Ms. Johnson’s story is the subject of “Creating a New Normal: A Day in the Life of a Person With Chronic Illness,” a feature on the newly launched ConvergentTimes.com site. The Website features articles, podcasts, and tutorials on a variety of topics, including iPad selling strategies, healthcare applications, online social etiquette for healthcare brands, the use of new media, and the role of effective payer and access strategies.

Created by The CementBloc, a multichannel health and wellness creative agency based in New York, the Website is first online forum for emerging innovations in health and wellness marketing communications.

The story with Ms. Johnson illustrates her situation and then offers insight for using digital innovations and media to enhance the use and impact of assessment surveys for patients with the condition based on anatomy, intensity, and daily living. Staff from The CementBloc also included an infographic to go along with the story.

“Mary is just one patient who finds ways to live with her disease. But bear in mind that there are millions of people like Mary dealing with chronic illness—there are lots of ‘new normals’ out there,” states the website. “And, thanks to the creative application of new media and technology, new normals are very much a part of the health and wellness landscape as well.”

Elizabeth Elfenbein, a partner at The CementBloc, says ConvergentTimes.com is an opportunity for professionals in the industry to check out what some of the brightest minds are saying about marketing in the health and wellness space. “We welcome comments and, even better, our peers’ own ideas about how convergent thinking can drive results,” she says.

Now in its fourth year, “Pharmapalooza” ­– a battle of the bands pitting ad agencies against each other – has enabled them to do so without confining them to the usual golf fundraiser. Rather, the event allows agencies the opportunities to showcase their creativity outside of the office in a musical sense while also supporting art and music therapy programs for patients at the Children’s Hospital at Montefiore (CHAM) in the Bronx.

The fourth annual battle of the bands event will be held on Wednesday, November 9, at B.B. King’s Blues Club in New York City and will feature bands from agencies CDM, AbelsonTaylor, The Agency Inside Harte-Hanks, Grey Healthcare, AgencyRx LLC, CementBloc, Draftfcb Healthcare, and GSW Worldwide.

CHAM has been an important cause for CDM, even before Pharmapalooza. Two years prior to the first annual event, Ed Wise, the chairman and CEO of Cline, Davis & Mann (now CDM), came up with the idea to enrich patients’ lives at the hospital.

“CHAM is an incredible hospital in a somewhat poor neighborhood,” says Mark Friedman, managing partner, creative director, art at CDM NY. “We wanted to make the lives of the kids as wonderful as possible while they’re in the hospital for however long their stay is there. We ran a number of services and activities, where employees from CDM would go up and do activities like face painting and pumpkin carving.”

CDM staff members currently head to CHAM once a month to participate in various activities with the patients, including arts and crafts. But CDM wanted to do more, including providing financial support to the programs at the hospital. The idea for Pharmapalooza was launched, and all of the money that is raised goes to the hospital’s child life program. Proceeds pay for a full-time art therapist on staff and a part-time music therapist as well as supplies to run the program.

“The art and music therapy is not reimbursable for CHAM, so all of our funding actually supports that program that wouldn’t exist if it were not for Pharmapalooza,” says Hollyanne Pronko, senior account executive at CDM NY.

Doors open at 7 p.m. on Nov. 9, and a total of 10 bands will take the stage throughout the night, which ends when the judges name a winner. Each year, judges are sourced from within the music industry.  This year, an editor from Billboard.com, a professional from VH1, an executive producer at a music company called Big Foot, and a professional from Momentum, which produces musical content, will analyze the bands based on a set of three criteria.

“One is musicianship – how well-rehearsed the band is,” explains Chris Palmer, managing partner, co-creative director, copy, at CDM NY. “Two is originality. That’s not meant to say we favor original songs over covers, but are they approaching the material in a unique and fresh way? The last is performance – are they performing, or are they standing there and playing?”

