Building Momentum

It’s an exciting time to be a storyteller and on the front lines of the communications industry. As our phones, homes, cars, medicines and even our windows get smarter, there’s a growing need to show consumers how these innovations can help improve the way they work, play, drive and live healthier, more impactful lives.

And, who knows better about shifting consumer behavior than WE. Our agency experts navigate change and lead business and communications transformation for the best brands in the world on a daily basis.

Since joining WE about eight months ago, I’ve seen firsthand how an agency of transformation experts undergoes its own transformation — literally LIVES its brand — from watching the founders take their names off the door and welcoming stellar new talent to adding great new partners and winning new clients who are changing the world — all of which has created a powerful, almost magnetic attraction for people, clients and great work and some epic agency momentum.

Here at WE in North America …

• We are crazy proud to be working with companies that are literally changing the way we live. Our clients come to us to help them translate how their technological advances are creating real consumer impact. You can’t be everything to everyone, but we rock four spaces pretty dang well — consumer, healthcare, social innovation and technology. We are privileged (and understandably boastful) to be doing exciting, groundbreaking work — the kind of work that has the most interesting stories being told.
• Building on our TECH legacy, we just welcomed Kinestral as a client — such a cool company — enabling us to play a role in helping it reimagine light and how we access and use it (remember those windows?). As well, we recently became the agency for Apptio, helping it continue global growth in pioneering the category of Technology Business Management. And this just in: We are now working with VoiceBox, revolutionizing voice recognition software, which is the future and it’s coming fast.
• And we’ve got some exciting stuff cooking in CONSUMER — like the progress we’ve made with our client Allrecipes in building the world’s largest food-focused social network and how we are breaking new ground in old industries by partnering up with the most neighborly, most un-bankiest of banks, Umpqua Bank. Did you see what they did on Random Acts of Kindness Day? #UmpquaActs #community #inspiring. Check it out. It will make you want to make every day a Random Acts of Kindness Day.
• Our SOCIAL INNOVATION and HEALTHCARE teams are putting the LAB in collaborate — working together with several innovative clients including vision leader VSP Global — a company breaking down the boundaries of vision care to help people see and live better. Add to that the fact that we now work with THREE of the top biotech and pharma companies in the world, including a new client in Boston that is at the forefront of developing innovative therapies for people living with serious diseases, and you see the transformational power of storytelling in action.  
• You’ll notice too that like us, ALL of the companies we work with wholly embody their brands and are pioneers in their own right — powerful, independent, forging new paths, surprising and delighting customers. This alignment is not by accident. Brilliant, like-minded people have a way of finding each other and working together.
• Meanwhile, our partners continue to help us amplify what we can do for our clients — enabling us to act nimbly and push boundaries. Through our burgeoning partnership network, we’ve generated more than $3M in business opportunities in just our first year, including our most recent win with GLG — where we partner together to work with Ventec Life Systems (yep — it’s an innovator too, developing improved solutions in medical devices for patients who require ventilation therapy).  
• Of course our people are the engine that drives us. And over the past few months, we've gotten an infusion of energy and smarts from a number of recent leadership hires, including Rob Wilson, who leads our Content Team, Anne Alo as creative director, and Sandy Zogg, who leads biz development. They will join our already strong teams of sector and office leads, including Melissa Havel, who recently took on the role of Portland general manager, and Keely Stephens, who took on the deputy general manager role in Austin. And more are coming. Watch this space ….

 As you can see, I am excited about the direction we are headed — but the power of WE is not just where we’ve been, but where we’re going. We are not just working with our clients on storytelling, we are working together on “story-making.”

WE has positive, growing momentum, and we are putting it to work for smart, innovative clients — “story-making” and helping our clients transform their business for future success.

We know we’ve got people watching — and we are here to impress.