LevLane: 2021
LevLane
100 East Penn Square
Suite 1101 North
Philadelphia, PA 19107
Telephone
215-825-9600
Website
levlane.com
QUICK FACTS
Accounts
Account wins 10
Active business clients 45
Brands by 2020 sales
Brand-product accounts held 15
SERVICES MIX
Advertising/brand/strategy 45%
Interactive/SEO/digital media 45%
PR/social media 10%
CLIENT ROSTER
Agile Therapeutics
BioReference Laboratories
Cano Health
Capital Heath
Cardiac Consultants of Philadelphia
DASH Pharmaceuticals
Eagle Pharmaceuticals
Holy Redeemer Health System
Lannett Company
New Bolton Center Hospital
Rothman Orthopaedics
Senior Living Communities / CCRCs
United Concordia Dental
US Digestive Health
In the words of LevLane’s leadership, “2020 was weird. There is really no other way to say it.”
But as an agency, LevLane was paying close attention to the encroaching pandemic and was planning for the necessary shift in work that would need to occur to keep the business moving without any disruptions, management says. “By the time we moved to a virtual environment, we were prepared for all internal and external communications using Microsoft TEAMS. We even enabled our clients and other partners to communicate with us through the TEAMS environment.”
More so, if there was ever a year where “brand engagement and understanding” were more important, it was 2020, agency leaders say.
“Brands that connected with their customers fared the best in these difficult times,” according to LevLane executives. “That’s why we’ve been ahead of the curve even before it was fashionable; we’ve been focused on more than building brand understanding for the past 37 years. From day one LevLane has been all about building brand LOVE – so all stakeholders understand the uniqueness of your brand and love it – A love that lasts through transformational times like we experienced in 2020. And that’s why we continue to ask every new life sciences client the burning question: ‘Who Loves Ya?’
“We are driving innovation in life sciences through our approach to the healthcare consumer journey. We don’t think about them as patients; we think about them as people with individual perspectives and challenges.”
That requires a healthy mix of consumer, healthcare, payer, pharmaceutical, biotech, and medical device experience, agency executives say. “This combination results in our innovative human-to-human experiences for all stakeholders – experiences relevant across emerging channels.”
“This model is uniquely LevLane,” management explains. “It combines intellect, talent, and vision for our clients. Working together, we can – and do – create new opportunities to benefit health, life, and the bottom line. Put simply, we create brand love and understanding. It is more than our core strategy; it is our North Star.”
RECENT ACCMPLISHMENTS
LevLane continued to grow in 2020, according to the leadership team, and “not many agencies can say that.”
In 2020, LevLane led Agile Therapeutics in the launch of Twirla (levonorgestrel and ethinyl estradiol) Transdermal System, a new branded hormonal contraceptive patch. “As the lead brand agency and consumer AOR, we developed the branding, messaging, packaging, and launch campaign,” agency executives say. “We focused Twirla’s branding and campaign around the notion that all women deserve a birth control that fits their lives. We created twirla.com to educate and empower. This taps into the discontent we know from our research that women have with existing methods, arming them with information about an option they may be unaware of. This information instills confidence in how Twirla works for them, and how to ask for it during their next HCP visit.”
“Women were clear – birth control advertising was not connecting,” says Timmy Garde, chief innovation leader at LevLane. “We showed how Twirla fits their lives and not the other way around, and did so in a very authentic way.”
In late 2019, United Concordia Dental Insurance (UCD) joined LevLane as a new flagship client. LevLane took the lead in launching a B2B campaign aimed at small business in key geographies. “They needed fresh eyes to rethink how they could win now – with customers, brokers, providers and their own employees,” management says. “So, we created a campaign that not only carved out a unique personality in the category, it gave UCD a rallying cry.”
LevLane created breakthrough television, a new tactic to UCD, that linked print, digital, paid and organic social, to get customers, brokers, companies and even their own sales force excited about United Concordia, according to the leadership team. “We launched a targeted B2C campaign to enroll federal employees in one of two UCD dental insurance program for these consumers and their families. The campaign was successful despite the significant impact that COVID-19 had on the federal government in 2020.”
“United Concordia presented a variety of challenges. They had multiple lines of business that required different strategies and approaches,” says Kevin Dunn, senior VP, strategy and client engagement. “We started like we always do, trying to understand who really loves UCD and why. We placed that target persona and their needs at the center of the campaign.”
LevLane also put my•labology, the DTC diagnostic business unit of BioReference Laboratories, an OPKO Health company, into full motion in 2020. When COVID-19 arose, the company found itself in a unique position to help the public, agency executives say. “That effort began with a national public relations and media outreach effort put in place to build trust. The company developed one of the first COVID-19 tests and opened pop-up locations across the country for antibody testing. So, my•labology became the face and marketing communications source that drove awareness about the tests and directed people to them.”
“The country’s fear was palpable. The company needed a PR campaign aimed to provide data-driven, factual information about COVID-19 and the tests,” says Liz Weir, senior VP of content, social media, and PR at LevLane. “That PR campaign did more than boost name recognition, it provided a service to the public, giving clarity in a time of ambiguity.”
“We know this is last year’s picture, but we wanted to follow the social distancing rules. Oh, and no one wanted to get out of their work-from-home sweats.”
STRUCTURE AND SERVICES
At LevLane, we match the talent to meet the marketing and communications challenges that brands face in today’s complicated, diverse, and ever-shifting marketplace,” agency leaders say. “We are connected with a uniquely talented network, from market evaluation, access, and commercialization to meet any challenge.”
“It’s not easy, but we make it seamless for our clients as we solve their problems, meet their challenges and provide innovative solutions to solve complex issues,” Garde says.
FUTURE PLANS
The leadership team says LevLane’s Life Sciences successes in 2020 are already leading to future engagements in a broad spectrum of health and wellness. “Our focus is to stay ahead of the curve as consumers want to take more control of their health and capitalize in growing ways, they are engaging with HCPs such as telemedicine,” Garde says. “This is how we are treated as true partners to our clients and extensions to their teams.”
PHILANTHROPY/CITIZENSHIP
LevLane remains committed to social responsibility since its founding in 1984, from branding for the Support Center for Child Advocates (where Chief Creative Officer Bruce Lev serves on the board) to the PennFuture environmental advocacy group (where CEO David Lane is a board member) to Philadbundance, PAWS, and more.
LevLane partners with the Magical Mila Foundation, helping to raise nearly $200,000 since 2019. Funds allow Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (a Foundation partner) to explore trial technologies for neurofibromatosis type 1. The Foundation raises awareness about NF1 and high blood pressure in high-risk infants and toddlers. Garde, who sits on the Board of the Foundation, says, “LevLane is grateful to be part of this wonderful initiative to help save the lives of kids in the future, but also honor the life of a beautiful little girl.”
