For more than three decades, we’ve helped great B2B brands rise above the considerable noise that congests every market through a simple, guiding idea: B2B buyers are real humans, not abstract personas. And humans respond to stories — not bullet-point lists of value props.
Let's CONNECTWe build branding, content, and activation strategies that weave a narrative thread from your buyer’s pain points to your unique solutions. Stories that resonate with the emotional truth of their status quo—and make your buyers the heroes of the successful resolution.
Our 60+ clients range from global powerhouses to promising start-ups in markets as diverse as cybersecurity, cancer treatment, data center infrastructure, industrial manufacturing and dairy.
CLIENT FIRSTWe leave our egos at home and focus on what’s best for our clients, their organizations and their brands.
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ACCOUNTABLE CREATIVE
We’re driven by what matters most to you: brand equity, revenue growth and demonstrable ROI. We deliver creative with distinct business purpose—never creative for its own sake.
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RELENTLESS CURIOSITY
We’re wired to ask why. Our curiosity pushes us to understand your business, buyers and technology so well we could explain them in a sales meeting or trade show booth. If we can explain it clearly to ourselves, we can explain it clearly to your buyers.
Thoughtful Challenges
We don’t just take briefs at face value. We ask better questions, pressure-test assumptions and look for smarter ways to achieve your goals—because the best outcomes rarely come from the first idea.
Responsible Independence
We all take personal ownership of our work and our clients’ outcomes. We’ve built an empowered team that knows when to take risks and when to push the creative envelope.
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Why does a brand and marketing agency with more designers than writers call itself “Words At Work?” Here’s the quick version of the story. In 1988, before social media, websites and even email, a brilliant writer named Charlie Quimby had an idea. There were lots of elite design firms in Minneapolis, but none had on-staff writers. Both clients and design firms had to rely on freelancers. This posed obvious problems—bandwidth, consistency and timing were among the most pressing.
So, Charlie rented some space, hired a handful of great writers and Words At Work was born. It quickly became a preferred writing and strategy partner for CEOs, marketing execs and design firms across the Twin Cities. In 1994, Dave Levi moved from his role copy chief at a full service agency to join Words At Work. That addition was driven by a new strategy— hire designers and become a full-service firm.
Changing the name to reflect the new direction made sense. But clients revolted. “Do not change the name. We love it.” Three decades later it’s clear that was the right move. We’re a constant force in driving B2H marketing and we still have client relationships that started 35+ years ago.
We’re still known for exceptional writing and strategy. That part of our DNA never changed. We’ve become known for brand messaging, thought leadership and marketing strategy.
But the full service strategy flourished and grew over the past three decades. In addition to great writers, we have built an elite staff of design, social media, public relations and digital strategy experts.
Over the years, our firm has anticipated change and evolved into new and better versions of itself. Technology, infrastructure, strategy and thinking have all morphed countless times. But our commitment to thinking a little differently and delivering exceptional brand and marketing support has been a constant.
That’s why today, our team is bigger and our client list is longer than ever. If you’d like to learn how we can help you accomplish great things, we’d love to hear from you.
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