ConcentricLife: 2023

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ConcentricLife 2023

ConcentricLife

One World Trade Center, 68th Floor, New York, NY 10007 

212-633-9700 • concentric.life

Quick Facts

Accounts

  • Account wins: 5
  • Active business clients: 20

Brands by 2022 sales

  • Brand-product accounts held: 40
  • $50 million-$100 million: 3
  • $100 million-$500 million: 8
  • $500 million-$1 billion: 3
  • $1 billion or more: 3
  • Products not yet approved/launched: 5

Services mix

  • HCP: 40%
  • DTP: 40%
  • DTC: 20%
XYWAV. ScoutLife

Finalist | Best Rare Disease Campaign
People with narcolepsy have a higher risk of cardiovascular comorbidities, and the excessive sodium content in their nightly narcolepsy medication can increase this risk. The Elephant in the Room campaign (ScoutLife) encouraged providers to help decrease patients’ risk by prescribing the lower sodium oxybate Xywav.

Client roster

  • Abbott 
  • Acer Therapeutics
  • Alnylam Pharmaceuticals
  • CeQur
  • Cerapedics
  • Eyenovia
  • Global Blood Therapeutics
  • Grifols Pharmaceuticals
  • Jazz Pharmaceuticals
  • Merck Animal Health 
  • Mindera Health
  • Novo Nordisk 
  • Oncuity 
  • One Care Media
  • Orchard Therapeutics
  • Provention Bio 
  • Puma Biotechnology
  • Takeda Pharmaceuticals
  • Travere Therapeutics
  • Tremeau Pharmaceuticals

Finalist

  • Best Rare Disease Campaign

In its 20th year, executives at Concentric Health Experience2022’s Category II Med Ad News Agency of The Year – say the agency kicked off the year with an enormous win from existing partners; added several new client relationships; and culminated the year by setting its vision for the future with the creation of ConcentricLife alongside partner Scout (the longest running rare disease agency). As ConcentricLife, the agency grew eight  percent in revenue and has a staff of 275 people with offices in New York, Chicago, San Diego, Atlanta, Fort Lauderdale, London, and Copenhagen. 

Structure and services 

ConcentricLife is a refined operating model that the company principals believe answers the rising demands on the healthcare marketer. “Our clients need specialized customer focus with sophisticated, connected marketing expertise,” says Founder and CEO Ken Begasse, Jr. “The speed of customer expectation in health has outpaced the current agency models that marketers rely on – there’s a mismatch and clients feel it.”  

The ConcentricLife “common center” model centers on a multidisciplinary and expertly led human experience design capability that is the connective tissue spanning across three distinct specialty practices — rare disease, health, and wellness. 

“Across health, brands with high customer affinity connect insight to solutions that go far beyond communications,” says Michael Sanzen, founder, creative. “Experience design integrates engagement, innovation, and ideation to help our clients build brands that put health experience at the very center of life.” 

To drive this vision, ConcentricLife sought specific leaders from within and outside of industry. Michael Austin joins ConcentricLife as chief experience officer. He is partnered with long-time industry leader K.C. Dickerson, executive VP head of engagement, and futurist Jessica Daponte. 

ConcentricLife is powered by deep insights from the Human Connection Score, a proprietary tool that helps marketers identify and target underlying human behaviors that fuel the modern health experience. 

“Cross-pollination of ideas, approaches, and tools across the three practices is what really elevates the ConcentricLife proposition,” says Jennifer Brekke, co-founder and president. “The Human Connection Score was pioneered and proven in our wellness practice. It has become foundational to how we build a rewarding and modern health experience for rare, health, and wellness brands alike.”

Talent within these centers of excellence can be cast into each brand team or accessed independently based on client need. Leaders at ConcentricLife are confident this level of integrated specialization is yet to be seen in the industry. “In our competitive set, there is a gap that exists that marries specialist practices with flexible expert-laden talent, to build teams that place holistic health experiences at the center of every brief,” Brekke says.

The health practice, targeting brands that change health trajectories and restore life is run by Kristin McAteer, long-time Concentric leader and managing director. 

“The introduction of Wegovy for the treatment of obesity has and continues to become a cultural phenomenon,” McAteer says. “With supply ramped up to meet demand, it is just a matter of time before it surpasses blockbuster status. There isn’t a brand that better represents our vision for how putting health at the center can change life.” 

One of its most anticipated product launches of the year, Tzield by ProventionBio, is a testament to the power of innovative science and unrelenting perseverance. Tzield can help families who are at risk for type 1 diabetes delay onset of the life-defining illness. 

The agency’s work with Takeda in rare GI plus new clients Acer, Alnylam, and Orchard anchor the agency’s commitment and heritage in rare disease. 

The rare practice, ScoutLife, has been a leader in rare disease for decades. “ScoutLife helps find the unfindable and connects them to a navigated health experience,” says ScoutLife Managing Director Lauren Amodeo. 

 The wellness practice, named RitualLife and led by Cheryl Maher, managing director, has a long history of using understanding of human behavior to help insurgent food and wellness brands become a daily ritual. 

Future plans

The future for ConcentricLife is emboldened by the life-changing and culturally defining brands under its care.  

Agency leaders say that besides the clear opportunity that existed with their new vision, it was the distinct yet familiar entrepreneurial cultures that guided the new path forward. 

“What continues to excite us to this day is that we will stop at nothing to help our clients achieve their ambition. Nothing remains more relevant,” Begasse says.

 Philanthropy/citizenship

The agency’s commitment to fusing learning and development with representation and inclusion fuels higher creativity and brand outcomes, leaders believe. In 2022, the creation of an open-to-the-public speakers series, ConcentricLife, has leapt to the forefront in DE&I thought leadership within Stagwell and beyond. Ana Sastre, head of DE&I within talent and culture, spearheaded a 10-part speaker series that sheds light, teaches, and inspires an inclusive community, one that leaders believe reflects the diversity in the creative industry. 

“I was drawn to ConcentricLife because of the openness and commitment to fostering a community of progress,” Sastre says. “We shared the same vision, that diversity and representation elevate our work, are inextricably linked and need to be purposefully developed.”

According to agency leaders, this commitment to building a health and learning community is present daily. In the past year, the agency held more than 50 lunch-and-learn sessions, established mandatory mental health meeting-free zones, and distributed weekly DE&I newsletters that highlight diverse voices within and outside of Concentric. Employees continually co-create their culture with everyone through a series of feedback channels to improve their experience. 

“We embrace being a work-in-progress culture,” Sastre says. “In one year, we’ve implemented tools and partnerships that have helped us increase our BIPOC population by nearly five percent. It’s another step towards making ConcentricLife the agency we all envision.”

ConcentricLife 2023

(top row left to right) Lauren Amodeo, managing director, ScoutLife; Jaymie Staats, senior VP, director of talent and culture; Raffi Siyahian, principal, commercial strategy; Ken Begasse,Jr., founder and CEO; Rick Conrad, chief creative officer; Andrew Bast, chief strategy officer; Kristin McAteer, managing director, client solutions; Michael Austin, chief experience officer
(bottom row left to right) Michael Sanzen, founder, creative; Julie Prosonic, managing director, agency operations; Becca Tlustosch, chief financial officer; Jennifer Brekke, founder, president; Cheryl Maher, managing director, RitualLife