Benchworks: 2020

Benchworks

954 High Street

Chestertown, MD 21620

Telephone 

410-810-8862

E-mail 

[email protected]

Website 

benchworks.com

QUICK FACTS

Accounts

Active business clients 13

Brands by 2019 sales

Brand-product accounts held 23

$25 million or less 23

 

SERVICES MIX

HCP 75%

Consumer 20%

Payor 5%

 

CLIENT ROSTER

EMD/EMD Serono

Hilton

Mallinckrodt

Noven

Otsuka

Pfizer

 

For each of the last five years, Benchworks – a marketing enterprise rooted in Chestertown, Md., that went on to expand into a Philadelphia-based healthcare agency – has earned a spot on the Inc. 5000 list of fastest growing companies as well as the MM&M Top 100 agency list. At the same time, the persistent evolution of the agency remained quietly under the radar, Benchworks executives say – until now. 

Benchworks’ evolution has accelerated exponentially in the last year or so. “At the heart of the change is the agency’s sharper focus on strategic partnerships within the life sciences, bolstered by a strengthening of its core capabilities,” management says. “The evidence of this change is in the numbers. Within the last 18 months, Benchworks flipped the 75 percent project/25 percent AOR business split to the exact opposite – 75 percent AOR business with 25 percent project work for mostly long-standing clients such as Pfizer.”

Several fruitful decisions contributed to this change, Benchworks executives note. First, the agency invested in the talent and resources needed to build on existing successes and develop more robust competencies in creative, strategy, and science. The agency also leveraged the experience and mindset of a curated group of senior leaders from both the agency and client side who have joined the entrepreneurial drive at Benchworks over the last year. The diversity in point of view is deliberate and allows the team to address the full scope of commercial considerations that arise throughout a brand’s life cycle. It is an environment in which everyone – from art directors to managing directors – is focused on delivering real, measurable value for the client. “We complement each other,” says Tom McDonnell, president of BW Health Group, Benchworks’ parent company. “We’ve assembled an amazing, diverse, and accomplished team to help our partners build brands that change lives.”

RECENT ACCOMPLISHMENTS

During the last year, organic growth, new business wins, and the need for additional resources in digital, project management, strategy, and creative have necessitated the acquisition of more space in Benchworks’ Philadelphia location, a former ship-building factory in the city’s Fishtown neighborhood. “Enhanced strategic capabilities, consistent execution, and the talents of an entirely new creative team twice the size it was at the beginning of 2019 were among the reasons why clients such as Sun Pharma awarded Benchworks additional business of $2 million, a nearly 20 percent increase in revenue from one client alone,” agency executives say. “Pitch wins came as well, including an assignment with Noven Pharmaceuticals to launch the first FDA-approved transdermal patch for the treatment of schizophrenia.”

In 2019 Benchworks added 16 new positions. Amid onboarding new hires and refining processes, the small independent agency notes that it managed to pull off seven product launches in oncology, dermatology, CNS, and long-term care. 

At the same time, the creative team, held to new standards for execution and strategy, picked up the agency’s first award for creative – an Rx Club nod for Infugem, which launched in March 2019.

Additionally, in January 2020 Benchworks unveiled its new branding, “Intentionally Integrated Thinking,” a full embrace of the agency’s transformation, which is built around the integrated mix of talent, POV, and experience and the value it can bring to clients.

“Our team can focus on both business strategy and brand building,” says Angelina Sciolla, executive creative director. “Colleagues who were once commercial leads at large and small pharma companies share an invaluable perspective with their creative partners. We think like clients but deliver like a creative agency.”

STRUCTURE AND SERVICES

According to agency managers, Benchworks delivers on four core disciplines: creative, strategy, science, and technology. The client roster includes biotech, small-to-mid-size pharma, and medical device companies. At any time, Benchworks may access expertise from one of the other offerings within BW Health Group, the parent company that CEO Thad Bench and the team established in 2019, to house the agency,” management says. The other offerings include BW Consulting, a pharma consulting practice and a strategic partnership with Occam Health, a patient/hub services provider. “This cross-functional collaboration has proven to be a source of new business opportunities for the agency and has provided additional value to clients, especially those trying to bring new products to market,” according to agency management.

Leaders also note that the agency sustains a model that is flexible and can scale according to clients’ often shifting needs. Beyond a senior leadership team, the organizational structure is simple by design, allowing for growth as well as transparent communications among the teams. As a full-service agency, Benchworks can build and manage brands from prelaunch to LOE or focus on particular areas of need, from pricing strategies to KOL development and disease education. 

FUTURE PLANS

Benchworks executives say future plans are focused on building out two key areas – strategy and analytics – and connecting both to creative problem-solving, enhanced customer experience, and smart use of technology that is responsive to changes in information delivery.

“As an industry, we have only scratched the surface of intelligently allocating commercial resources,” McDonnell says. “From precision targeting of the optimal patient to sales force deployment to payor agreements, there is an opportunity to embrace the vast amounts of data that will drive improved value to the healthcare system.”  

According to McDonnell, the days of hiring a sales force, spreading them across the country based on an antiquated deciling system, and raising prices 9.9 percent every year are over. With a sharper focus and mission, Benchworks will define its future by helping partners move away from their comfort zone and embrace the complexities of the healthcare landscape to drive value for all stakeholders.

PHILANTHROPY/CITIZENSHIP

Across locations, Benchworks staff work with several organizations, including Kent County Food Pantry, Philabundance, and Morris Animal Refuge. “Yet the centerpiece of the agency’s philanthropy work is one that unites efforts across the organization due to its environmentally focused mission,” agency executives say. For over a year now, Benchworks has been partnering with the Chesapeake Bay Conservancy, which is dedicated to land and wildlife conservation as well as improving the water quality and habitat of the Chesapeake Bay. 

In addition to capital support, Benchworks provides pro bono services, including creative branding and execution, public relations, and consulting. Over the last year, the agency helped Chesapeake Conservancy brand the Conservation Innovation Center. The Center has developed advanced technology to support unprecedented high-resolution land and water analysis, allowing scientists, conservationists, and farmers to work together more effectively on conservation projects. “The potential of the technology is far-reaching, and is already being considered as an option to improve water quality on a global level,” Bench says.