Every year, we celebrate the day two guys dived head first into the world of independent advertising, asking themselves “what’s the worst that could happen?” That day was April 1st 1982, the day Wieden+Kennedy was founded. Was it a coincidence the agency was started on April Fool’s Day? Who knows. But what we do know is that our annual Founders’ Day celebrations are a chance for the whole agency to get away from the office, be together, get inspired and be creative.

Our organising committee meets under the cover of darkness (the padded cell) and schemes up an event to remember. This year, all we were told in advance was: don’t wear a skirt and bring wellies. So no kilts for Mr Christie then.

After a couple of hours in a bus with our hooded guides, we found ourselves on Osea Island in Essex.

It’s only reachable for a few hours a day when the tide is out, and the island’s history includes and World War I military base and a treatment facility. This was our home for 36 hours. This year’s theme was ‘W+Kult’, because from the outside, well… here’s what original W+Kult leader Dan Wieden, beamed in from Portland on the day, had to say to us:

And so we zipped up our Kult-issued boiler suits, and after a spot of wellie-clad yoga on the beach, got stuck into the brief: form a cult.

These were our spiritual guides on the day:

Who made us eat worms:

And put on masks:

And compose our own mantras:

After a (not so) gruelling day of creativity, fun and games, the whole thing culminates in a party. This year, we celebrated with with a hog roast and fire dancers.

A big thank you to our W+K Founders’ Day organising crew: Paulo Salomao, Laura McGauran, Mike Waywell, Ronny Harmes, Nicola Yurman, Laura Barker and Lara Wahab, and to Wonderland Events, for putting so much work into giving us all a day to remember. We bow down to you all.

Check out photos of our Kults after the jump.

The Kult of Crouton:

The Kult of Theo (our planner…awkward):

The Kult of Skol:

The Kult of Whitney Jackson:

Children of the Tongue:

The Kult of Pamela Anderson:

The Kult of Sandra:

The Kult of Helen’s puppies:

The Kult of Donkey:

The Kult of Kanye:

This morning, we announced that as of September, Iain Tait (most recently ECD of Google Creative Lab and previously global ECD of W+K) will be joining us in London as ECD. One of our current ECDs, Kim, is stepping down, but he's staying on in a senior creative role so we're pleased to say we're not losing him, we're just squeezing another bright mind into Hanbury Street. Iain will be partnering with Tony, our ECD, and completing the management team with MD Neil when he joins. In the meantime, Tony, Kim and Neil will continue in their roles.

Tony writes:

Over the past twenty-nine years Kim and I have tried hard to do the wrong thing.

The thing that people question: “Why would we do that?” Maybe it’s because we felt the places we were at were too formulaic. ‘Irreverence’ is a word that many of you will have heard us use. And in a funny way, looking back, our previous roles have been to fuck things up. 

Then, thirteen and a half years ago, Dan offered us a job at the totally fucked up Wieden+Kennedy London. For the first time in our careers together, we had to be the sensible ones. Going back to the basics, gaining trust of clients, hiring people that could actually write ads, making the work better, removing the large string underpants from our reception and not being the ones to fuck things up.

As the nearly sunken ship gradually floated back to the surface and started to function properly, we slowly began to mess with things again: a garden shed for an office, a horse’s head as an agency mascot and re-introducing folks that you wouldn’t normally find in advertising. The first ‘Run London’ campaign that put us firmly back on the map was initiated by a running friend that wasn’t working in our office. Honda, one of our big successes that people often talk about, was won by not working in a traditional linear way: walls of non-advertising ideas that got turned into a book because at the time, on the bank holiday weekend before the pitch, we had nothing else. You see, Kim and I have always thought that you never really get anywhere new if you don’t keep on ‘walking in stupid’. It’s a large part of the reason why we have stayed here for so long. This company’s independence is more valuable now than ever in a world of mergers.  It gives us the opportunity to fuck with things and to embrace ‘failing harder’. And trust me, Kim and I have failed big time during our time here. Indeed it’s been a large part of our success.

So my friends, Kim and I have been chatting for over a year now about how we could really fuck things up here again. We want to challenge W+K London and change it for the better, because if you don’t change, you die. The technological revolution has disrupted the creative industries, some for the better and some for the worse. Which form advertising takes in the future is up for grabs. Google have been stealing many of our best folks. No longer my friends, say Kim and I. It’s time to fight back. Change or die.

With this in mind, Kim has decided to step down from his ECD responsibilities in order to continue to disrupt this ship in a positive way. Before you press the panic button, Kim is not leaving. His new role has yet to be decided by him, but I know it will still all be about making the work better somehow and continuing to fuck things up. He is doing this to help us question what the agency might be in the future, to get to different solutions quicker. And the good news is, the person who is taking over his ECD role is a friend of ours. He is an amazing talent that understands our culture and has been responsible for some amazing work. Yes, Google are losing one of their key players. Iain Tait is returning to the fold. He has a different skill set from me, and we intend to make the most of that.

The tide is turning my friends. Strap ten large speedboat engines to the ship and hold on tight. Nobody knows where this may lead us but we’ve got a funny feeling this is going to be one hell of a ride.