Grey Group is a global

advertising Advertising is the practice and techniques employed to bring attention to a product or service. Advertising aims to put a product or service in the spotlight in hopes of drawing it attention from consumers. It is typically used to promote a ...

and

marketing Marketing is the process of exploring, creating, and delivering value to meet the needs of a target market in terms of goods and services; potentially including selection of a target audience; selection of certain attributes or themes to emph ...

agency with headquarters in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...

, and 432 offices in 96 countries, operating in 154 cities. It is organized into four geographical units: North America; Europe, Middle East & Africa, Asia-Pacific and

Latin America Latin America or * french: Amérique Latine, link=no * ht, Amerik Latin, link=no * pt, América Latina, link=no, name=a, sometimes referred to as LatAm is a large cultural region in the Americas where Romance languages — languages derived f ...

. As a unit of communications conglomerate WPP Group, Grey Global Group operates branded independent business units in many communications disciplines, including

direct marketing Direct marketing is a form of communicating an offer, where organizations communicate directly to a pre-selected customer and supply a method for a direct response. Among practitioners, it is also known as ''direct response marketing''. By ...

public relations Public relations (PR) is the practice of managing and disseminating information from an individual or an organization (such as a business, government agency, or a nonprofit organization) to the public in order to influence their perception. ...

, public affairs,

brand development In marketing, brand management begins with an analysis on how a brand is currently perceived in the market, proceeds to planning how the brand should be perceived if it is to achieve its objectives and continues with ensuring that the brand is per ...

customer relationship management Customer relationship management (CRM) is a process in which a business or other organization administers its interactions with customers, typically using data analysis to study big data, large amounts of information. CRM systems data collectio ...

sales promotion Sales promotion is one of the elements of the promotional mix. The primary elements in the promotional mix are advertising, personal selling, direct marketing and publicity/public relations. Sales promotion uses both media and non-media marketin ...

, and interactive marketing, through its subsidiaries: Grey, G2, GHG, GCI Group, MediaCom Worldwide, Alliance, G WHIZ, and WING. Grey Group's international clients include

Procter & Gamble The Procter & Gamble Company (P&G) is an American multinational consumer goods corporation headquartered in Cincinnati, Ohio, founded in 1837 by William Procter and James Gamble. It specializes in a wide range of personal health/consumer he ...

, GlaxoSmithKline,

Nokia Nokia Corporation (natively Nokia Oyj, referred to as Nokia) is a Finnish multinational telecommunications, information technology, and consumer electronics corporation, established in 1865. Nokia's main headquarters are in Espoo, Finland, i ...

, British American Tobacco, Diageo,

Volkswagen Volkswagen (),English: , . abbreviated as VW (), is a German motor vehicle manufacturer headquartered in Wolfsburg, Lower Saxony, Germany. Founded in 1937 by the German Labour Front under the Nazi Party and revived into a global brand post-W ...

Novartis Novartis AG is a Swiss-American multinational pharmaceutical corporation based in Basel, Switzerland and Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States (global research).name="novartis.com">https://www.novartis.com/research-development/research-loc ...

Wyeth Wyeth, LLC was an American pharmaceutical company. The company was founded in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in 1860 as ''John Wyeth and Brother''. It was later known, in the early 1930s, as American Home Products, before being renamed to Wyeth in ...

Canon Canon or Canons may refer to: Arts and entertainment * Canon (fiction), the conceptual material accepted as official in a fictional universe by its fan base * Literary canon, an accepted body of works considered as high culture ** Western ca ...

DirecTV DirecTV (trademarked as DIRECTV) is an American multichannel video programming distributor based in El Segundo, California. Originally launched on June 17, 1994, its primary service is a digital satellite service serving the United States. I ...

, and 3M. The company has won 10 Cannes Lions, an Addy, a

Clio In Greek mythology, Clio ( , ; el, Κλειώ), also spelled Kleio, is the muse of history, or in a few mythological accounts, the muse of lyre playing. Etymology Clio's name is etymologically derived from the Greek root κλέω/κλεί ...

and an Emmy Award. Grey Group's European network, Grey EMEA, won 26 Euro Effie awards, and is the five-time Euro Effie Agency Network of the Year, in the four consecutive years of 2005–2008 and again in 2012.

