Clubhouse signs up Golin as global PR partner

Audio social media app Clubhouse has named Golin as a global agency partner.

Golin tweeted that Clubhouse is a “global client” on Thursday morning, sharing the news that Clubhouse will no longer require invitations to join.

Representatives from Golin and Clubhouse were not immediately available for comment. 

Clubhouse burst onto the scene when it launched on iOS in March 2020. At the time, the app was invite-only, allowing users to explore virtual “rooms” hosting conversations on a range of topics from relationships to tech and investments to coping with mental health during the pandemic.

On its one-year anniversary, downloads neared 13 million. By April 2021, Clubhouse’s series C funding round valued the company at $4 billion. However, following reports that downloads declined from 9.2 million in February to 900,000 in March, some have speculated Clubhouse’s moment is over. The social audio app has since launched globally on Android, garnering 2 million downloads within two weeks. 

Other recent account wins by Golin include CooperVision, which it won in partnership with its Virgo Health sister agency, and LinkedIn, which brought Golin on as its social media agency partner. 

Golin posted an 11% revenue increase in 2020 to $248.5 million, including a 13% jump in the US to $160 million, according to PRWeek’s Agency Business Report 2021. 

The PR firms in Interpublic Group’s Dxtra network registered double-digit growth on both an as-reported and organic basis in Q2 2021, compared with the prior year, said Andy Polansky, the division’s CEO, on Wednesday. Dxtra includes Weber Shandwick, Golin, Current Global and Rogers & Cowan/PMK. 

That compared to a revenue decrease in the high single digits on an organic basis and low double digits on an as-reported basis in Q2 2020, at the height of the Covid pandemic. The holding company’s PR firms saw low-single-digit revenue growth on both an as-reported and organic basis in Q2 2019.