Agency of the Year Category 1: FCB Health New York, An IPG Health Company

100 West 33rd Street, New York, NY 10001
212-672-2300 • hello@fcbhealthcare.com • fcbhealthny.com

QUICK FACTS

Accounts
Account wins 27
Active business clients 43

Brands by 2021 sales
Brand-product accounts held 85
$25 million or less 5
$25 million-$50 million 5
$50 million-$100 million 8
$100 million-$500 million 18
$500 million-$1 billion 10
$1 billion or more 5
Products not yet approved/launched 20

Services Mix

HCP 50%
DTC/DTP 50%

Client Roster

AbbVie
Adaptimmune
Agios
Akebia
Alexion/(AZ)
Astellas
Avidity
Avrio
BioXcel Therapeutics
Boehringer Ingelheim
Cara Therapeutics
Cooper Surgical
Crohn’s & Colitis Foundation
CSL Behring
Day One Biopharmaceuticals
DSI
DSI/AstraZeneca
Esperion
Exact Sciences
Genentech
Gilead
Incyte
Inflammatix
Iovance
Janssen
Jazz Pharmaceuticals
Kyowa Kirin
Lilly
Morphosys/Incyte
Novartis
Omeros
Ono Pharma
Otsuka
Paratek
Pfizer
Sanofi Genzyme
Scynexis
Seattle Genetics/Astellas
Sierra Oncology
Sun Pharmaceuticals
Sunovion
Teva
TranspareRx
UCB
Unilever
Zynerba

WINNER

Agency of the Year, Category I
Best Consumer Print Campaign
Best Social Media Campaign

FINALIST

Best Consumer TV/Radio Campaign
Best Digital Physician Campaign
Best Social Media Campaign

In spite of all the chaos 2021 unleashed on the world, it was another incredible year of growth and innovation at FCB Health NY, according to the leadership team.

“As the single largest healthcare marketing agency in the world, we use our incredible growth to fuel the future, creating mammoth opportunities in the industry for our clients, their brands, and our people. Our relentless drive, never finished spirit, and distinct and unbreakable culture continue to position us for success, even during these challenging times,” management says.

“Big things continue to happen here, year after year. When you work with FCB Health NY, you immediately recognize that you’re in the big leagues. Things are just different here. Our recipe for success isn’t complicated – being passionately committed to doing what’s right for our clients, their brands, and our people – and the growth, best-in-class work, and wins continually follow. The continuity of our success across all key areas – culture, creativity, and revenue growth – sets us apart and keeps us driving forward.”

Management says, “While it’s easy to quantify business and creative success with numbers and trophies, culture can be harder. Yet year after year we manage to land on multiple ‘Best Place to Work’ lists. And this year, for the first time, we were even honored as an Ad Age ‘Best Place to Work,’ an achievement that we’re most proud of, particularly given the context of the last two years.”

“Our ability to continue to foster a strong culture, deliver extraordinary results for our clients, and produce industry-leading work is something I’m incredibly proud of,” says Dana Maiman, CEO of IPG Health. “None of our success would be possible without the talented and dedicated individuals who make up the agency, and our ongoing commitment to doing the right thing for our clients and each other.”

The leadership team says FCB Health NY’s success affords it tremendous opportunity.

“We are able to invest heavily in our offerings and resources – pushing boundaries in tech, enhancing our data solutions, and strengthening our already significant creative muscle,” according to agency executives. “We also invest heavily in our people’s growth. Our growth mindset is never just focused on the business, it extends directly to our people. Every new client assignment brings with it new opportunities to do something incredible. We fundamentally understand that this type of investment yields the best kind of return.”

Recent Accomplishments

Our never finished, entrepreneurial approach is always driving us forward, delivering BIG results,” management says. “In 2021, we experienced phenomenal 25 percent growth on an already industry-leading base, and achieved 27 major wins with 21 new brand assignments, adding to our impressive client roster.” These new wins included Alexion, BioXcel, Day One Biopharmaceuticals, Inflammatix, Novartis, Omeros, and UCB. “We are committed to exceeding our clients’ expectations time after time, and our clients clearly recognize that: organic growth from existing clients represents a stunning 50.2 percent of our growth, with the remainder coming from new clients.”

