Kids Lend a Digital Hand

Madison Avenue has been scrambling to keep up with the digital revolution, snapping up small agencies and digital-marketing experts when they can find them. But as that pool runs dry, many agencies are turning to a younger generation and beefing up their training to meet ballooning digital demands.

WPP PLC’s direct-marketing unit, Wunderman, is striking apprenticeship agreements with more than a dozen schools around the globe, including Polytechnic Institute of New York University and Temasek Polytechnic in Singapore. Students from the schools will work for Wunderman for three- to six-month periods, in return for stipends and in some cases college credit.

JWT, a WPP ad firm that works for advertisers such as Unilever, kicked off a reverse-mentor program late last year where children ages nine to 14 of JWT executives are brought in to work on specific projects for clients, with the thinking that young people understand the digital world better than many in the work force.

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