difference to the wheelchair users Aspire supports.

The activity follows Aspire’s triumph in JWT’s first Campaign for Good contest last year. Working with Media Trust, JWT invited UK charities to apply for free help with their marketing.

Andy’s Story

Sheike’s story

Luke’s story

Mr Kipling is launching a national advertising campaign celebrating the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee.

Created by JWT London, the ‘Jubilee Celebrations’ campaign comprises a series of ads which show Mr Kipling’s celebratory special Jubilee editions – Great British Fancies and the new Victoria Mini Classics recipe – as well as some of Mr Kipling’s classic cakes. The creative shows miniature figurines enjoying the Jubilee celebrations.

Launching on 14^th May and running until 17^th June, the outdoor and print activity is the first creative work produced by JWT London for Premier Foods since being handed the advertising accounts for four ‘Power Brands’ earlier this year. As well as Mr Kipling, JWT is responsible for the creative development of Ambrosia, Hovis and OXO.

JWT had previously handled the Mr Kipling account in the 1960’s and invented the ‘Exceedingly Good Cakes’ line.

Mr Kipling - Jubilee Celebrations 'Parade'

Mr Kipling - Jubilee Celebrations 'Guards'

Mr Kipling - Jubilee Celebrations 'Party'

The National Centre for Domestic Violence (NCDV) has launched an interactive billboard campaign at Euston Station to raise awareness about how people can intervene to help put a stop to domestic violence. The campaign, which launched 30 April 2012, runs on JCDecaux’s large format e-motion screens and encourages passers-by to get involved in the advert by controlling the scene using their mobile phone.

Created by JWT London and produced by Grand Visual, “Drag Him Away” features an abusive domestic situation between a man and a woman with the call to action “USE YOUR PHONE TO STOP THIS NOW GO TO ncdv.org.uk/stop AND DRAG HIM AWAY.” Users can either enter the web address or scan on the featured QR code to start interacting immediately. The participant is able to control the characters by dragging the man away from the woman and on to adjacent billboards.  The screens then synchronise to urge people to report any domestic violence situations to the NCDV so that they can intervene on the victim’s behalf.

This is the first time that e-motion screens have run user controlled content. It is also the launch campaign for Grand Visual’s Agent platform which enables mobile and digital out of home interaction. The 5-screen execution is supported by 4 additional e-motion screens plus D6 formats featuring QR codes that take the user to the website to activate their phone as the remote control.

You can view the press release here.

JWT London has been awarded Continuous Professional Development (CPD) Gold accreditation by the Institute of Practitioners in Advertising (IPA). The accreditation is in recognition of JWT’s 2011 Training and Development programme and marks the third successive year the agency has achieved Gold.

Gold accreditation is given to agencies that operate industry-leading programmes and recognises excellence in the management and development of people and professional skills.

‘JWT should be complimented not just on their very robust CPD culture, which includes inductions, appraisals, graduate training, as well as training opportunities, but on using training to get ‘true employee engagement’ with their global positioning and using this success to benefit the business. A number of other flagship programmes were all done to a high standard and with great results, we loved their media education workshops.’ IPA citation.

A full list of agencies that achieved Gold accreditation can be found here.

It’s nice to be admired, but does it really make a difference to the bottom line for brands? JWT’s exclusive research would suggest that it does – 65% of British consumers say they are more likely to buy the brands that they admire.

But what is it that inspires admiration for brands in the mind of the consumer? You often hear about generic qualities: trust, great service, reliability and responsibility. Much more rare are specific actionable steps you can take to earn that admiration.

So JWT London spoke to 300 British consumers to find out the brands they admire and more importantly, why. We discovered that building admiration isn’t rocket science. It’s about going beyond good enough and actively trying to see the world through your customers’ eyes. Consumers will respect brands that respect them and the things they care about.

Gen Z is the fledgling generation, born after 1995, that follows the Millennials (definitions of Gen Z vary, with some considering the year 2000 as its starting point). This generation can be considered the first true mobile mavens. They will take for granted a world of smartphones, tablets and high-speed wireless Internet, untethered from the constraints of a landline or a traditional Internet connection. They won’t distinguish between online and offline, since their mobile devices will keep them connected most of the time. This will create a unique mindset, especially when it comes to accessing information.

The report, based around a survey of Gen Z consumers and their parents in the U.S. and the U.K., provides a snapshot of the generation by focusing on their digital habits: how they use connected devices to socialise, spend, shop and more. With some kids today claiming a digital presence even before birth—23% of parents with children younger than 2 have published sonograms online—we propose that this group has digital in its DNA.

“Gen Z: Digital in their DNA” is the result of quantitative, qualitative and desk research conducted by JWT Intelligence throughout the year. Specifically for this report, a quantitative study was conducted in the U.S. and the U.K. using SONAR, JWT’s proprietary online tool, from March 1-3. JWT surveyed 400 adults, 200 children aged 8-12 and 200 teenagers aged 13-17 (data are weighted by age and gender).

We are now three months into JWT’s Olympic mood tracker, and although scores for pride, excitement and benefits for Britain are still high, April’s results show our feelings have plateaued. We’re not necessarily less excited, but Brits have hit cruising altitude.

Pride in being British has remained buoyant this month at 7.66 out of 10 (up 0.1 points). Perhaps our chests have been puffed by the recent flurry of Brit-themed marketing activity which is ramping up as we approach the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee. As we get closer to the event, it certainly seems we’re coming over all patriotic with over 3,500 street parties already planned for the Jubilee weekend and memorabilia sales apparently soaring.

Despite The Independent’s unearthing of a new national pastime called “Olympic moaning”, general excitement about the Games has dipped only slightly to 44% (down 3%).