Agency leaders say, “Our 1,300+ talented employees are the heart of our business. In 2021, we welcomed an incredible 521 new hires – including 30+ ‘boomerangs’ (people who left FCB Health New York and came back after a short time) and celebrated 308 promotions. We bolstered our creative bench and welcomed industry heavyweights Megan Williams as group creative director, Arun Nemali as group creative director, and John Kelly as creative director. Bryan Gaffin returned as executive creative director and Dave Gehrke also returned as group creative director. We also hired Jenna Brownstein as group management director and Elise Whitaker as director of conversational experiences.”

“We continue to attract and retain the top talent in the industry, and we couldn’t be more proud,” says Kathleen Nanda, chief creative officer of FCB Health New York. “Our people are the reason we’ve had such extraordinary growth and are able to consistently create the breakthrough and award-winning work we’re known for.”

FCB Health New York garnered many industry accolades and achievements last year, including “The Trial for #Clinical­Equality” winning Best Social Media at the Manny Awards, as well as a Bronze – Design (Pharmaceutical) – Digital/Mobile at Clio Health, a Bronze – Health/Pharma: Integrated: Health & Disease Awareness & Advocacy at New York Festivals, and a Bronze – Non-Profit Strategy at the Jay Chiat Awards.

“Blood Vessels” (GMHC) took home Silver: Consumer Print Campaign at the MM+M Awards. Other award wins included four trophies at the Creative Floor Awards (Art Direction, Illustration, Poster Campaign, Print Campaign) and ANA Multicultural Excellence Awards (Print).

FINALIST | BEST CONSUMER TV/RADIO CAMPAIGN
FINALIST | BEST SOCIAL MEDIA CAMPAIGN
Colace, a small heritage stool softener brand, has been outspent and outshelved by competitors for years. To grow, FCB Health needed to not only differentiate and reinvigorate Colace, but do it in an outsized way.

“Healing the Healers” (Sermo) took home Silver: Digital Initiative for Non-Consumers (HCPs, sales reps, etc.) at the MM+M Awards. Power Couple” (Senokot) was named a Platinum Winner in Video at the Clio MUSE Creative Awards 2021. Poop Should Never Feel Painful” (Colace) took home four Platinum wins at the MarCom Awards (Video/Audio – TV – Single Spot, Video/Audio – Film – Video Script, Video/Audio – Digital Video Creation – Animation, Video/Audio – Audio/Radio – Original Music), and Gold (TV Ad Campaign) and Platinum (TV Ad, Music, Animation) at the Clio MUSE Creative Awards.

FCB Health New York was crowned one of the most creative agencies in the world on Advertising Health’s World Top 10 in partnership with The Creative Floor Superstars program, celebrating the world’s most awarded health and wellness creative campaigns, and the agencies that made them.
Additionally, Maiman was recognized as Ad Age 2021’s “Agency Executive of the Year,” marking the first time the publication awarded this distinction to a healthcare advertising leader.

“Despite all our success, we’re never finished thinking of new ways to enhance our work and advance our workplace culture,” agency executives say. “Last year, we launched Write It Forward, an initiative that recruits, trains, and mentors diverse writing talent from all walks of life for entry-level, science-focused copywriting positions. Our inaugural class had 20 people, with 18 accepting full-time positions. In 2022, the program will expand across departments and across the broader IPG Health network.”

According to agency management, “Keeping our people connected, engaged and inspired remains a priority. At FCB Health New York, we launched ‘Let’s Talk,’ a series of conversations hosted by employees highlighting different creative topics like art direction, big data, shoots, data visualization, and more. Since its introduction last year, the conversations have been attended by hundreds of people and reinforce our community and culture-building at the agency.

