Five acquisitions in one year.
Overview
2021. Lone Wolf had just been acquired by a private equity company and introduced a new vision: Simplify real estate. But the company couldn't realize that vision without first growing its product portfolio.
This meant massive growth—and fast. From the beginning of 2021 until the end of the year, Lone Wolf added five companies (two on the same day), 12 products, and over 500 employees.
Responsibilities
As the comms leader, I owned all communications and media relations for each acquisition, managing the whole kit and caboodle: Strategy, planning, stakeholders, writing, and execution of all internal and external comms, as well as the development of our new positioning and core values.
As the brand leader, I also led our strategy to bring each company into the Lone Wolf fold, with the end goal of turning this newly formed house of brands back into a branded house.
Strategy
I built a custom communications templates, packages, and processes, adapting them for each acquisition to clearly and consistently communicate the who, what, where, when, why, and how to both the acquired company and the acquiring company.
I worked with executive leadership to develop the vision, mission, positioning, and core values that honored the company's history while setting course for the future.
Finally, I created messaging for each acquisition to rally all staff—new and current—behind our new vision, purpose, and core values.
Results
Each acquisition went according to plan, with messaging delivered successfully on the first day, staff integrated in the first week, and positioning universally picked up in the press.
Following the acquisitions, I led a mini-rebrand project that brought our flagship products and newly acquired products together into packages for each audience. These new packages helped marketing reach 112% of its annual target and increase revenue 21% YoY.
Over time, our core values were embedded into the hiring and performance review process—and the new vision brought staff together with a shared purpose and unified brand.