Ad agencies highlight business moves and account wins
November 10, 2009 – 7:56 am by Gina MonariBusiness is evolving for the better at several healthcare advertising agencies. A new consultancy unit was launched by Cadient to provide industry expertise to clients in the area of emerging media, while two agencies — Harrison & Star and Jocoto Advertising Inc. — gained new accounts.
Hatch Consulting was launched by Cadient to provide industry expertise, strategic thinking, thought leadership, and “peerless creative execution” to create competitive marketing solutions and lasting customer relationships. Hatch Consulting’s disciplines include business consulting, customer acquisition, relationship marketing, program optimization and analysis, research insights, creative design, user experience, new media, social and emerging media, and editorial services.
Healthcare customers are beginning to embrace a much broader set of value as it relates to the use of digital media, according to Stephen Wray, president and CEO, Cadient. To meet customer needs, the agency continues to evolve its model and focus to increase its value across the healthcare continuum.
“The launch of Hatch and the use of Hatch is an expandable resource for both our clients and internally is indicative of our focus,” Mr. Wray told Med Ad News. “We believe that the opportunity for digital has gone well beyond what you might consider to be the traditional agency definition of building Websites or formulating campaigns.”
A key digital marketing thought leader at Cadient Interactive, Will Reese, chief innovations officer, leads the Hatch team in identifying strategic opportunities that drive deeper relationships with patient, professional, and payor customers. Mr. Reese’s industry expertise in product launch and professional marketing has led him to develop award-winning campaigns for numerous category-leading brands.
Mr. Reese explains that the group adds to the agency’s traditional capabilities and provides subject matter, expertise, and consulting to clients and to the internal client service teams.
“It gives us quite a bit of subject matter, depth, and a lot of emerging trends, such as social media, mobile, market development, areas that we’ve historically delivered,” Mr. Reese says. “It’s very much about taking some of that core digital knowledge and then being a bit of ahead of the curve to be able to kind of take our clients, as well as our internal team, to that next generation of technologies.”
Two other agencies are in growth mode. Harrison and Star competed with five other agencies to win an assignment from Incyte Corp. The agency was chosen by Incyte to be the launch marketing agency-of-record for Incyte’s Janus-Associated Kinase inhibitor, INCB18424. This first-in-class compound may become the first drug indicated for myelofibrosis. This novel agent targets the JAK-STAT pathway and was developed for Philadephia chromosome-negative chronic myeloproliferative disorders, a group of conditions usually associated with an overactive JAK signaling pathway.
“We look forward to partnering with Incyte on the successful launch and commercialization of this new compound,” says Larry Star, CEO, Harrison and Star.
Five medical manufacturers have selected Jocoto Advertising to create campaigns for the launch of their forthcoming products. These new clients include the animal health division of Abaxis, IntraPace, Luminous Medical, Relievant Medical, and a minimally invasive back surgery company.
“The tide is turning,” says Colette Kuhnsman, Jocoto’s founding partner. “We’re seeing a 25% to 30% increase since the economic downturn began in 2009. We’re finding that medical companies are looking for a fresh start, after down shifting on marketing expenditures earlier in the year. Our phones are ringing with new business inquiries; we are in the midst of a rebound.”
(Editor’s note: Pick up a January issue of Med Ad News to read more about Cadient’s Hatch unit, and the new business wins from Harrison and Star and Jocoto Advertising in the Adwise department.)
