Young & Rubicam

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Young & Rubicam, Inc.
Type of Company Public
Founded Philadelphia (1923)
Headquarters New York City, New York
Key people John Orr Young, Co-founder
Raymond Rubicam, Co-founder
Industry Advertising
Revenue $1.717 billion USD (2000)
Employees 15,000 (2000)
Website www.yr.com

Young & Rubicam, Inc. (Y&R) is a consolidated marketing and communications company. Y&R specializes in advertising, public relations, sales promotion, direct marketing, and brand identity consulting.

Contents

[edit] History

In 1923, John Orr Young and Raymond Rubicam established a small advertising agency in Philadelphia. Today, Y&R holds approximately 340 offices in 70 countries. Y&R's first client was Presto Quick Tip Shoelaces, and later acquired a major account with General Foods. In 1926, Y&R relocated to New York City at the request of General Foods.

Y&R opened an office in Chicago in 1931, and recruited George Gallup sometime later to create an advertising research department. Young was forced out in 1934. Rubicam retired in 1944.

During the 1960s, Y&R produced the first color television commercials. In the 1970s, Y&R expanded with the acquisition of Wunderman Ricotta & Kline in 1973, Cato Johnson in 1976, and Burson-Marsteller in 1979. Burson-Marsteller remains a subsidiary of Y&R.

Y&R became the #1 advertising agency in the United States in 1975 with billings recorded at $477 million; however, due to increased competition, Y&R was recognized more for its strategy than its creativity.

In the 1990s, Y&R was charged with bribery relating to a Jamaican tourism account, and a partnership with Dentsu and Eurocom fell apart when Eurocom withdrew. Y&R and Dentsu reformed as Dentsu, Young & Rubicam Partnerships.

Peter Georgescu became Chief Executive Officer in 1994 and streamlined the company's operations. In 1995, Y&R began acquiring and increasing ownership in advertising agencies and public relations firms across Africa, Asia, Europe, and Latin America.

In 1996, Hellman & Friedman became Y&R's first outside investor.

On May 15, 1998, Y&R closed an initial public offering of its common stock, and became a public company.

In 2000, Y&R was acquired by the WPP Group, a London-based advertising agency, and remains as its subsidiary to date.

[edit] Operations

Young & Rubicam operates fourteen distinct services companies that are organized to provide for the Key Corporate Account (KCA) program, which was created in 1992 to "enhance the coordination of services sought by clients from both a global coverage as well as an integrated solutions perspective."

The following summaries are extracted from the 2000 Y&R annual report.

[edit] Young & Rubicam Advertising

Young & Rubicam Advertising is one of the world's largest consumer advertising agencies, offering strategic and creative development, consumer research and marketing, and media buying and planning. services. Young & Rubicam Advertising ranks as one of the ten largest advertising agencies based in the United States.

Young & Rubicam Advertising operates in the Americas, Europe and Africa. Young & Rubicam Advertising services clients through the Dentsu, Young & Rubicam Partnerships across the Asia/Pacific region.

[edit] Y&R 2.1

Y&R 2.1 integrates on-line and off-line advertising and marketing services in support of client brands around the world.

[edit] The Bravo Group and Kang & Lee

The Bravo Group and Kang & Lee create multi-cultural marketing and communications programs targeted to the fast-growing U.S. Hispanic and Asian communities, respectively. Their multi-disciplinary services include advertising, promotion and event marketing, public relations, research and direct marketing.

[edit] Wunderman

Wunderman is a so-called behavior-driven marketing and communications company. Behavior-driven marketing and communications are designed to assist clients in producing immediate sales and building brand and customer equity.

Headquartered in New York, Wunderman operates in North America, Latin America, the Asia/Pacific region, Europe, the Middle East and Africa. Wunderman also has significant database facilities in Europe and Latin America.

[edit] KnowledgeBase Marketing

KnowledgeBase Marketing (KBM) is a single source provider of integrated information-based marketing solutions to businesses in targeted high-growth industries. KBM delivers its integrated business solutions services by creating consolidated databases, and then designing, implementing and evaluating database marketing programs for clients. KBM's capabilities include data warehousing, data mining, information services and data analysis. Y&R acquired KBM in May 1999.

[edit] Brand Dialogue

Formed in 1995 and sold in 1999, Brand Dialogue specialized in digital interactive branding and digital commerce. Brand Dialogue's primary offerings consisted of web advertising, including the design, creation and production of websites, banners, home pages and comprehensive interactive campaigns; digital commerce applications; the development of corporate intranets to improve communications and productivity within and among a defined set of users; and interactive marketing consulting services.

In 1999, Y&R sold Brand Dialogue to Clarant Corporation as part of its rollup into a new company called Luminant.

[edit] mediaedge:cia

The Media Edge provides integrated media planning, buying and placement services for both Young & Rubicam Advertising and impiric. In addition, The Media Edge provides planning and buying of both traditional and direct response media, and offers a range of media-related services to clients other than those of Young & Rubicam Advertising and impiric, as well as to smaller independent advertising and communications agencies.

[edit] Burson-Marsteller

Burson-Marsteller is a perception management, public relations and public affairs company. Its services include issues analysis, crisis management, consumer and business marketing and research, corporate communications, investor relations and public affairs advocacy.

Burson-Marsteller is headquartered in New York and operates in the United States, Latin America, the Asia/Pacific region and Europe.

[edit] Cohn & Wolfe

Cohn & Wolfe is a full-service public relations firm that providescreative, results-driven services to its clients. Cohn & Wolfe helps its clients establish and communicate corporate and brand identity, launch new products and expand sales. Areas of expertise include consumer marketing, sports publicity and issues management, as well as healthcare, information technology and business-to-business communications.

Cohn & Wolfe was founded in 1970 and was acquired by Burson-Marsteller in 1984. Cohn & Wolfe operates in North America, Europe and Australia.

[edit] Robinson Lerer & Montgomery

Robinson Lerer & Montgomery (RLM) specializes in working with the senior management of companies to develop and implement strategies for corporate image-building, financial transactions, crisis management, litigation support and media and investor programs. RLM was founded in 1986 and was acquired by Y&R in March 2000.

[edit] Landor Associates

Landor Associates is a branding consultancy and strategic design firm. Landor creates, builds and revitalizes clients' brands and helps position these brands for continued success. Landor's branding and identity consultants, designers and researchers work with clients on a full range of branding and identity projects, including corporate identity, packaging and brand identity systems, retail design and branded environments, interactive branding and design, verbal branding and nomenclature systems, corporate literature, brand extensions and new brand development.

Landor was founded in 1941 and was acquired by Y&R in 1989. Landor is headquartered in San Francisco and operates in the Americas, Asia/Pacific and Australia, Europe and the Middle East, including multidisciplinary consulting and design studios in New York, Seattle, Mexico City, Hamburg, London, Paris, Hong Kong and Tokyo.

[edit] Sudler & Hennessey

Sudler & Hennessey (S&H) is a leading healthcare communications firm that develops strategic promotional and educational programs for a wide spectrum of healthcare brands. S&H creates advertising, direct marketing and sales promotion programs for prescription drugs and over-the-counter medications. In addition, S&H provides strategic consultancy and communications support in the areas of managed care, medical devices and equipment, nutrition, veterinary medicine and general healthcare. Communications programs produced by S&H on behalf of its largely pharmaceutical industry client base are directed to a wide range of healthcare professionals as well as patients and their support networks.

S&H was founded in 1941 and was acquired by Y&R in 1973. S&H is headquartered in New York and operates in North America, Europe and the Asia/Pacific region.

[edit] Further reading

[edit] External links



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