Website we-worldwide.com/ Founded 1983 Type of business Private | Revenue 115.8 million USD (2012) Number of employees 700 Number of locations 16 offices | |
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Key people Melissa Waggener Zorkin, CEO Headquarters Bellevue, Washington, United States Subsidiaries Watatawa Consulting Pte. Ltd., Maloney & Fox | ||
WE (previously Waggener Edstrom Communications) is a Seattle-based public relations firm often associated with its largest client, Microsoft. The firm was founded in 1983 by Melissa Waggener Zorkin and Pam Edstrom. It acquired Maloney & Fox in 2003, Shout Holdings in 2004, Patzer PR in 2012 and Buchan Consulting also in 2012. WE has four areas of expertise: technology, healthcare, social innovation and consumer.
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In September 2015, the company re-branded as WE and announced specialized partners in research (YouGov, Radius Global Market Research, Illuminas); digital marketing (The Garrigan Lyman Group); search marketing (Point It); and a strategic futurist (Play Big Inc.).
WE provides PR services for companies including Microsoft, Volvo, ZTE, Allrecipes, Boehringer Ingelheim, VSP, Zoom+, Cole Haan, Pernod Ricard, Lucid and Kymeta.
History
Waggener Edstrom was founded in 1983 by Melissa Waggener Zorkin and Pam Edstrom. Pam previously worked for Microsoft, which became one of the agency's first clients.
The firm acquired PR.com in 2001 and renamed it to OnPR, which later separated from Waggener in 2005. Later that year, the firm acquired consumer PR agency Maloney & Fox after working jointly with the firm on several Microsoft projects, such as the launch of Windows 95 and MSN internet services. Waggener Edstrom also moved its headquarters that year from Portland to Seattle and opened new offices in San Francisco, Paris, and Boston. The following year Waggener Edstrom acquired Hong Kong-based Shout Holdings, which was renamed to Shout Waggener Edstrom. Waggener opened an office in Brussels in 2006 in order to support the European Union. Waggener's Brussels office was later closed in March 2011.
Waggener experienced substantial staffing changes in 2009. There were several senior-level departures. To support the firm's digital practice, David Patton from The Wall Street Journal was hired, as well as David Mahlmann and Jean-Louis Robadey. In 2010 and 2011 Waggener Edstrom opened offices in Africa, Delhi, Bangalore and Mumbai. In May 2012 Waggener acquired Patzer PR, a Munich-based healthcare consultancy. After the founders of Maloney & Fox departed, the brand was merged into Waggener Edstrom in 2013.
Services
WE has seven practice areas, including Healthcare, Public Affairs, Brand Strategy and Technology. The firm's consumer work is sometimes done in partnership with WE's subsidiary, Maloney & Fox. It also has an analyst relations division that was formed in 2010 and a Social Innovation team supports social issues.
WE's digital arm was founded in the early 2000s as Studio D. The digital division has a programming team that's developed social media measurement and management applications like the Social Influence System (SIS), News Stream, Ripple Effect, Narrative Network and twendz pro. It also created mobile apps for the SXSW conference from 2011 - 2013.
WE has won the Silver Anvil award from the Public Relations Society of America and five Bulldog Report awards. In 2010 it was called the Technology Agency of the Decade by The Holmes Report.
Corporate
WE has a reputation as a good place to work. In 2002 the agency had a turnover rate of less than 20 percent, compared to an industry average of 50. The firm allots 16 hours a year to each employee for a charity of their choosing. One percent of the firm's revenues are donated to charity and WE matches donations by employees. WE has supported initiatives to reduce hunger, mentor under-privileged students in Africa, and provide education to underprivileged girls in southern Ethiopia.
More than 80 percent of WE's revenue is from international accounts and most of its clients use its partnership program to hire affiliated agencies for certain regions.
Notable clients and campaigns
WE is often associated with its work for Microsoft, one of WE's first clients and its largest budget account as of 2003. WE supports Microsoft's corporate communications as well as the Windows, mobile, and servers divisions, and business units in Hong Kong and Europe.
In WE's early years, its relationship with Microsoft led to it working primarily with other technology companies, before expanding into healthcare, consumer and other sectors. In 2002 the firm helped AMD introduce its Opteron and Athlon microprocessors. Miscommunications were exposed between WE, Microsoft and the media in 2003, when WE and Microsoft told press conflicting stories about whether an announcement of a technology-enabled porta-potty was genuine.
Segway recruited WE in 2007 to execute a new strategy of selling Segways as an alternative to golf carts. That same year, a WE employee accidentally sent Wired journalist Fred Vogelstein his own thirteen-page briefing sheet. The document included commentary about his reporting and interview style being "tricky" and "sensational...though he would consider them to be balanced and fair." Since 2008, WE has supported Mercy Corps on a pro-bono basis. CEO Waggener Zorkin took on the client after visiting the Good Shepherd orphanage in Ghana.
The firm won Expedia and the Make-a-Wish Foundation as clients in 2009. In 2011 WE successfully predicted that The Hurt Locker would win Best Picture at the Academy Awards based on an analysis of tweets using its Twendz pro application. Waggener also began working with Xerox that year to promote the company's back-end office services and to change their image as a company that primarily does copy machines. Some of WE's other notable clients include T-Mobile, Toshiba, Boeing, MasterCard and Sony Electronics.