W2O acquires US advertising and med ed agency 21GRAMS

W2O has bought US-based advertising and medical education 21GRAMS, expanding its direct-to-consumer, direct-to-provider and business-to-business advertising and marketing operations.

The deal would be a transformative one for its business, W2O said, and continues an acquisitive streak that saw it strike a number of healthcare comms deals last year.

Jim Weiss (pictured left), W2O founder and CEO, said: “21GRAMS is a true innovator, offering something different and more profound than its competitors. The agency’s philosophy that the work can and should tap into the human spirit, inspiring the invisible ‘something’ inside, aligns directly with our patient-first ethos and to what we are doing for clients.

“The unique strengths of 21GRAMS immediately enhance what we’ve been building over the last few years at W2O, a truly integrated approach to marketing communications.”

The move adds to W2O’s recent acquisitions of Arcus Medica, ISO.health and Radius Digital Science as it steadily expands its advertising and digital capabilities.

Robert Blink, founder and CEO of 21GRAMS, said: “Joining this like-minded and forward-thinking organisation gives us greater scale, as well as significant technological innovation and global reach – allowing us to match our ambitions to our abilities. Together, we are designing the future in health, connecting humanity and technology to position healthcare brands as more inspiring than sneakers, fast food or soda water.”

The 21GRAMS leadership of Robert Blink, Wendy Levine, Jayson Dupré and Frank Mazzola remains the same, and its brand, approach and leadership team will operate under W2O’s single, integrated profit and loss (P&L) operation.