CultHealth: 2024

CultHealth, an Indegene company

261 Fifth Avenue, Suite 701, New York, NY 10016

917-574-3681 • [email protected] • culthealth.com

 

Quick facts

Accounts

• Account wins: 5
• Active business clients: 8
  

Brands by 2023 sales

• Brand-product accounts held: 21
• $25 million or less: 4
• $25 million-$50 million: 3
• $50 million-$100 million: 3
• $100 million-$500 million: 6
• $500 million-$1 billion: 3
• $1 billion or more: 2

Services mix

• Professional advertising: 60%
• DTC/DTP: 40%

Client roster

• AbbVie
• Bryn Pharma
• ConTIPI
• Currax
• Novo Nordisk
• Radius
• Servier
• SynPhNe

Winner

• Best Influencer Marketing Campaign

Finalist

• Best Consumer TV/Radio Campaign
• Best Nonbranded Consumer Campaign

In 2023, CultHealth accepted the “Agency on the Rise” Manny Award from Med Ad News, also earning a finalist position for MM+M’s “Agency of the Year” title – and according to its leaders, the agency “has certainly lived up to that recognition and then some.”   

The leadership team says last year proved to be like no other, as it was the inaugural year of the agency’s merger with Indegene. “Plus, amid the industry buzz over all-things-AI, CultHealth was excited to unveil Creative Intelligence, a relevant, proprietary offering that defines what they do as an agency.”

Managers describe Creative Intelligence as “a core philosophy defined by the authentic creativity of CultHealth coming together with the future-ready technology of Indegene.

“Human creativity is a finite resource that can be bolstered, not replaced by, emerging technologies,” says David Stemler, chief creative officer at CultHealth. “We offer the very best of both – the technological sophistication of Indegene with our unparalleled creativity. This duality is taking our work to uncharted places – and the excitement is palpable.”

“Creative Intelligence, in essence, supercharges our output to never-before-seen heights for scalability, predictability, and more,” says Laurence Richards, agency president. “We offer the strategic, creative work we’ve always produced, now further elevated and more efficient. Our collective Creative Intelligence at CultHealth results in massive ROI for our clients.”

According to agency leaders, CultHealth started back in 2011 with one core mission in mind: to create iconic and personal brands in the healthcare space. The founders asked themselves, “If brands like Nike can experience unwavering brand loyalty from consumers, why not brands that save lives?” 

“Our agency was built on the idea that pharmaceutical brands deserve just as much, if not more, recognition as some consumer products,” says Jeff Rothstein, one of the original co-founding partners and now CEO. “These are the brands that keep us alive and healthy. And there’s nothing more important than that.”

Recent accomplishments

An Indegene company since late 2022, CultHealth is advancing its mission of building iconic and personal brands – now adding what’s possible with generative AI and other digital advancements. “CultHealth delivers on this principle every day, as seen in countless examples of brand loyalty, perhaps none more celebrated than Ozempic.”

“We are in ‘The Era of Ozempic’ right now,” Stemler says. “And that can be traced very directly back to our original campaign.”

As a longtime partner to Novo Nordisk, CultHealth is continuing to amass a host of creative accolades for the immense success of Ozempic, a brand the agency helped create via the “Oh, Oh, Oh, Ozempic!” campaign.

Executives note this campaign has catapulted Ozempic to stratospheric success, surpassing all industry, even general, marketing and advertising standards and helping to turn Novo Nordisk into a $400 billion company. This past year alone, Ozempic has won a plethora of awards in categories ranging from radio to television. As Forbes noted in November 2023, “Investor excitement [from Ozempic]…caused Novo Nordisk’s market capitalization to balloon from $230 billion last October to over $430 billion today. Remarkably, the firm’s market value is now larger than its home country of Denmark’s entire annual economic output.”

Managers state the agency has reached a 50/50 split between HCP and consumer work. “While the diabetes brands from Novo Nordisk represent some of the agency’s best-in-class consumer campaigns, CultHealth’s professional roster includes Servier’s Tibsovo, indicated for acute myeloid leukemia and bile duct cancer, and vorasidenib, launching in 2024 for low-grade gliomas,” executives say. “This past year, the agency’s oncology business grew to include Oncaspar and Asparlas, for the treatment of pediatric acute myeloid leukemia.”

CultHealth is also AOR for AbbVie’s migraine portfolio, with “Migraine Mode” earning a Creative Floor win in 2023 for Best Consumer Website (Qulipta). Executives describe “Migraine Mode” as a user-experience solution designed to help consumers avoid common migraine triggers while searching for pharmacologic remedies.

