W2O Group was founded as WeissComm Partners in 2001 by as a one-person marketing consulting firm, with clients primarily in the healthcare industry. His firm grew quickly until 2008. According to Weiss, less favorable conditions in the healthcare industry led to a series of layoffs. In response, the following year Weiss acquired creative services firm ODA and social media marketing firm, Common Sense Media Group, in order to diversify his interests and reduce reliance on the healthcare industry. That same year, Weiss re-formed the company under the acronym WCG, consolidating the two acquisitions under a new corporate umbrella. The acquired companies and the firm's revenues continued growing. By 2011 it had annual revenues of $48 million. In 2012, WCG was re-structured again under a new holding company called W2O Group, which was made up of three companies: WCG, W2O Ventures, and Twist Mktg. The fourth company in the holding group, Brewlife, was formed the following year to focus on startup companies. The holding group had $75 million in annual revenues by 2013 and $82.6 million in 2014. In 2014 and 2015, W2O opened new offices in major U.S. and European cities. In May 2016, a private-equity firm called Mountaingate Capital made an investment in W2O Group, which funded a series of acquisitions. Seven months after acquiring Fox Communications, W2O Group laid off founder Lynn Fox, who sued alleging gender discrimination. In June 2019, New Mountain capital acquired an interest in W2O Group for an undisclosed amount.
Acquisitions
Operations and services
W2O Group is a holding company whose subsidiaries provide marketing services to healthcare and technology companies. The holding company operates through five subsidiaries: WCG, Twist, Pure, Sentient and Marketeching. WCG is the public relations arm. As of 2012, it was responsible for about 80 percent of the company's revenue. Twist is a 50-person division that initially served largely as a conflict and analytics division. The Brewlife division serves the company's startup and emerging technology clientele. W2O Group is the second largest PR firm by revenue in O'Dwyer's annual rankings of U.S. agencies and the largest in the healthcare sector. More than 90 percent of its revenues are from U.S.-based clients. Healthcare tends to be its fastest growing practice area and was the firm's focus early on, though more recently the analytics practice has taken a larger role. According to PR Week, W2O's most-used services include "PR, analytics, and its CCX creative unit." It also started a multicultural practice in early 2015. One of W2O's software services is MDigitalLife, which stores data on the online activity of doctors and patients. It is used by pharmaceutical companies to understand sentiment in the healthcare field.
