On May 5, 2003, we launched Welz & Weisel Communications – now known as W2 Communications – with three clients: Netifice, ZyLab and Sourcefire. At that time we were a traditional public relations firm providing media and analyst relations, content and messaging support. Fast forward 20 years, and today we have grown into a full-service integrated marketing communications firm that continues to provide those core PR services but also video, social media (paid and earned), and a broad range of digital marketing capabilities. At any given moment we tend to support 20 clients with 30 team members located across the country. We have worked with countless entrepreneurs, innovators and stellar marketing teams – honestly too many to name here. And we are grateful to all of them.
Over the last 20 years we’ve helped hundreds of companies launch new services and solutions, gain the attention of investors, partners and acquirers, and differentiate themselves among key audiences, including analysts and prospects. Our clients have raised millions of dollars in venture backing, grown revenues exponentially and seen exits (both IPOs and acquisitions) totaling more than $10 billion.
And, we’ve seen these clients come back to us time and again. Almost 50 percent of our roster is made up of repeat clients – executives who value the work we do, trust our counsel and take us with them wherever they go.
All of this is more than we could have imagined on that first day. Twenty years ago, Evan and I set out with a simple mission – we wanted to provide top tier, senior level support to emerging and interesting tech companies in the business-to-business (B2B) and business-to-government (B2G) markets. Our goal was to provide a level of service and expertise that was unmatched by the large tech PR firms.
A lot has changed over the years, but at our core we remain a team of storytellers that help our clients build brand recognition and drive sales. In my biased opinion, we’ve built a team that is incomparable in our ability to elevate and amplify our clients’ narratives with insights that speak to their key audiences.
Evolve and Thrive
As noted at the start of this post, we are a very different firm than the one we started in 2003. We’ve expanded our capabilities to deliver additional value, while remaining dedicated to telling our clients’ stories.
The media and marketing landscapes changed, and we evolved to meet these new opportunities. Our team of writers, made up of former reporters and analysts, help clients turn their technical expertise into compelling narratives. We also utilize a variety of social platforms and approaches to amplify our clients’ viewpoints.
In 2018, after years of clients asking, we brought in a team of multimedia and digital marketing experts that empower the visual aspect of client storytelling and create omnichannel campaigns for brand awareness and lead generation. Most recently, we added research services to our portfolio of capabilities to meet the growing demand for data-driven content, trends and findings that are of interest to customers and the media.
Today, we operate as a truly integrated marketing communications agency. We continue to tell our clients’ stories, but we tell them through a variety of lenses, strategically leveraging the best vehicle or platform for each particular objective. And, our diverse backgrounds enable us to meet our clients where they need us – whether its PR and lead gen or video and research – we continue to tell complex stories in ways that resonate with the audience.
In PR and marketing, we don’t often look back and reflect, but today we are appreciating every day of the last 20 years. Tomorrow, we’ll go back to focusing on what’s next.