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W2O Group
Company typePrivate
IndustryMarketing
Founded2001
HeadquartersSan Francisco
Number of locations
15[1]
Key people
Jim Weiss, Chairman & CEO
Jennifer Gottlieb, President[2]
Revenue$177.57 million (2019)[3]
Number of employees
718 (2019)[3]
WebsiteOfficial website

W2O Group is a holding company based in San Francisco, California that provides marketing services through its subsidiaries. It was founded by Jim Weiss in 2001 and originally named WeissComm Partners.

Corporate history[edit]

W2O Group was founded as WeissComm Partners in 2001 by Jim Weiss as a one-person marketing consulting firm, with clients primarily in the healthcare industry.[4][5] His firm grew quickly until 2008. According to Weiss, less favorable conditions in the healthcare industry led to a series of layoffs.[4]

In response, the following year Weiss acquired creative services firm ODA and social media marketing firm, Common Sense Media Group, in order to diversify his interests and reduce reliance on the healthcare industry.[4][5] That same year, Weiss re-formed the company under the acronym WCG, consolidating the two acquisitions under a new corporate umbrella.[6][7] The acquired companies and the firm's revenues continued growing.[4][5] By 2011 it had annual revenues of $48 million.[5]

In 2012, WCG was re-structured again under a new holding company called W2O Group, which was made up of three companies: WCG, W2O Ventures, and Twist Mktg.[7][8] The fourth company in the holding group, Brewlife, was formed the following year to focus on startup companies.[9] The holding group had $75 million in annual revenues by 2013[10] and $82.6 million in 2014.[11] In 2014 and 2015, W2O opened new offices in major U.S. and European cities. Chicago, Silicon Valley, Seattle, San Diego, Boston and Switzerland.[11][12][13]

In May 2016, a private-equity firm called Mountaingate Capital made an investment in W2O Group, which funded a series of acquisitions.[14] Seven months after acquiring Fox Communications, W2O Group laid off founder Lynn Fox, who sued alleging gender discrimination.[15][16][17]

In June 2019, New Mountain capital acquired an interest in W2O Group for an undisclosed amount.[18][19]

Acquisitions[edit]

Date Company Description References
2009 ODA Creative services [4]
2009 Common Sense Media Group Social media marketing firm [4]
2012 Ravel Data analytics; based in Austin [5]
2012 VM Foundry Web and mobile development; based in Austin [20]
2015 ARC2 Communications & Media Boutique public relations firm; based in Los Angeles [11]
2015 Vintank Social media and CRM software company [21]
2016 Pure Communications Marketing consultancy [14][22]
2016 Marketeching Solutions Social listening [14][23]
2017 Sentient Interactive digital media and analytics [14]

Operations and services[edit]

W2O Group is a holding company whose subsidiaries provide marketing services to healthcare, consumer, and technology companies.[5] services like public relations, social media marketing, analytics, app development and recruitment for clinical trials, primarily to the healthcare, consumer and technology segments.[5] The holding company operates through three subsidiaries: WCG, Twist Mktg and Brewlife.[5][24] The holding company operates through five subsidiaries: WCG, Twist, Pure, Sentient and Marketeching.[25] WCG is the public relations arm. As of 2012, it was responsible for about 80 percent of the company's revenue.[6] Twist is a 50-person division that initially served largely as a conflict and analytics division, serving Pfizer and Galderma out of New York City.[5][7] The Brewlife division serves the company's startup and emerging technology clientele.[9]

W2O Group is the second largest PR firm by revenue in O'Dwyer's annual rankings of U.S. agencies and the largest in the healthcare sector.[12] More than 90 percent of its revenues are from U.S.-based clients.[11] It's also ranked as the 8th largest PR firm in the technology segment, 9th in entertainment, 13th in food and beverage, and 2nd largest in healthcare and 16th in technology.[12] Healthcare tends to be its fastest growing practice area[11] and was the firm's focus early on, though more recently the analytics practice has taken a larger role.[13]

According to PR Week, W2O's most-used services include "PR, analytics, and its CCX creative unit."[11] It also started a multicultural practice in early 2015.[11] The majority of W2O's clients are biotech and medical device companies, such as Medtronic and Acclarent.[5] Much of its new business in 2015 was related to treatments for rare diseases and cardiovascular problems.[26] One of W2O's software services is MDigitalLife, which stores data on the online activity of doctors and patients. It is used by pharmaceutical companies to understand sentiment in the healthcare field.[13]