History

Founded in by

Lawrence Valenstein Lawrence Valenstein (1899–1982) was an American advertising executive who founded the Grey Advertising Agency.Arthur C. Fatt, Grey Global Group began as a

company named Grey Studios, reflecting the color of the wall of its original quarters, changing to Grey Advertising in 1925. In , Grey acquired its first major client,

. In 1961, billings reached $59 million and in the same year, Herbert D. Strauss was named president and the firm expanded domestically and internationally.New York Times: "Herbert Strauss, Ad Official Dies
March 18, 1973Advertising Age: "Grey Advertising Agency (Grey Advertising; Grey Worldwide)"
September 15, 2003 In 1961, the firm opened an office in Los Angeles, and in 1962 the firm opened an office in London and in 1963 in Japan. In 1964, billings reached $100 million. In 1965, the firm went public, trading on the Nasdaq exchange, and the firm expanded into the use of

psychographics Psychographics is a qualitative methodology used to describe traits of humans on psychological attributes. Psychographics have been applied to the study of personality, values, opinions, attitudes, interests, and lifestyles. Two approaches to ...

(the analysis of consumer lifestyles). In 1966, Grey became one of the top 10 agencies in the U.S. In 1967, Strauss was named

chief executive officer A chief executive officer (CEO), also known as a central executive officer (CEO), chief administrator officer (CAO) or just chief executive (CE), is one of a number of corporate executives charged with the management of an organization especial ...

and chairman, and Edward H. Meyer was named president. In 1969, Strauss was named chairman In 1970, Meyer was named chief executive officer.New York Times: "Arthur Fatt, 94, Advertising Co-Founder" by Joseph B. Treaster
January 16, 1999 In the 1970s, Grey was responsible for several popular ad campaigns including ''Star Wars'' toys for

Kenner Kenner Products, known simply as Kenner, was an American toy company founded in 1946. Throughout its history, the Kenner brand produced several highly recognizable toys and merchandise lines including action figures like the original series of ' ...

, aspirin and toothpaste for SmithKline, and Stove Top Stuffing for Kraft General Foods. In 1973, Strauss died of a heart attack. Through the 1960s and 1970s, Grey continued to acquire major accounts, and grew into related communication fields. In , Meyer became chief executive officer and would remain in that position for 36 years. In , Grey Advertising became Grey Global Group. On , WPP Group beat out

Havas Havas SA is a French multinational advertising and public relations company, headquartered in Paris, France. It operates in more than 100 countries and is one of the largest advertising and communications groups in the world. Havas consists of ...

in a race to acquire Grey Global, the seventh-largest advertising agency at the time, for approximately $1.3 billion

USD The United States dollar (symbol: $; code: USD; also abbreviated US$ or U.S. Dollar, to distinguish it from other dollar-denominated currencies; referred to as the dollar, U.S. dollar, American dollar, or colloquially buck) is the official ...

. In late , James R. Heekin III became chief executive officer of Grey Worldwide, Grey Global Group's traditional

advertising agency An advertising agency, often referred to as a creative agency or an ad agency, is a business dedicated to creating, planning, and handling advertising and sometimes other forms of promotion and marketing for its clients. An ad agency is generally ...

. On , he became chairman and chief executive officer of Grey Group, the renamed agency holding company. He reports to Martin Sorrell, chief executive officer of WPP Group. Grey Group, Grey Advertising New York and G2 moved to a LEED certified building at 200 5th Avenue in New York in November 2009, after 45 years at their previous location. Grey San Francisco is the company's

San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish for " Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the fourth most populous in California and 17th ...

-based West Coast headquarters. Its clients include Symantec,

LendingTree LendingTree is an online lending marketplace headquartered in Charlotte, NC. The business platform allows potential borrowers to connect with multiple loan operators to find optimal terms for loans, credit cards, deposit accounts, insurance, et ...

, Pernod Ricard, and SunEdison. In 2016, Grey acquire
ArcTouch
a mobile design and development studio, which it operates as a subsidiary. In March 2017, Grey's London office announced its rebranding as Valenstein & Fatt for 100 days, to celebrate its Jewish founders and later executives, and to highlight prejudice in society. In August 2017, Grey Group appointed Michael Houston as worldwide chief executive officer on its 100th anniversary. In November 2020, WPP Group merged Grey Group and AKQA together to create AKQA Group. In July 2022, Grey Group named Laura Maness the agency’s global CEO, who previously worked at Havas. She is the sixth CEO in Grey history and the first woman to attain the role.

Notable work

''Leave the Driving to Us'' (Greyhound)

In 1956, Grey co-founder Arthur C. Fatt wrote the longstanding Greyhound Lines catchphrase " Leave the driving to us."

''Let the Issues Be the Issue''

During the final weeks of the

2008 United States presidential election The 2008 United States presidential election was the 56th quadrennial presidential election, held on Tuesday, November 4, 2008. The Democratic ticket of Barack Obama, the junior senator from Illinois, and Joe Biden, the senior senator f ...

