McCann Health: 2016

McCann Health

622 Third Avenue

New York, NY 10017

Telephone: 646-865-3017

Website: mccannhealth.com

 

 

In 2015, McCann Health once again experienced strong global growth and success, executives say. The organization significantly strengthened its position as a leading global healthcare marketing services network with regard to its creative reputation, its integrated services capabilities, its commitment to helping solve world health problems, and its geographic strength covering all of its operating regions.

According to McCann Health Global CEO John Cahill, “As the future becomes more complex and the healthcare industries continue to move through massive transformation, McCann Health is sharpening its focus on delivering more powerful, creatively-driven and integrated solutions to help our clients’ brands and businesses play a more meaningful role in people’s lives.

 

The year’s accomplishments

The global network’s quality and range of capabilities continued to evolve, while at the same time McCann Health maintained its position as the most creatively awarded professional and consumer health communications network worldwide, executives say.

For the fourth consecutive year, McCann Health took top honors as the Healthcare Agency Network of the Year at the Global Awards show, which honors the best worldwide in healthcare and wellness advertising. In 2015, this was also accompanied by major wins at other worldwide shows, including the Rx Club Awards and the IPA Best of Health Show. Importantly, this improved creative position was accomplished by McCann Health agencies in all regions delivering on world-class brand-building work.

In North America, McCann Echo won the first-ever Titanium Award for Best in Show at the MM&M awards for its digital campaign for Galderma’s Soolantra, and also took home two gold and three silvers in other categories for the same breakthrough campaign.

Four other McCann Health North America offices also took home awards, including McCann Torre Lazur’s winning gold for its #worthliving social media campaign. Also, the network’s integrated team of McCann Global Health, McCann HumanCare, and McCann Healthcare won silver for their Zinc+Ors digital campaign aimed at saving children’s lives on behalf of a joint program involving Abt Associates, the Clinton Health Access Initiative, and USAID initiative.

 

Structure and services

In December 2015, Amar Urhekar, president, McCann Health Americas, made his biggest strategic move since taking the helm in 2014, by uniting McCann Health’s North American offices and a staff of more than 600 healthcare professionals from five companies under one McCann Health banner.

According to executives, with this move, Urhekar brought together the network’s best-in-class competencies in North America to create one integrated McCann Health offering to provide clients with a more seamless integrated network, unparalleled resources and the highest level of talent.

The offices that came together under McCann Health North America, each retaining their individual agency names but adding the moniker, “A McCann Health Company” include: McCann Echo, McCann Torre Lazur, McCann Pharmacy Initiative, McCann Managed Markets and the newly renamed McCann Healthcare (formerly RCW).

Throughout 2015, under Urhekar’s leadership, the North American teams won multiple new assignments and expanded relationships with existing clients such as Janssen, GlaxoSmithKline, Bayer, Teva, and AstraZeneca.

To support increased region-wide integration, Urhekar created a new North American executive leadership team. Hilary Gentile was promoted to the new position of executive VP, chief strategy officer for McCann Health North America. Dawn Serra moved over from McCann New York to take on the new role of regional talent director. Mike Lawlor, who played a critical role in the regionalization process, continues as chief financial officer.

To round out his new regional leadership team, Urhekar appointed Tammy Fischer, former president of GSK Worldwide in New York, to the new role of executive VP, chief growth officer, North America.

Urhekar says, “As the new stakeholders and their increasing influence on healthcare marketing evolve, we need to take a more focused and strategic approach to growth. By marshaling our newly-integrated resources and leveraging our ‘McCann-ness,’ we will ensure that we don’t just deliver on our clients’ expectations, but also deliver beyond the ask of today and build an agency and an offer for the future.”

According to executives, the word “McCann-ness,” refers to the great heritage of McCann Erickson, McCann Health’s parent company and the advertising agency that created the famous “Priceless” campaign for MasterCard and “Because you’re worth it!” for L’Oréal.  McCann Health is the global professional and consumer healthcare network of McCann Worldgroup that was launched almost 20 years ago. “It was innovative then,” executives say. “Now – it has an even more dynamic voice in the marketplace with 24,000 employees in more than 100 countries around the world.”

Also in 2015, McCann Health began its first-ever partnership with McCann Truth Central, the global intelligence unit of McCann Worldgroup. Together they embarked upon the first study in a three-part series to uncover the “untold truth of health in America.” On March 8, 2016, the findings from “The Truth About Doctors” were unveiled to top clients.

Urhekar says he is committed to bringing McCann’s Truth Central repository of data to bear on the experience of people suffering from disease. “We are invested in and building this practice of creating a deep bond with our customer and maintaining that bond, and that is agnostic of health, wellness, beauty or automotive,” executives say.

“Now, with one unified McCann Health offering in North America, the company is poised not only for the next stage of growth but to conquer the challenges that the new confluence of stakeholders across patients, pharmacists and payers will present in America. A key part of McCann Health’s unique approach includes taking intentional strategic steps to build a better future versus fixing and right-sizing the organization business models of yesterday.”

According to its leaders, going forward, McCann Health North America will pave new ways of working and engaging with these stakeholders by being nimble, seamless and strategic in investments in talent and infrastructure.