LLNS 2015
LLNS
220 East 42nd Street
New York, NY 10017
Telephone: 212-771-3000
Website: llns.com
QUICK FACTS
Accounts
Account wins 6
Accounts resigned 1
Active business clients 9
Brands by 2014 sales
Brand-product accounts held 30
$25 million or less 12
$25 million – $50 million 2
$50 million – $100 million 3
$100 million – $500 million 3
$500 million to $1 billion 8
$1 billion or more 1
Products yet to be approved/launched 1
Services Mix
Professional 71%
Payor 16%
Consumer 7%
Direct-to-studio 6%
Client Roster
Abbott Diagnostics
Braintree Laboratories
Calibra
DePuy Synthes
Ethicon
Ethicon Endo Surgery
HMR
Merck & Co.
Merck Consumer Care
Novartis Pharmaceuticals
Takeda
Therakos
As the global healthcare environment continues to evolve, agency executives say LLNS has rapidly advanced in tandem, delivering more of the leading-edge ideas and services that clients require in order to thrive and take advantage of new opportunities. By always keeping client needs front and center – and making innovation an operating principle, rather than just a slogan – LLNS achieved another strong year in 2014, delivering steady growth and building out its skill and resource base for the future.
Company executives believe that the LLNS engine for growth is the value the agency delivers to brands and businesses. Starting in 2015, the agency’s core values of heart and science are powered by a new idea: maximizing brand performance through “reimagination.”
According to agency leaders, reimagination draws on the agency’s expertise at creating collaborations that truly work. As one of the hub agencies of the Omnicom global network, LLNS leads the way in designing collaborative models that optimize the world’s best talent and resources to successfully meet the client challenges of today and tomorrow.
“Throughout 2015 and beyond, LLNS will demonstrate the power of reimagination to even more clients and brands, setting the stage for continued strong agency growth,” executives say.
The year’s accomplishments
2014 was marked by stronger relationships and expanded business engagements with many key clients, including Merck, Johnson & Johnson, and Novartis. LLNS also partnered with Doremus to win a new assignment for Abbott Diagnostics. In addition, LLNS was named global professional agency for Takeda’s Leuprorelin.
In what started out as pro bono work, LLNS secured a commitment from the Global Alzheimer’s Project (GAP) to be agency of record. LLNS will continue to work with the GAP to help deliver on that group’s promise of building awareness around the issues of innovation in the treatment of Alzheimer’s disease.
Economic Vue, the LLNS agency focused on the payer space, also experienced growth in 2014, with a growing number of key assignments from Merck and Johnson & Johnson.
Structure and services offered
In 2014, Chief Creative Officer Dan Chichester joined CEO and President Sharon Callahan to form a new management team, and began executing a new vision for the company: to improve the agency’s ability to efficiently deliver the best possible work for clients.
“Every improvement in structure and services at LLNS has been based on this mandate, with a goal of strong momentum going into 2015,” executives say.
The senior leadership team, comprising leadership from the senior VP level up, continued its charge to bridge the executive and mid-levels to help drive innovation and quality, energize culture, and help cultivate the next generation of agency leadership.
According to LLNS leaders, the agency’s collaborative skill is on display in a variety of pan-Omnicom team efforts, including UNIFIED (Merck), Constellation (J&J), and Team Goriki (Takeda). “Excelling at working seamlessly with partner agencies and becoming selfless in service to the client and the brand is hard work,” executives say. “Yet LLNS has developed principles that make it not only easier, but also more gratifying, according to agency leaders. By being ego-less, and championing the principle that great ideas can come from everyone in every discipline, LLNS has become a respected partner to other agencies and a trusted team leader for its clients.”
To further realize the vision of reimagining how to work with clients, LLNS acquired Direct VUE, a direct-to-studio group located in West Chester, Pa. With this acquisition, LLNS now has the ability to offer more economical solutions when client needs call for it.
Other additions on the talent front include Jeff Bratteson, senior VP, creative director; Ed Infurna, senior VP, management supervisor; Meaghan Onofrey, senior VP, management supervisor; Ken Hollander, senior VP, director of insights and strategy; Paula van de Nes, Ph.D., director of medical strategy; Jerry Tamburro, VP, group art supervisor; Stan Poulos, VP, group art supervisor; Jonathan Wood, VP, group copy supervisor; and Gabrielle Tjaden, Ph.D., VP, associate creative director, copy.
Future plans
According to agency leaders, LLNS has moved to expand globally, focus on big data, and enter into the PAR (patient access and recruitment) space for clinical trials. In addition, LLNS plans to expand its consumer business, with Ellen Fields, president of LLNS Consumer, charged with infusing this capability into the company, giving LLNS yet another capability to help clients reimagine their brands.
Agency management believes that these investments will position LLNS for yet another great year in 2015.
Philanthropy/citizenship
In 2014, LLNS provided support and sponsorship for the Healthcare Women’s Association (HBA) and the Women’s Venture Fund (WVF). The HBA’s mission is “to further the advancement and impact of women in healthcare worldwide.” The WVF supports women entrepreneurs in New York and New Jersey and has helped launch and support thousands of business ventures.
LLNS rebranded the Global Alzheimer’s Project to generate greater awareness for the group’s mission in the face of growing incidence of Alzheimer’s disease and the challenges of inefficiencies in the clinical trial recruitment process, suboptimal trial site activations, and compartmentalized funding.
The agency also was asked to develop materials for the Arthritis Foundation’s annual gala that would showcase the foundation as being on the cutting edge of research and advocacy, bring awareness to the fact that children, too, can suffer from arthritis, encourage people to see arthritis as a disability rather than an “old person’s disease,” and reassure attendees that there is something they can do to help.
For the Mental Health Association, LLNS worked with management to create a more unified and overarching brand “umbrella” to better link the organization with its programs and services.
During 2014, LLNS, Callahan, and Chichester continued to provide strategic and creative support to the Medical Advertising Hall of Fame (MAHF). Chichester also served as a faculty member in the MAHF’s “Young Executives Night Out seminars,” providing mentorship and imparting his wisdom to the future stars of our industry.
