"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."