(27 February 2009 8:15 pm)

BANGALORE: JWT, the fourth-largest advertising agency in the world, has launched AnxietyIndex.com, an interactive site to help brands understand and navigate today’s consumer anxiety.

With daily content updates and major research and trend reports added frequently, the site is intended as a place to discover and discuss how brands and consumers are responding to and coping with the current global recession. And with contributions from around JWT’s global network—from Shanghai, Sao Paulo and Mumbai to New York, London and
Cape Town—AnxietyIndex.com offers a geographically diverse perspective.

“At 145 years old, we have a proven track record of leading brands through pivotal times like this,” says JWT chairman and CEO Bob Jeffrey. “We understand that this recession is unlike any other, and it’s more important than ever to provide tools like our AnxietyIndex to help brands succeed in this new world order.”

The site is an evolution of JWT’s six-year-old proprietary
AnxietyIndex, launched during the run-up to the Iraq war to track the level and intensity of consumer anxiety and, importantly, the drivers of it. Since then, JWT has run 15 waves of the AnxietyIndex across multiple markets.

“AnxietyIndex.com is a uniquely forward-thinking effort that goes well beyond making a case for marketing in a recession or reviewing historical recession data,” says JWT global planning director Guy Murphy. “It provides real-time data, answers to new questions and a point of view on the types of businesses and business practices that will emerge from these turbulent times.”

Reports available on AnxietyIndex.com include trendletters like
“Rethinking Aspirations,” and quantitative analyses like “American Dream in the Balance” and “Weathering the Storm: The Financial Crisis.” Current research and analysis will be added regularly.