Could this difference be due to ethical concern? It was recently exposed that Olympic branded clothing is being manufactured in Indonesian sweatshops. Or have Brits fallen prey to the doom-mongers who predict a security shambles following the antics of the Boat Race protestor and the Shard climbers? Our money is on the upsetting announcement that unlicensed burger vans are to be banned near Olympic venues. We all know how much the British love reconstituted meat treats after a few too many celebratory beers! Please, dear Food Standards Agency, don’t take that small pleasure away from us!

But fear not! Building positive vibes this month is the news that Daniel Craig will be opening the Olympics in the guise of James Bond. At least we can rest easy in the knowledge that Britain’s best-loved secret agent will be on hand to deal with any statement-making Thames-divers. Good thinking guys.

The proportion of those who think the Olympics will be good for Britain has also declined somewhat (-3%) but is holding up well on 59%.

Certainly those of us who live in and around London have started to see the fruits of Olympic regeneration in a general sprucing up of our surroundings. Hoardings are finally starting to come down to reveal a shiny new landscape. Olympic projects elsewhere around the country are gradually nearing completion too. Loughborough, which will host training bases for Team GB and the Japanese Olympic squad, has given its railway station a £7m update. The city of Coventry which will host 12 Olympic football matches has spent the same amount on redevelopment.

Looking at gender differences, 65% of women now say they think the Games will be a good thing for the country, up 4% on last month and by 10% on our first wave in February. By contrast, men feel less positive this month: agreement is down to 54% from 63% in March.  It’s difficult to know why there’s a divide between the sexes, and whether it will persist right up to the Games. One explanation – and it’s just a theory – is that now we are at the business end of the football season, male attention is fully focused on the downs, the ups and the trophies still to be won.

If our hypothesis is correct, we should expect to see the men gaining on women from next month. In fact we’re expecting overall numbers across all metrics to go up in anticipation of another wave of ticket sales along with the start of the nationwide torch relay which begins on 19 May. Not to mention the plans and preparations for the long Jubilee weekend. Watch this space…

Click here for March’s Olympic Mood Tracker

Note: JWT surveyed 350 British citizens in April 2012. Regional samples have been weighted to be nationally representative.

Survey questions:

1.       On a scale of 1-10 (where 1=not at all proud and 10=extremely proud) can you tell us how proud you are to be British?

2.       How far would you agree that you are excited about the Olympic Games this Summer?

3.       How far do you agree that the Olympic Games will be good for Britain?

JWT London picked up the Best Use of Video accolade at the Revolution Awards on Friday 20^th April for its Listerine ‘Mouth vs. Life’ digital activity.

Launched during June 2011, ‘Mouth vs. Life’ was a first of its kind personalised interactive video experience on YouTube. It enables users to create a personalised video experience on the Listerine YouTube channel of what they put their mouths through on a daily basis. The activity marked the first time a consumer brand had used YouTube’s Autoplaylist functionality.

In 2011 ‘Mouth vs. Life’ was ranked in the top five most popular ads on YouTube by UK viewers and it has received over 3 million views to date. The channel can be viewed here.

The Revolution Awards focus on innovation and the winners are those who engage consumers in new and interesting ways, while also meeting tightly defined business objectives. The full list of winners can be found here.

JWT London has appointed Ricardo Figueira as the agency’s first Digital Executive Creative Director.

Figueira joins from Glue Isobar in London where he held the position of Creative Director. At JWT London, Figueira will work alongside JWT London’s Chief Digital Officer, Dave Wallace, and report to Executive Creative Director, Russell Ramsey.

Figueira has won numerous internationally recognised awards, including 7 Cannes Lions, and has been a jury member at shows including Cannes, The One Show and D&AD. He has worked across various clients including Fiat, Nokia, Sky, Adidas, Coca-Cola, MSN and Visa.

Prior to joining Glue Isobar in London in 2010, Figueira was Creative Vice President for Isobar Latin America based in Sao Paulo. Before taking up this role he was Partner and ECD at AgenciaClick, one of Brazil’s biggest digital agencies. At AgenciaClick he was responsible for a 120 strong creative team for more than 10 years. AgenciaClick was acquired by Aegis in 2007, which led to his role at Isobar.

Russell Ramsey, Executive Creative Director at JWT London, said:  “As well as being an exciting hire for JWT, Ricardo’s appointment is also a reflection of the scale of new digital business that has been coming through the door in the last year.”

View the press release here

Reggae Reggae Sauce is launching its first TV and cinema advertising campaign using the brand strapline ‘Put some Music in your Food’.

The £2m campaign, created by JWT London, will air for the first time on ITV on Thursday 3^rd May and run until mid-August.

The ad, which uses claymation, features Levi Roots cooking up a BBQ in the back garden of a house in Brixton.  Singing the “It’s so nice I had to name it twice” Reggae Reggae Sauce song – the tune that sealed the deal for him on Dragon’s Den – Levi splashes sauce onto sausages, kebabs and chicken drumsticks.

The ad was crafted at Aardman Animations over a three month period using 20kg of clay. It took a dedicated team of six model makers four and a half weeks just to create Levi’s claymation character. Directed by Merlin Crossingham, it took a whole day to create just two seconds of filmed animation.

Levi has joined a select group of celebrities – Melvyn Bragg, Barry White, Peter Gabriel, Nina Simone and The Spice Girls – who have been immortalised in clay. But at 50 cm tall Levi’s model stands head and shoulders above them as one of the tallest claymations created by the award-winning animation studio.

The TV and cinema activity will be supported by an integrated campaign comprising PR, online amplification, in-store POS and sampling.

