Concentric Health Experience: 2018

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Concentric Health Experience
330 Hudson Street, 5th Floor
New York, NY 10013
Telephone: 212-633-9700
E-mail: [email protected]
Website: concentrichx.com

 

WINNER — AGENCY OF THE YEAR, CATEGORY II, BEST CONSUMER CAMPAIGN

FINALIST — BEST INTERACTIVE PATIENT CAMPAIGN, BEST PROFESSIONAL CAMPAIGN

 

Services Mix

Experience driven 100%

 

Talk about an experience,” executives say. “While you walk the halls of Concentric Health Experience (CHX), your senses are ignited by the smell of fresh diner French fries, the sound of crying babies and soothing mothers, and… wait…is that smell baby powder? You, like I, might be asking: What does all this have to do with a health care agency?”

Agency managers claim that Concentric is “100 percent believers in the power of customer experience, and it reaches far beyond written words on a PowerPoint slide.”

To reinforce this purpose, the agency is turning up the “H.E.A.T. (Human Experience Activation Team),” managers say. “Led by newly appointed Chief Experience Officer Colleen Carter, this specialized team has set up live scenarios around the shop to demonstrate the profound effect of the human experience of brand engagement across the customer journey.”

“This is an opportunity of a lifetime,” Carter says. “To be at a shop where there is a courageous spirit and the unrelenting desire to transform is liberating.”

According to agency leaders, this pervasive feeling of transformation and freedom of thought is no accident. “Five years ago, Concentric changed its name to include ‘experience,’ and it was a deliberate shift,” managers say. “It served as a direct mandate to its teams and an indicator to its clients that it was time to reimagine health care marketing and the agency role within it.”

“It was a spark,” says agency co-founder and CEO Ken Begasse. “A declaration that as an agency, we needed to change our purpose and that we needed to influence change in our pursuit to build brands that will change the world.”

Managers say it was a mindset shift that influenced the agency’s model, vision, and approach to building modern, customer-experience driven health brands. “It begins with putting behavioral design at the center of experience strategy,” executives say. “CHX uses the science of real-world human decision making to craft brand narratives that shape the promise of medicine into stories that ignite the human spirit. Simply stated in its new mantra, ‘You make the medicine. We make it matter.’”

By all intents and purposes, agency managers say Concentric is certainly making it matter. “In the past five years, CHX has grown by leaps and bounds across all measures,” executives say.

“Recognized as a leading agency in the industry, CHX has been awarded Agency of the Year honors five times since 2011 by industry publishers Med Ad News, MM&M, and PM360. This growth in agency capabilities, reach, and client engagement has enabled the 15-year-old agency to provide a marketable advantage for its clients.”

“There’s a responsibility that comes with growth,” says Michael Sanzen, co-founder and chief creative officer. “As founders, we’ve always believed our best path was to invest in infrastructure, capabilities, and people before it was needed. We are in a unique position in this regard. It allows us to diversify, scale, and apply talent effectively. We can be long-term focused, which is a rarity for an agency of our size and capability.”

Agency leadership is confident, and the results on its business are visible, managers say. “Once again, the agency grew by 40 percent versus the previous year, with the primary driver in 2017 attributed to growth within existing client engagements,” executives say. “CHX is no slouch at new business, either, winning nearly 70 percent of its pitches. Together, this performance marks a CAGR of 35 percent over the past five years.” Founders attribute it to a concerted focus on fully integrating its clients’ brands and a laser focus on attracting the right opportunities.

“We want to put the full power of the agency to work on behalf of our current clients and not distract ourselves for just any opportunity,” Sanzen says. “We want our existing and future client partners to be representative of the modern health care marketplace.”

CHX has welcomed new client engagements in areas of rare disease, health tech, device, and biopharma, according to agency leaders. Illustrating its ability to tailor its approach, CHX boasts a balanced mix of pre-commercial, emerging, and established biopharma clients as partners. “Our consultative model allows us to adapt to the needs of our clients with consistency of experience,” Begasse says. “Our integrated offerings allow us to move from suggestion to action efficiently and effectively despite the diversity in our client base.”

With an eye to the future, managers believe that CHX is well situated for the future, citing the massive disruption in the agency ecosystem as evidence of traditional agency demise.

“The traditional agency and network model is designed around services; thus it’s transactional and procured on cost,” Begasse says. “Our consultative model is a seamless, frictionless blend of strategy and continuous engagement. Since we have continued to innovate ahead of the curve, we’re positioned to grow with this trend as opposed to react to it. It’s simple: There is only so much cost to cut from the model before the value of market advantage becomes what matters most to all clients.”

2017 was a busy launch year at CHX, managers say, as across multiple disease states in rare disease, oncology, ophthalmology, and respiratory, the agency introduced six new products and launched three new indications.

General Manager Robin Roberts says the shop’s consultative model contributes to its ability to deliver and maintain agency culture. “The inner strength of the consultative model is its innate ownership that drives simplification and focus,” Roberts says. “We get smaller with our leadership and deliver a comprehensive and cohesive experience.”

