DePirro/Garrone: 2016
DePirro/Garrone
80 Eighth Avenue, 12th Floor
New York, NY 10011
Phone: 212-206-6967
Facsimile: 212-206-6987
E-mail: [email protected]
Website: depirrogarrone.com
Accounts
Accounts won 3
Active business clients 6
Accounts by 2015 sales
Brand product accounts held 7
$25 million or less 5
$25 million to $50 million 1
$50 million to $100 million 1
Services Mix
Digital advertising 40%
Television/Video content 35%
Print 20%
Other 5%
According to its leaders, DePirro/Garrone is an independent ad agency founded on the principles of strong strategic insight and the power of creativity. The agency has consistently had a strong presence in pharmaceutical, medical device and wellness brands since it was founded eight years ago.
The year’s accomplishments
The agency started off 2015 expanding its general consumer roster with a win in the nutritional supplement space, developing an integrated national campaign for Qunol heart health CoQ10 supplements including branding, broadcast, and digital. The agency also continued to build on its strong presence in the medical device category, adding new assignments from Asante’s Snap Insulin Pump and continuing work on Phonak’s Lyric Hearing. DePirro/Garrone also added a new social/digital assignment from long-time client Pfizer.
This winning trend continued with industry award recognition, as the agency received multiple awards for its work on medical devices including four Davey Awards, an Ad Age Healthcare Impact award, a Summit Emerging Media Innovator award, a Summit Emerging Media Leader award, and a platinum Summit Marketing Effectiveness award.
Reinforcing the agency’s commitment to diversity in all disciplines (and a 100 percent diverse company since its inception), in 2015 DePirro/Garrone also received national certification as a women-owned business from WBENC (Women’s Business Enterprise National Council), an organization recognized across the country for its rigorous certification standards.
Structure and services
When launching their creative agency early in 2008, partners DePirro and Garrone say they realized from their backgrounds at general consumer boutiques and large network shops that they could create a new, non-traditional model that could deliver high-quality work without excess layers and excess overhead. With a 20 percent physical and 80 percent virtual footprint, the agency offers all the full-service capabilities of a traditional network shop but with progressive efficiency, executives say.
Key to the success of this model has been maintaining a steady inner core of experienced professionals in key roles across the main disciplines, including research, strategy, creative and multichannel production. Almost eight years of success provide evidence of the effectiveness of the model, as do the other agencies that have adopted the model since.
According to executives, a key to the success of this flexible model is the agency’s philosophy that “creative matters.”
“Coming from creative backgrounds, the agency’s founders reinforce and reward innovative thinking in all disciplines, from research through concepts to production,” executives say. “Another important aspect of combining innate creativity with a flexible model is that the agency is structured to embrace change as a constant, and believes today’s environment of constant change is one to be leveraged, not resisted.”
Another key to DePirro/Garrone’s efficiency from inception was building its production department as 100 percent integrated, with digital, broadcast and print under one supervisory role. Recognizing early on the importance of video as a cross-platform communication tool, the agency also built an in-house edit studio to produce videos for all digital formats.
Future plans
With the founders responsible for creating some of the most recognized campaigns in DTC history (including Zelnorm, Lamisil, Zoloft and Zyrtec), the agency plans to continue its mission of finding truly creative, iconic and effective solutions for DTC campaigns in order to contribute to the overall quality of work and avoid the recycling of old ideas in this challenging space, executives say.
As part of its unique approach to healthcare brands as general consumer brands, the agency also continues to participate in creative incubators, labs, and think tanks outside the pharma space in order to keep fostering innovative ideas for the category.
Philanthropy/Citizenship
According to its leaders, DePirro/Garrone spent more than 20 percent of its resources on pro-bono work in 2015 and has supported diverse groups such as FreeArts NYC, Respite Care Services Inc (a non-profit dedicated to helping the developmentally disabled community) and BBBS (Big Brothers Big Sisters).
As far as environmental initiatives, the agency’s 20/80 footprint model has long created less environmental impact overall. The agency also supports a greener world as a contributing member of Transportation Alternatives, an organization dedicated to “better bicycling, walking and public transit, and fewer cars.” The agency offers free bikeshare membership to all employees that commute to its physical office.
