Excitant Healthcare Advertising: 2017
Excitant Healthcare Advertising
1410 Meadowbrook Way
Woodstock, GA 30189
Telephone: 678-357-1127
E-mail: [email protected]
Website: excitanthealthcare.com
Accounts
Account wins 11
Active business clients 6
Brands by 2016 sales
Brand-product accounts held 20
$25 million or less 19
$25 million to $50 million 1
Products yet to be approved/launched 1
Services Mix
Direct Marketing
(postal or electronic) 30%
Sales Collateral 30%
Professional Advertising 15%
Strategic Marketing Consulting 10%
Interactive 10%
Professional Relations 5%
Client Roster
Galen US
Krona Therapeutics
Merz Pharmaceuticals
Prevention Pharmaceuticals
Zoetis
According to agency leaders, Excitant saw an opportunity and pivoted to focus on small to medium-sized brands across the pharma, biotech, medical device, and diagnostic markets in 2015.
“Our focus is on serving clients with brands with sales under $50 million, and the vast majority of our assignments are on brands with under $20 million in sales,” says Excitant President and CEO Mark Perlotto. “These small to medium-sized brands have significantly different needs from their agency partners in terms of strategy, agility, flexibility and cost efficiency. Those clients do not operate like ‘big pharma’ and they need an agency who understands that fact and approaches their brands accordingly while still providing the service and creativity needed to make their brand successful.”
That strategy has played out well for Excitant, executives say, with agency revenue up more than 60 percent in 2016, thanks in part to that focus. Agency leaders attribute the revenue growth from both new client wins as well as expanding assignments from current clients, and they say this provides validation that their approach to client service and relationships is one that strikes a chord with their audience.
Growing its revenue and client assignments were not the only successes the agency recorded, as Excitant continued to add to its successful performances at the creative awards shows as well in 2016.
The Year’s Accomplishments
Agency leaders say the relationship Excitant has developed with Zoetis – the world’s largest animal health company – over the last five years in supporting the company’s diagnostic and reproductive services businesses continued to blossom in 2016. Excitant earned additional brand assignments along with adding new lines of business to the relationship. The agency picked up responsibility and began work on two new point-of-care diagnostic tests scheduled to launch in 2017. Excitant was also brought in to revamp and revitalize the communications and marketing for two of Zoetis’ service lines of business. PeopleFirst Programs from Zoetis offer leadership and management training courses for staff of veterinary practices and food producer businesses (dairy farms, cattle feedlot operations, etc.). The ProfitSolver System from Zoetis is a program that aids veterinary practices in analyzing and optimizing pricing of services to improve business profitability. The agency undertook a complete message development and campaign rebranding initiative for both services in 2016.
Prevention Pharmaceuticals has been a long-term client for the agency, and looked to Excitant again in 2016 for assistance in launching its omega-3 supplement into the pet care market with the omax Pet Health brand.
Excitant also helped Sebela Pharmaceuticals launch its MiCort HC topical corticosteroid for the treatment of hemorrhoids. The agency’s work for the launching brand included campaign concept development, sales collateral, website design, a multi-wave direct mail series, and a multi-wave eBlast series targeting gastroenterologists.
The biggest win for the agency in 2016 was being named the creative and strategic agency of record for the Mederma brand from Merz Pharmaceuticals. A well-known OTC consumer brand for reducing the appearance of scars and stretch marks, the agency is preparing new consumer and professional campaigns for launch in 2017 and is also responsible for an expanding line of products under the umbrella of the Mederma family brand.
The agency also completed some project work for the neuroscience division at Merz over the course of the year.
According to agency leaders, a focus on small to mid-sized brands did not hold Excitant back from continuing to build on a record of bringing home numerous awards for its creativity at health care award competitions.
The agency took home two Silver statues for its entries in the 2016 Communicator Awards. Wins included its non-branded advertorial for Zoetis, targeting animal shelters on the importance of testing for canine parvo virus and canine distemper virus; and recognition for packaging design work for Prevention Pharmaceuticals on its omax3 Professional Strength brand.
Excitant took home Rx Club Awards for two different ad campaigns for the omax3 Professional Strength omega-3 dietary supplement. One campaign targeted chiropractic and sports medicine physicians and focused on the product’s use in managing joint inflammation, while a second campaign targeted alternative medicine physicians, connecting the brand’s inflammatory response effects to combating the effects of brain aging.
The agency also continued its run of wins at the Diagnostic Marketing Association awards show. In 2016, Excitant took home seven Dx Communications Awards awards, bringing its four-year total at the DxMAs to 27 – which Excitant leaders claim is more than any other agency or manufacturer over that same time span. Excitant’s work for Zoetis diagnostics was recognized with awards across journal advertising, online advertising, sales collateral, and in both the online and multi-channel campaign categories.
Structure & Services
Excitant offers clients a full-service suite of offerings, but does so with an approach that fits the needs of its target client audience. “Our model is structured to be flexible, with core strategic, creative and account service handled in-house,” Perlotto says. “However, instead of building out specialized capabilities in house and having to push those on our clients to maintain them, we have established strategic partnerships with outside experts in those areas whose business is to stay at the cutting edge of their fields in media, technology, video, etc., so even our smaller clients get access to ‘best of breed’ offerings that we manage for them.”
Future Plans
“Our research has told us that there are a lot of clients with small to medium-sized brands that are feeling mismatched with their current agency in terms of understanding of their needs, flexibility, and cost efficiency,” Perlotto says. “We think we’ve only begun to gain visibility with those potential clients as they realize there may be agency partners who are better-suited to serve the needs of their brands. I expect our client focus and service approach will continue to pay dividends for Excitant as well as our current and future clients.”
According to managers, a large part of 2017 will be increasing visibility for the agency with clients marketing those small to medium-sized brands. Leaders say based on their research, if the agency’s vision plays out, the future will certainly be bright for Excitant.
