W2O: 2020
FINALIST – BEST INTERACTIVE PHYSICIAN CAMPAIGN: The Virtual Botanical Walk guides users through three different natural environments where a number of the country’s most prevalent allergenic pollens can be found – forest, pasture, and roadside. Users navigate each environment with guided video and audio that mimics the sounds found in nature, simulating the experience of walking to discover the pollens found along the way.
W2O
50 Francisco Street, Suite 400
San Francisco, CA 94133
Telephone
415-362-5018
Website
SERVICES MIX
Communications 42%
Advertising/marketing 35%
Analytics 13%
Merck asked patients and caregivers,“What advice would you give yourself on the first day of your diagnosis?”and the result was“With Love, Me”an integrated campaign featuring the heartfelt stories of people who have battled cancer either as fierce survivors or loving caregivers, sharing their hard earned wisdom in letters to their former selves that were captured via video.
Medical communications 10%
CLIENT ROSTER (partial list of clients)
AIDS 2020, the 23rd International AIDS Conference
Aimmune Therapeutics
Cystic Fibrosis Foundation
Galderma
Genentech
Greenwich Biosciences
Mycovia Pharmaceuticals
Neurocrine Biosciences
PTC Therapeutics
Signify Health
Takeda Pharmaceutical
UCB
FINALIST
AGENCY OF THE YEAR, CATEGORY I
W2O’s objective for this North American Veterinary Dermatology Forum booth was to celebrate Stallergenes Greer’s“Supportive as a Service Dog”campaign and ensure that customers understood that Stallergenes Greer stands for personalized, above-and-beyond customer service and care. The booth was intended to drive traffic and improve overall brand awareness.
VISION AWARD
BEST INTERACTIVE PHYSICIAN CAMPAIGN
2019 was a seminal year for W2O. Company executives say the most significant development was a partnership with private equity firm New Mountain Capital that provided resources to help accelerate W2O’s growth and diversification and led to the acquisition of four companies that significantly bolstered capabilities in science and data.
RECENT ACCOMPLISHMENTS
2019 marked our 18th consecutive year of double-digit growth as we expanded our staff from 800+ employees to 1,100+ (resulting from new business growth and acquisitions),” says W2O’s executive management. “We added offices in Montclair, N.J., a second NYC location and a new office/suite in Philadelphia. We significantly expanded our NYC and London offices.”
According to the firm’s management team, the four companies that were acquired are helping W2O achieve its goal of being the “first at what’s next” in healthcare, strengthening its creative firepower and expanding capabilities in DTC, DTPB2B advertising, and marketing to support the rapidly changing needs of the healthcare industry. The business acquisitions additionally bolster W2O’s position in medical and scientific communications, creating deeper engagement with healthcare.
The four companies acquired are Arcus Medica, a recognized leader in medical and scientific communications; ISO.health, a talented team of industry experts who are adept at developing and delivering impactful omni-channel medical and scientific educational programs; Radius Digital Science, an award-winning scientific digital creative agency; and 21GRAMS, a rapidly growing, strategic and creative marketing, advertising, and patient/medical education agency.
The Virtual Botanical Walk guides users through three different natural environments where a number of the country’s most prevalent allergenic pollens can be found – forest, pasture, and roadside. Users navigate each environment with guided video and audio that mimics the sounds found in nature, simulating the experience of walking to discover the pollens found along the way.
The year was also marked by several innovative product launches. These include AI-driven performance-based marketing and Custom Search.
By using AI-driven performance-based marketing, W2O is helping clients transform into digital pioneers by creating paid media and communications strategies that improve performance by identifying lower-funnel consumer segments, designing messaging for conversion, and personalizing advertising and online experiences with technology-enabled solutions to dynamically match each consumer with the right message at the right time.
Custom Search allows users to request very specific content from W2O’s proprietary MDigitalLife database, healthcare’s only audience architecture analytics platform, mapping the digital footprint of key healthcare ecosystem stakeholders.
The network’s major account wins include AIDS 2020, the 23rd International AIDS Conference; Aimmune Therapeutics; Neurocrine Biosciences; Galderma; Mycovia Pharmaceuticals; PTC Therapeutics; Cystic Fibrosis Foundation; Greenwich Biosciences; and Signify Health.
