Agency of the Year Category III – Brick City Greenhouse: 2022

Brick City Greenhouse LLC

One Gateway Center, Suite 2600, Newark, NJ 07102
908-867-0200 • [email protected] • brickcitygreenhouse.com

 

WINNER: Agency of the Year, Category III

 

QUICK FACTS

Accounts
Account wins 8
Active business clients 9

Brands by 2021 sales
Brand-product accounts held 23

Services Mix
Professional advertising 70%
DTP 20%
Corporate communications 10%

Client Roster
AliveCor
Horizon Pharma
Immunomedics
Janssen
Medicines Development for Global Health
Prelude Therapeutics
Scynexis
Syndax Pharmaceuticals
TG Therapeutics

 

Brick City Greenhouse was founded on the idea of being a brand-first agency that empowers people to create the extraordinary on behalf of its clients. Many of the agency’s employees came from large holding-company agencies and saw firsthand how bottom lines are a bigger driver of agency behavior than doing what’s right for brands.

The agency’s leaders say they wanted to change this and create an agency model that was truly focused, not just in words but functionally, on bringing out the best in brands and in the people who support them.

Since then, Brick City Greenhouse has strived to create a new agency model for both marketers and agency staff alike. According to executives, the agency has made several fundamental departures from the standard operating procedures and norms of traditional agencies, freeing staff to create the highest caliber of work and giving marketers a greater sense of partnership and accountability.

Recent Accomplishments

Despite the continued challenges of the pandemic, agency leaders say 2021 was a banner year for Brick City Greenhouse. In 2021 the agency’s client roster grew by five clients and nine new brand assignments. This included four concurrent launches, relaunching three completely redesigned corporate websites, and broadening their client portfolio in the areas of women’s health, immunology, oncology, gastroenterology, and rheumatology, for both HCP and DTP. This resulted in a 138 percent year-over-year growth, closing out 2021 with just over $19 million in annual revenue. The agency also substantially increased its headcount, adding 35 new full-time employees.

Structure and Services

According to its leaders, Brick City Greenhouse has stripped away the unnecessary barriers to productive relationships so clients can get exactly what they desire from their agency without all the baggage that comes with traditional AOR models.

The agency gives clients more day-to-day, senior-level involvement; a higher caliber of strategy and creative than they get with junior teams at large agencies; improved budget optimization; and faster turnaround times.

To do this, the agency has eliminated the billable hour model and uses fixed-fee pricing. For AOR assignments, Brick City Greenhouse carves up the scope of work and charges a project cost for each line item. This gives marketers a greater level of predictability in their budgets. If there’s a change in strategy or some other factor that changes the scope of the assignment, up or down, agency leaders work upfront with the clients to re-estimate and change the scope in a way that everyone is comfortable with.

This fundamental change has led to a whole cascade of advantages for clients, executives say. Brick City Greenhouse hires only A-level talent, without passing increased salary costs on to clients. These highly qualified individuals are more efficient and produce better quality work, and this structure incentivizes the agency’s teams to be as nimble and agile as possible. And overhead, especially with the remote working model that was in place before the pandemic, is significantly lower and allows the agency to keep costs down for clients.

Because Brick City Greenhouse’s goal is to attract, inspire, and retain the most talented personnel in the industry, leaders say the agency has created a work structure that seeks to empower employees not only to do their best work but lead their best lives. There are no timesheets, complete flexibility in work arrangements, a truly remote working structure with its 65-plus employees spread across seven states, and unlimited paid vacation time. And as an added perk, the agency pays for employee healthcare and supplements the cost for spouses and dependents. These efforts led to MM&M naming Brick City Greenhouse in 2019 as one of the Best Places to Work.

These fundamental changes in how the agency operates allow Brick City Greenhouse to deliver marketing and communication services that are better, faster, and more cost-effective.

Brick City Greenhouse offers a full range of professional and DTP healthcare communication services, both in the United States and globally. Competencies span from prelaunch activities, such as disease awareness and launch readiness, to franchise and corporate communications to LOE efforts both online and off.

Agency leaders share that it’s deeply rewarding to see the new model they created is increasingly being sought out by both employees and clients alike.

Future Plans

Brick City Greenhouse will continue to hone and refine its ever-evolving model, according to agency leaders, who add that they want to make sure that the agency is always inspiring its clients and employees, so change here is a given—as is growth. Some of the agency’s biggest accounts started with a single small project. Leadership has found that once clients experience what it’s like to work with Brick City Greenhouse, things grow quickly.

Philanthropy/Citizenship
Brick City Greenhouse is characterized by executives as a mission-built, female majority-owned agency that has always had a desire to give back to the healthcare community. As part of this mission, every year the agency strives to donate 5 percent of its post-tax profits to health and wellness-related charities.

Last year, the agency donated to the Arthritis Foundation and the American Cancer Society. BCG’s philosophy of altruism and inclusivity extends to pro bono efforts and in working with companies that bring unique value to the medical community.

In 2021, BCG began a partnership with the Maplewood South Orange Coalition on Race to celebrate its 25th anniversary. The Coalition is an organization seeking to build and sustain a community that is racially, culturally, and socially integrated and truly inclusive where there is equity and equality for all. BCG is helping the group create communications to engage the local community and encourage other communities to enact similar efforts.

In 2018 Brick City Greenhouse also started working with Medicines Development for Global Health, a not-for-profit biopharmaceutical company focused on neglected diseases.