75 years of Worldwide Partners
Worldwide Partners, the world's largest network of owner-managed, locally based communications agencies, celebrated its 75th anniversary from May 4 to 8 during its World Meeting in Zurich.
Metzgerlehner Worldwide Partners, Swiss partner agency and shareholder of the agency network, was responsible for organizing and hosting the conference and the celebrations to mark the anniversary. Speakers who are among the leading minds in the global communications industry were recruited for the conference, the network said in a statement. Among them were futurologists, neuromarketing strategists, university lecturers, business personalities and brand experts.
During the conference, several partner agencies were recognized for their outstanding achievements, including Wächter & Wächter (Munich), BSSP (Sausalito/USA), WE Marketing Group (Hong Kong/China), Asahi Advertising in Tokyo/Japan and Metzgerlehner Worldwide Partners (Erlenbach).
The network was founded in 1938 by five North American partner agencies as the "American Advertising Network". The network served the founders as a knowledge pool and made it easier to support national clients. The first international agency joined the partners in 1951, who henceforth called themselves "Affiliated Advertising Agencies International, Inc.". Since 1990, the network has been operating under the name "Worldwide Partners Inc.", underlining its global presence. Today, Worldwide Partners has 88 independent partner agencies in 55 countries and recorded a turnover of 3.4 billion dollars in the last financial year.
Pictures: Keystone/Samuel Trümpy
