Some Codeword News and a Few Thoughts
TL;DR: We’re joining forces with our friends at WE Communications, to create a new (same but different) agency, WE Codeword.
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As a former journalist, I love a good counter-narrative. The story that no one else is telling, the information that flies in the face of conventional wisdom.
Codeword is built on counter-narratives. We’ve grown an agency without marketing ourselves. We’ve shaped a team of cynical journalists into skilled creatives. We’ve driven news cycles with a few well-placed IMs. We target the smartest audiences instead of the easiest ones. We’ve clung to our independence. And we’ve thrown aside outdated agency norms and industry best practices to create great work more quickly and efficiently for our clients.
But perhaps what really sets us off as an agency is our deep-seated optimism. We’re excited about where the marketing world is going, and we’re confident that we’ll continue to succeed and stay ahead of the changing landscape.
So we’re pleased and proud to tell our biggest counter-narrative. In an era of agency consolidation and trepidation, we’re teaming up with a thriving agency that’s also fiercely independent and rushing headlong into the future. We’re joining the WE Communications family, and from now on we’ll be known as WE Codeword.
I used to work with WE (formerly Waggener Edstrom) as a tech journalist, so they’ve been on my radar for a long time. As I’ve lately gotten to know their executive team and their agency values, I’ve been more and more impressed by what they’ve done and where they’re going.
Like us, their client list is amazing, and they aren’t afraid of deep technology brands. They’re actively blurring the lines between PR, creative, strategy, and paid media, just like we are. They take incredible care of their employees, and despite three and a half decades of global growth, they’ve maintained their independence. For Codeword, that’s what really separated WE from other potential suitors that have come calling over the years. They like us for us, we expand their skillset, we share the same values, and we aren’t going to be subsumed by a massive holding company and never heard from again.
In terms of what this deal means for the day-to-day, the answer is not much in the short term. No staffing changes on either side, and WE Codeword will continue to operate as a separate business. We’ve already begun pitching and winning clients together (we contributed to a winning pharma pitch last month) and those team-ups will continue. We’ll also look for opportunities to grow from each other. For WE, that means access to our brilliant editorial, strategy, design, and account teams. For WE Codeword, that means access to WE’s global ecosystem of partners and opportunities.
The future is bright, and we couldn’t be more excited about 2019 and beyond.
OK, back to work!
