Beacon Healthcare Communications: 2018
Beacon Healthcare Communications
135 Route 202/206
Bedminster, NJ 07921
Telephone: 908-781-2600
Website: beaconhc.com
Accounts
Account wins 3
Active business clients 7
Brands by 2017 sales
Brand-product accounts held 10
Services Mix
Professional 50%
CRM/CEM 20%
Managed markets 15%
DTC/DTP 15%
Percentage of the above discipline that is Digital – 65%
Client Roster
Allergan
Ferring
Gilead
Hema Biologics
Tesaro
US WorldMeds
According to its leadership team, Beacon had an exciting year in 2017, with new clients and new additions to its staff. Executives say these new additions set the agency up for a fast start in 2018, with major launches on the horizon.
During the past year, Beacon successfully helped launch Xadago, a new MAO-B inhibitor for Parkinson’s disease. Executives say the launch development timeline from strategy input to final execution was incredibly tight. “Working closely with the client partner team at US WorldMeds, Beacon efficiently and seamlessly delivered a successful launch and an award-winning campaign,” agency leaders say. “The partnership with US WorldMeds has been strengthened with another collaborative effort as the agency works towards the launch of another new product targeted for later this year.”
In addition, Beacon continues to partner with Hema Biologics in the hematology space with two upcoming launches in the next year or so. Over the last year, the agency has also focused efforts in working more closely with smaller to midsized manufacturers. This has helped lead to several new business wins among companies in this category. “It’s a strategy that’s really beginning to pay off for us,” says Beacon General Manager Larry Lannino.
Beacon has concentrated on enhancing its multichannel expertise over the past year. In addition to its CRM expertise, the agency has added social listening and promotional social programs as part of this effort. As pharma continues to see the need for this platform to better engage their customers, the Beacon team has continued to sharpen their expertise. And what they have found to make the biggest difference in their efforts is the focus on data, particularly full service data and analytics for all products and programs. Lannino notes that this has proven to be a great business builder for the agency. “With our expertise in these areas, we can help clients assess their current digital, CRM, social, and DTP programs, and help them find gaps or offer ideas that can connect their often-siloed promotional efforts,” he says.
“To bring together all these different streams, we recently added Amy Whitcomb to the agency as Director of Multi-Channel Marketing. Amy really puts us in a good position to focus our offerings for our clients,” added Lannino.
Beacon is a full-service agency, offering a range of communications services across professional, patient, and payer audiences, all built around the notion of engagement. Lannino sums it up this way: “We call ourselves ‘Engagement Architects,’ and that’s really how we operate. It’s all about developing deep insights that can lead to deep engagements with our target audiences.”
The types of services offered depend on the client’s needs. “We have clients where we work on professional and payer efforts, and other ones where we’re concentrated on consumer and CRM initiatives for both consumers and physicians,” Lannino says. “So, it really depends on what the immediate needs for the brand are.”
“Generating greater awareness around our excellent creative offering is an added focus for 2018,” Lannino says. To that end, Bill Werbaneth joined the agency as Executive Creative Director two years ago. “Under Bill’s creative leadership, our creative product has been excellent and we expect to be winning some awards this next year,” Lannino says.
Beacon’s new business target strategy remains consistent with recent years with continued focus on smaller to medium-sized clients, according to agency leaders. “We have a more strategically focused new business process and more people involved in generating new business, including some who are solely focused on these efforts,” Lannino says.
Beacon also plans to leverage its data and analytics practice, which executives believe differentiates the agency from some of the other agencies competing for similar business. “Our folks on our analytics team, combined with our digital and CRM expertise, have created a new promotional gap analysis we call BEAM [Beacon Ecosystem Asset Management] which offers clients a 10,000-foot-view to their promotional efforts, across the board,” Lannino says. “We found BEAM to be particularly successful with those clients who have a plethora of agencies working for them, where one agency does not know what the other is doing. It’s been a real eye opener for some of our clients.”
Executives say Beacon has been a long-time supporter of breast cancer awareness, including fundraisers and participation in local walks to raise money for research into the condition. The Beacon team has always had strong participation rates for the agency’s philanthropic efforts, which continue throughout the year.
