FCB Health New York: 2023

FCB Health New York, an IPG Health company

100 West 33rd Street, New York, NY 10001 

212-672-2300 • [email protected] • fcbhealthny.com

Quick Facts

Accounts

• Account wins: 13
• Active business clients: 42

Brands by 2022 sales

• Brand-product accounts held: 92
• $25 million or less: 4
• $25 million-$50 million: 6
• $50 million-$100 million: 8
• $100 million-$500 million: 29
• $500 million-$1 billion: 11
• $1 billion or more: 11
• Products not yet approved/launched: 23

Services mix

• HCP: 50%
• DTC: 50%

Client roster

• AbbVie
• Agios
• Akebia
• Alexion 
• Astellas
• Axsome
• AstraZeneca
• Avrio
• Bioxcel Therapeutics
• Boehringer Ingelheim
• Cooper Surgical
• Crohn’s & Colitis Foundation
• CSL Behring
• Day One
• DSI
• Exact Sciences
• Genentech
• 

  Winner | Best Launch Campaign
  Mounjaro works in a new way, activating both GIP and GLP-1 receptors together. Similarly, Lilly and FCB Health NY needed to work together seamlessly. Together they created breakthrough branding inspired by mountains; campaigns that conveyed the landscape would never look the same; and a compelling unbranded HCP campaign that established the critical importance of GIP.

  
  Gilead
• GSK
• Immunity Bio
• Immunogen
• Incyte
• Inflammatix
• Iovance
• Janssen
• Kyowa Kirin
• Lilly
• Morphosys
• Novartis
• Novocure
• Ono Pharma
• Otsuka
• Pfizer
• Relmada
• Replimmune
• Sanofi
• Seagen
• Sunovion
• Teva
• UCB
• Unilever
• Zynerba

Winner

• Best Consumer Print Campaign
• Best Launch Campaign

Finalist

• Most Admired Agency
• DE&I Champion
• Best Consumer Print Campaign
• Best Consumer Digital Campaign
• Best Social Media Campaign

 

How does FCB Health New York account for its runaway success, year after year? According to agency leadership, “We approach every project, large or small, with the same relentless passion and purpose. Our mantra, Never Finished, drives our creativity across every stage of the journey. We continue to raise the bar higher and higher, no matter what the world throws at us. Our cadre of best-in-class resources gives our clients exactly what they need to push boundaries and embrace innovation.”

They continue, “While our resources help propel us forward, it’s our culture of ‘we’ over ‘me,’ that creates the kind of environment where our talent, and our client’s business, thrive. Our success is inextricably linked to supporting each other, pushing each other and learning from each other. Above all, we are in it together. Everyone has a voice, and everyone has a role in creating the work – and culture – that we prize. With hybrid work going strong, our people continue to show up in a big way, regardless of where they currently call home. That unique FCB Health New York spark ignites all we do.” 

It’s something Chief Creative Officer Kathleen Nanda states that she is deeply proud of. “I’m consistently blown away by the collective power of our people,” Nanda says. “When we put our heads together and dig in, we are unstoppable. It’s just not in our DNA to be content with the status quo. We love to keep pushing. Our collective passion and tireless dedication are the greatest contributors to our success.”  

Managers attest that every employee’s unwavering commitment to clients, their brands, and each other is exactly why the agency continues to outperform and outpace industry benchmarks. “We come to work each day with a start-up mentality, always excited about what’s next,” executives say. “Our staying power is a direct result of this mindset. On each and every project, our folks are ready to roll up their sleeves and push forward until it’s achieved all that we imagined.”

Recent accomplishments

For the past three years, deep in the midst of a global pandemic and economic uncertainty, FCB Health New York leaders claim the agency achieved more than 20 percent growth year over year “upon an already staggering base.” In 2022, the agency added new business wins across both the pharma and OTC sectors, bringing FCB Health New York to 92 brands and counting. Its 13 new business wins include powerhouse brands for global vaccines and “an oral COVID treatment the world was waiting for,” executives say. “We continued to deepen our commitment to diabetes care, adding another brand poised to be a future blockbuster.”   