Additions to W2O’s board include Jonathan Peacock, a veteran biopharmaceutical executive; George Gallate distinguished advertising and digital marketing expert; and Jennifer Gottlieb, W2O president.
Internally, W2O created three employee resource groups that management says provide exceptional community-building, learning, and professional development experiences. The groups are Women of W2O, which helps women advance their careers; W2Out, which fosters a culture of inclusivity and support for LGBTQ+ individuals; and W2O Fusion, which promotes inclusion of multicultural staff.
Executives say double-digit growth in 2018 and 2019 allowed W2O to boost its senior talent pool and, in some cases, create new roles within the agency. The agency was able to create three new agency roles; make 12 senior hires related to acquisitions; and 12 hires related to agency growth.
The network also received 103 industry awards, including “Best Agency to Work For” by AdAge, The Holmes Report, MM&M, PRNews, and PRWeek, along with “#1 Best Large Agency to Work For” by Holmes.
STRUCTURE AND SERVICES
According to the managerial team, W2O is uniquely positioned as a healthcare-focused full-service marketing communications firm that helps clients stay ahead of the marketplace by leveraging best-in-class analytics, strategy and stakeholder engagement.
Headquartered in San Francisco with global reach across 30 countries, W2O’s 1,100+ employees including 100+ analysts and data scientists, and what managers call “an unparalleled depth in healthcare,” including 20-plus Ph.D.s/M.D.s/PharmDs. “We represent 150+ clients, including 24 of the top 25 biopharma companies, and are on the front lines of the most innovative and most successful drugs, devices and diagnostics on the market today,” W2O executives say.
With a single P&L approach, executives say W2O offers clients integrated solutions that span the full suite of advertising, digital and media related engagements, enabling them to efficiently engage with the rapidly evolving healthcare ecosystem and address complex commercial challenges. This includes a fully staffed strategy team, creative services team (editorial, copy, design, art, animation, etc.), technology services team (front-end development, application development, testing/QA, dev ops, etc.), medical communications team (scientific storytelling, positioning, medical illustration/animation, workshops, etc.), market access and commercial strategy, paid media team (search, display, programmatic, video, social, etc.), market research and analytics, production management, and account service teams.
FUTURE PLANS
From a macro perspective, we are continuing our plans to offer clients a truly integrated approach to marketing communications, in a way that few – if any – firms can offer,” W2O executives say.
According to managers, W2O plans to do this through enhanced service offerings, continued investment in PESO media capabilities; and geographic expansion. “We will continue to strengthen W2O’s creative firepower and expand its capabilities in DTC, DTP, and B2B advertising/marketing with the addition of 21 GRAMS, which brings a differentiated method of fundamentally understanding a healthcare brand’s audience,” executives say. “Continue to expand our medical communications services, particularly in light of the three recent acquisitions in that area, to provide deeper engagement with healthcare influencers. Continue to invest in our technology capabilities to be the best of its kind in health communications, making our proprietary analytics technology platform and offerings more automated, faster and robust.”
In geographic expansion, the agency plans to fill gaps in its international coverage in Asia and Europe. And, “We will continue to hire A+ integrated talent,” W2O executives say.
PHILANTHROPY/CITIZENSHIP
W2O is committed to giving back to our communities through partnerships and pro-bono campaigns,” management says. “Our crown jewel is W2O’s Center for Social Commerce, a partnership between W2O and Syracuse University’s S. I. Newhouse School of Public Communications.
Additionally, W2O took on pro-bono assignments to provide communications support for the 23rd International AIDS Conference in April 2020 and Techonomy East 2020; just finished its second year of improving communications support for the Junior Giants, the flagship program of the Giants Community Fund that supports co-ed summer baseball/softball leagues for 24,000 players; and is supporting the The LAGRANT Foundation to fund the Future Leaders in Healthcare Fellowship Program targeting minority candidates pursuing careers in healthcare communications.
The agency also has partnerships with universities to educate and network with students on campus and provide valuable internships, including the University of Southern California, University of Wisconsin, University of Alabama, Elon University, and University of Texas.