During the show, CDM will air a video about the impact the art and music therapy programs have had in patients’ lives. CDM’s efforts will extend beyond hosting the performances at Pharmapalooza. The team is also working to get a pinball game approved through the iTunes store, which organizers hope to unveil at Pharmapalooza. If not available in time for the event, it will be available shortly after. The app – “Palooza Ball” was developed by CDM, and the proceeds from the app purchases will go to CHAM.

“We’re really trying to make sure that this is an enduring thing that we can carry through the year and make bigger and better as we go along,” says Ali Hagerty, account supervisor at CDM NY.

To that end, Pharmapalooza attendees will be given the opportunity to donate on the night of the event. CDM will sell little gold records, the proceeds for which will also go toward the art-music therapy program. The records will be given in increments based on the amount of donation that correspond to a time period of art and music therapy for patients, ranging from one hour to weeks to months.

“The event itself is the crowning achievement, but we want to make sure we can continue to build the momentum and good will that it will foster in the folks that do participate,” Ms. Hagerty says.

Taking the total amount raised from prior years, CDM has raised more than $290,000 from the event so far, and the agency is on pace to surpass last year’s $75,000. This year, CDM has its eyes on six figures.

Three new agencies – Draftfcb, The Agency Inside Harte-Hanks, and CementBloc – have signed on to participate in Pharmapalooza this year. “It’s really a great thing to see because it’s become a collective display of the good of our industry, and we’re so proud to host it, but we’re also so thankful that others are behind the cause,” Mr. Palmer says.

For tickets, email pharmapaloozatix@cdmworldagency.com. Tickets are $40 for attendees who are part of an organization that is sponsoring the event or is associated with one of the bands. All other tickets are $50. There are a few table options left as well. A four-person table can be purchased for $300; a six-person table can be purchased for $500.

Med Ad News will be covering the event live on Twitter that evening using the hashtag #pharmapalooza4.

For more information, log onto the Pharmapalooza website, follow the event on twitter @pharmapalooza, or log onto the Pharmapalooza Facebook page.

McCann Healthcare Worldwide has launched a new company, McCann Global Heath, which has taken a new approach to business: treating people as “health consumers” rather than as “target populations.”

John Cahill, CEO of McCann Healthcare Worldwide, says that by focusing on the healthcare consumer, McCann Global Health will increase demand for quality health products and services and will “fundamentally improve health-seeking behaviors.”

“We want to help corporations, governments, donors, and others that seek to improve the health of local populations around the world, improve their return on investments by creating greater demand amongst health consumers,” Mr. Cahill says.

McCann Global Health is based on the principle of using the art and science of advertising to gain insight into why individuals engage in particular health behaviors and using commercial approaches to effect sustainable behavior change. Traditional health communications are often focused on short-term campaigns, require continued infusions of public sector or donor support and are not easily scaled, and company leaders believe McCann Global Health fills that gap.

Maureen Regan, managing partner at RCW Group, a McCann Healthcare Worldwide company, says the company hopes to change the behaviors of consumers to help improve their wellbeing. The idea to blend science and the art of advertising is not new to McCann Healthcare Worldwide, which already uses the same philosophy in its approach for pharmaceutical and device manufacturers. The new company, though, will involve understanding what drives current behavior in consumer groups around the world.

“Just as we would launch a pharmaceutical product, we’re going to develop messages that are specific to changing these behaviors,” Ms. Regan told Med Ad News.

Part of that will be achieved by forming alliances and partnerships with public health officials and public interest groups, in addition to bringing in manufacturers with a healthcare interest.

“A lot of people generate messages and push messages out in the marketplace and as soon as the budget ends, usually that’s the end of the messages,” Ms. Regan says. “So they don’t really change behavior in terms of having a long-term impact to change behavior. We want to bring healthcare manufacturers into this loop so we create sustaining relationships.”

