Four years ago, Brazilian agency Propeg became a global agency. The 58-year-old independent agency was already a success in Brazil, but it wanted a reach beyond Brazilian borders.

In 2020, Worldwide Partners (WPI) came calling, inviting Propeg to be part of its global network while retaining its independence. There had been previous attempts by holding companies to buy the agency, but Propeg turned them down because it wanted to keep itself owner-operated.

“What we’ve seen is all the agencies that were sold to the holding companies, most of them don’t exist anymore as a brand,” Vitor Barros, CEO of Propeg, told ADWEEK.

Becoming part of WPI allowed Propeg to gain contracts it wouldn’t have been able to get otherwise, including the coveted Visit Brazil government tourism business, because it was able to seek the advice of other member agencies in places where Visit Brazil advertises, including Europe, the U.S. and greater Latin America.

Those member agencies evaluate the campaigns, rather than testing them with a standard research company—something the client approves of.

“Real-time feedback accelerates the creative process, allowing for immediate adjustments and improvements,” said Patrick Costa, brand and marketing international manager, Visit Brazil.

WPI has a global reach that rivals some holding companies, but its agencies remain wholly independent. It has carved out a niche in the agency world, enabling those agencies to collaborate while maintaining their independence.

The organization has been around for 86 years, and its endurance has much to do with it sticking to the founders’ roots by being a safe place for agencies to join forces, share ideas, and win business that might otherwise go to the big networks. Because of that, WPI calls itself the “reverse holding company.”

What began as a small collective of independent agencies in 1938 has now grown to a global group totaling 88 agencies in 46 countries.

“The origin of it was really agencies coming together to learn from one another,” said John Harris, president and CEO of WPI since 2016.

Harris said the original five agencies were based in California and Arizona and wanted to be able to compete with New York agencies, which were gaining most of the work coming out of the West at the time. They decided to band together and position their agencies as a group rather than as individuals.

Harris comes from an agency and brand background, with independent agencies, Omnicom, and Smashburger, so he brought a broad vision of what WPI could be. He now plays connector for WPI, fostering a sense of community, visiting partner agencies, hosting networking events and summits, facilitating meetings between agencies, and identifying opportunities. In addition, every dollar made by WPI goes back into supporting the network.

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