Biolumina Group: 2022

Biolumina Group LLC 

41285 Avenue of the Americas, 6th Floor, New York, NY 10019
646-364-1500 • [email protected] • biolumina.com

 

QUICK FACTS

Accounts
Account wins 6
Active business clients 7

Brands by 2021 sales
Brand-product accounts held 14
$50 million-$100 million 1
$100 million-$500 million 3
$500 million-$1 billion 1
$1 billion or more 3
Products not yet approved/launched 6

 

Services Mix

Professional & patient advertising 50%
Digital 30%
Relationship marketing 20%

 

Client Roster

AstraZeneca
BeiGene
Celldex Therapeutics
Janssen Oncology
Legend Biotech
Novartis Pharmaceuticals
Seagen

 

FINALIST

Agency on the Rise

 

Curiosity driven. Customer agnostic. Oncology focused. According to agency leaders, these are the three pillars supporting yet another year of unprecedented growth for Biolumina. “The agency continues to surpass itself with its strongest year ever in for new business wins, increased talent acquisition, internal promotions, and expanded offerings,” management says.

Biolumina’s leaders say tapping into the power of curiosity to build unique insights and inspiration has been fundamental to the agency’s success as well as its ability to drive brand momentum across audiences. The agency’s focus on oncology provides a clear and singular purpose for everyone at Biolumina: to be the anti-cancer agency.

“At our core, we have one common purpose: to act relentlessly against the enemy that impacts so many – cancer,” says Kirsten A. Kantak, president and CEO of Biolumina. “People who have a sense of purpose through their work report higher job satisfaction. They want to make sure that they’re doing the best work possible. This is one of the reasons we really focus on the purpose of what we do.”

Recent Accomplishments

The agency doubled its brand roster in 2021, with the majority of new business coming from existing clients and awarded without a competitive pitch. Global business from Janssen Oncology continued to grow with two agency of record (AOR) assignments in the multiple myeloma category. BeiGene selected the agency to be AOR for its hematologic malignancy brand. The agency’s relationship with AstraZeneca expanded once again, with an AOR patient assignment in the lung cancer space, as well as work for its immuno-oncology pipeline. Beyond new business growth, the agency executed several launches of disease education campaigns, as well as new data launches and label updates for Novartis and AstraZeneca.

Creative with Purpose remains the agency’s mantra for work that is as innovative and meaningful as the brands it supports. “We are idea-driven above all else, always collaborating to elevate our work and craft because we are driven by purpose,” says Diane Iler-Smith, chief creative officer. The agency is particularly proud of its disease education campaigns, such as See Breast, Think Brain in the HER2+ metastatic breast cancer space. Be in the Know, a campaign to encourage EGFR mutation testing in non-small cell lung cancer, won gold at the APEX awards.

Leadership talent increased with the additions of Nadine Fabish, senior VP, management supervisor; Jason Davis, senior VP, creative director/art; and Emily Segalla, senior VP, creative director/copy. Management says Biolumina continued its strong history of nurturing talent from within – at all levels and across all departments – with more than 62 promotions.

Structure and services

The agency prides itself on a deeper focus on brand purpose. As such, the agency’s brand strategy and customer experience teams are synergizing to understand deep insights, examining how behaviors can be biomarkers, and creating more nuanced customer personas to better align them to brand purpose. Biolumina also significantly expanded its omnichannel offerings, continuing to build out its customer experience group and digital capabilities.

“We saw a dramatic increase in our clients adopting the Biolumina Customer Experience (CX) Roadmap, a strategic communication planning tool that recommends the best messaging strategies for customer groups based on current and desired beliefs and behaviors, overlaid with past promotional responses, prescribing and testing history, and other inputs as needed,” says David Cherry, senior VP, director of customer experience. From dynamic brand and disease education sites to engaging social campaigns and IVAs, the agency delivered a wide range of corporate, HCP, and patient work. In perhaps a first for oncology, the agency created meme ads on the importance of EGFR mutation testing.

With the reduction in COVID-related access restrictions in some regions in the summer and early fall of 2021, the agency answered its clients’ needs for more rep-delivered print tactics and returned to the convention floor with dynamic booth experiences utilizing state-of-the-art technology.

Future Plans

Biolumina leaders envision substantial, sustainable growth ahead and are excited about continuing to partner with clients to bring important new treatment options to the oncology community.

Philanthropy/Citizenship

Biolumina expanded its philanthropic work by inviting employees to submit proposals to support causes close to their hearts. The winning entry was for She’s the First, an organization dedicated to empowering and educating girls globally. The agency continued to work with For Pete’s Sake Cancer Respite Foundation and The Family Reach Foundation.

For the winter holiday season, the agency created a Social Media Gratitude Filter and Fundraising Drive, raising $10,000 for In God’s Love We Deliver, an organization dedicated to alleviating hunger and malnutrition in people with serious illnesses. The agency also supported Living Beyond Breast Cancer and its mission of providing emotional, practical, and evidence-based content to the metastatic breast cancer community.

In 2021, the agency started Belong, an internal DEI group focused on creating a diverse and inclusive environment that champions equity for all. Biolumina began working with the senior mentorship offering of COOP, an organization focused on overcoming underemployment of low-income and first-generation college graduates from diverse backgrounds. And the agency continues to be an active participant in Omnicom OPEN Pride, a network-wide initiative dedicated to fostering an inclusive and opportunity-rich environment for Omnicom’s LGBTQ+ community.