The Kennedys Expands to W+K London

Wieden+Kennedy Amsterdam’s creative accelerator ‘The Kennedys’ is expanding to the agency’s London office for the successful program’s sixth year.

Operating for the past five years solely in Amsterdam, The Kennedys brings together a small group of young creatives from across Europe and throws them into the deep end of the creative pool. A diverse mix from any creative discipline, The Kennedys work together for a period of seven months, and act as a ‘shop-in-shop’ within W+K; concepting, developing and producing real work for real clients. This year for the first time the London and Amsterdam W+K offices are recruiting together, with the program kicking off in June in each office.

Tony Davidson, Executive Creative Director W+K London and global partner, says, “Wieden+Kennedy has a history of hiring creative misfits who haven't come through the usual advertising channels. Expanding the experiment that is 'The Kennedys' to London is an opportunity for those taking part to bring their diverse skill sets together to solve problems in whatever way. If you are looking for a crash course in creative chaos this is it.”

The call for applicants goes out to all writers, photographers, artists, designers, filmmakers, animators, tech developers, game designers, doers, makers, thinkers, schemers and plotters with a personal voice, a unique creative vision, who can speak conversational English and hold a European passport. Those interested can apply now until March 15th via The Kennedys website.

Entrants can specify Amsterdam or London as their preference of location and are asked to display their creative prowess through a series of nine leading questions including, ‘What is nothing?’, “Sum yourself up in three emjois or less.”, or “How would you stop all of the madness in the world?”.

Alvaro Sotomayor, founder of The Kennedys and long-time W+K Amsterdam Creative Director, says, “This program was created to benefit those that believe in the new and the power of ideas for the benefit of our world. Expanding into London is an exciting opportunity for The Kennedys to grow, explore and cultivate even more talent across the pond, and to hopefully pump out more awesome solutionists into the world.” 

Since it’s inception in 2011 The Kennedys have produced campaigns for local, national and international clients including Nike, Spotify, Child Help Line and Eye Amsterdam to name a few, and which can all been seen on their show reel. Serving as a creative back door, the program is purpose built to nurture and grow diverse talent and provide a stepping-stone – in five years 14 Kennedys have joined W+K full time, while other alumni have gone on to be directors, artists, designers and other creative positions within the industry.