As we close out the first half of 2021, Highwire is taking a moment to pause, reflect, and celebrate our successes over the past year. Over the course of 2020, we grew digital revenue by 100% and overall revenue by 24%. We added new clients like Bespoken Spirits, Hitachi ABB, Qualtrics, and Omada Health in verticals across digital healthcare, fintech, and security. And now we’re especially proud to announce new additions to the Highwire leadership team that will anchor the direction of the agency as we grow.
We’re investing in strategic areas of focus including diversity, inclusion and belonging, content, and our senior leadership team and have new leaders, Ayanna Anderson, Dylan Tweney, and Misty Holbert, joining the agency’s leadership roster.
Ayanna Anderson joins as Highwire’s Head of Diversity, Inclusion, and Belonging. In this newly established role, Ayanna will champion the agency’s inclusion and belonging initiatives, while also driving recruiting and retention efforts with an aim of creating and sustaining empowered spaces for diverse storytellers. She also leads Highwire’s Diversity, Inclusion, and Belonging (DIBs) Council, which serves as a vital resource for ongoing education, allyship, accountability, and employee engagement. An adjunct Ethnic Studies professor at Laney College in Oakland, Ayanna has 20+ years of experience in various strategic communications and community engagement roles. Ayanna began her career in agency PR working with B2B, B2C, and healthcare clients.
Highwire has a strong commitment to diversity, and in the past year, we’ve only accelerated our efforts to address the representation gaps in our agency and industry. In 2020, we established partnerships with COOP Careers and the Multicultural Advertising Intern Program (MAIP). Leaders from our digital team delivered integrated strategy training to COOP students and Highwire was appointed PR AOR to COOP Careers (pro bono) to raise the organization’s profile and help them meet their goals of empowering first-generation college graduates to succeed in the workplace.
Dylan Tweney joins as SVP and Highwire’s first Editor in Chief. Dylan is a writer, editor, and journalist with 20+ years of experience working in national media outlets including WIRED and VentureBeat. He has also produced content and content strategies for numerous technology companies, winning awards and driving coverage, awareness, and ROI. In his new role at Highwire, Dylan is focused on generating world-class content and communications strategies for clients.
Misty Holbert is Highwire’s newest Vice President, previously serving as the communications lead for the Strategic Innovation Group of global management and technology consultancy Booz Allen Hamilton. In her role, Misty will bring an omnichannel approach to business strategy and media campaigns while also developing and implementing critical media and stakeholder relations programs.
Dylan, Ayanna, and Misty join at a time when Highwire is experiencing business growth despite the many challenges of 2020. In a year of uncertainty and change, we followed a strategy that led to more new clients and more exciting projects than ever before. We’re proud of our ability to retain team members, provide expanded training and support, and grow our team during a turbulent year.
Amidst all of these changes, we are grateful to our clients who trusted us to help them navigate disruption and get creative as events and business as usual transformed.
To mark this year of great collaboration, PRWeek US recognized our work with Mr. Cooper as the 2021 best financial communications campaign. In the “Keeping the Dream of Homeownership Alive” campaign, Highwire supported Mr. Cooper in reaching policymakers. These efforts contributed to more than 100 pieces of coverage on the need for mortgage servicer liquidity. Since then, Ginnie Mae provided support to servicers unable to advance on loans, while Mr. Cooper secured an almost $1 billion credit line. As a result, the company has helped hundreds of thousands of homeowners stay in their homes, buy new homes, or refinance their existing mortgages.
The Mr. Cooper team was also recognized for this campaign by PRovoke’s SABRE Awards for the “Best Financial Services” communications Campaign.
Highwire was also recognized for our work in supporting MobileIron in the Business-to-Business category for its Phishing with Cookies marketing campaign. This creative campaign highlighted the dangers of opening unknown links to demonstrate how it could provide enterprises with security infrastructure.
We are proud of creating an environment where our teams and work have a real impact.
We’re even more excited for what’s to come.
