Q&A With Ogilvy Health’s Global CEO Kim Johnson

Q&A With Ogilvy Health’s Global CEO Kim Johnson

Med Ad News spoke with Kim Johnson, the new Global CEO of Ogilvy Health, about how she came to the position, her first days on the job, and how she expects the worldwide agency network will expand in the future.

Med Ad News: How was your first day on the job? What did you do?

Kim Johnson: The first day was terrific, today is day two. I’m in the office, so that’s good. I got my badge today, so I feel very official now. It’s great to be here. I’m thrilled to be at Ogilvy Health.

Med Ad News: So how did you come to Ogilvy Health? How were you recruited to this position?

Kim Johnson: I joined WPP 18 months ago, so I was in the family, at the network level. And that was really a great experience. I came in [as executive VP of global clients] to work very closely with the chief client officer and the chief growth officer for WPP, and I was working with our global clients focused on growth, focused on transformation. And I enjoyed that, because I had not worked at the network level in that kind of capacity before. Most of my experiences were as agency leadership, and I’ve spent a lot of time in health. So I really enjoyed that, it was something different. I got to work really inside and outside of health, which I enjoyed, working with some of the diversity and some of the great things happening across marketing, and trade and business transformation with many, many of our clients. So that was good. But I missed health and with everything going on, with the pandemic and the world. There’s maybe no more an interesting time to be in health than right now.

So the opportunity came up with Ogilvy to join Ogilvy Health, and I’ve always admired Ogilvy Health, since the early days of my career. I started my career at Wunderman. So Ogilvy was a sister company at the time, and since then, that’s where I got into healthcare. I’ve always admired Ogilvy Health, it has tremendous equity in the space. And so when this opportunity came to me, I jumped at the opportunity to join Ogilvy. I’m so inspired with the new leadership and momentum around the company, and I’m thrilled to be here.

Med Ad News: Do you have a vision for where you want to take Ogilvy Health now and in the future? 

Kim Johnson: Like I said, I think Ogilvy Health has such an equity in the space. And for decades, Ogilvy Health has been at the forefront of health communications, with successful global launches. So I’d really like to just build on that equity. I think so much is happening in health today, so much acceleration of transformation. We’re working with clients to transform their sales models and their marketing models, and doing things very, very differently. That’s where I see Ogilvy Health, at that intersection, partnering with our clients, helping to lead the way in how we do modern marketing and health care. In moving forward, I see building on the equity and the offering right now, and our talent. We are very focused on creativity, of course, but also data and experience and technology. And these are the areas I believe that that will differentiate Ogilvy in leading clients through this this transformation.

Med Ad News: What are the biggest challenges you are anticipating at Ogilvy Health? How do you plan to address them?

Kim Johnson: Beyond the transformation that the industry is under, that’s a challenge and opportunity for all of us to navigate it and to help our clients navigate it. And you know, to stay one step ahead. Another challenge is certainly from the talent standpoint, we want to continue to retain our great talent at Ogilvy Health, we have tremendous talent. We want to recruit great talent, there’s great talent out there we’d like to bring in. I’ve been in the space now for a long time, I’d love to bring in new talent to healthcare. Again, as I said, it’s an exciting time where health is really on the world stage, and a lot of our clients are part of the solution. Right now through the pandemic, I think it’s a nice time to attract young and new talent to the industry – maybe folks that have not necessarily considered a career in healthcare and healthcare communications and healthcare marketing. That is a challenge, but also one to follow opportunity, we have to have that talent consider joining us and consider a career in health.

Med Ad News: What do you see as the biggest challenges for your clients in pharma and healthcare? How can Ogilvy Health help address those challenges?

Kim Johnson: So many things are changing for our clients, and just the ways that they’re doing business and engaging with their customers. We know that consumers are in more control than ever, increasingly empowered, which is a good thing. But that has to be navigated, we have to consider new ways to engage with consumers and patients. Virtual care is accelerating, so just thinking about not only meeting doctors and HCPs, where they are, but how can we continue to engage virtually and digitally in smart ways with customers, and how do we navigate the payer landscape and the increasing influence of payers? It’s complex, and there are also tremendous advancements in science and that is accelerating, and brands are coming to market, delivering value to patients in many unmet need areas. But as that continues to happen, there’s more competitiveness in the market. And I believe we can help our clients navigate that and educate their key constituents on the value of their brands and their therapies.

Med Ad News: What do you believe is unique about Ogilvy Health compared with other agency networks?

Kim Johnson: I think creativity has always been in the DNA at Ogilvy. I have to say that the creativity within the agency is just top notch, and a key differentiator, and this is seen by the performance of the agency. We came back home with 81 Cannes Lions, and it’s just a tremendous testament to the creativity of the organization.

I think another differentiator for us is the work we do in behavioral science. I’m so impressed with the Ogilvy Behavioral Science Institute, and we incorporate a lot of that  work in the work we do with our clients on the health side. And I think that creates an opportunity for us to do new and different things with clients to really understand the motivations behind what patients and doctors are doing and why they’re doing the things that they do, so we have a good understanding of that through the work we do in behavioral science. It’s a part of the business that we’ve incorporated in a lot of our work with vaccines, and  pandemic communications this past year, and I think we will increasingly incorporate behavioral science into the way that we work with clients.

Med Ad News: Where do you see Ogilvy Health in five years?

Kim Johnson: I think Ogilvy Health will continue to grow and diversify. We’re really interested in everything from life sciences to healthy living, so our health business is quite diverse today. We have all of our pharma and life science clients, but all of our wellness clients as well. And what’s really interesting right now is that every client, every business, in one way or another is really looking at having a health offering service. They’re looking to health and wellness as an opportunity to unlock new services for their business, even outside the sector of health. So I think what a tremendous value for Ogilvy Health, not only to our existing health clients today, but to other clients in the future, to bring the expertise we have in health and wellness to other clients looking to embark on health and wellness areas. So that’s an exciting place. I think we’ll continue to grow and expand the offering and continue to diversify our portfolio of clients.