JWT London has created a new fundraising mechanism which aims to make charitable giving part of people’s everyday lives.

Engraved wooden blocks branded HOPE can be picked up in shops and scanned at the checkout along with the rest of a consumer’s shopping. A £1 donation is automatically sent to the Alzheimer’s Society, the leading UK care and research charity for people affected by dementia, and first to sign up to JWT London’s new initiative.

Having made a £1 donation at the checkout the wooden block is then returned to the shelf to be used again. The aim is to target consumers when they are spending money, but at the same time make the process continuous and more convenient than existing methods.

On the back of the wooden blocks, which are made from Forestry Commission approved wood, is an explanation of how HOPE works: ‘Pay for this at the till. Your £1 goes to help people affected by dementia.’ The Alzheimer’s Society logo is engraved on the blocks and there is also a barcode which can be scanned at the checkout. There will also be explanatory posters used in-store.

HOPE will initially take up substantial shelf space in two Budgens stores in Crouch End and Belsize Park, which are both situated in North London. All money raised will be given to the local branch of the Alzheimer’s Society. HOPE will be trialled in these two stores with the view of expanding the scheme.

Joseph Petyan, Executive Partner at JWT London, said: “We are immensely proud of HOPE, an initiative we believe will revolutionise the way people think about making a charitable donation. The aim is for HOPE to become a part of people’s everyday lives and something as regular as buying everyday grocery items.”

Jen Mosley, Community Fundraising Manager at the Alzheimer’s Society, commented: “We’re always looking for innovative and quirky new ways to raise money and the HOPE initiative does just that. The great thing about this scheme is that shoppers can choose to donate a small but vital amount of money in an easy way, simply by taking the block with the rest of their groceries to be scanned at the check-out.”

Click here to view the press release

Spring has arrived and with it come thoughts of warmer weather and what to do with the longer days. So with a beach idyll in our mind’s eye, and wanderlust in our hearts, JWT London carried out some research into the British holidaymaker in 2012.

Using our bespoke SONAR panel we quizzed UK households on a whole host of holiday related plans, habits, behaviours, attitudes and opinions. What follows are the best bits, the most interesting insights and ideas that we pulled out of the mountain of data.

To set the scene, we look at key trends for the holiday market this year and what travellers really want from their trip. Then we turn to the growing phenomenon of the ‘Connected Traveller’: a new breed of tourist which has emerged out of the everyday habit of being constantly connected to a mobile device. Or three. Finally we share our thoughts on how brands can use these insights to really capture the attention of British globetrotters. We hope you find it interesting, enlightening, thought-provoking – even fun.

Every top agency will tell you about why you should choose them for your next career move.  They will talk about the friendly people, the exciting brands, the lovely offices with a fabulous restaurant and fresh coffee round every corner.  We thought about majoring on all of that too – because it is all true here.  You know, roof terrace in Knightsbridge overlooking Harrods, massages, yoga, running club, great parties.  We successfully applied for a place on the Sunday Times Best Companies list, just like a few others.

But, at the risk of sounding a teeny bit arrogant, we believe JWT is special.  Our heritage and experience set us apart because we have been doing what we do for over 140 years.  Some of our clients have been with us for over 100 years.  We were the first agency to introduce Account Planning 40 years ago and the first to understand the importance of properly training our people.  We are often referred to as “The University of Advertising” because of our brilliant internal training programmes, our culture of learning and our very clever work force. In fact, JWT has been awarded the top IPA CPD Gold award for our 2011, 2010 and 2009 Training and Development programme. Gold Accreditations are only handed out to a small proportion of the IPA’s member agencies, so it is a real achievement to be awarded this for the third year running.

Our history is littered with maverick thinkers and doers, often ridiculously young, who had breakthrough ideas that drove not just JWT but the industry forward: the first agency to produce creative content to fill the media space purchased; the first international network of offices; the first planning department. So we need people who can live up to this illustrious past, and fulfil our own JWT Brand Vision: Brand Pioneers – the courage to imagine new ideas and the passion to make them happen.

Something else that sets us apart is our deep seated belief in fairness, courtesy and respect.  We are renowned amongst our clients for those values, but also from our staff.  So at JWT, we will work you hard, but we are not a sweatshop.  We will support, mentor and develop you because we want to – but also because we know that if we fail to do those things, you will look elsewhere for your career development.

So, if you are smart, committed, creative, grown-up and like the sound of us, why not send your CV to london.humanresources@jwt.com. We will be doubly impressed if you add a few lines about why JWT sounds like the Agency for you.

Graduate Recruitment

•    Account Management

Details can be found here

•    Project Management

Details can be found here

Project Management is one of the agency’s most important departments. It is responsible for the running of the agency’s internal creative processes, overseeing the project from brief creation and creative development right through to the delivery of the finished print or digital execution.  It is the force that holds the project together and drives it forward, taking ownership of the problems and ensuring that it’s delivered on time and on budget.

The attitude of a Project Manager

A Project Manager by their very nature must be proactive with a can do attitude. ‘No can do’ is not in the nature of a good PM. We are the people that find solutions to problems that enable good work to become great, or late running work to be delivered on time. A good PM must be flexible, adaptable and have a responsible attitude and should keep the team positive even when the going gets tough, which it does from time to time! We are resourceful by nature and are often faced with problems which require us to use new or different technology to achieve success. A good PM constantly seeks to increase learning and understanding of new channels and production techniques so that he can offer the creatives and the wider team options which perhaps they haven’t thought of or didn’t know existed.

What does the graduate role involve?

