A Brand that Emphasizes Wellness

Welltower partnered with APCO Worldwide to change the 45-year-old company’s name from Health Care REIT, Inc. and emphasize its journey from a real estate portfolio to a health care infrastructure company that promotes wellness. There was little visibility or appreciation for its role in funding innovative assisting living and memory care communities and outpatient and post-acute care centers. Its goals were ambitious: to support growth and position its superior value proposition among health care business and investment audiences and media.

Growth Driven By Aging and Health Care Trends

Welltower partnered with APCO to launch the new name and elevate its brand. We built the narrative around Welltower’s role as a leading provider of capital to innovative partners to grow their platforms, improve care for the aging population, and promote better, more efficient and connected health care delivery. The launch involved an aggressive program of events and media outreach, followed by a multifaceted program to introduce Welltower and tell its story to health care and financial audiences.

Leader in Health Care Infrastructure

APCO secured media coverage including a CEO-first broadcast on CNBC’s Squawk Box and interview in the New York Times, and stories in Bloomberg BusinessWeek, The Wall Street Journal, Modern Healthcare, Time Magazine and Business Insider, among others. In addition we supported CEO positioning at high-profile conferences, notably the World Economic Forum in Davos, Aspen Ideas Festival: Spotlight Health, and the JP Morgan Healthcare Conference.

To elevate the brand, we helped Welltower create an “Alzheimer’s Awareness Day” that included ringing the Opening Bell® at the New York Stock Exchange with the Alzheimer’s Association and Miss USA; lighting the Empire State Building and Welltower’s headquarters purple; and Welltower’s CEO Thomas J. DeRosa delivering the keynote as the honoree of the Alzheimer’s Association’s Brain Ball. This effort raised more than $3 million for Alzheimer’s research and garnered nearly 20 million earned media impressions and 2 million social impressions.

We also supported financial communications and strategic announcements, and drafted Welltower’s first Annual Report and Corporate Social Responsibility Report. A year after the launch, Welltower was named to the Dow Jones Sustainability Index, a milestone in its journey as a leader aligned with health care infrastructure trends.