Bola Tafawa, ScD, MPH, strategist, McCann Global Health, says that traditional health communications programs usually have a communications initiative or approach, but they don’t speak to the population. At McCann Global Health, though, “we want to really understand the health consumer and what is underlying their behavior and merge what we’ve already done with blending the art of advertising and science with creating messages that speak to consumers.”

The word “patient” is often associated with the idea that someone who becomes ill will seek therapy. At McCann Global Health, though, “we want to target everyday people because there is a big move now for everybody to improve their wellbeing,” Ms. Tafawa says.

McCann Global Health offers measurable, scalable, and adaptable strategies to create a market for sustainable health behaviors for corporate, nonprofit, government and multilateral clients in the United States and worldwide. To do so, the company will use informed metrics to help adapt the programs to varying needs of the different communities around the globe that company officials hope to reach.

“Traditionally, the majority of analysis relies on these self-purported measures of analysis,” Ms. Regan says. “McCann has a particularly great expertise when it comes to designing metrics to see how programs are working and how to adjust programs continuously to make sure we maximize our investments. We want to use the same kind of metrics to verify self-purported outcomes.”

McCann Global Health will leverage strategies, partnerships and staff expertise from its parent company, McCann Healthcare Worldwide, which has more than 1,700 employees in 33 countries. Previous public health projects from the McCann network includes initiatives from Kenya, South Africa, Zambia, India, China, Japan and the United States. Past projects include maternal and child health programs, HIV/AIDS prevention, tobacco prevention, and diarrhea management initiatives for clients including World Service Trust, USAID, WHO, UNICEF, the National Health Institute in Spain, and the Japanese and Chinese governments.

The company will be housed in the New York-based RCW Group, part of the McCann Healthcare Worldwide Network. McCann Healthcare Worldwide is a part of McCann Worldgroup, the largest marketing communications agency network in the world, and is the largest healthcare advertising agency network owned by Interpublic Group.

Jack Lipton, senior VP, client services

Wendy Blackburn, the executive VP at Intouch Solutions, a pharma marketing agency, says agency officials have “high hopes” for Intouch’s recent expansion into New York City, especially given the agency’s 400 percent growth over the past three years.

The new office, located in Midtown Manhattan at 1001 Avenue of the Americas on 6th Avenue between 37th and 38th streets, also comes with a new employee – Jack Lipton, who has been hired as the senior VP, client services. Senior management from Intouch Solutions’ Kansas City headquarters will oversee New York operations. The agency, which also expanded in Chicago in 2008, was named Agency of the Year by Med Ad News in 2010.

“New York’s reputation as an advertising and media mecca – as well as a hotbed for innovation and growing companies – makes it a great fit for Intouch,” says CEO Faruk Capan.

Having been based in the Midwest, it has “always been easy to get to the East Coast or West Coast, but we’ve also really recognized it’s important to be close to our clients,” says Ms. Blackburn, who notes the company has many existing clients located on the East Coast. There is also new opportunity abound on the East Coast, where agency officials hope to build business with perspective clients.

In addition, “we’re always looking at how Intouch can grow and evolve and better serve our clients,” says Ms. Blackburn. “With the incredible talent pool in the New York/New Jersey area, we’re hoping to add a range of talent to our team – very pharma specific, very healthcare specific – that can help expand our services from our existing base.”

Mr. Lipton, who joined Intouch Solutions in September, brings years of pharma marketing experience, including through agencies like G2 and MRM.

“He is a born and bred pharma marketer,” says Ms. Blackburn of Mr. Lipton. “He has a lot of experience with and a lot of contacts with the companies who we are interested in speaking with. His background is very much in the customer-relationship marketing space.”

Ms. Blackburn says Intouch will be teaching Mr. Lipton about the agency’s digital initiatives and its other products, “but he will add a lot of new expertise to our wheelhouse as well.”

One of the reasons Mr. Lipton was persuaded to join Intouch Solutions was his excitement about sharing the agency’s products, like PharmaWall (the “Pharma-Friendly Facebook Wall Alternative), with potential clients in New York, who may not have been familiar with them previously, says Ms. Blackburn.