The training will last approx 2 years and in that time you will gain experience in Project Management, TV Production, Digital Project Management and Live events / experiential. You will be moved through these departments on a rotating basis so that after 2 years you will have a broad knowledge of all areas of Project Management and the agency’s production processes. You will, with support from senior members of the team, be responsible for live projects and their production and final delivery. During this period you should expect to have experience in the production of Print, Digital, Direct/CRM, Promotional/Event pieces and TV production.

Creative ideas are now commonly expressed in multiple channels. The Project Management department of the future will be led by PMs who are capable of producing work across many different channels. JWT is one of the first agency’s to introduce a graduate scheme for Project Management and no other scheme offers the unique opportunity to gain experience in so many different areas of production.

Click here to view ‘A day in the life’ of a Project Manager. You can also read what our 2011 Project Management Grads have to say here.

Project Management Graduate scheme – Application form

The application form for the Project Management graduate scheme can be downloaded here.

Please return your form to the Talent department at london.graduaterecruitment@jwt.com, or post it to Felicity Melody, HR Co-ordinator at 1 Knightsbridge Green, London SW1X 7NW.

The deadline for applications is Wednesday 27th June 2012

We will let you know whether or not you’ve been shortlisted for interview W/C 9th July 2012.

Interviews will be held W/C 16th July 2012 at our Knightsbridge offices.

The final one day seminar will be held on Wednesday 8th August 2012 in Knightsbridge. Please note that should you reach this stage, you must be available to attend on this day.

The second wave of results from our Olympic tracker are in and it looks like someone’s been putting something in the water. All three of our key metrics have seen an upward tick this month.

Will excitement continue to build? Or is this merely a positive blip, our brains befuddled by the unseasonable sunshine? We’ll review the numbers again next month.  In the meantime, read on to see how things stand in March.

Despite the gloom surrounding the Budget announcements this month, Britons are slightly prouder of their roots overall, with a modest uptick of 0.23 compared to our first wave in February.

The genders have flipped though, and now men (7.75) are prouder to say they are British than women (7.39).

Pride in the flag rises with age and all age groups saw some uplift. Perhaps the launch of the Diamond Jubilee tour and the Queen’s renewal of her pledge to serve her subjects have given the nation a little British boost.

The proudest region this month is once again the North of England (7.77); indeed all regions rose slightly with the exception of Wales (7.18), who are no doubt feeling more pride in being Welsh after their fine tournament win and Grand Slam in the Six Nations Rugby.

Excitement about the Olympics has increased overall by six percentage points, although the proportion of those who strongly agree that they are excited remains the same.

Once more it’s the younger ones who are most looking forward to the Games, up 3% to 53%, possibly inspired by the announcement of cultural and music events featuring acts such as Adele and Blur. The interest of the over 55s has been piqued too: 41% now say they are excited to some degree, up from 28% last month.

Around the country it’s Southerners who are hotly anticipating the Games (54% up from 47%) but interestingly Wales has the most passionate Olympic fans (24% strongly agree).

There’s been plenty of good sporting news which could account for these increases. British Paralympians topped the medal table at the World Cup in Los Angeles, a performance matched by the cycling team at the UCI Track World Cup and the British athletics team took a record medal haul at the World Indoor championships.

Added to this, the announcement of the torch relay route (already viewed by 2 million on the BBC’s news site), the unveiling of Stella’s kit design and some rather large ‘Rings’ floating down the Thames, it’s perhaps no surprise that more of us are starting to climb aboard the Olympic bandwagon. For those still resolutely unimpressed there was the Midas touch of the Duchess of Cambridge, who got into the spirit with the British hockey squad at the Olympic Park.

Negative press about the spiralling cost of the Games and the fears that heightened security measures will lead to a ‘lockdown’ on the streets of London has done nothing to dampen our faith in the long-term success of the Olympics. 62% of Brits now believe that the Olympics will be a good thing for the country, up a substantial 11% since February.

18-34s are absolutely convinced of the benefits – 70% of them now agree compared with 56% last month. The over 55s also saw a big jump in March with 59% now in agreement (up from 35%)

All regions have a majority who feel positive about the impact of the Olympics, with the exception of Scotland, who remain a little more reticent at 39%. Scots might be surprised to learn that it’s predicted that the region will receive a major tourism boost as a result of the Games. Expedia reported recently that bookings for Glasgow and Edinburgh in the summer are already 30% higher than usual. On the other hand, perhaps they are fully aware of this and simply not looking forward to 30% more tourists tramping through the glens this Summer!

Click here for February’s Olympic Mood Tracker.

Note: JWT surveyed 350 British citizens in March 2012. Regional samples have been weighted to be nationally representative.

Survey questions:

1. On a scale of 1-10 (where 1=not at all proud and 10=extremely proud) can you tell us how proud you are to be British?

2. How far would you agree that you are excited about the Olympic Games this Summer?

3. How far do you agree that the Olympic Games will be good for Britain?

The GSMA’s Mobile World Congress 2012, held in Barcelona from Feb. 27-March 1, attracted 67,000 attendees. They represented network operators, mobile manufacturers and developers, along with many players from industries new to this event—companies whose businesses are being affected by a revolution that sooner or later will reach all categories, consumers and markets, regardless of their maturity.

If one thing’s clear, mobile will disrupt it all, and earlier than we could have expected. The pace at which technology is reshaping the world will only speed up, and many innovations that we may believe belong to the future are here already or even in our past.

The shift from a connected to a hyper-connected world is happening now. Online ubiquity provides the catalyst for a new understanding of what mobile means, what mobile does and how it is experienced. The document below outlines 15 key takeaways from the MWC, along with examples that help illustrate these ideas: a preview of how mobile will change our lives.

HSBC ‘Serious Play’ brings to life the financial group’s co-title sponsorship of the 2012 Cathay Pacific / HSBC Hong Kong Sevens tournament which takes place from 23-25 March 2012.