, the firm debuted a self-funded political ad depicting candidates

Barack Obama Barack Hussein Obama II ( ; born August 4, 1961) is an American politician who served as the 44th president of the United States from 2009 to 2017. A member of the Democratic Party, Obama was the first African-American president of the ...

and John McCain with inverted skin tones and the text "LET THE ISSUES BE THE ISSUE." The campaign was rolled-out both digitally and via newspaper ads and posters hung around New York City. According to creative director Tor Myhren, it was "a non-partisan image. We wanted to address the race issue straight on. And it cuts both ways; if you're hopping on either candidate's bandwagon solely due to the color of their skin, you're voting for the wrong reasons."

''Time Sculpture''

In November 2008, the firm began working with

Toshiba , commonly known as Toshiba and stylized as TOSHIBA, is a Japanese multinational conglomerate corporation headquartered in Minato, Tokyo, Japan. Its diversified products and services include power, industrial and social infrastructure systems, ...

to advertise its

high-definition television High-definition television (HD or HDTV) describes a television system which provides a substantially higher image resolution than the previous generation of technologies. The term has been used since 1936; in more recent times, it refers to the g ...

upscaling technology. Its first ad, Time Sculpture, was a British television and cinema advertisement which comprised a collection of interacting movement loops sequenced into a single shot. The commercial was based on a

video art Video art is an art form which relies on using video technology as a visual and audio medium. Video art emerged during the late 1960s as new consumer video technology such as video tape recorders became available outside corporate broadcasting ...

proposal by director Mitch Stratten. ''Time Sculpture'' holds the

world record A world record is usually the best global and most important performance that is ever recorded and officially verified in a specific skill, sport, or other kind of activity. The book ''Guinness World Records'' and other world records organization ...

for the greatest number of moving image cameras used in a single shot.

''Space Chair''

In 2009, the firm's London office developed a world-record-setting campaign for

titled '' Space Chair''. The minute-long ad featured the launch of an armchair into

near space The mesosphere (; ) is the third layer of the atmosphere, directly above the stratosphere and directly below the thermosphere. In the mesosphere, temperature decreases as altitude increases. This characteristic is used to define its limits: i ...

attached to a weather balloon at an altitude of —making it the highest television commercial that had ever been filmed.

Awards

In 2010, Grey was listed on ''

Fast Company ''Fast Company'' is a monthly American business magazine published in print and online that focuses on technology, business, and design. It publishes six print issues per year. History ''Fast Company'' was launched in November 1995 by Alan Web ...

''s "50 Most Innovative Companies". In 2010, it was added to ''

Advertising Age ''Ad Age'' (known as ''Advertising Age'' until 2017) is a global media brand that publishes news, analysis, and data on marketing and media. Its namesake magazine was started as a broadsheet newspaper in Chicago in 1930. ''Ad Age'' appears in m ...

''s "Agency A-List". In 2006, Grey was awarded 12 "Spots of the Week" by ''Ad Age'', which placed it second-highest overall.

Controversy

In 2016, Grey for Good, Grey Group's philanthropic communications division, created a hoax app that claimed to use crowdsourcing to help the refugee crisis in the Mediterranean Sea. After it was debunked by developers, the Apple Store pulled the app on the same day it was awarded a Bronze Lion at the Cannes Lions festival.

Awards and nominations

In popular culture

* In the AMC series ''

Mad Men ''Mad Men'' is an American period drama television series created by Matthew Weiner and produced by Lionsgate Television. It ran on the cable network AMC from July 19, 2007, to May 17, 2015, lasting for seven seasons and 92 episodes. Its f ...

'', Duck Phillips joins Grey Advertising after being dumped by Sterling Cooper. The agency is frequently referenced as a chief competitor of Sterling Cooper throughout the series. * In episode three of the 2010 series of

BBC Three BBC Three is a British free-to-air public broadcast television channel owned and operated by the BBC. It was first launched on 9 February 2003 with programmes targeting 16 to 34-year-olds, covering all genres including animation, comedy, cur ...

's ''

Young, Dumb and Living Off Mum ''Young, Dumb and Living Off Mum'' is a British entertainment reality series which aired on BBC Three. The series follows a group of young adults who have been waited on hand and foot their whole lives. The series sees them living together in a h ...

'', the young adults spend a day at Grey Advertising working on a mock sexual health campaign.

References

External links

Official website

Grey Cannes 2013

Grey creative work and company info

Grey EMEA

Grey LATAM
{{Authority control WPP plc Advertising agencies of the United States Companies based in New York City 1917 establishments in New York City