Wieden+Kennedy is an independent creative agency founded in Portland, Oregon in 1982 by Dan Wieden and David Kennedy. Its founding client, Nike, is still its flagship account, and the agency created the "Just Do It" slogan in 1988. Under CEO Neal Arthur, Wieden+Kennedy (W+K) was named Adweek's 2025 Global Agency of the Year for work on Nike, McDonald's and Ford.
Last updated: November 12, 2026
What are the key facts about Wieden+Kennedy?
Wieden+Kennedy is a privately held creative agency that has stayed outside the large holding companies for more than four decades. The table below collects the facts that matter most for brands, PR teams and marketers comparing creative agencies.
| Item | Detail |
|---|
| Agency | Wieden+Kennedy (W+K) |
| Founded | 1982, Portland, Oregon |
| Founders | Dan Wieden and David Kennedy |
| Chief executive | Neal Arthur |
| Ownership | Independent, not part of a holding company |
| Founding and flagship client | Nike, since 1982 |
| Best-known line | "Just Do It" (1988) |
| Recent recognition | Adweek 2025 Global Agency of the Year |
| Current headline clients | Nike, McDonald's, Ford |
How did Wieden+Kennedy start?
Wieden+Kennedy opened in Portland in 1982 when Dan Wieden and David Kennedy founded the agency with Nike as its first client. The founders built the agency on the belief that influential advertising could come from outside New York.
That bet shaped the agency's culture. Portland remained the headquarters while the client list grew to include some of the largest consumer brands in the world. The Nike relationship has run continuously since the agency opened, which makes it one of the longest client and agency pairings in the industry.
The agency's first great creative moment came in 1988, when the "Just Do It" tagline launched for Nike. The line outlasted the campaign that introduced it and became shorthand for the brand itself. Twenty-two years later, W+K created Old Spice's "The Man Your Man Could Smell Like," a campaign that showed the agency could reinvent a legacy brand for a social media audience. Our Old Spice campaign case study covers that work in detail.
Who runs Wieden+Kennedy today?
Neal Arthur is the chief executive of Wieden+Kennedy. Adweek quoted Arthur in its 2025 Global Agency of the Year coverage, where he described how the agency adapts the "Just Do It" idea for different cultural moments and generations.
Arthur also tied the agency's independence to its decision making. In the Adweek profile he said independence lets the agency make choices that serve the work and its clients in ways a holding company structure might not allow. Adweek reported topline revenue growth of 7 percent in the same piece.
For marketers and PR leaders, the leadership point is practical. A privately held agency answers to its partners, so its pitch to clients rests on creative output and long relationships instead of the margin targets that shape agencies inside public holding companies.
What campaigns define Wieden+Kennedy's work?
Wieden+Kennedy's defining campaigns center on Nike, with major recent work for McDonald's and Ford. The table summarizes the work Adweek highlighted in 2025, plus the two campaigns that built the agency's reputation.
| Client | Work | What happened |
|---|
| Nike | "Just Do It" | Launched in 1988 and still the brand's core line |
| Old Spice | "The Man Your Man Could Smell Like" | Created in 2010 and widely studied as a brand reinvention |
| Nike | Super Bowl return | Nike came back to the Super Bowl at the start of 2025 after 27 years away, per Adweek |
| Nike | "Why Do It?" | Recast the "Just Do It" slogan for a new generation in September 2025 |
| Nike | Air Jordan reintroduction | Marked 40 years of the Air Jordan brand |
| McDonald's | McDonaldland revival | Brought back characters first introduced in 1971, including Mayor McCheese on Instagram Live and Grimace as a Snapchat lens |
| Ford | Lifestyle brand repositioning | Recontextualized Ford as a global lifestyle brand |
The pattern across this work is legacy brands given a new reason to be talked about. Nike's "Why Do It?" asks a question where the original line gave a command. McDonald's pulled characters from 1971 onto platforms its audience uses daily. Each idea was built to travel through earned coverage and social sharing as well as paid media.
Where does Wieden+Kennedy operate?
Wieden+Kennedy is headquartered in Portland, Oregon and has offices across several countries. Adweek reported that the agency opened a Toronto office after signing Ford Canada and then added a Sydney office after winning parts of the McDonald's account in Australia.
The agency also exited India in 2024, according to the same Adweek profile. That combination of new offices and one exit shows an agency adding capacity where large clients need it instead of expanding everywhere at once.
How does an independent agency differ from a holding company agency?
An independent agency such as Wieden+Kennedy is owned by its own partners, while a holding company agency belongs to a parent group that reports to public shareholders. The practical difference shows up in decision speed, staffing and how clients are served.
Holding companies such as Omnicom, Publicis Groupe and Stagwell offer clients scale across advertising, media, PR and data. An independent shop offers a single creative culture and a leadership team that decides without a parent group's approval. Neither model is better in every case, and many large clients use both.
Other independents in the same conversation include Mother in the United Kingdom, which Adweek describes as one of the largest independent agencies there. 72andSunny, by contrast, now sits inside Stagwell.
What can PR and marketing teams learn from Wieden+Kennedy?
PR and marketing teams can learn three things from Wieden+Kennedy: keep a long client relationship, build ideas that earn coverage, and refresh a famous asset instead of replacing it.
First, the Nike relationship has lasted more than 40 years, and the work compounds because the agency and client know each other's standards. Second, ideas like the McDonaldland revival were designed so a news story or a social post could carry them without paid support. Third, "Why Do It?" kept the famous line and changed its meaning, which saved the brand from starting over.
PR teams working next to creative agencies can plan press moments around launch dates like a Super Bowl return or a brand anniversary. Marketing teams can borrow the discipline of testing whether an idea works as a headline, a social clip and an in-store moment before approving it.
How does Wieden+Kennedy compare with other agencies on this site?
Wieden+Kennedy sits on the creative and advertising side of the agency market, while most agencies profiled on Everything-PR are public relations specialists. Readers comparing options can start with our Golin and Ketchum agency profile for a large PR network view.
For campaign-led shops with a smaller footprint, see the profiles of Outcast Agency and Zimmerman Advertising. Brands that want creator-driven work can compare options in our ranking of the best influencer marketing agencies.
The decision rule is simple. A brand that needs a global creative idea and has the budget for a long partnership should look at independents like Wieden+Kennedy. A brand that needs earned media, crisis response or creator reach should start with a PR or influencer specialist and bring in a creative agency for the big idea.
