W2O

50 Francisco Street, Suite 400
San Francisco, CA 94133

Telephone
415-362-5018
E-mail
[email protected]
Website
w2ogroup.com

 

Services mix
Marketing 43%
Public relations/communications 42%
Analytics 15%

 

Client roster
Arbor Pharmaceuticals
Cedar
CVS Health
Exact Sciences
Incyte
Genentech/Roche
Horizon Pharma
KOWA
Lupin
National Pharmaceutical Council
Sarepta
Seqirus
Takeda

 

 

“We are pleased to report that we grew by 23 percent in 2018 to $177 million in revenue,” W2O leadership says. “This increase coincided with a 26 percent year-over-year growth in margin (20-plus percent).”

Recent accomplishments

Our headline for this past year is: Great Clients + Great People = Great Results,” the W2O management team says. “Putting all that aside, our results are only a reflection of being strong partners with our clients – proactive in our thinking, responsive in our service, and strategic in our capabilities. We are displacing a variety of different agencies as AOR resulting in new levels of relationship and expectation.”
Over the last 12 months, W20 launched the Relevance Health Index – an extension of its Relevance Model and Index covering the Fortune 500 and its engagement in a social/digital reality. “We expanded our Market Access and Value & Pricing teams with the addition of new members and research offering,” W2O executives say. “We are particularly proud of the fact that we supported 29 client FDA product approvals over the course of the year. We designed, built and launched over 100 corporate websites, completed 2,200 analytics and research projects, conducted 160-plus executive and media coaching sessions (including for 25 CEOs) and launched nine branded client Facebook pages.We are also employed by 24 of the top 25 pharma companies in the world. In our spare time, we also opened three new offices in Atlanta, Washington, D.C., and Zurich.”
As part of the growth in 2018, the company also strengthened the board of directors and senior leadership team with the addition of George Gallate, W2O Board Member, formerly Chief Marketing Officer at Merkle, Global Chairman at Havas Worldwide Digital, and Regional CEO at Euro RSCG Asia Pacific; Deborah Hankin, Chief People Officer, a senior HR professional from a marketing and consultancy background with a diverse set of recruiting and talent development skills; Keri P. Mattox, Global Lead of Integrated Corporate Communications, who was VP, Corporate and Investor Relations, at Amerisource Bergen; and Hsiao Liu, Global Practice Leader, who was Executive VP at Ogilvy and an integrated marketing leader.
Additional notable accomplishments for W2O during the past year includes winning 150-plus awards, including Ad Age’s Best Places to Work 2019, The Holmes Report’s Best Agency to Work for 2018 (Large); MM&M’s Best Places to Work 2018 (Large Agency), MM&M and Holmes Report Large Agency of the Year (Finalist), PRWeek’s Best Places to Work 2018 (Large Agency), and PRNews’ 2018 Top Place to Work in PR (for the third year in a row). Jim Weiss was selected for the PharmaVOICE 100, Jennifer Gottlieb was inducted into PRWeek’s Hall of Femme 2018, and Andy Boothe, Senior Director, Data Sciences, was named to the Holmes Report’s Innovator 25 list. Weiss was appointed to the Healthcare Businesswomen’s Association (HBA) Global Board of Advisors and Angela Gillespie, President of W2O wcg, was appointed to the HBA’s 2019 Global Board of Directors and serves on the executive committee as secretary/treasurer.
W20 also launched Springboard, a leadership development program for W2O employees who are account director level and above and have been with the company for at least two years.

STRUCTURE AND SERVICES

Ever since the firm was founded in 2001, the company has prioritized data analytics and insights and a digital-first mindset setting it apart from some of the more traditional agencies.
W2O is a privately owned company with one P&L across 15 offices in the United States and Europe.
Weiss is founder/CEO, Gottlieb is president, Richard Neave is Chief Financial Officer, and Hankin is Chief People Officer.
W2O is the parent entity with five operating companies underneath: WCG, Twist, Pure, Marketeching (analytics), and Sentient (digital) – the latter two playing the role of hybrid shared services and agency.
“In all cases, we take a ‘best team’ approach drawing talent from across the organization while being vigilant about any conflicts,” management says.
The company’s full suite of services include analytics and insight; strategy and creative; experience; activation; and measurement.

FUTURE PLANS

We are on a mission to improve healthcare and the patient experience through strategic marketing and communications achieving clarity, understanding, and engagement,” W2O executives say. “In 2019, we will grow our global presence and mindset, invest in key expertise and portfolios, expand PESO (paid, earned, shared and owned media) as it permeates across the media landscape, extract insight from our ever-increasing data combinations, and hone operational efficiency and delivery.”

PHILANTHROPY/CITIZENSHIP

W2O takes its corporate citizenship and philanthropy efforts “very seriously,” according to the leadership team.
“We have several initiatives we focus on – some new and some like the W2O Center for Social Commerce (SCS) which was established in 2012 as a partnership between W2O and Syracuse University’s Newhouse School of Public Communication,” according to the management team. “Since then it’s become one of the most successful industry-academic partnerships. It is aimed at ensuring students are prepared for a digital world by immersing and educating them in communications, social media, technology, analytics and the influence they each play on our society and industry, giving them an edge as they prepare to enter the workforce.”
W2O has also collaborated with Kim Hunter and the LAGRANT Foundation to create the Future Leaders in Healthcare Fellowship Program. This program is focused on increasing the number of ethnic minorities in the fields of advertising, communications, marketing, and digital. The initial fellowship was launched in March 2016 and has included four fellows based in the firm’s New York, Chicago, and San Francisco W2O offices, company executives say.
In addition to making regular donations to charitable organizations such as the Cancer Research Institute, which is also a client of W2O’s, the firm supports the charitable arm of the San Francisco Giants aka The Giants Community Fund.
“In particular, our team provides pro bono earned, social and paid media support as the group’s agency of record,” management says. “This not only allows W2O to give back to the children and communities of California, it gives more junior staff the opportunity to lead the account under the supervision of W2O CMO, Aaron Strout and CEO, Jim Weiss. W2O is now in its second year of supporting the organization.”