The ‘Serious Play’ films, created by advertising agency JWT London, aim to encapsulate the high levels of passion and commitment from both spectators and participants at the tournament.

‘Serious Play’ captures the popular trend of spectators wearing fancy dress at the tournament and the seriousness with which people take their costumes. It is also intended to represent the bank’s dedication to the growth of the game both at a professional and a grassroots level.

Numerous teams in costumes such as Cowboys, Centurions, Elves and Green Army men feature in high-tempo scenes that unravel across a variety of locations in Hong Kong. The films feature Sevens players from local Hong Kong rugby clubs, as well as stuntmen from around the world. Former England and British Lions player Jason Robinson and past Australia captain George Gregan also make cameo performances in the films.

As part of HSBC’s sponsorship the films will be broadcast within the Hong Kong Stadium during the tournament. Rugby fans can also watch the films on HSBC’s YouTube channel and also on Facebook.

The Cathay Pacific / HSBC Hong Kong Sevens tournament is the flagship event in the HSBC Sevens World Series with 24 international teams set to take part this year.

Premier Foods has appointed JWT London to manage its advertising accounts for Power Brands Ambrosia, Hovis, Mr. Kipling and Oxo, with a combined media spend of £27.5m.

JWT has a long history with Mr. Kipling and Oxo, with both brands now returning home to the agency. JWT did more than just invent the ‘Exceedingly Good Cakes’ line for Mr. Kipling in the 60s. The agency was responsible for every part of the brand, from the brief ‘how do we make more money from flour?’, choice of sector, type of product, name, pack and advertising. JWT also created the original Oxo family, a popular and long running national institution in the 1980s.

JWT’s appointment to the Premier Foods roster follows the company’s announcement in January that it plans to double marketing spend in 2012 to more than £50 million.

McCann London will oversee creative development for Batchelors, Bisto, Loyd Grossman and Sharwood’s.

For more information on the news, visit the Premier Foods Media site.

During March 2012 Harvester launched a TV advertising campaign created by JWT London.

Called ‘Junior Chef’, the TV ad takes a behind the scenes look at a busy Harvester kitchen where a confident young customer takes on the role of a head chef. The activity demonstrates the unique benefit of eating at Harvester where the mix and match menu and salad bar allows consumers to create their own bespoke meal.

The activity was also supported through digital advertising, social media and retail channels and incorporated the campaign line ‘Just how you like it’.

Here’s what  our 2011 Project Management Grads have to say six months in…

Brittany Littlewood

Six months into the JWT Project Management grad scheme and I’m asked to sum up my time here in a paragraph… a very tricky task; something you soon get used to as a PM.  My first encounter with life as a PM was with art buying which saw me sifting through photographers, sitting in on treatments (less spa related, more photographers pitching their ideas), negotiating costs as well as having to tell someone they haven’t made the cut. This introduced me nicely to working on the new wave of HSBC creative – from attending shoots with lovely lunches, to finding out if we really could paint a world map on a cow, running my first PPM meeting, wrapping someone up in bubble wrap for a shoot, searching for mushrooms that had a specific size and colour (which seemingly were only available from France in the summer and I was in London and it was December). What was I saying about tricky tasks? But life at JWT isn’t always photo shoots and French restaurants. When (what seemed like) the biggest digital banner campaign this side of the sun landed on my desk I was in a state of melt down, this soon turned to shock when I found out we had one week to turn it around. But with a bit of guidance from some of the best in the industry we managed to extend the deadline and after a lot of hard work, some long days and on-the-job learning we got it out the door.

This really does only touch the surface of my time here and I haven’t even mentioned BBQ’s on the rooftop terrace on a sunny Friday afternoon, picnics in Hyde Park or some of the most memorable nights with some of the best people I’ve met in a very long time.

Emma White

Summarising six months into one paragraph is certainly a challenge – each day is certainly different. However, one thing I try and start off every day with is a slightly earlier start. It’s good to have this moment of peace in the day because 9.30 comes and that’s when all the action begins, before you know it the day is gone and you are scribbling down your ‘to do’ list for the next day. After six weeks’ training with all the grads I began my first placement in Digital Production. It’s a fast and busy team and I was thrown in at the deep end; handling my own projects from the off. Daunting as this was, what an experience! Delivering my first project that I had managed from start to end was a great feeling and it’s one that I still relish. In March I was given the opportunity to go on a unique three month training course, based at Google and run by Hyper Island. Eighty grads from across the industry were invited to Google’s office, to not only eat them out of house and home (the free food was amazing) but to understand and learn how we can work in an industry where ‘digital’ is having a massive impact. Over this time I have been fortunate enough to meet ad legends such as Jeremy Bullmore, John Hegarty, Rory Sutherland,  and that’s to name only a few! As well as working on briefs and presenting back to a panel of industry experts.

In short, working for JWT has given me a whole range of experiences and opportunities in the most exciting industry in England!

Steve Mead

To summarize my first 6 months on the PM Grad Scheme in one word, I would have to settle upon unpredictable. Are there many jobs out there where you can expect to end up being the star in a Kit Kat Viral? And, I ask you, what Grad Scheme have you come across where you can work with the likes of Stephen Fry and Billie Piper? I certainly wasn’t predicting the approach of a Creative Director to cast me in a highly innuendo-based comedy test shoot which bordered on a Carry On movie. It’s not all fun and games though – I wasn’t expecting the videoconference link in the most important client meeting of the year to fail on me. I did, however, expect to see the look of death on the senior producers face. And there it was. Above all though, I never predicted my first job could make me feel so included and begin so many new friendships.

