McCann Torre Lazur
A McCann Health Company
20 Waterview Blvd.
Parsippany, NJ 07054
Telephone: 973-263-9100
E-mail: [email protected]
Website: mccanntorrelazur.com

 

Accounts
Account wins    11
Accounts resigned    1
Active business clients    21

Brands by 2015 sales
Brand-product accounts held    30
HCP    80%
DTP    20%

 

Client Roster

Actelion Pharmaceuticals
Actavis Pharma
Actelion Pharmaceuticals
AstraZeneca Pharmaceuticals
Boehringer Ingelheim Pharmaceuticals
Concordia Pharmaceuticals
Daiichi Sankyo
Eisai
GlaxoSmithKline
Grifols USA
Inspirion Pharmaceutical
Intarcia Therapeutics
Janssen Pharmaceuticals
Novartis
PaxVax
Sandoz
Teva Pharmaceuticals USA

 

 

In 2015, continued growth at McCann Torre Lazur (MTL), a McCann Health Company, was the plan for success. Mark Willmann, president, says, “MTL has always been the flagship agency of McCann Health. We face whatever the market demands and we are finding new ways to deliver on our reputation.”

MTL ended the year with AOR assignments accounting for more than $7 billion of sales worldwide. With a new San Francisco office, MTL is more ready than ever to serve clients locally and globally, executives say.

 

The Year’s Accomplishments

MTL had a historically high rate of new business wins in 2015, with nine of 16 pitches resulting in AOR assignments, executives say. Meanwhile, MTL won 21 creative awards, including one from the Creative Floor and an MM&M silver. The agency also returned to Cannes for the Lions Health awards.
According to agency leaders, its flagship status makes MTL an excellent place to start for new business ventures. “Clients want to see the full potential of our offering upfront, to ensure they’ll have the service they need at every turn,” says Debra Jamer, senior VP, organizational development. “MTL is uniquely positioned to lead these cross-agency partnership assignments because of our standing in McCann Health.”

MTL is built to lead franchise accounts, executives say. For the Actelion franchise for pulmonary arterial hypertension – a rare and deadly disease – MTL prepared for the launch of Uptravi and continued work on Opsumit. Meanwhile, MTL launched a new indication for AstraZeneca’s Brilinta. The respiratory franchise with GlaxoSmithKline is the agency’s longest standing partnership, and MTL during 2015 helped introduce new COPD agents. At the end of the year, MTL won the Janssen immunology franchise for new indications for Stelara. According to Lauren Lewis, executive VP, managing director, “Our partnership with Janssen is an example of how we create collaborative models to deliver on our clients’ unique goals for growth.”

Executives say as a launch agency, MTL continues to support brands at every stage. This year, MTL completed a relaunch for Eisai’s epilepsy medication Fycompa. MTL also launched an unbranded campaign for Teva’s PGX testing for MS called Hope in the Code. “Our creatives face every assignment with an incredible level of passion and excitement, and I am consistently proud of how we are able to differentiate our brands,” says Marcia Goddard, chief creative officer.

This past year, MTL won assignments for major change agents that are taking healthcare in a completely new direction, according to agency leaders. Notably, MTL is now agency of record for Intarcia’s ITCA 650. According to Willmann, “MTL is honored to have the opportunity to help introduce a novel approach to the type 2 diabetes market – one that is capable of delivering very significant progress.”  

MTL also now spearheads communications for the Novartis CTL019 business, a regimen that is delivering results never before realized in relapsed and refractory pediatric ALL, a disease with few effective options. “By integrating science and strategy through every brand team, we are able to facilitate engagement with these data in innovative ways,” says Nick Megjugorac, director of strategic services.

MTL is recognized by clients and partners for setting standards of service, agency executives say. One client noted that MTL, “consistently shows up with confidence and ready to deliver.” Meanwhile, an agency partner shared that, “MTL is clearly integrated and they nurture their teams – it’s just something you want to be part of.”  

 

Structure and services

Throughout its history, MTL has provided full-service healthcare communications. 2015 brought integration of traditionally tertiary services into every team, and by connecting the entire scientific, digital, patient, and brand strategic departments, the agency has made added services part of the standard offering, executives say.

Similarly, Creative Services has been reinvented to focus on areas of strength, such as interactivity, presentations, and design. Within the department, a new design group was assembled to ensure quality across brands. “Our goal is to encourage collaboration among specialists,” says Jonathan Stampf, director of the design and imaging studio. Meanwhile, the integrated production services group handles all aspects of production and art buying, as well as complete post-production services. This includes still and motion asset creation, and full in-house 3D/4D capabilities. According to Jennifer Dee, VP, director of integrated production, “We act as an extension to each creative team, which creates a great deal of brand synergy.”  

All of this integration is possible because of agency culture, executives say, adding that MTL’s three core values are Ideas Worth Fighting For, We vs I, and Winning Spirit. “We keep an open environment, where our employees always feel welcome to collaborate and share ideas,” Goddard says.

 

Future plans

Moving forward, leaders at MTL plan to take a deliberate and focused approach to new business by proactively selecting brands that will be best served by the agency. Amar Urhekar, president of McCann Health Americas, says, “We see that MTL can achieve incredible growth by becoming less risk averse and instead, calculating the risks that are worth taking. This way MTL will move beyond what’s predictable with most agencies for surprising results.”

In 2016, MTL will continue to build on the McCann Health North America integration initiatives that will offer new opportunities to partner with other McCann Health agencies, as well as McCann Worldgroup. The agency will keep a sharpened focus on integrated solutions to help clients and brands play a more meaningful role in people’s lives.

MTL plans to continue embracing its “creativity-first” culture and remain a unique destination for great creative talent.

 

Philanthropy/citizenship

For its philanthropic work, MTL was awarded the Med Ad News Heart Award in 2015.

A major initiative that demonstrates the MTL commitment to the greater good is #Worthliving, an awareness campaign for suicide prevention. MTL has advanced this project with #Attemptlife, where participants could virally share how much life has to offer. MTL also provided a donation to Unicef as part of its holiday greeting to clients. Additionally, every month MTL invites one of its teams to design a program for awareness and philanthropy during the agency’s Thirsty Thursday event. Teams may raise donations, while educating the rest of the agency about the disease states they work on.