References[edit]

  1. ^ "Contact". W2O Group. Retrieved October 1, 2019.
  2. ^ Kanski, Alison (January 22, 2018). "Jennifer Gottlieb named W2O Group president". PR Week. Retrieved April 11, 2018.
  3. ^ a b "Top PR Firm Rankings". O'Dwyer's. Retrieved April 15, 2016.
  4. ^ a b c d e f "Agency Profiles - WCG". PR Week. May 14, 2010. p. 52.
  5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Chase, James (July 2012). "W2O Group: Starting small, this shop found big growth via speed and flexibility". Medical Marketing and Media.
  6. ^ a b Arnold, Matthew (April 2012). "New companies expand WCG's reach". Medical Marketing and Media.
  7. ^ a b c Dickson, Virgil (March 8, 2012). "WCG restructures, creates W2O Group parent company, two sister firms". PR Week. Retrieved December 23, 2015.
  8. ^ "WCG Creates New Parent Company, Network of Firms". Adweek – Breaking News in Advertising, Media and Technology. March 8, 2012. Retrieved December 23, 2015.
  9. ^ a b Coffee, Patrick (January 7, 2013). "W2O Launches New 'Brewlife' Agency". W2O Launches New ‘Brewlife’ Agency. Retrieved December 23, 2015.
  10. ^ Lewis, Tanya (July 2014). "W2O Group". Medical Marketing and Media.
  11. ^ a b c d e f g "W2O Group: Agency Business Report 2015". US Home. April 27, 2015. Retrieved December 23, 2015.
  12. ^ a b c "O'Dwyer's Annual PR Rankings Issue". O'Dwyer's. 2019. Retrieved October 1, 2019.
  13. ^ a b c Deri., Chris (April 10, 2015). "W2O Group Revenues Up 10% To $82.6 Million In 2014". The Holmes Report. Retrieved December 23, 2015.
  14. ^ a b c d Sobczyk, Carolyn (December 7, 2016). "W2O Group acquires Sentient Interactive". MM&M. Retrieved April 11, 2018.
  15. ^ Shah, Aarti (August 10, 2016). "W2O Faces Gender Discrimination Lawsuit From Former Media Head". The Holmes Report. Retrieved April 11, 2018.
  16. ^ Bradley, Diana (August 10, 2016). "W2O faces gender discrimination suit from former staffer Lynn Fox". PR Week. Retrieved April 11, 2018.
  17. ^ The lawsuit was dismissed with prejudice in May 2017: Case Info & Dismissal
  18. ^ Kanski, Alison (May 29, 2019). "W2O receives new private equity investment from New Mountain Capital". PR Week. Retrieved October 2, 2019.
  19. ^ "New Mountain Capital Invests in W20 Group - Thu., May 30, 2019". ODwyers. May 30, 2019. Retrieved October 2, 2019.
  20. ^ "W2O buys Austin-based digital agency VM Foundry". PR Week. December 12, 2012.
  21. ^ "W2O Buys Geo-Fencing Platform VinTank". The Holmes Report. March 31, 2015. Retrieved December 23, 2015.
  22. ^ Sobczyk, Carolyn (September 7, 2016). "W2O acquires Pure Communications, plans to create new health and tech agency". MM&M. Retrieved April 11, 2018.
  23. ^ Kanski, Alison (November 7, 2016). "W2O acquires research and analytics firm Marketeching Solutions". PR Week. Retrieved April 11, 2018.
  24. ^ Wang, Carolyn. "Companies". W2O Group. Retrieved December 23, 2015.
  25. ^ Kanski, Alison (October 24, 2017). "W2O looks to eliminate confusion with network rebrand". PR Week. Retrieved October 3, 2019.
  26. ^ Weinstein, Deborah (July 2, 2015). "Top 100 Agencies 2015 W2O Group". MMM. Retrieved December 23, 2015.

External links[edit]

Category:Public relations companies of the United States Category:Companies based in San Francisco Category:American companies established in 2001 Category:2001 establishments in California

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