“Because we know how difficult the past two years have been, it’s also important to take a moment to pause and acknowledge what we’ve been through together. On March 22, 2021, the one-year anniversary of going fully remote, we took the ‘WF’ out of WFH and gave our people the day off, so they could make home just home again. This was a small token of appreciation to our teams for welcoming our offices into their homes with commitment and dedication.”

Structure and Services

When it comes to opportunity, FCB Health New York is truly the big leagues, according to the agency managers. “Our scale gives our people unmatched opportunity to work across a portfolio of industry-changing therapeutics and our clients access to the deepest and most diverse talent in the industry, across every discipline,” says Mike Guarino, chief commercial officer of IPG Health.

“We are doing big things, and the depth and breadth of opportunity enables our people to elevate their experience and accelerate their careers in a way that just isn’t possible elsewhere,” Nanda says. “While our size offers much opportunity, just being the biggest isn’t enough – it’s about being the best, and that’s what we remain focused on year after year.”

According to the managerial team, the agency continued to lean into flexibility, accountability, and trust with its “work appropriately” philosophy, anchored by an unwavering commitment from executive leadership. “And our incredible production team helped us sail through endlessly complex COVID-related production challenges, executing an astonishing 90+ shoots and 23 launches in 2021.”

“We continued to advance our best-in-class experience design (XD) team, expanding our NY team and adding teams in South Africa, with further global expansion imminent. This allows us to leverage cutting-edge talent, while creating a ‘follow-the-sun’ model, elevating the level of service we provide for our clients,” management says.

“Doubling down on our leadership position, we launched a MarTech offering (Marketing Technology) focused on enabling omnichannel strategies for our clients. We are also actively building an Accessibility practice to ensure that the experiences we create are inclusive to all, regardless of disability status. As you can imagine, the profile and expertise of our talent has continued to evolve, enabling us to find new and better ways to add value to our clients.”

In July 2021, FCB Health NY became part of the newly created IPG Health Network, integrating with other IPG Health agencies and giving the agency increased access to a variety of best-in-class resources from one of the largest and most-awarded health communications networks in the world.

“At FCB Health New York, we are committed to creating a work environment in which everyone can be their truest and best self,” executives say. “Diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) are foundational to our culture and our creativity, and embedded into every touchpoint of our employees’ journey through a variety of programs.”

These programs include the Inclusive Managers Toolkit (IMT), a mandatory 10-week program designed to provide all managers with the skills and resources to thrive by exploring who they are as leaders, how they lead their teams, and their impact on the organizational strategy and success, all through a DEI lens; and the Employee Relations Group, which is dedicated to fostering a culture of equity, respect and healthy working relationships across the agency.

Other initiatives are FCBWE, the employee-led Diversity & Inclusion Council, committed to creating interconnectivity and promoting diversity across the network; and Chats for Change. FCBWE offers peer-to-peer learning opportunities and activities around critical diversity issues that matter to our employees year-round. Chats for Change is a new initiative that equips employees with the skills to have more conscious conversations in their day-to-day work lives.

The agency remains focused on developing and supporting the best and most diverse talent, and continued The Residency, a six-week program for new hires who are new to healthcare.

“Our talent philosophy for championing our people continues to be PCM (Proactive Career Management),” management says. “PCM is our approach to empowering our people to proactively explore their potential and take control of their career journey within our agency and the broader IPG Health network. The depth and breadth of our client roster, as well as our learning and development opportunities affords our people the greatest opportunities to change disciplines, brands, clients, or even regions.”

“Our people are the heart of our business, and because we are never finished – never finished learning, never finished evolving, and never finished growing – we have a responsibility to ensure they have endless opportunities to grow and develop new skills, apply their strengths and interests to new experiences, and be challenged in a variety of ways,” Maiman says. “We know everyone has choices, and people choose to be here because they see that we understand our responsibility to help grow, develop and train them. That’s why we have always been proponents of proactive career management (PCM), and the advent of IPG Health has allowed us to do it in an even bigger way and fulfill our responsibility to our people.”

