Excitant Healthcare Advertising: 2023

Excitant Healthcare Advertising 

2691 Mariners Way SE, Southport, NC 28461 

678-357-1127 • [email protected] • excitanthealthcare.com

Quick Facts

Accounts

• Account wins: 1
• Active business clients: 3

Brands by 2022 sales

• Brand-product accounts hel:d 8
• $25 million or less: 5
• Products not yet approved/launched: 3

Services mix

• Sales collateral: 30%
• Professional digital/mobile: 20%
• Professional print: 20%
• Direct marketing: 10%
• Strategic consulting: 10%
• Consumer digital/web/mobile: 5%
• Promotional medical education: 5%

Client Roster

• GeneIQ Labs
• RedHill Biopharma
• Resilia Pharmaceuticals
• Vetoquinol
• Zoetis

“Big thinking and creativity for small-to-mid-sized brands has always been our focus,” comments Mark Perlotto, president of Excitant. “It’s the Excitant team’s passion for the work we do that drives us, not big budgets. As a result, we have developed the efficiencies that allow us to create campaigns for these types of brands that are cost effective yet still make the brand stand out from their competitors who might have deeper pockets or more resources.” 

According to agency leadership, Excitant has proven that again and again over its 10-plus years of existence. The agency has also shown its adaptability, successfully working across a wide range of healthcare products spanning Rx and OTC pharmaceuticals, biotechnology, diagnostics, and medical devices across both human and animal health. 

The agency has been equally adept at gaining industry recognition for its creative work, making podium appearances year after year at a variety of awards shows for its work in digital, print, and video, executives say.   

Recent accomplishments

Not surprisingly, 2022 was another great year of recognition for the agency’s work,” managers say.  

The agency continued its creative winning ways for Resilia Pharmaceuticals, a start-up dermatology company that brought its AOR business to Excitant in December 2020. Adding to the collection of three creative awards in 2021 for the Ecoza and Recedo  brands in 2021, the agency secured a Silver Communicator Awards for each of brands’ sales aids. The Recedo HCP sales aid was also a finalist for the PM360 Trailblazer Initiative Awards in that category during 2022. 

“Our long, successful experience and expertise in marketing both Rx and OTC dermatology brands for clients was key to making these brands stand out in the market for Resilia,” Perlotto notes. “The award recognition and the success that these smaller brands have had speak volumes in terms of validating both our expertise and creativity with limited budgets.”

The agency has also been tapped as AOR for the Neosalus line including cream, foam, and lotion formulations; Neocera, a version of Neosalus formulated with ceramides; and Solace, an OTC topical product. Originally slated for 2022 launches, these three additional brands are expected to roll out sometime in 2023.

The agency also continued as AOR for Talicia from RedHill Biopharma, which it launched in 2020 and became the No. 1 prescribed brand by gastroenterologists in its category during 2022 and is on-track to become the No. 1 prescribed brand overall in its category in 2023. The agency also supports Aemcolo for RedHill, a brand the company acquired in late 2019. 

In addition to numerous creative awards won for its work on both brands in 2021, Excitant also took home one Gold and four Silver Communicator Awards for these brands in 2022. The Aemcolo Patient Starter Kit was also a finalist in the Patient/Consumer Education category at the 2022 PM360 Trailblazer Awards. 

The agency also continued to work with long-term diagnostics client, Zoetis Animal Health on developing a strategic communications campaign around its global contracting policies and practices as a way of differentiating itself in the veterinary market.

In a bid to leverage both its experience in the veterinary market and its strategic creativity, Vetoquinol USA tapped Excitant to launch its Simplera brand into the market in 2022, with what agency executives say were outstanding results –  initial orders exceeded launch projections by three times and sold out of the first six months of inventory in just five weeks. “By positioning the brand messages to address the benefits for all stakeholders (veterinarians, pet owners and pets) and creative that featured a variety of ‘patients’ raising their paws expressing their preference for Simplera, Excitant created a fun and memorable campaign that both stood out and resonated with the target audience of small animal veterinarians,” executives say. The launch campaign also took home a Silver Davey Award and two Silver Vetty Awards, the latter which are specifically for veterinary products.

“Quite simply, the creative campaigns we develop for small-to-mid-sized brands are intended to get those brands noticed by the intended target audiences while breaking through the competitive noise and media overload,” Perlotto says. “The brand performance since launch for both Talicia and Simplera are a testament to the effectiveness of our work for our clients, which is the most important metric as far as we are concerned.” 

Structure and services

Excitant focuses on three main disciplines: marketing strategy, creative development, and account service with its core team, while providing full-service capabilities for clients by leveraging a network of trusted partners for specialized services. Managers say the agency, and its clients, have found this to be a more cost-
efficient structure for providing agency support. 

“This is a perfect set-up for us and our clients,” Perlotto says. “We manage those partners on our clients’ behalf if needed, but we’re not carrying the overhead of underutilized personnel so we can be more cost-efficient and cost effective for our clients.” 

Future plans

Specialty therapeutic categories such as dermatology, gastroenterology, ophthalmology, and women’s health are ones where the agency has deep experience and expertise, managers say. In addition, Excitant’s broad experience in many diagnostic and medical device segments as well. Those are often smaller brands with smaller budgets and where the agency is looking to for growth in the future. 

“Some managers of small-to-mid-sized brands may think that agencies are too expensive for their brand and that can put them at a competitive disadvantage,” Perlotto says. “We want to show them that is not necessarily the case, and we have the track record to prove we can be both effective in terms of performance while being cost effective for their budgets.” He adds that marketers faced with those challenges should give Excitant a call to learn more about how the agency has managed to balance both of those challenges for clients.