The Declaration of Independents

By Eric Berkeley, founder of Supafly International

How a global healthcare network built around independent agencies and affiliations can beat the Holding Companies at their own game

Holding Companies have dominated the global agency landscape for years and for good reason. Originally built to service clients like Coke, McDonalds and P&G in up to 100 countries it was a no-brainer to engage a one-stop shop for those who required a coordinated chain of offices around the world to deliver their message. However, the recent struggles of the big holding companies have been well documented: sagging under the weight of their own structures/acquisitions, with difficulty collaborating across units and, at times slow to turn their giant ships into more agile waters. This has been especially troubling in the healthcare space which only recently become a focus for these publicly traded behemoths, where clients need service in 10 countries at most, rely on their agencies to provide consistent excellence across markets and nimble enough to respond to ever-shifting regulatory issues and competitive challenges.

So what’s the answer? How do pharma marketers access the best the world has to offer without being limited to the resources of a single holding company or, heaven forbid, trying to manage multiple holding companies. I believe it’s through the collaboration of independent agencies offering the creativity, agility and senior attention of boutique shops while delivering the reach and resources of a network structure. This is already happening successfully in the consumer world (see companies like Worldwide Partners or Plan A) and it will work in healthcare too.

Reach and Resources – Choose Expertise over Proximity

There are great creative agencies around the world with amazing expertise across therapeutic areas. As we become more accustomed to “remote working” why not tap into a highly coordinated group of the world’s best independent agencies without shouldering the financial burden of holding company real estate commitments and the salaries of unseen senior management? The model for this type of network is built on a “wide net” philosophy, essentially the ability to cover wide geographic swaths with as few agencies as possible. NY, London, Berlin, Amsterdam, Sao Paulo and Tokyo would be a good place to start. Each agency is independently owned and operated and surrounded by their own ecosystem of independent specialty businesses like Market Access, PR and medical communications. These businesses are coordinated by a central “air traffic control” function to ensure seamless delivery – usually by personnel who have a history of running large global accounts and/or networks for a global agency. What’s the difference between what this model delivers and a holding company? Try this:

Happy Collaboration

The key to success of this model is true and seamless collaboration. Each agency is handpicked to be both best-in-class and culturally aligned with one another. They happily collaborate because they like each other and want to work together – not because they’re boxed into the pre-existing units of a holding company and have no other choice. Kind of like the difference between Thanksgiving dinner with your weird uncle or the same dinner with your best friends. And because each agency is financially independent we avoid the ultimate collaboration-killer: Individual holding company units where senior management’s financial incentive is based on the performance of the business they oversee – throw a dollar, pound or euro on the table and everybody reaches for it.

Attention from Senior Management

The benefits of this independent model are especially applicable for small to medium-size brands with limited budgets and staffing (whether it’s from Big Pharma or a small biotech). In a big agency you’re bound to get a junior team and see senior management only when there’s a problem. Conversely an independent model driven by the direct involvement of senior agency leaders – most of whom fled big agencies in the first place – spend their time on your brand’s success vs. internal profit planning.

As mentioned above it’s easy enough – with the right central expertise – to deliver the required global reach and resources of a holding company. Both geographically and by discipline there’s really no difference except for the fact that clients are not automatically shepherded into a pre-existing global structure or set of resources they may not like or need.

Pharma marketers want creativity, agility, collaboration, flexibility, reach and senior resources from their agencies. We hold these truths to be self-evident and hope you will too.

 

About the author

Eric Berkeley is the founder of Supafly International, a private equity-backed global advertising consultancy advising advertising agencies and their blue chip clientele on global market entry strategy, geographic expansion, global collaboration structures and new business acquisition. Eric has spent his entire 25 year career in the service of international business and was awarded the Gold Lion for “Global Network of the Year” at Cannes Lions Health for his construction and leadership of Omnicom’s CDM global operations. For more information on how Supafly International can expand your business contact us on +1-917-402-3307 or at [email protected]