In addition to standard growth and new business wins from clients such as Bryn Pharma, leaders say much of the work awarded this year to CultHealth was arguably the best kind: organic. “This sort of expansion is a testament to the hard work and accomplishments we’ve had with our existing clients,” Richards says. “It simply stems from word-of-mouth recommendations and praise for our work and partnership.” 

As the agency’s core business expands, so too does its leadership. Niko Plaitakis, a long-time collaborator with the agency, joined full-time as executive VP, director of experience and technology. “Plaitakis will not only advance the innovation offerings, tapping into blue-sky opportunities, but will continue to help seamlessly blend Indegene’s technology with CultHealth’s creativity in the Creative Intelligence model,” executives say.

“I am thrilled to be part of the leadership team at CultHealth and at the helm of this brilliant department as we embark on this new way of integration. The momentum of this change is exhilarating — and it’s only just getting started,” Plaitakis says.

Also joining the agency’s ranks this past year were Debra Young and Jenn Ng, both senior VPs, group creative directors. Managers say they round out the creative leadership at CultHealth and help to manage a growing team of incredibly talented artists and writers.

“We are now poised to further our creative thinking and prowess, while maintaining the excellence our clients have come to expect,” Stemler says.

The agency also gained new people who came to healthcare advertising via the client side. Eric Vollmuth recently joined as executive VP, director of client services, with more than 30 years’ experience in health care. After starting in sales and marketing for Merck and Novartis, Vollmuth switched to advertising and has worked at agencies such as CDM, Ogilvy, and McCann before coming to CultHealth. “At the core of everything we do is trust. We forge solid relationships and foster them with collaboration,” Vollmuth says. “That will never change.”

According to agency leaders, “The ‘best-of-both; seems to be a theme for the agency, not only with Creative Intelligence and with its body of work, but also when it comes to its flexible hybrid working model.”

“Nothing beats the teamwork and creativity that happens when we’re together,” Richards says. “It makes the work better and the culture stronger. Still, we recognize there are times when we need to work from home for convenience and focus, so it’s simple: We do that, too. It’s all about balance.” This adoption of true hybrid flexibility has helped attract even more top talent to the agency, across every department.

Structure and services

Our raison d’être has always been to produce and deliver some of the stickiest and most strategic creative in the business,” Stemler says. “Now, we’ve added a technological powerhouse with Indegene. Indegene allows us to offer unparalleled data, analytics, and emerging technologies like generative AI – in fact, we’re already seeing the benefits of our new partnership as we’re pioneering a first-in-pharma metaverse for an industry leader.”

Future plans

In addition to its melding with Indegene and the resulting Creative Intelligence, leaders say CultHealth boasts several new offerings for the future. These include, but aren’t limited to, a unique Cult Center of Excellence focused on measurable analytics for everything they develop, regardless of platform, plus the ability to code for today’s technology and that of the future; and CultValue, a market access specialty agency that combines best-in-class PRMA strategy with unmatched creative talent, ensuring brands receive the most favorable consideration from payer audiences.

To accommodate the demands of a content-first world, the agency is rolling out Cult 20/80, another proprietary offering that is engineered to address content from the start of an initiative through completion. 

“This entire product stems from a problem we know a lot of our clients are facing,” Stemler says. “Many are spending 80 percent of their budget on a big campaign idea, leaving only 20 percent for those incremental, test-and-invest, real-time content pieces, which drive a lot of decisions in the modern world. The Cult 20/80 model flips this on its head and allows us, as AOR, to be content stewards from the start. When we’re at the helm of the content decisions, we can set up the entire marketing effort for success, devoid of silos that have been seen historically.”

As it moves into 2024 and beyond, leaders believe CultHealth will continue to focus on its ability to effectively manage dual AOR assignments – for both HCP and consumer business, fostering improved communication between physicians and patients, especially at point of care.

Philanthropy/citizenship

For CultHealth, diversity, equity, and inclusion (DE&I) have been a backbone since the agency’s inception,” leaders claim. Rothstein is a founding board member of Momentum & Value for People of Color, an organization dedicated to mentorship and promoting DE&I. CultHealth has also worked extensively with First Candle, focusing on SIDS awareness, and the Melanoma Research Foundation.

“We are continuing our efforts with our existing pro bono clients and are always looking for new ways to give back,” Richards says. “Through a special open brief program, we encourage every person in our agency, from any department, to bring us ideas about things they are passionate about, issues to address, [and] creative solutions they might have. It doesn’t have to be related to existing client business; it can just be something that will make a difference in our world.”

Stemler adds, “It has been so well received; we have unbelievable participation. And the winning idea from 2023, which is currently under way, is all about sustainability and transforming recycled waste into preventative medicine. People may come to work for or with CultHealth because of a new business win or an interest in a particular category; I think they stay because of the agency’s authenticity, philanthropic nature, and the recognition and celebration of the human side to everything we do.”