Jack Morton Worldwide Celebrates 75 Years in Business by Exploring Creativity in the Workplace

NEW YORK, June 3, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- This week Jack Morton Worldwide, one of the world's largest and most respected brand experience agencies, celebrates its 75^th anniversary with the release of new global research about the state of creativity in the workplace worldwide. The research probes global employees about creativity, risk-taking and bravery-- qualities that have been core to the agency for 75 years.

According to Josh McCall, Chairman & CEO of Jack Morton: "Creativity has always been at the heart of our business, from our founding in 1939 by a young entrepreneur named Jack Morton who was willing to take a risk and look very differently at how brands engaged people at business events. As we celebrate our 75^th anniversary in 2014, creativity is even more vital to our success, and our clients'—and that's why we decided to sponsor this research."

The research reveals that the majority of employees consider themselves creative but face obstacles at work—obstacles that can be addressed if executives prioritize building the right culture and environment.

"The potential to think creatively is in everyone," said Bill Morton, son of the agency's founder and its CEO from 1977 to 2003.  "But it just gets stuck. The biggest barriers are that people get pigeonholed. They do it to themselves, and the workplace does it to them. They specialize and think that creative thinking doesn't have to be part of their jobs. Everyone should lead from their strengths—but everyone should challenge themselves to think creatively in their jobs."

The research was conducted among more than 7000 employees in 11 markets: Australia, Brazil, China, Egypt, Germany, Hong Kong, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, UAE, UK and US.  Highlights include:

• 84% of Americans consider themselves creative, compared to only 73% of those from the rest of the world (highest: Brazil at 91%, lowest: Egypt at 48%)
• 91.5% of Americans think creativity is key to business success, but only 62.5% feel their company culture encourages creative thinking 
• One major constraint is the office: just 52% of Americans feel their physical environment allows space and inspiration for creative thought
• Time is also a factor: only 56.9% of Americans, and just 46% in the rest of the world, feel they have adequate time for creative thinking
• 68.3% of Americans see creativity as a motivator to accept a new position, compared to 61.8% outside the US
• Where people get their creative ideas also varies. Americans tend to have their best creative thoughts during leisure time at home, while the rest of the world gets a large chunk of their ideas in the workplace
• Americans have a higher confidence in the business return on creativity than any other nation—providing leaders a clear incentive to remove obstacles to creativity in US workplaces

In comparison, 85% of Jack Morton employees around the world (and 86% of staff in the US) consider themselves to be creative.

Josh McCall commented: "In business, nothing is more powerful than creativity—it has the potential to inspire change and to transform how we work. None of us can take it for granted. But we need better understanding of what it means to build a strong creative culture that's supportive of creative thinking. Until we do that business will continue to lose both opportunity and talent."

Notes to editors

• Creative thought was defined as: solutions to problems that are unexpected in any field of work, not just within traditionally creative fields such as writing, design or the performing arts
• Further discussion of the research can be found in CREATIVITY: How Business Gets to Eureka! At http://www.slideshare.net/jackmortonWW/
• The online survey sponsored by Jack Morton Worldwide was conducted by OnePoll during March 2014. Respondents were employed and aged 18 and older. The findings are statistically significant at a 90% confidence level.

Interviews are available upon request.

About Jack Morton Worldwide

Jack Morton Worldwide is an award-winning global brand experience agency. We make brilliant things happen for our clients by bringing together brave, creative people who are true believers in the power of experience to transform brands and businesses. As experts in brand experience strategy and activation, we help clients understand how their brands should behave and create experiences that bring them to life. Our portfolio of award-winning work for clients like General Motors, SUBWAY Restaurants and Samsung spans 75 years in areas like event marketing, sponsorship marketing, promotion and activation, experience strategy, employee engagement, digital, social, and mobile. Ranked at the top of our field, Jack Morton is part of the Interpublic Group of Companies, Inc. (NYSE: IPG). More information is available at www.jackmorton.com or @jackmorton.

SOURCE Jack Morton Worldwide