“Everybody is excited here in Kansas City and Chicago that we’re expanding,” she says. “Literally, we’ve been talking about it for years. We’re excited to see it come to fruition.”

The agency is charged with developing and executing multi-channel professional communications for both Pfizer and Amgen. According to Ken Begasse Jr., partner and chief operating officer, Concentric, the agency’s goal is to ensure healthcare practitioners appreciate the value of Enbrel through maximizing existing channels and by building new touch points with healthcare practitioners.

“There’s a disconnect between the emerging science of RA and the everyday practice of rheumatology,” Mr. Begasse told Med Ad News. “As an agency, we seek to find these paradoxes because it provides fertile ground for innovation, partnership and growth between Enbrel and the medical community. The rep will be central in our efforts. We will empower the rep to be even more of an asset and valuable partner to the physician’s office.”

Mr. Begasse says Enbrel represents one of the larger pitches this year on the professional side of the business.

“When a leadership brand like Enbrel is up for review, it tends to grab everyone’s attention,” Mr. Begasse says. “There remains growth within the marketplace. Our knowledge of the nuances of specialty pharmaceuticals allowed us to identify the opportunities that are paramount for Enbrel to generate that growth.”

The full transition of the account occurred in December and the agency has worked collaboratively with the previous agency to transition the business fluidly over to Concentric. The agency is now up to speed with the other partners handling different aspects of the Enbrel business. Materials delivered in 2011 have been executed with the new team in place.

“As a specialty agency, our staffing model is weighted with potent experts. This foundation, allows us to on-board new clients quickly,” Mr. Begasse adds. “Within 30 days, we had our extremely deep team active on Enbrel.”

Anchored by Michael Banner, managing partner and director of client services, the Enbrel account at Concentric will be lead by a triumvirate of proven agency leaders, including John Adelhelm, senior VP, account director; Jeff Hughes, senior VP, creative director of copy and Christa Moeller, VP, associate creative director of art.

“The Concentric model has always been to place a highly experienced and senior team on all clients’ business,” Mr. Begasse says. “Our differentiators were our ability to understand the rheumatoid arthritis marketplace, derive meaningful insights from the marketplace, and determine where the opportunities lie for Enbrel based on data from the brand’s robust pivotal trials.”

According to Mr. Begasse, specialty brands must be solution brands. The agency seeks to simplify the complexities within the current practice dynamic for all customers so they can fully appreciate the clinical value the brand provides. With Enbrel, Concentric came up with insights that the agency was able to execute in the Enbrel pitch creatively.

“We showed them exactly what we would do if we were awarded the business,” Mr. Begasse told Med Ad News.

The agency is working collaboratively with the other Enbrel agencies to help them understand how the physician positioning translates to consumer and patient communications. In addition, the partner agencies are actively informing Concentric of the consumer efforts they are doing to drive more patients into the physician’s office.

“When you put the brand and client first, collaboration is easy,” Mr. Begasse says. “As we are seeing in the consumer space, more pharma clients are experiencing that finding the right agency partners, ones who believe in collaboration across agencies, can be a very powerful and valuable approach to supporting their brand’s needs. Once again, Amgen and Pfizer are leading the way.”

The agency and its management are proud to have the Enbrel business, as well as Pfizer and Amgen as clients. According to Mr. Begasse, Concentric and its dedicated Enbrel team are willing to do whatever it takes to continue to make the brand a success.

“This is perfect for our agency,” Mr. Begasse told Med Ad News. “Enbrel is one of the elite specialty brands in our industry — a pioneer brand. As the agency, it is our job to ensure Enbrel continues to advance and challenge the RA community, in practice and science. To achieve this, Concentric will invest heavily in this business to ensure we are continually leading the thinking and pushing the boundaries creatively. We do this with all our clients, big and small but within specialty, it doesn’t get any bigger than Enbrel and we are eager to solve the challenges inherent to being a market leader.”

