Post-IPO, the marketing organization doubled down in an effort to streamline its operations. However, the pandemic upended what little progress the team made and a number of planned campaigns got scrapped, the source said.
Prophet’s Mulvihill argues the company has struggled to stay connected to its strategy and message with frequent leadership changes.
Indeed, the brand’s most recent chief marketing officer (CMO), former Sprint marketer Roger Solé, left in January 2022. He wasn’t replaced for 18 months when Debosmita Majumder, joined from Embassy Group in September. Her arrival came after the business warned it had “substantial doubts” about its future.
Prior to that, WeWork had enlisted ad legend and Publicis chairman Maurice Levy as interim CMO from November 2019 for a three-month contract.
Since 2019, WeWork’s creative output has flip-flopped between newspaper ads reassuring existing and would-be members that it was “challenging convention, but nailing the basics,” to billboards reminding people it still existed post-lockdown.
At the start of 2023, it unveiled a new brand identity with agency Franklyn, which the brand said was a more “impactful way to showcase WeWork’s diverse and flexible product and unique community proposition to the world.”
What now?
Ultimately, after its chaotic 2019 collapse, WeWork had a chance to re-emerge with relevance during the pandemic as office needs changed. However, it wasn’t able to maintain a coherent narrative on its role in the new working world.
“It evolved its brand positioning but couldn’t connect it to the rapidly evolving narrative around ‘return to work’ which was changing all the time. To stay relentlessly relevant in this environment required keeping a finger on the pulse of the C-Suite,” said Mulvihill.
Post-bankruptcy, the future of the WeWork brand is itself uncertain. But now that it’s able to shed some long-term leases, WeWork can emerge leaner and ready for a new chapter.
Its CEO certainly thinks so.
“We defined a new category of working, and these steps will enable us to remain the global leader in flexible work,” said Tolley in his statement.
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