Network-owned agencies’ abilities can vary significantly among work streams, disciplines or channels. FCB Health NY, on the other hand, continues to find its sweet spot acting as a one-stop shop for clients — but with “absolutely no sacrifices and no compromising of quality,” promises the agency’s longtime head, Dana Maiman, CEO of IPG Health.
Often referred to as the “mother ship,” FCB Health NY enhanced the consistency of its messaging and the strength of its branding last year, Maiman says. By way of example, she points to the work led by the agency on behalf of Novartis multiple sclerosis brand Kesimpta, an influencer campaign involving actor Jamie-Lynn Sigler.
Sigler, who played Meadow Soprano on The Sopranos, was diagnosed with relapsing MS during the hit HBO series but didn’t disclose it until 2016. Harboring the secret not only kept her from getting support, but also led to feelings of shame and guilt. This experience inspired the Novartis partnership, in which Sigler extols the virtues of self-advocacy to find the right treatment approach.
“We have seen such a tremendous benefit from using an advocate who aligns authentically with the audience living this every day,” notes chief creative officer Kathleen Nanda. “The beauty of this relationship with Jamie is that she lives and breathes this condition so gracefully that wherever she shows up — Good Morning America, her Not Today, Pal podcast — is on target with the right kind of meaningful messaging.”
Needless to say, successful brand/influencer pairings don’t fall from the sky. “You have to really do your homework, because you own them — their good decisions as well as their bad decisions,” Nanda cautions.
To establish itself more firmly as a leader in working with social media health influencers, FCB Health NY launched Influencer ID and rolled it out across the IPG Health network. The platform, as the name implies, offers clients the ability to identify and engage with the right influencers for client brands.
If FCB Health NY’s Kesimpta work with Sigler showcases depth, then two other assignments from mainstay clients highlight its roster breadth. They are Eli Lilly’s incretin wunderkinds Mounjaro and Zepbound, with which the agency is “constantly breaking new ground together,” Maiman says, and Teva’s Austedo, for adults with involuntary movements caused by Huntington’s disease chorea or tardive dyskinesia.
The products inhabit opposite ends of the disease spectrum: mass-market chronic illnesses such as diabetes and obesity on one hand, and sometimes ultra-rare conditions such as HD and TD on the other. That kind of roster versatility enables staff to choose the career journey that speaks to them most.
“If you are hungry to learn oncology, you can go work on this incredible product lifileucel [Iovance’s Amtagvi], a TIL therapy,” Nanda says. FCB Health NY won the lifileucel account in 2019 and the drug was approved this past spring for use in melanoma, making it the first cellular therapy to earn a green light as a solid-tumor treatment.
About a dozen account wins powered the agency’s growth in 2023. Revenue rose 5% to an MM+M-estimated $430 million, from an estimated $410 million the year prior. 2023 additions included AOR engagements with AbbVie/Genmab, Merck, Sanofi, Kyowa Kirin, Travere Therapeutics and AstraZeneca.
Maiman credits the agency’s integrated team composition — one medical person, one engagement expert and so on, each of whom is versed in both HCP as well as consumer and patient — for the scope of its client roster. “Clients are starting to move away from those individual pillars and the siloed mentality of, ‘Oh, we have this agency for HCP and this agency for consumer, or this agency for global and this agency for the U.S.,’” she explains.
Maiman also touts FCB Health NY’s content supply chain, which starts with insights overlaid on top of data. “These data really enable Kathleen to know her audiences — not just how to find them, but to know to whom she’s speaking,” Maiman continues. “That’s what enables us to create this incredible body of work.”
Head count rose from 1,469 to 1,480 last year, with notable hires including CFO Stephen Russell and medical strategy director David Hayward. At the IPG Health level, Accenture Song vet Jessica Specker was brought on board to head the content supply chain.
On the client front, FCB Health NY absorbed a body blow when Pfizer moved its creative account from IPG Health to Publicis. The switch occurred just 10 months after the drugmaker had split the business between the two holding companies. 2023’s revenue total reflects the $1.4 billion account.
FCB Health NY stayed similarly active on the philanthropic side. Physician mental health initiative Disappearing Doctors, which originated in 2020, was expanded to include The Disposables, a tribute to physicians lost to suicide. Growing out of #ClinicalEquality, the agency’s 2021 push for racial equity in cancer research, FCB Health NY last fall debuted a prototype of a smartwatch band that hears heartbeats regardless of skin tone.
“It’s beautiful because it embodies our commitment to inclusivity,” says Maiman.
Indeed, the listening technology has the potential to improve on green-light technology, which is used in many medical tools but has drawn scrutiny for being less effective at collecting readings through darker skin. The so-called EQL Band is already making the rounds on the awards circuit, earning recognition as a standout healthcare innovation.
The device could correct inequities in the way clinical trial data is collected from wearables, Nanda says, noting that more than 70% of clinical studies are expected to employ wearables by next year. “That data is not just important for today. It’s filling databases and AI decision-making tools for tomorrow’s diagnostic choices,” she continues. “So we need to make sure that the AI is as smart and equitable as possible.”
As for the next phase of expansion, one might think it’s counterintuitive for a marketing agency to hire product engineers and data scientists. But as FCB Health NY moves further into the innovation and tech space, it’s the nontraditional joiners who may drive its business forward.
“We’re starting to get into products now,” says Nanda. “We’re not just making pieces. We’ve made investments in how we engage with ideas and how we use technology and media to our advantage.”
Such pro bono work, Maiman adds, has the potential “to truly reflect our values. Where else are we able to put that inclusivity and that commitment to diversity front and center?”
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Work we wish we did
Joan’s Substitute Dealers was a powerful piece of work that has stayed with me many months later. It is a bold and inventive way to engage a teenage audience, authentically and effectively. We know how dangerously prevalent fentanyl is and that teens are at high risk; to combat it, we need out-of-the-box, in-your-face ideas. I love seeing
brave creativity done for a pressing health issue. — Kathleen Nanda
