Elevate Healthcare: 2021
Elevate Healthcare
930 Harvest Drive, Suite 430
Blue Bell, PA 19422
Telephone
215-710-1077
Website
elevateHC.com
QUICK FACTS
Accounts
Account wins 6
Active business clients 18
Brands by 2020 sales
Brand-product accounts held 47
$25 million or less 18
$25 million-$50 million 12
$50 million-$100 million 9
$100 million-$500 million 3
Products not yet approved/launched 5
SERVICES MIX
Marketing communications 100%
CLIENT ROSTER
Alexza Pharmaceuticals
Alfasigma USA
Aspen Green
Assertio
DePuy Synthes
EyePoint Pharmaceuticals
Eyevance Pharmaceuticals
Foundation Fighting Blindness
Galen US
Grifols
Insulet
Joerns Healthcare
Johnson & Johnson
LivaNova
Medexus Pharma USA
Mycovia Pharmaceuticals
Recordati Rare Disease
Shield Therapeutics
Leaders at Elevate say it would be an understatement to say 2020 was an unprecedented year for everyone – but for the agency, it was another positive year of purposeful controlled growth.
“Yet one question remains that may never be answered. Was the growth despite or because of the pandemic?” management says. “You could say that despite the changes brought on by the pandemic, every agency and client was doing the best they could. As it turns out, Elevate’s best was more than enough to make it another record year, as they celebrated their fifth year as an agency with a burst of new campaigns, additional business, and impressive accomplishments.
“Or you could say that because of the pandemic, Elevate teams developed new ways of creatively communicating among themselves, with clients, and with client’s customers – skills and techniques that will carry on even in a post-quarantine world.”
As Co-Founder Frank Powers remarks, “As we began to overcommunicate to compensate for not being together, we found the experience was actually bringing us closer together as a group, and with our clients.”
Co-Founder Lorna Weir says, “Working so hard to overcome the challenges of the situation actually ended up making us even more considerate communicators, as we kept up the discovery of more and more new ways to keep our people bonded and our culture nurtured. We realized we could carry those things forward even after the world gets back to ‘normal.’”
Despite the situation, agency leaders say Elevate has positioned itself to be the champion of challenger brands, which remains more relevant than ever.
Weir and Powers say the more they preach the approach, the more the industry realizes that challenger brands are everywhere. They can be a “classic” challenger brand or a leading brand with challenges to overcome to stay on top. And perhaps because of the pandemic, there has been no shortage of opportunities to support challenger brands. “Given the climate right now, more brands than ever before are coming to the realization that they are challenger brands – and that isn’t a temporary realization,” Weir says. “That will most likely be the case for some time into the future, perhaps permanently. And that, despite or because of the world right now, is one big reason we believe we will continue to see tremendous growth.”
But even as Elevate continues to grow, Weir and Powers say they want to ensure they are not straying from what drove the creation of Elevate – a core of experienced, impassioned, senior-level experts helping clients build brands that help drive intended behavioral change. “We can bring value and make a difference in the context of our model when there is agreement on how to approach the business and align the team where we work to deploy the right folks at the right time to maximize impact and efficiency,” Weir says.
Powers says they will also continue to focus on retaining what makes the Elevate model appealing to clients and their team of experienced experts: selective compatibility. “We look for assignments where there is a good fit and philosophical alignment on the opportunity as a challenger brand and what it takes to compete from a marketing and communications perspective. And that doesn’t change, even in a worldwide emergency situation.”
RECENT ACCMPLISHMENTS
Elevate continues to build on a roster of key clients who appreciate and value what the agency brings to the relationship, which management says is why those clients have been entrusting Elevate with their brand marketing time and again.
One example of this is Johnson & Johnson Medical Devices business unit DePuy Synthes, which Elevate first engaged with in 2016. Beginning with the Trauma division, in 2020, Elevate is now working across multiple business units, including Trauma and Joint Reconstruction, and has worked on more than 30 different procedures and technologies, including the exciting new launch of VELYS Digital Surgery, agency executives say.
Other key examples of organic growth included EyePoint Pharmaceuticals, Grifols Pharmaceuticals, Medexus Pharma, Joerns, and rare-disease leader Recordati. Agency leaders say based on positive experiences with Elevate launching its first-ever, long-acting intracameral brand Decyxu to eyecare professionals, EyePoint tapped Elevate to work on Yutiq, a sustained release of fluocinolone for patients with chronic noninfectious posterior uveitis. After launching the new formulation of HyperRAB rabies prophylaxis in 2018, Grifols called on Elevate to refresh the brand as new formula advances were made. Medexus assigned the agency brand duties for Rasuvo, a once-weekly, subcutaneous, single-dose auto-injector of methotrexate for the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis, psoriasis, and juvenile idiopathic arthritis in 2019, and Elevate followed up in 2020 with a pitch win for a 2021 new product launch. And after a successful 2019 with Signifor LAR brand in both Cushing’s and acromegaly indications, Recordati Rare Disease followed up by awarding Elevate with brand duties for Isturisa for the treatment of endogenous Cushing’s syndrome in adults.
In new business from new clients, Elevate developed a successful relationship in 2020 with Insulet for its insulin delivery device Omnipod Dash and was awarded the HCP work for the Omnipod 5 Automated Insulin Delivery System for 2021. At the end of 2020, Eyevance awarded the brand duties for three brands in its ophthalmology portfolio to Elevate, LivaNova brought on Elevate to brand a VNS device for people with drug resistant epilepsy, Mycovia awarded branding duties for its breakthrough therapies in women’s health, and Shield Therapeutics selected Elevate for the launch of its advanced iron replacement brand, Accrufer.
Frank X. Powers and Lorna Weir, managing partners
STRUCTURE AND SERVICES
Elevate’s structure has been clearly established and successfully demonstrated in year five,” agency executives say. “A seamless blending of client value, deep strategic experience, and industry-leading creative talent that best matches client need or opportunity is a formula that served Elevate – and its clients – well again in 2020. Senior experienced leads are always hands-on throughout each engagement and have the knowledge and expertise to respond to situations needing immediate strategic or creative impact quickly.”
According to agency leaders, Elevate has a focused position helping healthcare challenger brands in biotech and medical devices capitalize on opportunities and overcome obstacles to reach their full potential. brands,” management says. “Elevate’s structure remains flexible to accommodate any client relationship and offers AOR, project, or a hybrid model, depending on need and situation.”
Agency executives say the Elevate model has proven to work for clients time and time again. “A proven, repeatable process, fewer agency layers, and less administrative complexity mean Elevate can provide a deeper level of interaction and a higher degree of agility – essential skills for brands with the challenger mindset.”
And 2020 was certainly a year when Elevate’s strategy and model would be “COVID-tested.” “Even despite this highly unusual year, or perhaps even because of it, Elevate’s challenger brand structure, its independent, grow-with-purpose philosophy, and its steadfast culture were confirmed to be ‘pandemic proof,’ and ready to take on another five years of success in the new post-pandemic world.”
PHILANTHROPY/CITIZENSHIP
Elevate continues to support the Foundation Fighting Blindness with both pro bono work and direct local sponsorship and again by participating in the Philadelphia region’s VisionWalk, a major fundraising effort for FFB. In conjunction with its self-promotional campaign, Elevate invests in several animal rights and wildlife causes. Through the Sheldrick Wildlife Trust in Kenya, Elevate sponsors animals for each of the species depicted in the campaign. For last year’s “Leader of the Pack” ad, sponsorship and support still goes to the Wolf Sanctuary of PA. And this year, Elevate has adopted an eagle friend, Challenger, through the American Eagle Foundation.
