CMI/Compas: 2017
CMI/Compas
2200 Renaissance Blvd., Suite 160
King of Prussia, PA 19406
Telephone: 484-322-0880
E-mail: [email protected]
Website: cmicompas.com
Accounts
Account wins 6
Active business clients 84
Services Mix
Full-service, non-personal promotion planning & buying and investment management 92%
Customer insights and analytics 8%
Client Roster
Abbott
AbbVie
Astellas
AstraZeneca
Bayer Healthcare Pharmaceuticals
Biogen
Boehringer Ingelheim
Boston Scientific
Celgene
Eli Lilly
Fresenius
Genentech
GlaxoSmithKline
Johnson & Johnson
Mallinckrodt Pharmaceuticals
Novartis/Alcon
Otsuka America Pharmaceutical
Pharmacyclics
Sanofi
Sunovion
Takeda
CMI/Compas is on a mission – not only its leaders, but every individual across the planning and buying organization’s seven offices – and the mission is clear: become the indispensable partner to each and every client. In recent years CMI/Compas began achieving this lofty goal by stepping up its offerings and account service, and in 2016 the agency continued to strive in its successful strategy of taking on full accountability for clients’ success.
The year’s accomplishments
As CMI/Compas worked to redefine the agency-client relationship, taking on accountability for clients’ business goals and even putting its own money behind some client initiatives, the agency gained the notice of WPP, which acquired CMI in March 2016.
The company’s upward trajectory of growth, which has been steady in its 25-plus years but steeper in the past five, continued with the winning of several competitive RFPs and an industry-leading client retention rate, allowing CMI/Compas to sustain an average annual revenue growth of more than 30 percent per year over the last four years. According to CMI/Compas leaders, this also allowed the company to build its superstar ranks, with 13 percent employee growth, including hires at every level across the organization. CMI/Compas also added offices in Parsippany, N.J., and Chapel Hill, N.C., in 2016 and opened a Chicago office at the start of 2017.
Setting the tone for a successful 2016, the company launched Drive, a web presence management offering incorporating search, social media and content strategy. Executives say by understanding the common themes HCPs, patients and caregivers are searching for, sharing and discussing, CMI/Compas can better understand the types of media and messaging that will garner a response. Drive was named a top innovation of the year by PM360 magazine and in its inaugural implementation garnered an impressive level of ROI for CMI/Compas clients.
According to agency leaders, CMI set a new standard with its core planning methodology ADAPT (audience-driven, agile planning and targeting), placing the focus on data-driven audience-centricity. “ADAPT planning starts with a deep dive into a client’s audience to fully understand wants, needs and access of every audience member,” executives say. “Armed with this information, the planning teams are able to create the most engaging, efficient and cost-effective, targeted, non-personal promotional recommendations that produce high ROI.”
For audiences that brand teams have found especially challenging to reach, CMI/Compas has been able to take a unique approach to engagement with a fully measurable, customer insights-focused model called Own the Audience. The self-funded, non-personal promotion program combines audience insights with prescriber-level measurement and agile execution that allows CMI/Compas to create significant business for a brand from many audiences, including low decile and no-see physicians, managers note.
CMI/Compas was the first healthcare agency to introduce programmatic buying to the HCP space with AdMission, according to agency executives, and this innovation has allowed clients to more efficiently reach their targeted HCPs, increase transparency into their audiences, and improve business results.
Management claims that on a daily basis, CMI/Compas drives two-thirds of the life science industry’s multi-channel media traffic and spend.
Structure and services
CMI/Compas is structured to address the challenges and core needs of its customers, prospects and supplier partners – enabling the integrated full-service suite of offerings to its clients or stand-alone solutions for those who need them most, executives say. Services include strategic media/promotional planning and buying; promotional execution and investment management/buying consortium services; content planning; customer insights and analytics; supplier alliance management; primary market research; SEO/SEM; and social listening and advertising
According to agency executives, a major benefit to CMI/Compas clients is membership in the Compas Consortium, the largest direct-to-prescriber, cross-channel healthcare media buying consortium in the world, comprising over 80 pharma companies and 350 publisher partners.” This is supported by the Compas Supplier Partner Team, a dedicated staff devoted to building unique partnerships with valued and innovative suppliers, CMI/Compas leadership says. “The consortium leverages its members’ combined power to achieve incremental savings on top of the savings derived from any brand- or agency-recognized negotiations,” management explains. “Compas consortium members receive dividends back on every dollar they invest in their media buy.” Additionally, Compas is certified by the National Minority Supplier Development Council Inc. (NMSDC).
Future plans
This year, CMI/Compas is creating a new division built from multiple disciplines. “Customer Investment Analytics (CIA) is built differently for the way our industry needs to utilize data today, including experts across insights, analytics and sourcing who bring expertise in creating, collecting, analyzing and utilizing data,” agency executives say. “The team begins with an understanding of the brand’s goals, then collects the right data to align with those goals and aggregates it to gain the full picture, from measuring campaigns to understanding audience needs and preferences to predicting future behavior, all of it tied to actionable next steps. CIA works in partnership with CMI media planners, Compas buyers, and clients’ other agencies to ensure every piece of the puzzle is present and in use. CMI/Compas wants to ensure their clients’ investments are being utilized in the most profitable way.”
Recruiting and staff development efforts are more important than ever to support CMI/Compas’ continued growth, and the company has increased its already significant investment in both areas with additional dedicated staff to the recruiting and development departments. Two full-time recruiters lead efforts, including an initiative to offer more opportunities for each employee to recruit as well. The company invests in the learning and development of each employee, with development plans tailored to their career path. The company continues to invest in benefits and initiatives that enrich and support the positive employee culture.
Philanthropy/citizenship
The newest philanthropic cause for CMI/Compas was the Liguori Academy, executives say. Led by a challenge from Woodland, CMI/Compas employees joined to donate enough money to provide special educational tools to 50 inner-city Philadelphia students in need, at a cost of $600 per student. Woodland offered to personally match every dollar donated, and employees stepped up to reach that goal. The 2016 calendar also included collecting winter coats, school supplies, food and pet supplies as well as health awareness efforts.
On Martin Luther King Jr. Day each year, all employees can take the day to volunteer in the community. The longest-running philanthropic initiative is the holiday Adopt-A-Family program, and the 2016 program benefited the most families to date, providing toys, winter coats and other important items to dozens of families in need. CMI/Compas leadership says all employees worked together to donate time and money, with the company matching employee donations.
CMI/Compas was one of the first sponsors of Cristo Rey High School in Philadelphia, an independent college preparatory school for students who could not otherwise afford a quality education. “The company employs four students and pays the majority of their tuition, allowing them to gain not just an education but also real-world working experience,” managers note.
Agency leaders say work/life balance is a priority, so CMI/Compas regularly surveys staff on their top desires. A task force evaluates the current needs and desires of employees and reviews policies and practices to optimize the Work/Life balance; this is bolstered by focus groups and stay interviews. In addition, the company regularly evaluates the work expectations of their staff as well as those of competitors and the overall industry to create a positive work/life fit. CMI/Compas was continually recognized for its positive corporate culture, in 2016 winning several honors including the SmartCEO Corporate Culture award.