Future Plans

As an agency, everything we create – both internally and externally – is grounded in DEI best practices and in 2022, we will dig even deeper to ensure it remains fundamental to our ongoing evolution and growth,” management says.

“At FCB Health NY, we embody a start-up, disruptive spirit across all departments, and every level. Our mantra, ‘Never Finished,’ is put in to play on each and every business challenge we face. Just when you think we’ve done it all, we find something new to spark our fire. It’s really an amazing thing to be a part of. Our passion for doing the right thing has allowed us to stay laser-focused on what really matters: doing what’s right for our clients, their brands, and our people. As you can see from our results, it’s clearly a winning strategy.”

Philanthropy/Citizenship

At FCB Health New York, we have an enduring commitment to giving back and leaving the world better than we found it,” agency executives say. “We can afford to invest time and resources to support the causes that our people care about the most. Through our pro bono work, we support and shine a light on societal issues and communities that in the past have been underrepresented.”

On World Cancer Day 2021, the agency launched the award-winning “The Trial for #ClinicalEquality,” an initiative dedicated to achieving racial equity in clinical trials. “This is a cause that we remain committed to and there’s so much more to come in 2022,” managers say.

FCB Health NY also partnered with the Dorney-Koppel Foundation, the COPD Foundation and the American Respiratory Care Foundation to create “COPD SOS,” a PSA dedicated to finding the millions of Americans living with undiagnosed COPD, and getting them vaccinated against COVID-19, as this population is particularly vulnerable.

The agency continued its award-winning Blood Equality initiative, a partnership with the Gay Men’s Health Crisis (GMHC) to achieve blood equality. This initiative included the launch of its most recent project, Blood Vessels, which was accepted into the Victoria & Albert Museum’s permanent collection last year, cementing it as a part of history and culture.

The agency joined forces with GMHC for its latest campaign, “Ms. Information,” to help get LGBTQ+ individuals vaccinated against COVID-19 and to shut down the misinformation brewing on social media. This campaign inspired “VaxxFacts @ IPG Health,” a virtual live panel discussion and Q&A, featuring Sommer Bazuro, Ph.D., chief medical officer at FCB Health, and Dan Carucci, M.D., Ph.D., global chief medical officer at McCann Health answering pre-submitted COVID-19 vaccine-related questions from across the IPG network.

The agency continued its “Disappearing Doctors” initiative, dedicated to prioritizing the mental health of physicians who experience mental health issues such as burnout and suicide at a higher rate than the general population yet are often unable to ask for help without risking their careers. In 2021 the agency partnered with the ALL IN Foundation, a coalition between Dr. Lorna Breen Foundation, Thrive Global, and First Responders First, to create the “All in Pledge.” The pledge highlights the changes needed with regards to how physician mental health is addressed across the healthcare system. FCB Health NY collaborated with Ending Physician Burnout and joined MTV Entertainment Group’s multi-year initiative, “Mental Health is Health,” to tackle the nation’s growing mental health crisis.

(top row left to right) Kitty Ravenhall, executive VP, executive director, strategic planning; Sommer Bazuro, Ph.D., executive VP, chief medical officer, FCB Health;
Bill Yorio, executive VP, executive director; Suzanne Molinaro, executive VP, director of production; Kamran Aslam, senior VP, director, technology; Kerry Dwyer, executive VP, executive director
(middle row left to right) Sarah Hall, executive VP, executive director; Mike Guarino, chief commercial officer, IPG Health; Dana Maiman, CEO, IPG Health; Kathleen Nanda, chief creative officer; Jonathan Brady, executive VP, group engagement director
(bottom row left to right) Jennifer Samuels, executive VP, executive director; Julia Phelan, executive VP, executive director; Mike Devlin, executive VP, executive creative director; Wendi Goodman, executive VP, executive director; Matt Bergin, senior VP, editorial director; Laura Mizrahi, executive VP, executive creative director

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