News

After nearly 20 years, WDAD Communications have moved from their home in Farringdon to new offices in W1. In fact, we’re just up the road from where it all began in the late 80’s when Withers Diamond and Wood Brigdale (some of you may even remember WD&WB as we were known then), was based in Mortimer Street.

For those of you that had visited us in Kirby Street, the building had a certain old world ‘charm’ – we discovered during the moving process that it was the only property in the road not to have been destroyed during the blitz and in truth, many parts of it felt like it came from that era – but it was definitely frayed around the edges and it was taking up an awful lot of our time just to manage and maintain it. The final straw came with Cross Rail redevelopment at Farringdon station and the imminent doubling of our annual rent!

So, it was with a heavy heart that we decided to pack our bags and move on. We had a great farewell night at the agency with a host of past employees coming back in to shed a tear or two, lots of memories and laughs, and a shed load of alcohol!

Our new pad is even older than Kirby Street – but in terms of look and importantly feel, it’s light years away. We’re now resident on the 2nd Floor – so still lots of stairs to keep us and our visitors fit – of a lovely Regency building we share with a couple of like-minded creative and communication specialist agencies at 33 Fitzroy Street, London W1T 6DU – in the shadow of the BT Tower and just 3 minutes from Warren Street tube : https://www.wdad.co.uk/contact/

The kettle and the biscuits are primed and ready for visitors!

WDAD were delighted to have been shortlisted for the CIPD sponsored Recruitment Marketing Awards (RMAs) for our work for Stagecoach London. The glitzy ceremony took place at The Brewery in EC1 last night and, although this time around we didn’t come away with the main prize, we did receive a Highly Commended accolade from the judges for our entry in the Best Diversity and Inclusion Initiative category.

The aim of the social media and advertising campaign was to change the employer brand perception of Stagecoach as an employer of female bus drivers. As the centerpiece of the strategy, Ferne McCann, of TOWIE and This Morning fame, was invited to join Stagecoach at their West Ham bus garage to train for her PCV licence. This was shown on national TV on This Morning, and  received widespread coverage across national and local media throughout the campaign.

The campaign was highly successful, and generated a 30% increase in applications from women, with the number of female followers on their social channels growing from 28%  to 34%.  And overall, in a six month period, the number of female  bus drivers employed by the company had grown from 292 to 341 – a 17% increase!

Thanks go to a great client and all of our team and colleagues who helped put this highly innovative branding and awareness campaign together.

For details please see Women Behind the Wheel.