Patients & Purpose: 2024

Patients & Purpose

200 Varick Street, New York, NY, 10014

[email protected] • patientsandpurpose.com

 

Quick facts

Accounts

• Account wins: 6
• Active business clients: 14
  

Brands by 2023 sales

• Brand-product accounts held: 27

Services mix

• DTC/DTP: 50%
• Consumer/interactive: 30%
• Social/influencer: 20%

Client roster

• Alexion
• AstraZeneca
• Bausch+Lomb
• Biogen
• BioMarin
• Corcept Therapeutics
• Eisai
• Gilead Sciences
• Novavax
• Novocure
• Pfizer
• Otsuka
• Sage Therapeutics
• Vertex

Winner

• Best Agency Campaign

“Patients & Purpose (P&P) is the health marketing industry’s premier patient and consumer agency,” according to the leadership team. “For 20-plus years, across 180-plus brands, P&P has been transforming the health experience with big, category-shifting ideas and difference-making pharma firsts.”   

Coming off another year of double-digit growth, CEO Deb Deaver credits the agency’s ability to not only come up with the big consumer idea but also build a patient-centric experience around it. “We live by our mantra: No one knows patients better,” Deaver says. “But one thing that’s made us an industry leader all these years is the ability to blend DTC with DTP, as well as patient support. And more and more clients have been tapping into that expertise.”

Recent accomplishments

As a champion of innovation, P&P is proud to be the agency of record for three of Time Magazine’s best medical inventions of 2023,” agency leaders state. “These inventions are revolutionizing the treatment of type 1 diabetes, postpartum depression, and Alzheimer’s disease.”

Most recently, P&P launched an unbranded DTC campaign focused on screening for type 1 diabetes.

“The ideas behind the campaigns we’re launching are big, but they’re equally insightful,” says Dina Peck, chief creative officer. “That’s the difference between making a lot of noise and having a massive impact on conditions like T1D.”

The agency won several awards in 2023, including Best of Show at the Mobile Web Awards and Gold at the Telly’s.

“But, above all else, P&P is focused on creating work that works hard for brands and patients, including trend-setting creativity on TikTok, driving viral awareness of vaccines; custom UX for the cognitively challenged, setting new standards for web accessibility; and ‘kiducation’ for a chronic condition, designed to get little ones to embrace their treatment,” executives say.

Structure and services

With its diverse pool of industry-leading talent, leaders claim that P&P has expertise in all facets of patient and consumer marketing, as well as a broad range of experience across brands of all types and sizes – from mass-market blockbusters to rare disease breakthroughs. These executives also boast that the agency has an extensive network of partners, both in and out of pharma, to help meet the needs of any health brand. P&P is connected with tech giants such as Google and Meta, as well as up-and-coming innovators such as StoryFile and Runway. And, as part of Omnicom Health Group (OHG), P&P can extend its reach around the globe.   

Executives say another advantage of being part of OHG is access to Omni, a comprehensive data engine that can drive every facet of the marketing process, from insights and planning through attribution and optimization. “Having Omni as part of our suite of data tools helps us give brands a real competitive edge,” says P&P President Eliot Tyler. “We’re able to seamlessly integrate patient and consumer data with HCP and payer sources, so we can look at a brand challenge or opportunity from every angle and make decisions with precision.”

Embedded within the agency are four centers of excellence (COEs) – the Emerging Digital Group, Equal Health Group, Health Literacy Group and Patient Services Experience Team – that leaders say have mastered how to meet critical patient needs, from accessible digital experiences to language that truly resonates.

“These COEs not only help keep the agency at the forefront of health marketing, they also work hand-in-hand with each brand team to ensure their work meets the highest standards,” executives add.

Future plans

As DTC is redefined by the proliferation of awareness channels and guidance from the FDA, P&P is focused on helping brands seize the opportunities,” agency leaders state. “With channels like streaming and social blurring the lines between DTC and DTP, P&P is connecting the dots to pull patients through from awareness to conversion. And, with the FDA’s recent mandate to make the major statement more prominent in DTC ads, P&P is pushing brands to lean in and make the overall storytelling more integrated.”

“As an industry, we need to evolve our approach to DTC,” Tyler says. “With the FDA guidance, we think there’s potential to turn the major statement from a major detour into something engaging and memorable.”

P&P executives see endless opportunities with AI to help the agency work smarter and harder for patients and brands, adding that while generative AI gets the bulk of the buzz, that is only the tip of the iceberg.

According to the leadership team, with analytical AI, P&P is integrating disparate sources of data to uncover unique patient insights. With AI automation, the agency is creating and dynamically delivering modular content. P&P is even using pattern recognition platforms to help clients efficiently track and review claims across projects.

Managers say adopting innovations like AI can be challenging for some clients, so P&P’s Lean Innovation Team comes in with its scalable pilot framework. From low-effort, high-
impact use cases to groundbreaking concepts, pilots harness the power of cutting-edge technology to meet tangible business goals. “The approach revolves around starting small and moving swiftly with streamlined teams to demonstrate immediate value, and that gives us the momentum to fuel scalable growth,” John Deely, director of digital experience, says.

Philanthropy/citizenship

P&P takes its purposeful mission to heart, so much so that every employee gets a paid service day off each year, called a ‘Purpose Day,’” leaders say. They add the  agency is also just as committed to DE&I, with initiatives ranging from talent sourcing to employee training to create a more diverse and inclusive workplace.

Leaders say P&P has always embraced causes that its employees are passionate about. The agency partnered with fellow Purpose Group agencies to create the “Holiday HospiTales” book series for kids who are stuck in the hospital over the holidays. P&P also launched an original typeface, called “Sans Period,” that hides period education in punctuation to circumvent Florida’s “Don’t Say Period” bill.