Communiqué Public Affairs And Policy Consultancy of the Year

Summary of work

• WA Health was determined to use 2020 to rapidly expand our pharma client base from our previous areas of focus, healthcare services and social care.
  Without the name recognition of our competitors, we needed a different approach. Our strategy focused on three areas:
• Prioritising complex public affairs briefs where we could apply our rigorous approach to gathering insights to develop distinct strategies.
• Finding the best consultants with established agency experience who wanted to thrive in a positive, growth opportunity.
• Promoting the value of our independent ownership to attract and reward outstanding consultants and allow us to choose stimulating and meaningful work.

Despite the challenge of COVID, WA Health had an outstanding year; 53% revenue growth through six new retained clients. New team members joined from bigger competitors – recognizing the unique potential of the WA offer. And clients reaped the rewards of the team’s knowledge, tenacity and enthusiasm, leading to further organic growth into 2021.
2020 taught us the value of committing to a robust plan – seeking honest feedback to accelerate our learning and drawing on our strategic approach to stand out from the crowd, while adapting quickly when circumstances change. As a result, we beat even our most stretching targets.

Judges' comments

Great growth and successful delivery of a plan in trying times. WA clearly has some big ambitions and has made an impressive start on its journey to get there. We liked their strategy and pre-qualification process to prioritise only the most promising opportunities and protect their staff as they achieved good growth and impressive client feedback without the awareness and huge resources of more established competitors. The team’s approach and passion shone through in some of the most important areas of healthcare including cancer, diabetes and the COVID response.