"What's threatened today is any sense of soul in advertising; it's become an advanced course in banking," muses an introspective Dan Wieden on agencies selling out to huge corporations. "It's more about the bottom line than letting work develop organically."

After 20 years in the business and numerous offers from dark horses, Wieden + Kennedy remains refreshingly independent. From its humble beginnings in Portland in 1982, where four employees worked on card tables while using a public phone located down the hall, W+K has continued to operate at the forefront of innovative advertising. Unleashing its creative prose upon distinctively memorable brands, the agency succeeds in utilizing the most talented directors within reach to emphasize its unique ideas. Over 500 employees in Portland, New York, London, Amsterdam and Tokyo now continue the tradition of keeping the W+K passion alive.

"It's pretty simple, you just don't sell," retorts Wieden when asked how the agency remains independent. "We've had numerous offers but we've always benefited from having that independent streak and not having to answer to people who don't actually run the business."

"Independence has allowed this agency to stay focused on advertising and less so on the business of advertising," explains Buz Sawyer, managing director in New York, who returned to W+K last July after a three-year spell as president at Lowe, Lintas & Partners in San Francisco. "We are empowered to say no if we don't think something is right. It's tougher to do that when you're sitting in one of the publicly held agencies, particularly within the current economic environment."

Such ethos has resulted in W+K's marriage to creative clients who love to just do it and return for more; included in the mix are Honda, Anne Klein, ESPN, Microsoft, Miller, Coke, AltaVista and its main squeeze, sports giant Nike.

The Nike connection has remained intact throughout the years (give or take the odd affair with Goodby, Silverstein & Partners and Chiat/Day) since the agency first creaked open its doors. Fellow Portlander and Nike CEO/president Phil Knight called Wieden and explained his hatred for advertising but added swiftly that his company desperately needed it.

"Nike really didn't believe in advertising and that was great," explains Wieden. "When Knight approached us Nike was basically using print ads in running magazines. It was made up of jocks selling shoes to other jocks, so they didn't want their brand to sound like advertising. That in itself forced Kennedy and I to re-evaluate formal communications in the public media."

The Nike account grew rapidly over the years and reached a point where the agency realized it needed to open an Amsterdam office in 1991 to handle its pan-European business. It became imperative to keep a focus on local culture in Europe to accentuate the brand and keep the success flowing.

"We were handling Nike's international business from Portland and back then it was mostly European advertising," explains Sawyer, who started the Amsterdam office with eight people. "We went to Nike, explained that we understood its brand, then set up a beachhead in Europe to access the market. It turned out to be a good call as the agency now has around 160 people and continues to do really strong work for Nike in addition to others." The office can currently claim, among others, Amazon.com, Coca-Cola and Siemens as clients.

"We've grown massively here in Amsterdam," explains creative director Jon Matthews, who joined the unit back in 1995. He worked briefly with Berlin, Cameron & Partners, NY for VW before it promptly lost the account (Cameron & Partners were recently acquired by Red Cell). "Nike needed someone to understand football better, so I came to Amsterdam to help them out during the European championships."

Matthews presently works alongside Jeff Kling and Joe Shands, both recent additions to the Amsterdam office. Shands previously worked on Nike in Portland and is now focused on the Vodafone and Powerade accounts. Kling was formerly tasting the high life with Miller and is presently tuned into the HypoVereinsbank and Siemens accounts.

Of late, the Amsterdam office has nailed a new client, namely fabric makers Goretex, and its most recent spot for Coca-Cola was just released. Entitled "Super Sub," the animated spot features a three-legged footballer who joins the England squad in the 89th minute of the final game to score the winning goal. The ad is the latest in the Eat Football, Sleep Football, Drink Coca-Cola campaign (originally devised by the agency back in 1996) and will run for eight weeks. The spot was animated and directed by Paritzan Midi Minuit, Paris team Numero 6 (David & Laurent Nicholas).

After Amsterdam, W+K turned to New York, opening an office in 1997. The UK was next, with W+K staking some London turf in 1998. "The London and Amsterdam offices have developed independently - each W+K office doesn't copy another," observes Sawyer. "What firmly binds us as an agency are our basic values; we have really smart people, give everyone a lot of latitude and do some really great work. Not just the advertising but everything that goes into it: the strategy, the media plan, the execution and the production. It's all about the whole drill."

"We're concentrated on dancing on the head of a pin but we're doing a healthy dose of work," says Amy Smith, managing director of the London office, referring to the tough London scene where the top 20 agencies digest around 60% of the market. "It's tough to come in here but we made the decision to primarily service Nike [Europe accounts for 27% of Nike's market] but we also handle another huge client, namely Honda."

Diet Coke has also fizzed for the past two years in the London office, as have other wins including Revlon, Mitchum deodorants, Charlie fragrances, Almay, Royal Bank of Scotland, Loot newspaper and work for The Disney Channel.

"There's a sense of possibility working for W+K here in London because we're not owned by big multinational, massively consolidated entities obsessed more with processing profit and shareholder values than creating meaningful work," says Smith. "We try to preserve Dan's sense of chaotic, creative energy but still deliver work to clients that will sell products and add some kind of commercial value to them. Getting this balance right is one of the most demanding aspects of the job."

