PerformanceRevenue increased from $21.6 million to $27.8 million Plans “We want to make sure that we are focused on our key areas of infrastructure as we continue to try and grow” Prediction “We see the value story as one of great importance and the crux of a lot of issues coming together at once. A lot of politicians are now paying attention to the cost of drugs. It’s not just about advocacy, but how you take care of the community” |
Ask Precisioneffect president Carolyn Morgan what she hopes to achieve with her clients and — unlike many of her peers — she won’t tell you she wants to build out their patient base or heighten their brand recognition. Rather, Morgan will stress first and foremost that her agency is “committed to working with companies that are seeking to change the standard of care.”
Physicians and patients are often rooted in their behaviors, she notes, adding “One of the things we believe in as a group is changing behaviors and seeing what biases we need to overthrow.”
One recent example is the firm’s work with Exact Sciences on the launch of its at-home colon cancer-screening test, Cologuard. The standard of care has been for patients to go straight to their doctors and proceed with a colonoscopy — a test many people choose to avoid. This has led to colon cancer becoming one of the worst, yet most preventable, cancer types. “One in three people older than 50 still avoid this test,” Morgan says.
To that end, Precisioneffect targeted general practitioners and other physicians before going direct to consumers, attempting to sell them on the ease of the at-home test and its compatibility with their busy, active, and healthy lifestyles.
“Nowadays, 50-year-olds are very young,” Morgan adds. “They want to live their lives. We wanted to make it as simple as possible for them.”
After a stellar 2015, revenue for the Boston-based firm increased to $27.8 million in 2016, and the firm added a host of employees, bringing the company total to 125.
New additions to the firm included VP, operations Sinead Whelan; VP, group account director Matthew Potter; VP, content director Joanna Beeman; VP, director of medical services Kevin Flynn; and VP, associate creative director Bruce Nicoll.
“Internally, we’re working on our recruitment, working with colleges in Boston to bring talent in early,” Morgan notes. “We have 15 interns this year. We’re always looking for new ways to try and be innovative and enrich the talent pool.”
On the client front, the firm added eight new assignments last year, including Acclarent’s Balloon Sinuplasty system, Baxalta’s Vonvendi, MannKind’s Afrezza, pipeline products for Medivation, and orthopedic work for Medtronic. The across-the-board additions represent the agency’s commitment to “experiential marketing,” Morgan says, as well as to expanding longstanding relationships with organizations such as Amgen and Shire.
“In both cases, we had been working with one big brand and then added another.”
Morgan points to innovative work with Kaléo on the relaunch of its epinephrine auto-injector, which she says “flipped the script” on existing consumer perceptions and behaviors. The relaunch of Kaléo’s Auvi-Q happened in the shadow of a mass-media frenzy over competitor Mylan’s EpiPen and its heavily publicized price increases.
Using the media firestorm as a springboard, Precisioneffect reached out to parents of epinephrine-using children, as well as healthcare professionals on social media and other marketing channels. “Affordability was a key issue to them,” she notes.
This profile has been changed due to an error by the agency in reporting its 2015 revenue.
From the July 01, 2017 Issue of MM+M - Medical Marketing and Media
