Wawner Strategies relaunches as The Category

After four years under the name Wawner Strategies, CEO and founder Kat Wawner is relaunching the Mount Pleasant public relations and communications agency with a new brand.

Renamed The Category, the eight-team agency drew the name from the philosophy that “some brands enter a category, the right one becomes it,” according to a news release.

“Our clients were never meant to compete for attention in a crowded market. They were meant to be the reason people walk in,” Wawner said in the release. “For four years we have held client brands to that standard. The new name holds us to it too.”

Before opening her own firm, Wawner built her career in global brands such as APCO Worldwide, Comcast, Johnson & Johnson, Samsung, the FDA and the Preakness Stakes.

Wawner Strategies, now The Category, was named 2025 Innovator of the Year by the Charleston Metro Chamber of Commerce, PR Agency of the Year at the Small Business Awards, and was a PR News Boutique Agency of the Year finalist.

Since its opening in 2022, the company has secured placement for clients in Forbes, Vogue, CNN, People, Southern Living, Garden & Gun, and Travel + Leisure.

The visualization of the new identity was designed by Winston Studio.