“We are delighted to have Sam and Linda ready to step into these roles,” says Nick Colucci, president and CEO, Publicis Healthcare Communications Group. “Both have played significant roles in advancing our global reach and distinguishing us in the marketplace.”

Mr. Welch was chief operating officer of North America where he built the best-in-class data, analytics, and multi-channel capabilities. He rose through the ranks of Saatchi & Saatchi Health organizations to become president of the Saatchi & Saatchi Healthcare Communications Group.

In his new role as president of North America Advertising, Welch will focus on the growth and transformation of the North American advertising agencies. He will also work to enhance and embed the capabilities of Integrated Services and In-Sync into Publicis Healthcare Communications Group’s global offering.

“I am delighted to be a part of Publicis Healthcare Communications Group’s continued growth,” Mr. Welch says. “Our goal is to further accelerate this great momentum to better anticipate and meet our clients’ strategic needs.”

Ms. Szyper will continue to lead Publicis Healthcare Communications Group’s global business development efforts, while assuming responsibility for the Central Strategy and Analytics group. Her rich history at Publicis Healthcare Communications Group not only has included driving new business efforts globally, but also orchestrating strategic relationships with existing clients.

Before her role in business development, she was president of Publicis Medical Education Group. Before joining Publicis Healthcare Communications Group, Linda held a variety of top management positions at Serono Laboratories, Searle, and Parke Davis. In her new role, she will further develop Publicis Healthcare Communications Group’s client-centric approach.

“I am excited about the opportunity to push our CS&A group into the limelight both within our own organization and with our clients” Ms. Szyper says. “This engine will catapult our network to new heights.”

Publicis created  the CS&A group about a year ago as a central resource for strategy, analytics. While Mr. Welch was running this group, Ms. Szyper was very involved and one of the architects of this strategy. A spokesperson for Publicis Healthcare says the key point is having something centralized at corporate that all of the advertising agencies can access versus the redundancy of the agencies creating it themselves. Mr. Welch wand Ms. Szyper
were both architects of the central strategy, and Ms. Szyper is ideally suited to take what was a North American operation and make it global.

GSW Worldwide’s innovation lab iQ helps the agency’s internal teams and clients think differently about persistent problems and new opportunities. The Web site was developed by Seth Quillin, executive VP, innovations; Sean Cowan, VP/CD; Ben Harben, associate creative director; and Jude Divierte, digital engineer.

iQ helps internal teams and clients see competitive advantage in fast-changing areas like slate, mobile, gaming, and social — with innovative models and products, insight, and research-based strategy that drives the approval process. Mr. Quillin heads up the lab, which was created in late 2009 as part of GSW’s investment in innovation. John Racik, group president, strategic business teams, provides oversight. Agency leaders created iQ to dedicate resources to identifying emerging trends, synthesizing perspectives on “what’s next” in healthcare marketing, and modeling new tools for health marketers.

In the “Finds” section at the Web site, the lab follows a broad range of media and research in the industry and beyond. On the blog and Twitter feed, the lab highlights the best of the latest news and tools. More than 8,000 people have turned to the blog this year for “what matters” insight.

The “Perspectives” section details the issues the agency’s internal teams and clients are really curious about and returns synthesized perspectives that answer “what it means to my brand.” Late last year, iQ took our entire agency through social media boot camps. They have also created presentations and mini workshops on digital trends in healthcare, innovation thinking and mHealth. IQ recently presented a human behavior theory at the Next Gen Pharma conference.

In the “Experiments” section, the agency’s “innovation theater” contains models and prototypes that explore how big ideas could be made tangible for brand managers. The lab offers the theaters quarterly — each includes at least three experiments that show a break-through project or product a brand could create. These theaters have been shared widely with companies ranging from Johnson & Johnson to General Electric to Eli Lilly and Co. They are also presented to the agency’s internal teams to refine them with the real questions and challenges their clients would ask.