Additionally, “we launched. And launched. And launched,” executives say. “This year, we launched some of the biggest blockbusters in the industry, brands that are already pushing billion-dollar status. Over the course of the year, we completed one to five launches a month, with a total of 17 launches and 21 label updates. Simultaneously, we were able to seamlessly pivot to OTC clients, and niche rare disease therapeutics, with equal success. It’s a testament to our deep bench of talent and resources, and our ability to seize every opportunity, big or small.” 

According to leaders, when they are looking to the future, “we see tremendous opportunity for growth in our XD lab, which is stacked with a deep bench of ultra-savvy product designers and innovation-driven creative engineers. They are masters at using complex tools to design and build user-
driven innovations that will continue to propel our industry forward, including AI, experiential, conversational design, virtual assistants and prototypes of everything from robots to diagnostic tools, to video games. 

“We are fully committed to keeping technology interwoven with our brands, so we have made sure these experts work alongside our brand teams – not at a separate stand-alone agency – ensuring our clients have full access at every juncture. We are truly Never Finished dreaming up ways to put the latest technology to work for patients and physicians. We will continue to weave tech into all of our brands so we ensure these experts work side by side with brand teams not as a standalone.”

While all of this technology excites managers, “we know that it’s our extraordinary humans who are the heart and soul of our agency. This year, we added more top talent with 301 new hires, bringing our agency total of full-time employees to 1,469. Among those are 59 boomerangs across a range of disciplines and levels.”

Some key hires include Daniel Mailliard as group creative director, and his partner, Fabio Rodrigues, also group creative director. The agency also brought on Erico Braga as director of art and craft, and elevated Kerry Dwyer, Wendi Goodman, Sarah Hall, Julia Phelan, Jennifer Samuels, and Bill Yorio from executive directors to managing partners. “This incredible group, with a staggering average tenure of 13 years, has repeatedly steered the agency and its clients through the expected roller coaster volatility of the healthcare sector, driving a remarkable trajectory that has exceeded industry expectations,” executives say. “Their leadership will continue to fuel the agency’s growth and innovation for years to come. Any network would be honored to have one or two of these exceptional leaders, and we have six of them.”   

According to Dana Maiman, CEO of IPG Health, “True to our Never Finished spirit, FCB Health New York has continued to grow at an unprecedented rate, defying industry expectations, consistently raising the bar and redefining ‘great’ across all facets of our business and the industry at large. Our success is a testament to our obsession with doing with what’s right for our clients, their brands, and our people, and creating a culture where everyone thrives as their best and truest selves.” 

When it comes to the agency’s people, leaders say they make sure that significant growth translates into significant opportunities for employees. “Our talent philosophy for championing our people continues to be PCM [Proactive Career Management],” executives say. “PCM is our approach to empowering our people to proactively explore their potential and take control of their career journey within our agency and the broader IPG Health network. Since mid-2022, over 200 employees have used this approach to grow and evolve their careers across the IPG Health network – that includes people who have moved to different agencies within the network, moved into new disciplines, developed new skills within their current roles, etc.”

Executives state that FCB Health New York garnered many industry accolades and achievements over the past year. Overall, the agency received 88 awards across 17 U.S. and international award shows., including Category I Agency of the Year at the Manny Awards; Digiday WorkLife Awards’ Most Committed to DE&I; Silver for GMHC’s “Blood Vessels” and Gold for “The Trial for #ClinicalEquality” for DE&I at the Anthem Awards; Best of the Best Bravest Client (Kelsey Louie, CEO of GMHC) at the Creative Floor Awards; and The Agency Vanguard Award at the Xpectives Health Awards. 

Structure and services

At FCB Health New York, we stay true to our commitment to creating a work environment in which everyone can be their truest and best self,” managers say. “Equity, diversity, and inclusion (EDI) are foundational to our culture and our creativity, embedded into every touchpoint of our employees’ journey through a variety of programs.”

