Evoke Health LLC

101 Avenue of the Americas, 13th Floor

New York, NY 10013

Phone: 212-228-7200

Facsimile: 212-228-2156

E-mail: [email protected]

Website: evokehealth.com

 

Accounts

Account wins            12

Active business clients       17

 

Brands by 2015 sales

Brand-product accounts held        42

 

Services Mix

Digital and Emerging Channels   46%

DTC Advertising      42%

Relationship Marketing      12%

 

Client Roster

Acadia Pharmaceuticals

Allergan

Alnylam Pharmaceuticals

Amgen

Bristol-Myers Squibb

Boehringer Ingelheim

Celgene

Dyax

Gilead Sciences

Lundbeck

Ortho Clinical Diagnostics

Otsuka Pharmaceutical

Pfizer

Shire

ZELTIQ Aesthetics

 

 

For Evoke Health, 2015 was all about managing staggering growth (which catapulted it into Category I), while remaining true to its mission: to be the one-of-a-kind partner to the world’s most ambitious health & wellness brands through progressive storytelling, digital daring, deep insight and technology.

“It’s fantastic to hit this milestone,” says Evoke Health CEO Reid Connolly. “But in doing so, we are keenly aware that fast growing agencies often lose the magic that got them to the dance in the first place. As we’ve evolved, we have been vigilant to nurture and protect Evoke’s commitment to breakthrough creativity, bravery and talent, talent, talent.”

Jonathan Isaacs, chief creative officer, says, “Agencies throw around words like ‘consumer-centric’ or ‘digital innovation’ or ‘behavior change’ but for us, it just boils down to creating influence. Tell a culturally relevant story, pick the right platform as a force multiplier, then build and shape a killer conversation. If you truly understand your consumers and treat them with intelligence, they will take your brand seriously.”

 

This year’s accomplishments

By all measures, the past year was a phenomenal year for Evoke Health, executives say. Revenue surged by almost 30 percent on the strength of expanding current relationships and winning more than 10 new business pitches. The agency also reestablished its strong partnership with Pfizer, built upon past experience in the rare and orphan brand space with Dyax and Alnylam, and launched four new fully integrated consumer brand campaigns for Coolsculpting, Jardiance, and Rexulti, as well as its continued breakthrough digital work on blockbuster brands like the launch of Harvoni.

Spurred by this continued growth, Evoke Health has expanded to include more than 200 full-time employees, adding a slew of talent across all disciplines. To support this growth and continue offering the best service and options for clients and staff alike, the agency made several significant organizational moves. First, Evoke Health opened a Los Angeles office to better service its West Coast clients. Situated in Santa Monica, this most recent location will be led by Evoke veteran Chris Beaton. He is joined by newly hired VP, Client Partner, Kristy Hunston.

Tom Donnelly was elevated to president, and holds responsibilities for all Evoke Health offices: New York, Philadelphia, Chicago, and Los Angeles.

“Tom has always been an indispensable resource for our senior clients and their brands,” Connelly says. “This will give him the opportunity to look across our entire portfolio, understand our clients’ most vexing business issues and build the strongest possible agency team to hit them head on.”

Other key hires in the past year have included Senior VP, Client Partner, Patricia Habig. “The chance to work with world-changing brands at a game-changing agency?” Habig says. “Not a bad place to hang your shingle.” Before joining Evoke Health, Habig worked at a range of leading agencies, where she launched myriad consumer and DTC brands.

To address and accommodate the roiling sea of disruption and transformation healthcare now swims in, Evoke also launched two new companies and established Evoke Group as the parent company of this triad of complementary brands, executives say. Adding to Evoke Health, the group created FIRSTHAND, a digital marketing agency that leverages today’s most engaging technology to utterly simplify brand decisions for all stakeholders, and Traverse HealthStrategy, a digital health consultancy.

According to Eric Daly, managing director, FIRSTHAND, “FIRSTHAND focuses on optimizing interactions between and across health system stakeholders, including healthcare professionals, hospitals, payors, pharmacists, patients and caregivers, to better enable the flow of information and enhance brand pull-through.”

Pat Thistlethwaite, managing director, Traverse HealthStrategy, says, “As new digital sub-channels emerge daily, clients face the challenge of integrating them with proven channels and supporting them with the right organizational infrastructure to deliver the best results.”

 

Structure and services offered

Executives describe Evoke Health as a full-service health and wellness agency.

“Born at the crossroads of creativity and technology, the agency has proudly built on this heritage to innovate, integrate, and inspire, across every platform and channel,” agency leaders say. “Evoke Health provides an integrated suite of services from broadcast TV and print to digital, social, mobile, and relationship marketing – all working together in the service of creating the most powerful, lasting human conversations possible.”

“While building a top-tier, fully integrated consumer health practice over the years through key hires, we also continue to invest in our digital roots, understanding that digital media and emerging technologies will continue to play a major role in every project,” says Heather Torak, chief operating officer.

Dave Mihalovic, executive VP, experience and innovation, seconds Torak’s optimism around the promise and power of new technologies.

“Innovations are leading to more empowered health consumers,” he says. “Not only will patients be better equipped to manage and make health decisions, but providers will benefit from solutions that help improve outcomes and provide personalized care.” These changes always lead to new opportunities, building more direct and potentially lasting relationships between brands and audiences through these new channels, he adds.

Executives say this innate ability to integrate more fully across disciplines and talent not only offers a true differentiator from competitors, it creates more unexpected, vibrant brand narratives that travel effortlessly across every medium.

“Evoke works to make ‘health’ a conversation that consumers are excited to have, not one they must have, or actively avoid,” says Mike Dennelly, executive VP, chief strategy officer. “This approach is at the core of our vision: Health More Human.”

According to Evoke Health’s leaders, the agency approaches each engagement with its Humanize methodology – a comprehensive strategy ethos that includes brand planning, experience strategy, science and medicine, measurement and analytics, and program operations. “Humanize is customizable to meet the needs of any engagement,” executives say.

“Of course, none of this matters without the ability to flawlessly execute,” executives add. “And the account and project management teams at Evoke Health are dedicated to doing just that. Client partners work seamlessly with brand teams to bring their vision to life, while project managers keep work on schedule and on budget. In addition, dedicated regulatory managers have a detailed understanding of the submissions process – ensuring that the work that is developed passes regulatory review and sees the light of day.”

 

Philanthropy/citizenship

According to executives, the people of Evoke Health work together to drive the agency’s philanthropic efforts. “Individuals in all offices are encouraged to support initiatives that they believe in, providing a range of outlets for employees to partner together on things that benefit the communities they work in,” executives say.

Agency leaders point to the award-winning Mo’Voke campaign, Evoke’s creative take on the national Movember initiative to raise awareness for men’s health, which has now raised more than $15,000. Other charitable projects include work with New York Cares and donations to the Boys and Girls Club, Philly AIDS Thrift, Career Wardrobe, and the Vietnam Veterans of America. The staff has also helped raise awareness for American Heart Association, the Platelet Disorder Support Association, and Autism Speaks.