Interpublic Group is the grandfather of the global marketing communications companies. By virtue of being first, Interpublic shaped the industry as it exists today. While Interpublic was created in the early 1960’s, our direct lineage goes back over 100 years to the early days of several of our agencies.

Founded in 1873, Foote Cone and Belding, now part of Draftfcb, is one of the earliest advertising companies. In 1902, Alfred W. Erickson founded his agency, and in 1911, H.K. McCann set up an ad shop under his name. Lintas, founded in 1929 as the in-house advertising agency for Lever Brothers, is now part of Lowe.

The seeds for a global holding company were planted in the first half of the twentieth century and grew out of these early agencies. These companies could only grow by serving more clients and by covering larger geographies. Mergers and acquisitions were aimed at extending the core client list and geographic coverage. The merger of the Erickson Company and McCann in 1930 is just one of many examples. By the mid-1950s, McCann Erickson was a top-five agency with offices around the world.

Marion Harper, who began his advertising career as a trainee and mailroom clerk at McCann Erickson in 1939, became CEO of the advertising agency in 1948. In this role, Harper emphasized developing an international footprint and branching out into new media and communication services. The missing piece was the ability to serve competing clients and competing brands.

At the end of 1954, Harper acquired the Marschalk and Pratt Agency and maintained it as a separate entity to handle competing accounts outside the McCann banner. This was the first visible step in what was to become, in 1960, the first marketing services management holding company – Interpublic Group.

Thus was born the concept of a holding company. Interpublic began with a network of two (McCann Erickson Worldwide and McCann-Marschalk) and added 38 agencies, PR firms and communications companies by 1966. Since then, Interpublic has coined many terms which are still part of the agency world today, including "integrated marketing," "the creative boutique," "the new products workshop," and the "global brand."

Interpublic has been a client-centric organization since its inception. The company's mission, from the outset, has been to grow client businesses and brands, with a special emphasis on building global brands through both local and coordinated marketing programs. Interpublic pioneered the concept of integrated marketing communications, and we literally created the concept of a marketing communications management company.