There are less than six months to go now before the Olympic bandwagon rolls into town.  So we thought we’d check in with Brits to see how they feel about the event. Do they feel proud to be British?  And at a time when Scottish devolution is a real possibility, does the British flag still mean anything to us?  If not, can Olympic pride restore our sense of Britishness?  We’ll be tracking three key numbers over the next few months – pride in the British nationality, excitement about the Olympics and whether the Olympics is a good thing for the country. Here’s what our baseline wave of data told us.

When asked how proud they are to be British, on average the nation scores a reasonably healthy 7.33 out of 10.

Women (7.42) are prouder than men (7.26) and people over 55 (7.61) are significantly prouder than those 18-34 (6.79).

Most proud of the Union Jack are Northerners (7.53), followed somewhat surprisingly by the Welsh (7.33).  Northern Ireland (6.06) and the Midlands (6.59) are the least likely flag-wavers.

There’s a degree of excitement about the Olympics, but it’s hardly all-consuming. 22% agree to some extent and 19% strongly agree.

The ladies (46%) are more excited than men (38%).  And young people 18-34 are looking forward the most (50%). The over 55s find it hard to summon up much enthusiasm at this stage (28%).

Wales (56%), Northern Ireland (53%) and the South (47%) are the most enthusiastic regions.

A healthy 51% believe that the Olympics will be a good thing for the country.

Women are most positive (55%) along with the 35-54s (61%) but the older generation remain relatively cynical (35%).

Yet again, Wales is most optimistic region (60%). Scotland (38%) and The Midlands (33%) find it harder to see potential benefits.

Note:JWT surveyed 350 British citizens in February 2012. Regional samples have been weighted to be nationally representative.

Survey questions:

1. On a scale of 1-10 (where 1=not at all proud and 10=extremely proud) can you tell us how proud you are to be British?

2. How far would you agree that you are excited about the Olympic Games this Summer?

3. How far do you agree that the Olympic Games will be good for Britain?

Sunday night sees the return of the glittering jamboree that is The Oscars. But this year there’s a definite air of nostalgia to the proceedings, as revealed by JWT London’s latest research on all things cinematic. 72% of our panel noted that the majority of potential Best Picture winners all peer into the time tunnel: War Horse in the First World War, The Artist in late 1920s Hollywood, The Help in 1960s Mississippi and so the list goes on. In fact, of the nine films nominated, just one is set exclusively in the present day.

The Oscars are often cited as a cultural barometer of sorts, so what does this tell us about our global mindset? We asked a panel of British film viewers why they thought we plunder our past so readily.

Most people (35%) believe it’s a response to the turbulent times in which we now live in. Buffeted by a harsh economy and rising unemployment, troubled by global unrest and living with the spectre of terrorism, the past offers escapism, a glimpse of what seem like simpler times. This is closely aligned to a feeling of ‘reassurance and comfort’, suggested by 32% of our panel. And 34% think it’s a response to cinema’s recent focus on technical fireworks: instead of a whirlwind of CGI, special effects and explosions filmed in IMAX, 3D or even 4D, people are looking for an old-fashioned storyline.

It comes as no surprise then that our list of the UK’s all-time favourite films barely troubles the 21st century (Fig 1). And indeed when asked what they perceive to be the greatest era in cinema history, 78% pointed to a period before the turn of the last century. Additionally, the majority of people (66%) don’t believe today’s Hollywood A-Listers have the star quality they used to.

Figure 1: UK's all-time favourite films

Visiting the cinema is quite a nostalgic act in itself, notwithstanding the innovations in picture and sound, the film-going experience today is much the same as it used to be. Yet there are still a few relics from the past that Britons would like to resurrect: usherettes bearing treats are top of the list (40%); 35% would like to see the return of a short feature before the main film; 30% miss the glamour of the old-style film theatres and 28% would like to see the return of the intermission; 21% would like to see the return of proper projectionists and a rebellious 11% want smoking seats back.

Surprisingly, despite the explosion in digital platforms for film, it seems they have not yet found a place in our hearts: less than 3% choose downloading or streaming as their favourite way to watch films. Just under a quarter choose the cinema, but most (36%) enjoy the serendipity of just happening across a great film on TV.

Oscar nostalgia reflects a wider appetite for all things retro. Our panel revealed their passions for classic TV (72%), old-fashioned traditional British boozers (61%), retro recipes (54%) and classic band reunions (48%), not to mention vintage clothing and design (36%). Most of us (66%) feel nostalgic at some point or other; we believe that things were simpler back in the day (84%) or even better (51%). Even those aged 18-39 view their past fondly; with 50% wishing things ‘could be how they were in the old days’.

Marie Stafford, Director of Insight at JWT London, commented:

“Pace of change in recent times has been unprecedented. We constantly need to shift up a gear, adapt, get accustomed to new technologies and learn new ways to live. Sometimes this can be overwhelming. Reflecting on and yearning for the past is both a form of escapism as well as a reaction to the complexity of modern life. Every now and again we just need to switch off, slow down and seek comfort. Nostalgia is a way to tap into familiarity which builds strong emotional connections and warmth”.

Back to Oscars night now and the all-important topic of who will win. If it were up to JWT’s panel, Meryl Streep would win Best Actress, Gary Oldman Best Actor and War Horse would win Best Picture. Whoever wins on Sunday, odds are that the ceremony will deliver more than a whiff of the past.

Note:  JWT London surveyed 190 UK consumers in February 2012 using the bespoke SONAR panel
Picture credit: wordle.net

Download the pdf version here.

The HSBC TV ad ‘Lemonade’ demonstrates that as the global financial landscape shifts and evolves, even the smallest businesses will be multinational in the future.

