As 2024 winds down and we prepare to close our laptops for the holidays, we can’t help but reflect on Codeword’s most memorable moments from the year. We’re incredibly proud of everything we’ve accomplished, and it wouldn’t have been possible without two key ingredients: amazing clients and a phenomenal team.
First, a huge thank you to the brilliant minds at the world’s most celebrated brands who trust us as their partners. Your vision and collaboration inspire us to do our best work, and we’re deeply grateful for the opportunity to work alongside such innovative thinkers.
Of course, none of this would be possible without the incredible talent and dedication of the Codeword team. They’re not just creative powerhouses; they’re also genuinely good people who bring authenticity and passion to everything they do. We’re incredibly lucky to have them.
While most of what we do is hush-hush and under tight NDAs, here are a few highlights from 2024.
COMMS
We secured thousands of media hits for clients in places like Fast Company, Forbes, The Verge, TIME, Fortune, The Jimmy Kimmel Show, Modern Retail, WSJ, Axios, The Information, NY Post, TechCrunch, Business Insider, Quartz, ZDNet, USA Today, and many many more.
We built new specialty teams for Exec Comms and Instructional Design, and seen our work in those fields explode.
Drone delivery really took off this year, and our client Wing led the way. Our PR team helped secure 818 pieces of media coverage and 11 industry award wins, including a Best Inventions award in TIME.
We ran a crisis comms war room during the Paris Olympics for a smart-transportation brand. The best part: Our services weren’t needed (always a win for crisis comms).
AI is AIverywhere, and Codeword worked closely with two of the biggest players in the space, doing critical marketing work to help people understand the capabilities, benefits, and trade-offs of generative AI.
Redecorating your kitchen on an Apple Vision Pro is the ultimate customer experience. We loved helping a national home improvement retailer launch their AVP-powered app with tons of media coverage and pilot events across the country.
CONTENT
You probably saw some of the biggest and most-watched tech keynotes of the year—and we probably wrote the scripts.
Payscale has been one of our favorite clients for a long time, as we partner in the fight for fair and competitive pay structures. We brought that vision to life with a beautiful new product video to help compensation managers get onboard.
A tech giant needed help with its massive (and massively complicated) employee comms system. We helped streamline it by pulling thousands of pages into one easy-to-use content hub. (One of our biggest and thorniest projects of 2024.)
Generative AI is a new professional superpower, but only if you know how to use it. So we partnered with a global tech giant to develop an AI certification course for busy professionals. Along the way, we also built a first-class Learning Design team at Codeword.
COMMUNITY
Busy CEOs and CMOs don’t have time to post, which is why they hire us. We continue to run the social channels for a dozen big-name executives.
To help ASUS become a head-turning lifestyle brand, we created a fast-moving and wildly successful influencer program that tapped diverse voices to showcase the company’s excellent hardware.
We continued to work closely with online fan communities, including managing a huge and enthusiastic Discord community of 17 million tech enthusiasts. The mods are never asleep, because we’re the mods.
Thought leadership keeps execs top of mind with reporters, so we created a LinkedIn newsletter to position a global CEO as an expert commentator and industry spokesperson, which is now read by thousands.
INDUSTRY GUIDANCE
Codeword leaders were featured in PRWeek, Campaign US, WorkLife, Digiday, Ragan, Ad Age, MarketWatch, Fortune, HR Brew, CNBC Make It, The Drum, and Daily Dot.
Kyle and our head of strategy Jordan Leschinsky discussed all things Communication Design: what it means, why it describes our work so well, and why brands should get on board.
We’re big supporters of independent media, and we were proud to collab with our favorite indie publishers who shape cultural narratives, challenge norms, and provide unique perspectives: 404 Media, The Rebooting, Dirt, and Cake Zine.
Ever heard of the need-state model? Our VP of Strategy Brandon Carter recommends brands focus on what their audiences truly need over quick clicks.
JUST FOR FUN
Soft Fridays, our best attempt at permanent Summer Fridays, became a thing.
We love to party with our friends, which we did this year in France at Cannes, in Texas at SXSW, at our country-themed barnburner in Brooklyn, and at more happy hours and client meetups and late-night karaoke sessions than we can count. Want an invite to our next blowout? Sign up for our newsletter to get on the list.
We celebrated over 10 years of collaboration with Google and got to showcase a cool Earth Day campaign we did with Wing. Check out these case studies and more featured work in a shiny new home on our website.
We had a little too much fun writing about Dungeons and Dragons, defending karaoke, and sharing insights about online communities.
We love what we do, and we couldn’t do it without the amazing community of clients, partners, and collaborators who surround us. We’re ready to take on bigger challenges, bolder ideas, and even more groundbreaking work in 2025.
All the best,
Kyle and Michael
