W2O Group Reports 2012 Business Results and Highlights

SAN FRANCISCO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--W2O Group, an independent global network of leading communications counseling firms today reported another year of growth and progress with an approximately 30 percent increase in revenue to $62 million in 2012 from $47.5 million in 2011. The W2O Group companies now employ nearly 350 people compared with approximately 250 a year ago.

“Our sustained growth was driven by great people doing great work for great clients”

“Our sustained growth was driven by great people doing great work for great clients,” said W2O Group Chairman and CEO Jim Weiss. “We established W2O Group in the middle of last year to commercialize new businesses and foster entrepreneurial ideas and risk-taking--with a net. We also formed Twist to add a new dimension to client marketing and W2O Digital to enhance a core competency and eventually reinvent the entire space. We invested in new technologies and platforms to envision, optimize and measure content and deliver visual storytelling in new and fresh ways. Finally, we evolved the next generation of our analytics offering to enable data-driven ‘communications engineering’ that helps our clients inform and drive their business more precisely with less guesswork.”

Added W2O President Bob Pearson, “We now have nearly a dozen revenue streams, which modifies our risk and provides our people with the entrepreneurial opportunities they are looking for. It also gives our clients the innovation, service and support in many of the areas they are not getting elsewhere in the marketplace. We are off to a strong start and anticipate achieving similar growth and continued expansion and diversification in 2013.”

In addition to organically growing its foundational healthcare business, the Company introduced new capabilities in Corporate and Strategy and expanded its Technology and Consumer practices. It also continued to broaden its global footprint by enhancing its London and EU presence and strengthening, deepening and expanding its network in other key countries and markets around the world.

2012 and Recent Milestones
Notable accomplishments include the following:

1.	Ranked in Top 5 independent PR Firms in United States (source: O’Dwyer’s)
2.	Ranked in Top 30 among all PR firms globally; fastest growing in healthcare (sources: Holmes Report, PR Week)
3.	Grew Technology and Consumer practices and London office by more than 100% each
4.	Hired additional business leaders to drive increasingly diversified integrated global business grounded in analytics and expressed digitally, including:
	• Maura Bergen, managing director, Twist, formerly of Ketchum and Novartis
	• Kim Kraemer, managing director, business alignment and market planning, formerly of McKesson and Chiron
	• Joe Lin, executive creative director, formerly of Saatchi & Saatchi and Digitas
	• Cira Montreys, Ph.D., group medical director, former VP at Evolution Medical Communications
	• Jamie Peck, co-head, W2O Digital, formerly of Rosetta Digital
	• Jenn Samuels, managing director, WCG Healthcare 360, formerly of Saatchi & Saatchi and Medicus
	• Christine Tadgell, managing director, London, formerly of Sanofi
5.	Acquired Austin-based digital agency VM Foundry and created W2O Digital
6.	Invested to make analytics towering strength of firm on global scale by adding new talent in multiple offices and acquiring London-based Mettle Consulting to build analytics products and offerings focused on reputation, trust and governance for growing Corporate and Strategy practice
7.	Launched BrewLife, a firm focused on the specific needs of entrepreneurial start-up companies and brands
8.	Acquired Partners in Medical Education specializing in direct to patient communications, education and advocacy
9.	Acquired big data company Ravel
10.	Partnered with SnapTrends to develop location-based analytics for its clients
11.	Created MDigital Life to help understand how physicians are using social media to improve patient health, the success of their practice and regain a voice in the healthcare system
12.	Sponsored and launched W2O Group/Newhouse Center for Social Commerce in partnership with Syracuse University
13.	Partnered with Internet Retailer to create Social Commerce 500 Index

About W2O Group

Founded and led by Chairman and CEO Jim Weiss, W2O Group is an independent network of complementary marketing, communications, research and development firms focused on integrated business solutions to drive change and growth through "pragmatic disruption" for the world's leading brands and organizations. W2O Group serves clients through a network of firms – WCG, Twist, Brewlife and W2O Ventures – through offices in San Francisco, New York, Austin, Los Angeles and London. For more information on W2O, please visit http://w2ogroup.com.