VML (agency)

• 1. Introduction

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  VML carries in its name the initials of three Kansas City advertising leaders: John Valentine, Scott McCormick, and Craig Ligibel. They launched the original agency in 1992. Today the company employs more than 30,000 people across 64 markets worldwide. That scale raises a genuine question: how does a local shop in Missouri become one of the largest marketing operations on the planet? Several of the agencies absorbed into VML trace their origins to the nineteenth century. What united them was WPP's corporate ownership and a growing conviction that advertising, technology, and customer engagement had to operate together.

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• 2. The Long Lineage

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  James Walter Thompson founded his advertising firm in 1864. Its origins traced to Carlton & Smith, one of the first known advertising agencies in the United States. Over a century later, in 1987, WPP acquired J. Walter Thompson.

  John Orr Young and Raymond Rubicam established their company in Philadelphia in 1923. In 1926, a contract condition forced a decisive move. The newly formed Jell-O company would only work with an agency based in New York. Young & Rubicam relocated, eventually settling at 285 Madison Avenue, an address the firm occupied for 87 years. A different philosophy about how advertising could prove its effectiveness was developing alongside these image-focused traditions.

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• 3. The Direct Marketing Pioneer

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  Lester Wunderman opened a firm he called Wunderman, Ricotta & Klein in 1958. His approach centered on reaching individual consumers through targeted, measurable communication rather than broadcasting to mass audiences. In 1961, he gave this method a formal name: direct marketing. He is widely credited as the person who created that discipline. The phrase entered marketing education, corporate strategy, and the vocabulary of advertising professionals worldwide.

  The firm Wunderman opened eventually merged with J. Walter Thompson in 2018. That combination formed Wunderman Thompson, one of the two organizations whose union would produce VML.

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• 4. October 17, 2023

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  VML launched on the 17th of October 2023, when WPP merged two of its agencies: VMLY&R and Wunderman Thompson. VMLY&R had formed in 2018 from the merger of the original VML agency with Young & Rubicam. The new combined entity became the second largest agency in the WPP portfolio, ranking behind only WPP Media.

  Jon Cook, previously Global CEO at VMLY&R, became CEO. Mel Edwards, previously Global CEO at Wunderman Thompson, became President.

  Following the merger, VML added Krispy Kreme, Breyers, and pharmaceutical company Perrigo to its client list. Existing clients included Unilever, AstraZeneca, Colgate-Palmolive, Dell, Ford, Microsoft, Nestlé, The Coca-Cola Company, and Wendy's. In April 2025, VML reorganized its consulting, customer experience, commerce, and technology transformation work into a new division called Enterprise Solutions.

  In 2024, VML Scholz & Friends Germany won a Cannes Lions Grand Prix in Industry Craft. The winning work, "The 100th Edition," was made for Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung and featured Holocaust survivor Margot Friedländer.

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• 5. The Work

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  For the 2024 Super Bowl, VML launched "Mayo Cat" for Hellmann's mayonnaise, the latest chapter of the "Make Taste, Not Waste" campaign. The spot featured Kate McKinnon and Pete Davidson alongside an anthropomorphic cat named Mayo Cat. Its goal was to raise awareness of food waste by encouraging viewers to create new meals from leftovers.

  Working with the Tennessee Department of Tourist Development, VML launched "Sound Sites." The campaign made tourism planning more accessible for people who are blind or have low vision.

  VML partnered with French insurance firm AXA and Kevin Hart's production company, Hartbeat, to produce "Group Therapy," a documentary about mental health. The film streamed on Amazon Prime.

  The original VML had offered not just advertising but also business consulting and software applications. That scope anticipated how broadly the eventual merged organization would extend its work.

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• 6. Awards and Recognition

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  The "Thanks for Coke-Creating" campaign, developed as part of VML and WPP's "Every Coca-Cola is Welcome" project, gathered several Cannes Lions awards. The work featured re-interpretations of the Coca-Cola logo through signs, murals, and paintings made by local bodegas, shopkeepers, and artists.

  "The 100th Edition," created for Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, earned VML Scholz & Friends Germany a Cannes Lions Grand Prix in 2024. The campaign featured Holocaust survivor Margot Friedländer and won in the Industry Craft category.

  In 2025, VML Czech Republic won the Czech Republic's first Cannes Lions Grand Prix. The honor went to "Phone Break," a campaign created for KitKat.

  AstraZeneca and Wendy's are among VML's clients, served across three core practices: brand experience, customer experience, and commerce. That combination would have been unrecognizable to James Walter Thompson when he founded his firm in 1864.

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