JUICE Pharma Worldwide: 2021
JUICE Pharma Worldwide
132 W. 31st Street, 14th Floor
New York, NY 10001
Telephone
212-647-1595
Website
juicepharma.com
QUICK FACTS
Accounts
Account wins 5
Active business clients 13
Brands by 2020 sales
Brand-product accounts held 21
$100 million-$500 million 11
$500 million-$1 billion 1
$1 billion or more 3
Products not yet approved/launched 6
SERVICES MIX
Digital 50%
Traditional 50%
CLIENT ROSTER
Alkermes
Biogen
Blue Note Therapeutics
Emergent BioSolutions
Impel NeuroPharma
Merck & Co.
Merck Vaccine Division
Novartis Oncology
Telix
With several significant new assignments won during late 2019, the leaders at JUICE say they began 2020 planning for what they knew would be a very different and transformative year. “The excitement of new growth and new clients added to the excitement of a move to a new midtown location. In the early weeks of the year, the biggest challenge seemed to be where to locate everyone who would need to be added to support the expanding assignments.”
By the end of the first quarter, the script for 2020 had been radically rewritten, JUICE executives say. “Our teams, many of which were a mix of new and existing staff, were forced to develop new rhythms very quickly. What we witnessed was an incredible display of cohesiveness and adaptability,” says Forrest King, agency co-founder.
Since mid-March 2020, all work at JUICE has been executed without a hitch with a 100 percent remote workforce, agency leaders say. Reflecting on a truly unprecedented year, Lynn Macrone, co-founder, comments that, “we are very fortunate that in many ways, 2020 was business as usual. Our hiring never slowed down and if anything, the ability to collaborate smoothly while working remotely enabled us to attract talented candidates from other areas of the country. By mid-year, we began to realize that this new way of working was unlocking many unforeseen opportunities.”
Within 10 days of the decision to go fully remote, JUICE teams had conducted two virtual workshops and a virtual pitch, and from there, the pace never slowed down, with teams continuing to find new ways to collaborate effectively with colleagues and clients.
According to agency leaders, a large part of this success came from the individual level resilience and flexibility exhibited by every team member, with JUICE’s commitment to people and culture played an important supporting role as well. “We anticipated that people might begin feeling worn down by isolation or worry, so early on we instituted a number of fun events, training and even exercise classes that people could participate in remotely,” says Lisa Semp, JUICE’s longstanding HR leader. “They’ve been a big hit and they’ve helped keep our community alive and well.”
Business at JUICE expanded steadily throughout 2020 as the agency added several new clients to a diverse roster. Agency leaders point to service expansion decisions made over the preceding years that paid off significantly in 2020. “Clients are surprised to see how fully integrated CX is to every one of our teams,” says Dave Mihalovic, JUICE’s Customer Experience and Innovation leader. “It seems as though every assignment comes with new challenges that our analysts and strategists can help unlock. This is helping us earn many new fans.”
RECENT ACCOMPLISHMENTS
Several key launch assignments from new as well as existing clients helped fuel growth at JUICE, management says. “We have developed an expertise in launching commercial firsts – those first in class or first launches for entrepreneurial organizations that have so much significance for companies,” Macrone says. “The combination of experienced leadership, team depth, operational effectiveness and high-touch client service continues to serve us well. What we referred to as ‘BIGtique’ for years has grown to mean so much for clients who have so much riding on every decision. We’re excited to have been selected for so many of these special assignments and we’re very proud of the organization we’ve been fortunate enough to assemble.”
In 2020, JUICE continued to grow its data analytics and CX capabilities. Management says the expansion of staff to support new assignments added depth throughout the agency, most notably within the creative group under the leadership of industry veterans Joan Wildermuth, Phil Scherer, and Greg Gross.
Remote collaboration did little to slow down the work of B12, the highly acclaimed multimedia studio led by longtime agency leader Michael Kaminski. “We pioneered some new techniques that enabled us to conduct high quality video shoots with a variety of subjects, including busy KOLs,” Kaminski says. “The cooperation – and the results – were outstanding and we were able to deliver critical outputs on time and in budget despite all the craziness.”
In many ways, working remotely helped to unify teams and increased collaboration and productivity in ways that no one anticipated, agency leaders say. JUICE’s International Network Director Roxana Bannach-Lin notes that, “Working remotely enabled people to be accessible for more discussions. Once we all got used to the new working rhythms, we discovered ways to partner more effectively than ever. This isolation has actually been very effective in bringing us all closer together.” With Bannach-Lin’s leadership, the network’s role expanded by nearly 30 percent across several key international assignments. The need for alternatives to live meetings and congresses was well timed for the global network’s introduction and expansion of HyperFair, a virtual congress content management platform.
An increased client interest in remote detailing led to a significant surge of activity for the agency during mid 2020. “Our Veeva partnership and our familiarity with Veeva Engage enabled us to help clients quickly adapt to a radically different selling environment,” Mihalovic says.
STRUCTURE AND SERVICES
HCP, patient, and consumer promotion and education remain at the core of JUICE’s business, agency executives say, adding that to do this effectively requires a well-orchestrated alignment of expertise at every step of an engagement. “We work side by side with clients from insight to implementation to help them compete, optimize and thrive,” King says.
As a 19-year-old independent agency, JUICE has a well-honed approach to working with external agency partners – in fact, some of these partnerships have been so positive that they’ve led to joint pitches, management says. “Partnerships enable us to thoughtfully select best-in-class, brand-centric, multidisciplinary teams,” Macrone says. “When it comes to specialized expertise like access strategy or media planning, we think our independence offers a distinct advantage because we are free to recommend the best agency partners for our clients. And when we tap into any of our partner agencies, we know that we share the same commitment to the success of the brands we support. The result is a highly motivated and focused group of experts who work together out of choice, not because of common ownership.”
FUTURE PLANS
Lynn Macrone, CEO Global; Forrest King, CEO Global
JUICE leadership says the agency wrapped up 2020 feeling a greater sense of confidence and optimism than in earlier years. “We’ve built the right team to keep building Vital Brands,” Macrone says. “We’ve hit our stride and we’re excited about what’s ahead.”
JUICE is building on its strengths to prepare for what its leaders see as an exciting future. “Clients of every size are seeking a competitive edge by working differently and taking full advantage of operating tempos that are more common on the tech world,” Mihalovic says. “We are helping them bring that vision to life but we’re also opening their eyes to the role that new data tools aided by machine learning can do for their digital execution and promotional return on investment.”
According to King, “It’s often been said that everyone at an agency is creative – that every challenge should inspire creativity from every team member. The same should be said about innovation.
“We had a year that was surprising and unexpected in so many ways. As a team we met the challenges of inventing a new way of working on the fly. I think it showcased one of the things we all love about this industry – its unpredictability. Coping with – or even better, thriving – in the face of unexpected challenges is at the heart of what we all do. I think that as an industry we’ve learned new ways of working and that realistically, there will be no return to normal, only the ‘next normal.’ We will meet it head on.”
