Reports from our company leaders

Cohn & Wolfe

Report by Donna Imperato
Chief executive officer

I

t was another year of double-digit growth as Cohn & Wolfe reached new heights in our quest to become the best integrated communications agency in the public relations industry. We have advanced well beyond the vision we set five years ago.

Our new business and organic growth were fueled by our ability to deliver the big ideas that clients want and bring those ideas to life through our growing capabilities across mobile, digital, paid and content marketing. This year, we leveraged M.E.-24, our mobile engagement unit, to launch the world’s first mobile signature analysis tool for Colgate’s Irish Spring Signature line of products. We defied category norms with ‘Unbreakable Valor,’ a limited-edition, interactive comic book series that transformed Panasonic’s Toughpad® tablet into an unlikely B-to-B superhero. And we introduced Mission 31, an underwater exploration with Jacques Cousteau’s grandson filmed entirely on Microsoft’s Nokia Lumia 1020.

These award-winning campaigns were fueled by initiatives that optimized the quality and consistency of our insight-driven work worldwide. This year, we globally embedded our proprietary DDIM™ (Dig Deeper. Imagine More.) programming process and enhanced our global knowledge-sharing tools.

I am incredibly grateful to our talented people around the world for a stellar 2015. They have been the force behind a number of prestigious industry honors, including Large PR Firm of the Year (PR News), multiple Best Large Place to Work awards (Holmes, PRWeek, PR News) and two nods for Southeast Asia Agency of the Year (Holmes, Campaign Asia). Our people have also enabled Cohn & Wolfe to add or expand great clients, including Alcon, Barclaycard, Colgate-Palmolive, Danone, Global Blue, InterContinental Hotels Group, Pandora Jewelry and Treasury Wine Estates.

Our new business and organic growth were fueled by our ability to deliver the big ideas that clients want

Cohn & Wolfe expanded in India, Brazil and China. With majority-stake acquisitions in India’s Six Degrees PR and content development and marketing subsidiary, Alphabet Consulting, as well as Brazil’s renowned Grupo Máquina, we welcomed hundreds of talented new professionals across Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore, São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro and Brasília. We also added our twelfth office in Asia, in Guangzhou, to meet growing client demands across China. Our global specialty companies, GCI Health and AxiCom, also performed well with significant new wins and strong organic growth.

I expect to see Cohn & Wolfe deliver another year of excellent growth in 2016, as we further leverage our position as an integrated marketing leader and continue to recruit and retain the industry’s best talent.