Inside Wieden + Kennedy's Evolution Into the Go-to Agency for the New Economy

Adweek's Global Agency of the Year embraces Silicon Valley in a big way

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Every day on his way into the office, Wieden + Kennedy president Dave Luhr walks past a large sign in the lobby of the agency’s Portland, Ore., headquarters. In white cursive letters, carved out as negative space against a backdrop of some 100,000 individually placed clear plastic push pins (and one red one, for levity), it offers a pointed imperative: “Fail Harder.”

It’s an apt articulation of the bare-knuckle ethos that’s helped W+K flourish, over the past 35 years, into a powerful and fiercely independent network producing some of the world’s best ads.

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This story first appeared in the Dec. 4, 2017, issue of Adweek magazine. Click here to subscribe.