WPP’s Thompson has retained the U.S. Marine Corps recruitment ad account under a new 10-year contract valued at $1.9 billion. 

The award extends the agency’s 77-year relationship with the Marine Corps, which was first awarded when the shop was known as J. Walter Thompson.  

JWT merged with Wunderman to form Wunderman Thompson in 2018 and W-T was folded into VML in January of this year.   

At the time the W-T brand was retired, but the agency set up a dedicated unit to service the Marine Corps account known as Thompson in honor of James Walter Thompson who served in the Marine Corps in the post-Civil War period.  

The 200-person Thompson team is tasked with delivering work across the full marketing funnel to support Marine Corps recruitment efforts. 

The Marine Corps Recruiting Command Advertising Program is responsible for the recruitment of about 40,000 personnel per year to fill vacancies in both the enlisted and officer programs.  

The U.S. Marine Corps is technically part of the U.S. Navy but has a separate advertising recruitment contract. The last contract was awarded to Wunderman Thompson, in September 2019. VML also services the Navy recruitment program.