So what's been the key to keeping this balance right for W+K over the past two decades, allowing the agency to roll along on the crest of an artistic wave? Is there a key to understanding each client's needs to shape proficient advertising day in, day out?

"A sense of uncertainty is really important," explains Wieden on agency morale. "On one hand people need to feel some sense of security but they also need a slight sense of danger; both those things are vitally important or an agency either doesn't have a spirit or becomes so paranoid that it can't function properly."

"There is no magic pill that one can swallow but we're good observers of what's going on out there," adds Sawyer on agency/client synchronicity. "We try to stay very objective when we go in, look at what the problems are and what role the client's product or service can play in helping to address those problems."

Such was the case when ESPN came to W+K eight years ago, fishing for more of a sports-saturated branding beyond a potpourri of bass fishing tournaments and Australian rules football.

"We positioned ESPN as the World's Biggest Sports Fan and that continues to be its mantra," explains Sawyer. "Once we get to a truth that makes sense we stick with it. Nike's Just Do It is as much a mindset as it is a tagline that stays true to the heart of that business for a very long time."

Simply stated, W+K has a knack of finding a voice from deep inside its clients to potential consumers. Superb writing has been a constant throughout the years and something that the agency prides itself on.

A visual sense of adventure also catches one's eye when running through a plethora of campaigns made over the years. "We bring the word to life and we've always tried to be fresh and unique," explains chief operating officer/partner Dave Luhr, citing the agency's use of Spike Jonze some ten years ago when no one had the balls to use the then fledgling director. "That was a bold move on our part but then again we've always had a lot of people in the broadcast and creative departments who understand pop culture."

"We're lucky in that our broadcast production department is the best there is in our industry," explains Curtis on W+K's visual ambiance. "A broadcast producer is as much a part of the creative team as a writer and an art director. Plus we're continually tuned into new talent because we have the instinct, judgment and desire to find it out there."

"I've never seen any other agency who does so much of their creativity in post production, trying to finesse, going over and above what is written on the paper," explains Matthews. "This is fundamental to everything that we do because you have to be open and adventurous and give 120% every time."

Yet above and beyond such impressive final products is the oft-quipped issue that commercials remain a Western-shaped art form. This is something that disturbs Wieden and was the catalyst for opening a Japanese office in 1998. The Tokyo office remains W+K's most experimental space to date, drawing from Japan's unique creative culture to infuse influential advertising as yet unseen in the West.

"The tragedy is that advertising is still a white western art form that is continually preserved around the world," explains Wieden. "When they invite people like myself to judge shows and give speeches, it reinforces people's desires to make advertising as it exists in the western world."

In terms of business timing, opening an office in Japan may seem a mite inconvenient in light of the economic situation. "We know that before any economic upswing there will be great social and cultural change - that's exactly when you want to be here because that's when creativity and new ideas are most needed," explains Tokyo creative director/partner John Jay who leads a team of some 40 individuals. "New ideas are required when the status quo is broken down, so that's when new things can be done."

One of the challenges faced by Jay is continuing to push the Nike brand within Japan. Not an easy task amid a youth culture unfamiliar with opportunities for sports as seen by its Western allies - scarcity of land, no space to play sport and conservative attitudes (in regard to coaching) further add to the mix. Yet Jay is clearly upbeat and confident with the Nike path ahead.

"The true test remains in being [locally] relevant, yet keeping the DNA of the mothership back home alive," outlines Jay. "You can talk about brands being global but you have to understand the relevancy from culture to culture. That separates the men from the boys in this industry. Generally speaking, we spend a lot of time with our clients and extract the truth."

W+K's Tokyo office continues its eclectic approach after opening three years ago, thus far amassing work for clients including Uniqlo, Namashibori beer, and Kumon (private after-school teaching), while focusing on starting a music label this fall. The office has also produced a hip-hop album for Nike while an additional four have just been released for various Japanese DJs.

"We bring 20 years of experience to the Japanese market, but there are so many things that we can learn over here," says Jay. "We just have to throw away the box. You hear so much doom and gloom and read about so much consolidation, but our dreams are brighter today than they were 20 years ago. We're just scratching the surface."

"The biggest challenge for the future is keeping it fresh," says Sawyer on the future of the non-conformist agency. "There are real ups and downs in this business but we'll continue to grow and provide our people with greater opportunities. Plus there's a genuine spirit here. People feel good, have an emotional connection and it's more than a job. There's a willingness to take risks and an acceptance of failure - we go ahead and push the envelope and people are passionate about what they do."

"Advertising does reach a multitude of people worldwide and it is kind of disgusting in a way," admits Wieden when asked about the future. "But it's also a fascinating thing. If you look at the marketplace from its most primitive beginnings you'll see it's always been a sloppy, distrustful and distasteful thing, but essentially it's raw human nature and part of the human condition. The most vital thing about the future of W+K is to remain incredibly curious and unsatisfied. Fish swim in and out of this agency but it's one amazing, thrashing water. The basic thread that runs through everything will always remains the same; a creatively-driven search rather than a financially-driven one."

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