Created by JWT London the ad tells the story of an entrepreneurial young American girl who sets up a lemonade stand that accepts a variety of different currencies.

The ad was shot in Los Angeles using only natural light. This is a speciality of the Director of Photography, Emmanuel Lubezki, who shot The Tree of Life with Terence Malik.

JWT London has created a new model for its leadership and promoted Joseph Petyan, Russell Ramsey and James Whitehead to lead the agency as Executive Partners.

All three will be equally responsible for the running of the agency, replacing Guy Hayward who left JWT at the end of last year.

This unique collaboration is an acknowledgement of JWT’s strong homegrown talent and the team’s proven ability to deliver for clients; they have a robust understanding of the strengths of both JWT’s global network and the importance of local success.

Joe, Russell and James will report to Toby Hoare, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of JWT Europe.

The full press release can be viewed here.

What and how we eat today might look quite baffling to anyone who’s missed the past decade: buying gluten-free treats from a food truck, for instance, or “Foodspotting” an order of locally sourced, heirloom vegetables. Yet at the same time we’re reconnecting with our past, looking to eat more communally and celebrating regional food traditions, even digging up antique recipes.

“What’s Cooking? Trends in Food” surveys what’s changing when it comes to how we find, cook and eat food, how we think about what we eat and how brands are marketing food. It does so through the lens of eight relevant macro trends JWT has highlighted over the past few years—including Food as the New Eco-Issue, Screened Interactions and Maximum Disclosure—as well as three overarching trends shaping the category: the influence of technology, the rise of health and wellness, and foodie culture. Within these trends, we spotlight myriad things to watch we’ve been tracking.

In addition to desk research, JWT Intelligence interviewed influencers and experts in food, received input from the JWT planning network and conducted quantitative surveys in the U.S. and the U.K. The surveys used SONAR™, JWT’s proprietary online research tool, to poll 1,270 adults aged 21-plus from Jan. 19-24.

As always, technology has a prominent presence on JWT’s Things to Watch: Among other things, the list spotlights the rise of LCD art, growing concerns over cloud and mobile security, the Facebook IPO and interactive screens infiltrating our retail and restaurant experiences. The list also includes noteworthy events on the calendar, people to keep an eye on, and things to watch in marketing, retailing, travel, food and sustainability.

Technology will play an instrumental role in helping the UK celebrate Christmas this year. A recent survey by JWT London shows that Britons of all ages will be using their gadgets and devices for shopping, entertainment and keeping in touch with loved ones over the Christmas period.

We’ll be better connected than ever before this festive season with 22% of us sending greetings via Facebook and 11% instantly uploading photos and clips of the big day to social networks; 14% will send an e-card rather than a traditional Christmas card and 7% plan to tweet Christmas greetings. The over 55s claim to be the keenest Tweeters (9%) and are also more likely to be found Skyping their relatives than the average (15% v 14%).

And if you’re wondering where the younger members of the family have disappeared to after Christmas lunch, they might just be blogging (8% of 18-34s plan to write a Christmas post) or perhaps hanging out in a chatroom; 6% have already decided they will get bored of your company and will be catching up with their online pals instead.

To view the full findings and release click here.

During November 2011 JWT London launched an online film for Anti-Slavery International, the world’s oldest international human rights organisation. The film highlights the stark reality of modern-day slaves who live in London.

The short film illustrates what it would be like if a domestic slave in the UK was allowed to have a voice, via a Facebook profile.

The film is based on the fictional character, ‘Lala’, whose experiences are an amalgamation of those faced by modern-day slaves that Anti-Slavery International comes into contact with.

Called ‘Facebook’ the film shows Lala joining the social network. Lala’s updates about her experiences of work and general life become more and more distressing as the film progresses, from ‘will I be allowed a few free hours this month?’ to ‘my family probably think I am dead’ and ‘madam has stolen my passport. I have no identity’. Lala also posts photographs of the conditions she lives in as a slave. However, although the online medium gives her a channel to voice her feelings, Lala has no friends on Facebook.

The end of the film shows Anti-Slavery International adding Lala as a friend. The line ‘Slavery in London still needs abolishing’ then appears alongside a link to the charity’s website www.antislavery.org

JWT London created the film on a pro-bono basis with Underworld donating the use of the track ‘Glam Bucket’.

JWT London has been named Consumer Advertising Agency of the Year at The Grocer Marketing, Advertising & PR (MAP) awards. This is the third year in succession that the agency has been awarded the title.

In addition to Agency of the Year, JWT London also picked up the following awards during the ceremony at The Savoy, London on 1 November 2011:

Winner – Integrated Campaign – Listerine ‘What will you put your mouth through’

Winner – Outdoor – Listerine ‘What will you put your mouth through’

Winner – Radio – Kit Kat ‘Vuvuzela’

Highly Commended – Online – Listerine ‘What will you put your mouth through’

For a full list of winners click here.

The Male Cancer Awareness Campaign, ‘Rhian Touches Herself’, was released virally on 14th September 2011. Within 10 days it had reached 1,000,000 hits. The film quickly spread around the world becoming extremely popular with its intended target market of men aged 18-35.

In the face of an understandably sensitive subject this viral film manages to be humorous, shocking and educational all at the same time.

JWT and Volans have published a report exploring how businesses, governments and investors can move beyond pressure to focus on the short term and starting thinking about future generations.

In the report, The Future Quotient: 50 Stars in Seriously Long-Term Innovation, the establishment of a new measure for future-readiness is proposed. The Future Quotient (FQ) would be the world’s first measurement of an ability to both anticipate and create value in the future. The report also identifies 50 “stars” – individuals, teams, business and brands who we believe would have a high FQ.

