JWT North America Not Impacted by Knorr Loss

By Matt Van Hoven 

In a letter to staff, Worldwide Chairman and CEO Bob Jeffrey announced to his company the news that Unilever chose to take their Knorr business elsewhere; namely, duties in APAC, EMEA and LATAM.

Of Unilever’s decision, Jeffrey wrote, “We are disappointed and have told Unilever we think it is an unfair decision. We have put forth a lot of effort and seen a lot of success on this business.”

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He noted that, “When JWT acquired Knorr in 2001 it was a brand in decline that had a diverse collection of companies with diverse local marketing and communications. 7 years later Knorr was rated by Millward Brown as Unilever’s strongest global brand, according to their Global Power Scale, with a score of 47 on a scale of 1-50.”

So WTF Unilever? We’ll leave that to you.

We’re being told that the change in business won’t “impact” JWT’s north American business &#151 translation: no layoffs. And thank the heavens for that.

On a cheerier note, tonight is JWT’s holiday party. Last time we went to a JWT party, an announcement was made that we were there. Natch, it was a bit awk being as anyone who might have spoken to me would have not have been wise to, once I was outed. Save for the douche bags out front. Those guys talked to me, but as I stated earlier, they were fucking douchebags. Later douchebags!

More: “JWT, Ogilvy + Mindshare Get Naked

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