 These include Inclusive Managers Toolkit (IMT), a mandatory 10-week program designed to provide all managers with the skills and resources to thrive by exploring who they are as leaders, through an EDI lens; Employee Relations Group, which is dedicated to fostering a culture of equity, respect, and healthy working relationships across the agency; and FCBWE, an employee-led Diversity & Inclusion Council, committed to creating interconnectivity and promoting diversity across the network.

The most recent program, EDI+You, is a “strategic evolution” of the agency longstanding commitment to equity, diversity, and inclusion. “It’s a network-wide strategy that formalizes our approach to creating systemic changes and solutions across four core pillars of our business – Our People, Our Culture, Our Creative Solutions and Our Impact,” managers say. “Equity, diversity, and inclusion are too important to be the responsibility of any one person, team or even department. That’s why this strategy is designed to be actionable and ownable by every single one of us.”

According to the leadership team, female employees now comprise 66.2 percent of FCB Health New York’s staff, and 34.5 percent are racially diverse. “At the leadership levels, we are ahead of the industry with 51.9 percent of senior management identifying as female and 15 percent of those who are from diverse backgrounds,” executives say.   

Additionally, the agency offers internal development programs for employees at every level. “Participation has increased in all these offerings as we continuously create ways for our people to enhance their skill sets and take on new challenges,” executives say. 

Programs include Moxie, a junior-level program for rising stars in the agency and across the network; BetterUp, a virtual one-on-one leadership coaching for select VP level and above employees; and Write It Forward,  a 12-week program to attract, train and mentor writing talent to excel in high-science copywriting roles. “Last spring, we expanded the program to the entire IPG Health network with 40+ participants,” executives say. “Notably, we hired 26 talented individuals through Write It Forward in 2022.” 

Other programs are SEAL, an intensive week-long, cross-functional coaching program for account, creative and strategy leaders; and The Residency, an eight-week onboarding program for employees making the transition from general advertising to healthcare advertising.  

When it comes to its return to the office approach, “we continue to lean into the IPG Health philosophy of flexibility, accountability and trust,” executives say. “Unlike other agencies and networks, we trust our employees to work with their teams to figure out what works best for themselves, their families and their clients.” 

Future plans

In spite of all we’ve accomplished, our mantra of Never Finished continues to ring true for us year after year,” executives state. “We are Never Finished leveraging data and new technologies so they can best serve our clients. We are Never Finished trying to improve equity and diversity among our ranks. We are Never Finished helping our people find their best path to a truly satisfying career they are proud to pursue. At FCB Health New York, we don’t re-invent ourselves to suit the trends, we know who we are, and we will continue to stay hungry, stay curious, and continue to redefine and represent what ‘best in class’ means.”

Philanthropy/citizenship 

When it comes to our work, we continued our renowned pro bono initiatives that we have invested in year after year,” managers say. This includes the Disappearing Doctors initiative, The Trial for #ClinicalEquality, and Ms. Information, a campaign in partnership with GMHC, to help get LGBTQ+ individuals vaccinated against COVID-19 and shut down misinformation on social media.   

“We also continued our fight for blood equality with the ‘Blood Equality’ (GMHC) initiative,” executives say. “For the past seven years, we’ve been all-in on the fair treatment of blood around the world. In late January 2023, the FDA announced draft guidelines to ease rules for gay men donating blood. Although there is still more work to be done, this is a step forward in the push for blood equality and we’re determined to continue raising our voice until the same criteria is used for EVERY blood donor, and science defeats stigma.”  

FCB Health New York also recently partnered with a new pro bono client with a health equality mission. According to leadership, this women’s health product line was created by two women of color whose goal is to give other women of color better access to life-improving health products. “Staying true to our purpose of doing what’s right, we want to be the company that leans in to ensure that the next generation of women of color have leadership opportunities for themselves and the people around them,” executives say. 

Managers state that it’s not just people who get the agency’s time and attention. “This year we partnered with the ASPCA to launch a pro bono effort for our canine friends called ‘Dogs Eat Everything,’ an engaging, animated campaign and social media effort focused on keeping our beloved furry friends healthy and out of harm,” executives say. The website leverages chat technology to immediately answer questions about potential toxins and connect users to the animal poison control hotline.