Unilever and Puma were among the list of businesses named as “stars”, with the London Organising Committee of the 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games (LOCOG) named as a public sector “star”. Individuals, social enterprises and NGOs also feature as “stars”.

To view the full release click here or to view the report ‘The Future Quotient: 50 Stars in Seriously Long-term Innovation’ please visit www.futurequotient.com.

The X Factor live show juggernaut returns this weekend and it’s bringing the British public back together in a way that virtually no other show can rival.

A survey conducted by JWT London reveals that for a whopping 80% of us, watching X Factor is primarily a social experience we share with loved ones. And in the multi-channel, multi-screen age it’s bringing the whole family back to the sofa on Saturday nights on a scale that would rival TV’s 1970s heyday: 45% of Britons plan to follow the live shows together as a family this year. Moreover, in an era of TV time shifting, it’s a show that must be experienced in real-time: 64% plan to watch this year’s live shows as they happen.

So, what is it about the X Factor that keeps us coming back in our millions? JWT London’s research shows that most viewers have an old-fashioned appreciation for the programme. It’s the simple things that we love, like discovering new talent (72%), appreciating the songs and music (68%) and being a part of the transformation of someone’s life (63%). Again, the social benefits the X Factor delivers are strongly valued, with 64% saying watching with family is the reason they most love the show.

To view the full findings and release click here.

During September 2011 Bayer launched its first UK TV ad campaign for Berocca Boost to raise awareness of the effervescent product.

The activity, created by JWT London, aims to raise awareness of the product among its primary target audience of 18-30 year olds.

The multi-vitamin tablet differs from Berocca original because it contains Guarana, a natural source of caffeine. The product is aimed at those seeking a healthy boost.

Anger, shock and disgust. These were the most common initial reactions to the riots that took place in London and across the UK in early August, but it may come as a surprise to discover that some of the harshest judgements on the rioting come from young people themselves, according to a survey conducted by JWT London.

When asked about the riots and their feelings towards young people in their own community, sympathy levels were lowest among 18-34 year olds. Just 28% said that they worry for other young people, compared with 52% of the over 50s. Young people are also championing harsher penalties for their rioting peers, with 43% suggesting that the punishments of those convicted were not harsh enough, compared to 34% of the overall population.

And after the media hype about the role that social networks played in organising the riots, 64% of young people agree that social networks should be restricted in the future to prevent them being used in a negative way.

To view the full findings and release click here.

HSBC UK has encrypted the front cover of the City AM newspaper as part of a new integrated marketing campaign to demonstrate the bank’s commitment to customer security.

Created by JWT London the cover wrap shows an encrypted front cover on the newspaper, with the unencrypted real front page following. The ad explains that in the past encryption machines were used to protect important information, but today that role is fulfilled by HSBC’s new Security Key.

City AM - encrypted front cover

City AM - unencrypted front cover

In May 2011, JWT London created a new campaign for Pro Plus targeting students in the UK. The activity ran across student campuses and comprised outdoor, ambient and online advertising. The campaign was developed to remind students that Pro Plus can help them to stay alert, and thus revise for longer. It shows students in a number of revision situations, where they’ve fallen victims to student pranks, due to a lack of alertness.

In May 2011 Kenco rolled out a new TV campaign to support the launch of its first Wholebean instant, Millicano, which is a combination of instant and finely milled roast and ground coffee. ‘Passion’ shows the adoration this new product provokes in people.

JWT has launched Brand Toys, the world’s first online brand visualisation tool, which allows users to compare the character and personality of over 3,000 brands across the world. Users will be able to create their own Brand Toy characters, share them through their social networks and even resin-print their Toy in 3-D.

The Brand Toys online tool analyses rich seams of data from Millward Brown’s BrandZ survey in conjunction with real-time social media search and analysis to create playful visualisations of a brand’s image and personality in the form of a fun toy. Brand Toys reveals at a glance how consumers across the world understand and feel about brands.

Users of the Brand Toys tool can make quick comparisons between different brands, or see how a single brand performs in different countries.

To view the press release click here.

The upcoming wedding of Prince William and Kate Middleton looks set to deliver a shot in the arm for public perceptions of the British Royal Family and could even launch a glorious new era of popularity.

In a Royal Wedding survey, conducted by JWT London, one of the UK’s largest advertising agencies, an overwhelming 80% of respondents said they believe that the wedding will have a positive impact on how they view the Royals. In a further boost for the Windsors, 67% of Brits believe that the country still needs a Royal Family, with the same number saying they are “a wonderful institution that does a great job”.

More tellingly, with the exception of the Queen alone, the new wave of younger Royals are commanding greater respect from the public than their senior counterparts. William himself has a respect rating of 64% with brother Harry not far behind on 59% and new addition Kate already at 49%. Princes Charles (42%), Andrew (28%) and Edward (24%) trail in their wake.

And after a lacklustre start, we’re now seeing interest in the Royal Wedding beginning to build. Half of the British public (47%) are now planning to show their support of William and Kate’s big day – a potential audience of 30 million. The age of the street party looks to be over however, with just 16% planning an event with their neighbours.

To view the full findings and release click here.

During March 2011, JWT London created an ambient campaign for Kit Kat to remind Londoners to take a break.

A series of clock hands began ticking on London Underground stations during the evening of 24th March. The clock faces were carefully synchronised in order to create a typeface that occasionally spelt the word ‘BREAK’.

The clocks were also projected on walls at five different London locations where there was late night work going on.

In the run-up to Mother’s Day in 2011 Debenhams launched a TV and viral film campaign, created by JWT London, prompting viewers to make their mums feel special on Mother’s Day.