Highlighting this was the agency’s ability to flex on the launch of Sunovion’s newly minted handheld COPD franchise, executives say. In early January, longtime client partner Sunovion acquired three handheld COPD devices from Novartis.

“Already set to commercialize its breakthrough handheld nebulizer for Sunovion later in the year, CHX quickly rallied around the enormous challenge,” execs say. “It was a launch not only of three products, but also of a franchise under significant time pressures. Powered by the agile co-creation, Sunovion and CHX successfully introduced the franchise to the market in fewer than 60 days and successively introduced a concert of unbranded, HCP, consumer, and access campaigns across the handheld franchise, exemplifying the value of consultative agility. With the launch of Lonhala Magnair imminent, CHX will put its first launch of 2018 in the books early.”

Giving underserved patients their voice requires enormous responsibility, agency managers say. In 2017, working with emerging biopharma standout Sage Therapeutics, CHX partnered to give women with postpartum depression (PPD), who are often dismissed and marginalized, the right to break their silence. The campaign, “PPD Silence Sucks” was launched at the 2017 American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG) along with #ppdsilencesucks, not only to raise awareness and drive conversation around PPD but also as a declaration of Sage’s advocacy for and dedication to women and their families suffering from PPD. “Courageous in tone and execution, ‘PPD Silence Sucks’ instantly broke the silence and unveiled truths for a condition shrouded with stigma,” executives say. “The campaign, a provocative disease awareness experience launched with a takeover of Sage’s hometown of Boston with mass transit, social activation, and prime press coverage, ignited debate and conversation around PPD. The online disease awareness site exploded, with more than 25,000 engagements in June alone. Social posts and reposts reached the thousands as advocates from both sides reacted to and discussed the campaign message.”

“It’s bold and simple. Most importantly, it’s authentic,” Sanzen says. “We thoroughly tested it with customers, and consistently it rang true. I’ve seen many great campaigns that test well but die because of lack of courage and conviction. We are fortunate those are qualities that run deep within Sage.”

For CHX, the future holds great promise and familiarity, according to managers. “A number of promising products to launch and expanding client engagements have become the norm, but, not surprisingly, it’s taking action to ensure CHX remains a leading agency well positioned for the future,” executives say.

“As an agency, we are thrilled about where we are today,” Begasse says. “We’re just not satisfied, because there is so much more we can do.”

CHX leaders believe that path to fulfillment starts and ends with a culture that invests in talent. “In a time of great change within our industry, the only true constant is building the agency workforce of the future,” Carter says.

Under Carter, CHX is implementing a bold talent initiative called Future Force. Future Force is a leadership and development initiative that is focused on growing talent fit for the challenges of 2020 and beyond. This bold step is a commitment to strip away the confines of today’s convention of title and responsibility that limit, executives say, adding that the founders are passionate about building a culture that is always moving forward. “Our people are difference makers,” Sanzen says.  “They’re the force that carries forth our bold vision.”

Managers say CHX continued its strong commitment to building community through compassion for others. “Guiding values of Courage, Compassion, and Community power the agency’s support of numerous philanthropic activities through volunteerism, financial, and pro bono support,” according to agency leaders. “However, in 2017, two efforts stand out because they champion the areas of inequality and greater understanding. These are Diversity and Inclusion as well as certain inequalities in women’s health.”

In late 2016, as society awakened to the real inequalities that exist in race, gender, and sexuality, managers say CHX was inspired to use this as a springboard for increased consciousness, education, and understanding within its agency. Led by Latesha Williams-Flynn, the CHX Unity project is a pillar Diversity and Inclusion initiative that confronts many of the issues in the forefront with a strong and concerted perspective of community within and outside agency walls. The organization is partnering with the Marcus Graham Project (MGP) to help bring health care agencies into its ecosystem, creating employment and networking opportunities for young minorities.

“This was a main reason I chose CHX as my home. Early on, we spoke honestly about its commitment to Diversity and Inclusion and it was clear they were all in. To have my passion supported and celebrated is beyond fulfilling,” Williams-Flynn says.

The Health Fix by Concentric (thehealthfix.org) is the agency’s commitment to improving the health experiences of those in need, according to managers. “Over the years, the initiative has helped communities and people all over the world,” executives say. “This year’s Health Fix struck closer to home when executives learned that a colleague at Sunovion and friend had been diagnosed with late-stage ovarian cancer. Nearly eight in 10 women are diagnosed with ovarian cancer at its deadliest stage. There is no reliable test to detect it at early and treatable stages. This inequality in our health system must be corrected. Working with grassroots organization Girly Girl Parts, CHX created the ‘Overcome Ovarian Cancer’ initiative. This campaign included tools and resources used at the community level to raise awareness and funds for the development of an effective screening tool in conjunction with the Dana Farber Institute.

“Through our philanthropic efforts, we are building a shared culture of Courage, Compassion, and Community,” Roberts says. “There isn’t a more noble pursuit than to ‘Make Medicine Matter’ through compassion and volunteerism.”