This just in off of PR Newswire [I’ve edited down the lengthy release to the more prominent points]

“JWT LAUNCHES BILLION DOLLAR START UP

Offices Around the World Mark Agency's 'Birth Day' with Great Fanfare New Creative and Performance Metrics, Corporate ID Introduced to Global Workforce

NEW YORK, Feb. 28 /PRNewswire/ -- JWT, the largest advertising agency in the U.S. and the fourth largest in the world, today re-launches itself as a "billion-dollar startup" with events across its 300-plus offices in 87 countries, ranging from the building of a fourth Pyramid of Giza in Egypt to a bonfire of "bad advertising work" in Paris to corporate finger painting, in the new JWT colors, in Dubai to a maritime "funeral" for the agency's namesake in Tokyo. … Offices around the world are marking February 28th - henceforth known as JWT's "Birth Day" -- in various ways. Employees in Cairo, for instance, are building a fourth Pyramid of Giza, where they will "bury" everything they want to take with them to JWT's new life -- passion, commitment, and creativity. In Tokyo, staffers are bidding a proper farewell aboard a ship to Commodore J. Walter Thompson to symbolize a new beginning. In Mexico, the workforce will be treated to circus clowns, jesters, jugglers, acrobats, tigers and elephants to communicate JWT's exciting new culture. In Amsterdam, the agency will celebrate with clients, during a performance of the Don Giovanni ballet, where local JWT management will use the intermission to herald in the "new attention economy," which supersedes the experience economy that was "so 1999." … NEW ROLE, PURPOSE, BELIEF "We are now living in a world where the consumer is savvy, time conscious, easily distracted and in control. A consumer who is totally at odds with 'dumbed down,' formulaic, repetitive, voluminous messaging," said JWT Worldwide CEO Bob Jeffrey, explaining the agency's rationale for its reinvention. "Our greatest value to clients is our ability to recognize a changing world in which the customer is King, the currency is time and the rewards are measured in the length and strength of relationships. This understanding defines our role, purpose and belief." "We're too big to follow. We've always been pioneers, and today represents the start of our transformation into an agency where creative lives squarely in the middle," Jeffrey continued. "Life as we know it will change hugely. We are dedicated to innovation-to thinking and acting like a billion-dollar startup that's flat, faster and more fun." IMPLEMENTING THE NEW STANDARD

Beyond the theatrics, regional and local management and creative heads will use the day to introduce their staffs to JWT's new point of view, which recognizes that time is at a premium, and advertising needs to focus on buying people's time. That concept was unveiled by Jeffrey last month at a management meeting in Miami, Fla., attended by the agency's top executives from around the world. Also, today, every office will introduce their workforce to JWT's new Creative Standards, a set of ten measures against which work will be assessed across the network, and the Health Check, a quantitative-and-qualitative evaluation tool that, for the first time, will move the agency beyond using financials as the sole performance measure. All of JWT's 8,500-plus employees will conclude the day by signing a Creative Partnership Contract that reiterates the need to "stop interrupting what people are interested in and be what people are interested in." The contract symbolizes a personal commitment and accountability to improving the creative product and shaping the agency's future. In many locales, JWT staffers will return from off-site meetings to be greeted by physically transformed offices that have replaced the old corporate identity and logo of J. Walter Thompson with the new one, JWT. … "The true indicator of change will lie in our future work," Jeffrey continued. "Only when we consistently create breakthrough ideas that get people to spend more time with our clients' brands will we consider ourselves 'transformed.'" - - - - - -- - - - - - - -

Can an agency, so engrained in the traditional patterns and ways of doing things truly re-invent itself and stand out from the rest of the giants? And is there such a thing as a "Billion Dollar Start-Up?"