Weber Shandwick 2025: Reinventing Big

The Weber Shandwick Collective (TWSC) has had a door-opening year filled with leadership shuffles, expanded divisions, and new business wins. 

Change started from the top-down as leadership shuffles looked to consolidate its place as an effective change-maker in the industry. Susan Howe joined as CEO of TWSC at the very end of 2024, and helping anchor the, as she described, “agency of the future”, was Karen Pugliese (global chief growth officer) and Jim O’Leary (North American CEO), who were promoted to global president roles.

And despite such change, it continued to produce creative work that showcases why it’s an agency to turn to to make real cultural impact, including raising awareness of heart attack symptoms among women for Ireland’s Heart and Stroke Charity and Global Heart Hub. 

We spoke with its UK CEO Helen Bennett about TWSC’s 2025.

Helen Bennett, CEO, UK, on Weber Shandwick's 2025

What three words would you use to describe 2025?

Unpredictable. Consequential. Transformative.

Can you share some highlights from your agency this year?

It’s undoubtedly been a year that’s kept us on our toes – not least because the possibilities across creativity, technology, and collaboration have evolved at such rapid pace.

We’ve developed our WS Create offer to help brands not just adapt to all this change but thrive in it. Core to our approach is our Cultural Choreography process, which uses cultural intelligence, predictive analytics and platform-native insight to help brands create ideas that live naturally in culture. It’s been energising to see this translate into impactful campaigns such as Knorr’s Valentine’s Day collab with Ann Summers, which brought food and intimacy together in unexpected ways, including inspiring 18,000 Brits to order Knorrplay packs.

Our indefatigable creative leader, Tom Beckman, always pushes us to build ideas that survive in the unpredictability of the real world – and this has been especially evident in our work this year for healthcare clients, where we’ve brought powerful creative solutions to the table to help shift behaviour and challenge misinformation. For Global Heart Hub, Her Final Search used real online search data to expose gender bias in heart health, sparking awareness and behaviour change.

Another significant milestone this year was the launch of Weber I/O, our advanced platform for analytics, AI, and performance media. Through Weber I/O, we’re working with clients to explore and implement generative AI solutions that are reshaping how we tell stories and engage with audiences. This isn’t about using technology for its own sake; it’s about harnessing its potential to deliver work that’s smarter, more dynamic and more meaningful.

What is the one thing you are proudest of this year?

The team. This year has been one of high scrutiny, high stakes and high expectations from every angle. Through it all, our people have shown incredible resilience, creativity, and drive. They’ve tackled challenges with a collective spirit, showing up for each other and for our clients in ways that consistently deliver outstanding work and measurable impact. I’m convinced this is why our client relationships remain so strong – our teams commit, dig deep and bring passion to every project.

What has been your biggest challenge?

Maintaining focus and confidence in the face of constant flux. The interplay of economic uncertainty, political instability, rising costs, and technological disruption has made this a testing time for many of our clients. Balancing the urgent, short-term demands with a commitment to long-term strategy has required clarity, agility and creativity in equal measure.

What’s helped us navigate this complexity is the breadth of expertise and diversity within our portfolio. That’s been a huge advantage – enabling us to flex approaches and disciplines for clients, adapting quickly to their needs while staying focused on big-picture outcomes. By leveraging data, AI and deep strategic insights, we’ve helped clients make informed decisions with confidence, even in the face of uncertainty

What are you most looking forward to in 2026?

Notable client wins include Fairphone and Drambuie, along with a global earned media partnership with the Mars Snacking and Mars Petcare businesses, which significantly expanded our existing relationship. It feels like we’re heading into 2026 with real momentum. We’re closing the year with some major new client wins and growth in several key client relationships. These aren’t just wins for the P&L – they’re platforms for meaningful work that has the power to shift culture, grow brands, and create tangible impact. One of the most exciting areas for us is the market demand for embedding earned and social thinking much more explicitly into broader marcoms strategies. This is about more than adding layers; it’s about combining creativity, cultural relevance, and technology to build communications that truly connect. Earned ideas remain central to what we do, and it’s exciting to see clients embracing this approach more intentionally.

What one change would you most like to see in our industry next year?

I’d like to see our industry shift from chasing quick wins to building genuinely sustainable, long-term client value. That’s going to require real partnership between agencies and clients – fewer knee-jerk pitches, less disposable work, more partnerships where agencies and clients co-create and commit to sustainable, long-term outcomes.

Technology is disrupting how we drive value and how we work – I’d love us to use it as less of an opportunity for existential angst (although some of that is understandable) and more as an opportunity to rebalance towards depth, versus just volume.

We need to stand firm on not losing sight of the human element. The pressure on people, across the board, is immense right now. Protecting wellbeing and making space for creativity is critical. At the end of the day, clients come to us not just for execution but for ideas – for the brilliant, strategic, high-performing brains that make those ideas possible. We have to create environments where people can thrive, because that’s what will drive our industry forward.

Creative Salon on Weber Shandwick's 2025

TWSC further consolidated its status as an industry powerhouse with a range of changes across the Collective. 

Hugh Taggert joined as CEO of its EMEA region from Fleishman Hillard’s UK business; Lucie Harper joined as president of health for Weber UK; and Laura Hernando joined Weber’s creative social agency That Lot as its client services director. 

It launched the Weber Advisory in EMEA led by president Greg Prager, which looked to meet the growing need for modern corporate and public affairs skills globally. Its UK Public Affairs practice, which is part of Weber Advisory, saw Jonathan Ashworth named UK chairman of public affairs; Laura Gabb joined as executive vice president, head of UK public affairs; and Ben Stetson was promoted to senior vice president in public affairs. 

Also saw the launch of Weber I/O - a new capability that redefines how organisation use data, technology and AI to drive innovation. It described the division as the ‘AI backbone of the broader Weber Shandwick offering’.

A particular highlight of its year was the network emerging as the earned media winner from the Mars review - including its Snacking and Petcare businesses, spanning over 70 markets where it’s tasked with bringing culture and conversation to Mars’ iconic portfolio of brands. 

New business wins also saw wins with Fairphone and Drambuie for its social arm That Lot. 

Creative work kicked off with its work with WHISKAS in collaboration with AMV BBDO and EssenceMediacom, which saw the introduction of ‘Puuradise’ - a multi-channel campaign that continued throughout the year, under its ‘Purr More’ brand platform. In an eye-catching out-of-home (OOH) display, WHISKAS took over London’s famed Piccadilly Lights to show what feline satisfaction looks like.

It kicked off British summer time with Corona welcoming the longer, sunnier days of the year. Its lime sunsets showed how not only are they a staple of enjoying the drink, but customers have more opportunity to relax outside.

TWSC oversaw the launch and media activity around Stella Artois’ celebration of International Beer Day. ‘The Perfect Trade’ encouraged consumers to exchange any beer bottle cap for a pint of Stella.

With Ireland’s Heart and Stroke Charity Croí and Global Heart Hub the agency raised awareness about the symptoms of heart attacks in women. ‘Her Final Search’ shone a spotlight on what final symptoms women who died of heart attacks looked up online, with women often experiencing different symptoms to men.

And this Christmas, Weber teamed up with New Commercial Arts with a campaign for Walker’s Shortbread. Leading on the PR activation, the work shows Andy Murray sporting a bespoke Christmas jumper inspired by Walker’s signature shortbread fingers and triangles. In-person experiences and pop-ups were unveiled across London and Scotland. 

Creative Salon says... TWSC is an agency taking the necessary steps to adapt and evolve in the ever-changing industry climate - and pulling it off. Its momentum of positive changes and big business wins sets it in excellent stead for 2026.