Wunderman Archives, 1946-2010 and undated

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Collection is restricted. Access note. Collection contains original audiovisual items that need to be reformatted before use. Contact Research Services for access.
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Summary

Creator:
Wunderman (Firm)
Abstract:
Wunderman was a direct marketing and behavior-oriented marketing communications firm founded in 1958 as Wunderman Ricotta & Kline. It was a subsidiary of the Young & Rubicam agency before being absorbed into a multi-agency merger that formed VML, when Wunderman ceased to exist as a distinct entity. It was headquartered in New York. The Wunderman Archives span the years 1946-2010 and comprise the administrative records of direct-mail and direct marketing agency Wunderman and its predecessor entities Wunderman Ricotta & Kline, Wunderman Worldwide, Wunderman Cato Johnson, and Impiric, as well as its subsidiary offices in the U.S. and abroad, associated firms such as Stone & Adler and Chapman Direct, and its relations with parent company Young & Rubicam. Acquired as part of the John W. Hartman Center for Sales, Advertising & Marketing History.
Extent:
522 Linear Feet
Language:
Material in English, Arabic, Catalan, Chinese, Czech, Danish, Dutch, Finnish, French, German, Greek, Hungarian, Italian, Japanese, Norwegian, Portuguese, Spanish, Swedish, Turkish
Research Center:
John W. Hartman Center for Sales, Advertising & Marketing History
Collection ID:
RL.01416

Background

Scope and content:

The Wunderman Archives hold the administrative records of direct-mail and direct marketing agency Wunderman and its predecessor entities Wunderman Ricotta & Kline, Wunderman Worldwide, Wunderman Cato Johnson, and Impiric, as well as its subsidiary offices in the U.S. and abroad, associated firms such as Stone & Adler and Chapman Direct, and its relations with parent company Young & Rubicam. It includes general office files, policy and procedure manuals, training materials, awards, account files, new business records, professional papers of founder Lester Wunderman and other key executives, samples of client campaigns, photographs, slides and audio cassettes and videocassettes. Clients include American Express, Apple, Army/ROTC, AT&T, Britannica Press, CBS, CIT Financial, Citibank, Columbia House, Ford, Gevalia Kaffe (Kraft), the Grolier Society, IBM, Jackson & Perkins, Johnson & Johnson, Lincoln-Mercury, Manufacturers Hanover Trust, Microsoft, Miller beer, National Rifle Association, New York Telephone/NYNEX, Time (Fortune, Money and Sports Illustrated magazines), Time-Life Books, United States Postal Service (USPS), and Xerox.

Biographical / historical:

Wunderman was a direct marketing and behavior-oriented marketing communications firm founded in 1958 as Wunderman Ricotta & Kline. It was a subsidiary of the Young & Rubicam agency before being absorbed into a multi-agency merger that formed VML, when Wunderman ceased to exist as a distinct entity. It was headquartered in New York.

Wunderman Ricotta & Kline (WRK) was founded in 1958 when Lester Wunderman, Irving Wunderman, Ed Ricotta and Harry Kline departed the Maxwell Sackheim & Co. advertising agency. In 1968 the agency opened offices in Canada, London, and Paris. WRK was acquired by Young & Rubicam in 1973; it changed name to Wunderman Worldwide (WW) in 1987. In 1992 WW merged with Cato Johnson to form Wunderman Cato Johnson (WCJ). Lester Wunderman retired in 1998. In 2000 the agency was acquired by British firm WPP and changed its name to Impiric, but changed it back to Wunderman the following year.

Major acquisitions: media planning agency Mediaedge:cia (2003); marketing analytics firm Fortelligent (2005); interactive services ZAAZ (2006); digital services These Days (Belgium), Aqua Online (South Africa), Blast Radius (all in 2007); digital services Actis Systems (Russia), Kassius (France), DesignKitchen (all in 2008).

In 2018 Wunderman merged with J. Walter Thompson Company to form Wunderman Thompson. Wunderman Thompson was absorbed into VMLY&R in 2023 to form the firm VML, and Wunderman ceased to exist as an entity.

Source: wunderman.com history timeline; Wikipedia "Wunderman Thompson".

Acquisition information:
The Wunderman Archives were received by the David M. Rubenstein Rare Book Manuscript Library as a gift from Wunderman in 2010-2013.
Processing information:

Processed by Richard Collier, March 2012;

Encoded by Richard Collier, March 2012; Additions processed by Richard Collier, September 2026;

Accessions 2010-0202, 2011-0015, 2012-0014, 2013-0064 were merged into one collection, described in this finding aid.

Arrangement:

Collection is arranged into ten series: Administrative Files; Account Files; Awards; International Offices; New Business Files; Printed Materials; Print Advertising; Slides and Photographs; Training Materials and Presentations; and Audiovisual Materials. Original order was maintained and original folder titles were retained where practical. There is a degree of overlap of related material among some of the series, as between Account Files and International Offices, which reflects the historical record-keeping practices of the firm.

Rules or conventions:
Describing Archives: A Content Standard

Contents

Using These Materials

Using These Materials Links:

Using These Materials

Restrictions:

Collection is restricted.

Access note. Collection contains original audiovisual items that need to be reformatted before use. Contact Research Services for access.

Terms of access:

The copyright interests in this collection have not been transferred to Duke University. For more information, consult the copyright section of the Regulations and Procedures of the David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library.

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Preferred citation:

[Identification of item], Wunderman archives, David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library, Duke University

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