Wellness cognizance spreads

June 23, 2009 – 3:56 pm by Gina Monari

Prevention may never overthrow treatment, but healthcare-focused companies and their advertising agencies are mindful of the wellness trend. Public opinion favors prevention as the most important healthcare reform priority, and Americans overwhelmingly support increasing funding for prevention programs to reduce disease and keep people healthy. Now, healthcare-focused marketing and advertising agencies are beginning to sprout divisions and handle wellness campaigns on behalf of major pharmaceutical clients and their products.

Recent poll results underscore a desire for an increased focus on prevention and wellness, from a consumer and a healthcare-reform perspective. Trust for America’s Health and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation’s public opinion survey found that Americans rank prevention as the most important healthcare reform priority. In this survey, about 70% of Americans ranked investing in prevention between an eight and 10 on a scale of zero to 10. The poll, which reflects the responses from 1,014 registered voters, was conducted by Greenberg Quinlan Rosner Research and Public Opinion Strategies from May 7 to May 12, and is available at healthyamericans.org. Members of congress believe prevention is America’s top health reform priority because it will lower disease rates across the population, eliminate health disparities, and better ensure equality. In addition, it saves healthcare dollars for the prevention of disease as well as for treatments.

In February, I wrote a Med Ad News Insider blog about Momentum Worldwide and McCann Healthcare Worldwide launching Momentum Wellness. Four months later, Imc² has launched Imc² Health & Wellness to focus specifically on health and wellness. Launched by Imc², the Imc² Health & Wellness division was created for the unique marketing and business challenges facing brands in the pharmaceutical, biotechnology, device, medical education, healthcare, and wellness industries

Imc² Health & Wellness will rely on the experience of Imc² and continue to work across digital, emerging, and traditional media. Imc² formalized its healthcare practice in response to the industry’s challenging marketplace concerning healthcare reform, the evolving regulatory environment, and the shift toward deeper relationships with healthcare professionals, consumers, payors, and other audiences. For Imc² Health & Wellness, existing pharmaceutical and healthcare-related clients include GlaxoSmithKline Plc., Pfizer Inc., Shire Pharmaceuticals Group Plc., Merck Serono S.A., Johnson & Johnson (jnj.com), and Millennium Pharmaceuticals.

Leading the new division is Hensley Evans, who is promoted to president, Imc² Health & Wellness. Before her promotion, Ms. Evans served as senior VP, strategy, where she led overall business and marketing strategy for clients in a variety of industries.

“With the current state of the healthcare industry, we saw an opportunity to leverage our deep industry expertise to create an agency focused solely on the distinctive marketing needs of the health and wellness space,” Ms. Evans says. “Imc² Health & Wellness will allow us to better serve our clients, helping them to build more sustainable relationships between their brands and people.”

The full Imc² Health & Wellness leadership team includes Bonnie Sayers, VP, general manager; Karen Carr, VP, strategic growth and innovation; Amber Benson, VP, strategy; Renee McKeon, VP, creative; and Tom Donnelly, VP, Northeast.

Imc² Health & Wellness Q&A

Med Ad News corresponded with Hensley Evans, president, Imc² Health & Wellness with regard to increasing investment in health and wellness.

Med Ad News: Why was Imc² Health & Wellness launched and how do clients feel about it?

Hensley Evans: We initially decided to launch Imc² Health & Wellness in response to the rapidly shifting health and wellness marketplace. Before we took action, however, we sought input from our clients to ensure that we were addressing their needs and any concerns that it raised for them. All of our clients were enthusiastic to hear that we were placing an increased emphasis on investment in our health and wellness business, and that we wanted to continue to expand our capabilities across new and emerging technology-enabled channels.
We aren’t changing our clients’ current teams, but will be able to more easily use team members with subject-matter expertise in specific areas of interest across our clients and office locations — which clients really like. We have not separated from Imc², so will continue to be able to tap into the deep consumer product and other industry expertise when needed — also important for several clients.

Med Ad News: Which type of clients do you foresee using IMC2 health & wellness services?

Hensley Evans: Imc²’s existing health and wellness clients will be served out of Imc² Health & Wellness, as will new clients that have a focus in health and wellness. The team has extensive experience with Rx drugs, and pharmaceutical and biotech products make up a substantial percentage of our current business.
We also work with OTC brands, medical device companies, diagnostic companies, hospital groups, health associations, and managed-care organizations, and expect to continue to work with a broad spectrum of companies in the industry. For our Rx clients specifically, we have a large team of medical writers and editors, and project managers with deep familiarity with medical, regulatory, and legal requirements and the review process.

Med Ad News: Has Imc² Health & Wellness launched any advertising campaigns with pharmaceutical clients?

Hensley Evans: We have multiple campaigns in market — several of them have won awards. A number of the award winners are featured on our new Website, and we’ve developed a client spotlight that highlights work we recently launched for.

To support the launch of the national Lipitor Heart to Heart campaign that launched earlier this year, Imc² partnered with the brand team to produce a three-minute video testimonial that was used on the Lipitor homepage and strategically deployed in a supporting rich-media campaign.