The new company will be led by representatives from both ghg and VML with senior management oversight provided by industry veterans including Lynn O’Connor Vos, CEO, ghg; Matt Anthony, CEO, VML; Erin Byrne, executive VP, chief engagement officer, ghg; and Jim Radosevic, managing director, VML.

This new initiative was created to use the strengths of both companies to meet the diverse needs of pharma and healthcare clients today. Healix will provide best-in-class capabilities in developing digital healthcare strategies and programs that are fully integrated, multi-channel, and expressly designed to improve health outcomes for consumers, engage the professional, and deliver real business results for clients.

Pick up a January issue of Med Ad News to read more about Healix Digital Health.

From first sight of the ads, whether on New York City billboards and phone kiosks or on metro-area commuter trains, to the QR code and microsite, the audience is given several opportunities to take action. The campaign continues to directly engage the audience and keep them motivated in two ways.

Firstly, the audience receives follow-up e-mails reinforcing their reason to quit with additional, helpful resources. Secondly, others can get involved and take the campaign well beyond the New York area through social media, creating a comprehensive communications platform to connect people with the cause.

“This level of PSA campaign is a first for the Great American Smokeout,” says Dolores Machuca-Ruiz, VP, communications and marketing, American Cancer Society. “It’s so refreshing to see such cohesive, innovative strategy behind the creative. We’re thrilled that this truly moving message can touch people in multiple ways throughout the month.”

Running in the New York metro area throughout November, the outdoor and online campaign addresses that everyone has his or her own reason to quit. Combined with heartening imagery, the campaign invites smokers to rethink their lifestyle and fill in the blank: “I will quit smoking because ____.” As a first in Great American Smokeout history, the print campaign includes a QR code so the audience can take immediate action and go to www.iwillquit.org.

As an up-and-coming, innovative way to get information, the eye-catching QR code piques the interest of the audience. With such direct engagement, people can access the microsite instantly from their cell phones, choose a reason to quit and track how many others chose the same motivation. The microsite also offers a sense of community and support for the audience to see they’re not alone.

“The QR technology is relatively new in this industry, but we see it as an opportunity to successfully engage consumers and patients in a way we have not been able to until now,” says Dorene Weisenstein, executive VP and chief creative officer, Core-Create. “It is also a perfect tool for health awareness campaigns in so many other areas as well, such as diabetes, depression and hypertension.”

(From left) Kathryn Jaskulski, Philip Miller, Deeya Bhatla, Megan Bearry, Greta Christensen

The agency is heavily focused in digital marketing and media, creating digitally driven relationship marketing programs that provide real-time, return-on-investment metrics that optimize marketing budgets. Recently, the agency was recognized as a finalist at the 2010 MM&M Awards in the Best Interactive Initiative for Healthcare Professionals category for their work with Astellas Pharma US. The agency also recently developed a comprehensive corporate re-branding and Web site for Press-Ganey Associates, a healthcare performance improvement organization.

(From left) Kim Kaliski, Peter Labadie

Guy Williams and Peter Labadie joined together in the fall of 1990 to create a model for agency service based on financial transparency, efficiency, and a commitment to being a single source of solutions for client challenges. These guiding principles have remained strong over the last two decades, helping the agency expand its services and maintain long-standing agency relationships.

(From left) David Diaz, Jim Grossmann, Jeff Pazen, Philip Miller

Williams-Labadie’s first client, Fujisawa Pharmaceutical Company, now known as Astellas Pharma US, continues to lead the agency’s client roster, which includes a blend of pharmaceutical companies, medical device manufacturers, and healthcares. Mr. Labadie continues to lead the agency with a commitment to client service that has created stability and success for more than 20 years. The agency’s senior management group has a tenure averaging 15 years, providing unique consistency in a business known for volatility.