Title	BEARD OF WISDOM
Brand	J. WALTER THOMPSON
Product/Service	150 YEARS ANNIVERSARY CELEBRATION
Category	A06. Use of Ambient Media: Large Scale
Entrant Company	J. WALTER THOMPSON GROUP GERMANY Frankfurt, GERMANY
Advertising Agency	J. WALTER THOMPSON GROUP GERMANY Frankfurt, GERMANY
Media Agency	STRöER DEUTSCHE STäDTE MEDIEN GMBH Frankfurt Am Main, GERMANY
Production Company	TRANSMISSION ADVERTISING SERVICES Frankfurt, GERMANY

Name	Company	Position
Mark Karatas	J. Walter Thompson Gmbh	Executive Creative Director
Andreas Baier	J. Walter Thompson Gmbh	Copywriter
Sabine Hegmann	J. Walter Thompson Gmbh	Copywriter
Sebastian Panzer	J. Walter Thompson Gmbh	Art Director
Lars Kopp	J. Walter Thompson Gmbh	Art Director
Bernhard Schmidt	Tranmission Advertising Services Gmbh	Print Producer
Georg C. Dörr/Martin Joppich	Lumen Joppich/Dörr Gbr	Photographers
Anja Gjaldbaek	J. Walter Thompson Gmbh	Art Buyer

Brief Explanation

Join us for a hairy lesson on the history of advertising. J. Walter Thompson is the world’s first advertising agency, celebrating its 150th anniversary in 2014. The agency introduced several innovative firsts of the industry, always following our mission: Create pioneering ideas with outstanding talent around the world. We are constantly looking for new pioneers to join and continue the success. But how can we celebrate our anniversary, communicate our key competences and attract and recruit new talent in the most striking way possible? We rolled out the ultimate symbol for experience: A long white beard.

Results and Effectiveness

The installation worked out great: Several passengers returned from this one-of-a-kind journey by applying for jobs and internships – three times as many as usual. The press and social media were buzzing and helped bringing the JWT-party to a broader audience: More than half a million people walked our beard of wisdom. This certainly strengthened our image as the longest-established, pioneering ad agency.

Creative Execution

We combined 3 different media: A city light poster with the hand-illustrated portrait of J. Walter Thompson and a floor/stair graphic, totaling 24 meters (79 feet) in length. 12 symbols for our most iconic advertising innovations made simply walking the stairs a journey through ad history, that more than half a million passengers couldn’t miss. Detachable beard hairs were used as business cards. A QR code linked to a microsite, which provided additional information.

Insights, Strategy and the Idea

Location was very important for this project. The installation was targeted especially at the young creative talents of Frankfurt who frequent the station on a daily basis. We wanted them to get to know us and integrated our brand into their daily routine. The staircase at Bornheim-Höhenstraße proved to be ideal with a straight line of sight from the poster to the ground floor.