The Brand Guild offers their clients services across public relations, marketing, events and creative – which means their team must be highly collaborative. As such, the agency has taken a cue from its innovative clients: they took the time to learn how their teams work best, and subsequently developed a flexible, hybrid work structure that makes team engagement and connection possible while also being able to work from home. Taking care of the team is clearly important to leadership, as they offer a professional development stipend to every employee across every level at the agency. It’s working: this year saw a handful of exciting new client wins and the launch of the agency’s New Economy team. This team focuses on purpose-driven tech and tech-adjacent brands like Future Family, which helps women finance fertility treatments, and VC firm Slauson, which looks for opportunities outside of the inner sanctum of companies that receive 98 percent of all funding.
Leadership team:
Barbara Martin, Co-Founder
Jayne Sandman, Co-Founder
Notable long-term clients:
Sweetgreen, Room & Board, Uncle Nearest, Brookfield Properties, The Howard Hughes Corporation
New client wins:
Four Roses Bourbon, Lobos 1707 Tequila, Chipper, Future Family
How is the agency advancing DEI in the industry?
“We believe that diverse ideas, perspectives and backgrounds create a stronger and more creative agency that delivers better results. Our agency has established a formal DEI Committee composed of internal staff which meets regularly to advance our mission of creating a wholly inclusive workplace. Ongoing initiatives include knowledge sharing and internal discussion facilitation through bi-weekly posts in our agency-wide #dei slack channel, establishing a comprehensive outreach and recruiting strategy for staffing open positions and establishing partnerships with HBCUs and minority groups within universities to build more diverse intern classes. Our philanthropic efforts include quarterly donations with a company match to organizations whose missions are focused on diversity, equity and inclusion.”
It’s already been quite a year for 5WPR. The agency kicked off 2022 by opening up an office in Miami, their second location (fitting, as 5W was recently named on a ‘best workplaces’ list). They also expanded two core practice areas to better serve client demand. The corporate and technology practice expanded to begin offering dedicated teams with expertise in robotics, travel technology, private equity and venture capital, video gaming and metaverse PR. Under the consumer umbrella, the agency introduced pet influencer services, a men’s grooming team, a specialty fragrance and nail division, dedicated alcohol and spirits PR division and a creative strategy and insights division, as well as the expansion of the parenting team to include a focus on the ‘millennial dad experience.’ No doubt that the agency’s annual Consumer Culture Report informs the aforementioned practice strategies and shifts – a big reason 5WPR is consistently ahead of the consumer PR game.
Leadership:
Dara A. Busch, Co-CEO
Matthew Caiola, Co-CEO
Notable long-term clients:
Sparkling Ice, It's A 10 Haircare / Enterprise, SMEG, Retro Fitness, Luna Park, GNC, Sedgwick, Storyblocks, Webull, Carparts, Xplor, AvidExchange
New client wins:
Foxwoods, PopSockets, SmileDirectClub, Lumistella (Elf on a Shelf), Circle Line, The Children’s Place, Axiom Space, IAS, Pave, Nexans, Appian, WINFertility
How is the agency advancing DEI in the industry?
“5WPR has continued their recruiting partnerships with Historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs), and industry group Black PR Girl Magic, most recently hosting a joint career fair with on-the-spot interviews out of 5WPR’s NYC office, ensuring the agency continues recruiting top talent. The agency formed a D&I staff committee to analyze 5W’s scores across various areas and in response implement initiatives to improve their efforts. The agency also recently underwent an overhaul of 5W’s approved vendor list to include more minority and women-owned businesses, added Juneteenth as a company holiday, increased 5W’s charitable donation match for causes aimed at leading the charge on D&I, and created a new leadership position within the firm – Head of People and Culture – to implement further change.”
