Publicis Groupe has announced that Heartbeat Ideas and Heartbeat West will join the network as a Saatchi & Saatchi health entity.
COO of the Publicis Groupe Jean-Yes Naouri stated in the release: “This is a reflection of our continued investment in digital and our faith in the power of health and wellbeing as an increase part of the world’s conversation.”
The current New-York based Saatchi & Saatchi group—comprised of Saatchi & Saatchi Wellness and Saatchi & Saatchi Health Communications—will merge, and be known as Saatchi & Saatchi Wellness. Heartbeat and its sister agency will now operate under “Heartbeat Ideas, a member of Saatchi & Saatchi Wellness,” and “Heartbeat West, a member of Saatchi & Saatchi Wellness.”
Bill Drummy, Heartbeat Founder and CEO, commented in the release: “For fifteen years, we’ve been on a mission to bring a more effective, digitally forward approach to healthcare marketing. By becoming a member of the Publicis Groupe and Saatchi & Saatchi Wellness, we now have the opportunity to be a critical ingredient in an entirely new agency formulation for healthcare clients…”
Drummy remains at the helm at Heartbeat and joins a leadership team of Saatchi & Saatchi Wellness co-managing directors Kathy Delaney and JD Cassidy. Delaney will remain Global Creative Officer. The newly formed leadership team will report to Sam Welch, global group president of PHCG.
From the December 01, 2013 Issue of MM+M - Medical Marketing and Media