At a time when most offices lie vacant and the vast majority of consumers are still working from home, co-working providers such as WeWork are in a tough spot. But the brands are looking to stay afloat by reinventing themselves with social distancing upgrades and new marketing that pushes their space as the flexible solution businesses need as they downsize their office holdings and desperately renegotiate leases.
WeWork, notorious for brand baggage that includes a failed IPO and ousted founder, is debuting a new marketing campaign called “That’s How Tomorrow Works.”
“The objective of the campaign is to wake up interest again in flexible workspaces,” says Roger Solé, who joined WeWork as chief marketing officer in April. “One of the most amazing features of WeWork that we need to resurface is it’s extremely adaptable to the post-COVID world.”
It’s certainly a new tomorrow for WeWork. The New York-based brand, which was born a decade ago following the recession as a coworking space to serve the office needs of startups, is trying to shed the “noise” of its past, as Solé says, as it looks to the future. The company's much-publicized disaster of an IPO last fall followed its promise to double its marketing expenses as it pursued expansion. WeWork suffered revenue losses, massive layoffs and staffing changes. It hired former Publicis’ Groupe CEO Maurice Levy as interim chief marketing and communications officer late last year to try to restore the brand’s image.
The new work is the first creative push from VaynerMedia, which has been WeWork’s media agency since 2017 but will now handle a larger marketing role that includes the creative duties formerly performed solely by WeWork’s in-house marketing team. Solé, who was most recently chief marketing officer of Sprint, is spearheading the reinvention. He replaces Levy.
“It’s starting a new decade with a new crisis,” he says. “We’re trying to redefine what the future of work is for this new decade.”