Giant Creative Strategy: 2017
Giant Creative Strategy LLC
1700 Montgomery Street, Suite 485
San Francisco, CA 94111
Telephone: 415-655-5200
E-mail: [email protected]
Website: giantagency.com
Accounts
Account wins 5
(5 new clients, multiple brands)
Active business clients 19
Brands by 2016 sales
Brand-product accounts held 25+
Services Mix
Professional and consumer healthcare marketing communications 100%
Client Roster
Abbott
Actelion
Amgen
AstraZeneca
Baxalta
BioMarin
Boston Scientific
Edwards Lifesciences
Genentech
Genomic Health
Gilead
GSK
Juno Therapeutics
Merz
Neutrogena
Novo Nordisk
Roche
Seattle Genetics
St. Jude Medical
Veracyte
With growth in revenue, headcount, and clients, 2016 was a strong year for Giant. The largest independent healthcare agency in the West made significant strides in building its business with wins in emerging categories, including cancer immunotherapy, gene therapy, and molecular diagnostics. Giant made additions across all departments, including welcoming Eric Steckelman back to the agency as chief growth officer and Jodi Alden as executive VP global strategy. Giant promoted Kristina Ellis to executive VP, executive creative director, and Amber Rogers to executive VP, managing group director. According to agency leaders, Giant is working with a who’s who of leading healthcare companies. Executives contend that the agency’s strategic and creative work has resulted in measurable results for clients, and multiple honors from industry award shows and publications.
The Year’s Accomplishments
Giant significantly expanded its oncology portfolio in 2016. The agency was named AOR for Seattle Genetics and its CD30-directed antibody-drug conjugate, Adcetris. Juno Therapeutics tapped Giant to be its strategic partner as the company develops novel, CAR-T cellular immunotherapies based on two distinct and complementary platforms. “Giant’s cross-functional “immuno-expertise” is helping raise the bar on what customer engagement looks like in this brave new world of medical innovation,” executives note.
Also in oncology, Giant continued working with Amgen’s oncology business unit, as both an AOR and a strategic and execution partner with its multi-channel marketing group. Additionally, Giant continued its partnership with Actelion’s brand Valchlor, targeting physicians who treat cutaneous T-cell lymphoma.
Molecular Diagnostics was a significant growth area in 2016. Giant added Genomic Health and Veracyte as client partners. For Genomic Health, Giant is developing a full range of strategic, creative, and tactical work across the company’s multi-tumor product line. And with Veracyte, a host of HCP and patient-directed initiatives are under way to support the AFIRMA Thyroid FNA analysis.
According to agency executives, Giant is uniquely positioned to help these companies, and others like them, fundamentally improve patient care through more actionable information and resolving diagnostic uncertainty.
Giant’s work in rare diseases was in full force in 2016, its executives noted. The agency continued its 15-year relationship with
Actelion’s PAH portfolio, helping the company retain market leadership across its product line. Giant also continued to partner with BioMarin on multiple initiatives for cerliponase alfa and Vimizim. Early in 2017, Giant expanded its relationship with BioMarin in medical affairs and the company’s hemophilia gene therapy pipeline candidate.
Giant expanded its work with medical device companies, with both organic and new business growth. Together with Edwards Lifesciences, the agency launched a major therapy awareness campaign targeting cardiologists. Giant developed new positioning, messaging and campaigns for HeartMate II LVAD, CentriMag, and the CardioMEMS HF System for St. Jude Medical (now Abbott). Giant expanded its partnership with Boston Scientific taking on strategic development for the new Synergy bioabsorbable stent, along with ongoing support of a DTP/DTR campaign for bronchial thermoplasty.
2016 was a busy year for Giant on the East Coast, with work for multiple client partners, including GSK, Baxalta (now Shire), and Novo Nordisk. Highlights include the launch of a medical attention multichannel campaign geared toward elevating the physiology of obesity, featuring thought leadership initiatives, web, search, third-party digital advertising, and sales-force integration; recrafting an HCP web experience to support a multi-pronged MCM strategy, including extensive user testing and content strategy; and data-driven email programs, built to deploy relevant content to HCPs over time, based on changes in prescribing behavior.
Giant led multiple user-centric research and strategy initiatives in 2016. The agency engaged more than 100 oncologists in user testing, interviews, mental-model mapping, and content preference research to better understand needs and behaviors across multiple channels. This resulted in a complete redesign and consolidation of a major biopharma company’s branded web properties ensuring end users have easy and predictable experiences as they seek information across the portfolio.
Giant’s brand experience team, headed by Christine Armstrong, led several major ethnographic initiatives across Genentech’s respiratory, ophthalmology, and RA franchises to inform the optimization of the company’s engagement strategies at major conferences. And Giant’s digital strategy team took on a comprehensive heuristic, technical, and analytical audit of an industry-leading portfolio of rep-driven Veeva interactive visual aids to reveal internal and external opportunities to enhance development, data capture, and customer experience.
Structure & Services
Giant’s recently merged analytics and media capabilities are now greatly benefiting clients through better collaboration between insight generators and strategists. Jason Luis, senior VP media & analytics, leads this effort, and brings a new level of focus on implementing holistic strategies that leverage the best of ideas and execution. “The results have paid off for clients in measurable and meaningful ways,” agency managers say. “In 2017, Giant will more than double its media work compared to 2016.”
As media plans shift towards digital at a brisk pace, the agency has brought on new digitally native and programmatically savvy media personnel. According to agency leaders, this is resulting in more reach for clients and more continual presence for their brands, positioning them to better compete with others who have much larger budgets.
Future Plans
Giant continued to redefine future agency best practices during 2016. With a drive to deliver Giant insights, ideas, and execution, the agency is getting more and more seats at the tables that matter most to the future of healthcare marketing communications. Giant is forecasting another growth year for 2017, and management expects that growth to come from both new and existing client partnerships.
Philanthropy/Citizenship
Giant has always made it a priority to give back to the community and organizations close to its staff and clients. Highlighting 2016 was the expansion of the agency’s A-team, where small groups come together to enhance agency culture and values. Initiatives included adopting families in need for the holidays, partnering with local public radio, participation in the SF AIDS Walk, school-supply drives, and a unique creative partnership with The City of Dreams Community Garden Program, a youth development mentorship program that helps kids become the best they can be through the right mix of innovation, support, and research-backed methods to make it happen.
