One year later, it may be hard to recognize the 2018 agency world from its predecessor. Most noticeably, there are three new healthcare ad holding companies, formed by Intouch Group, Precision Value & Health, and Ashfield Healthcare Communications. Moreover, we see agencies’ capabilities expanding to include not only creative, access, pricing, media, and data, but also newer kinds of innovation and enterprise technology work.
Perhaps more profound are the changes in the environment in which agencies operate, ranging from fresh data privacy and security worries and their potential to alter the very face of digital marketing, to consultancies snapping up agencies and competing for business via their converged offerings — pitches will never be the same.
This year’s version of the Agency 100, which will launch early on Monday, July 9, aims to give you the most complete guide to all of this disruption. This year, we have an interactive agency family tree infographic that offers a quick visual of change, at least on the surface, and our new, responsive revenue table shows MM&M data for each firm’s financial growth. Total revenue for this year’s top 100: $4.8 billion.
The Agency 100 overview goes a step further with an analysis of where that revenue is coming from, based on data from MM&M’s A-Z survey fielded earlier this year (hint: DTC is not the major catalyst it’s been).
More pointedly, you can read how CEOs and senior execs helming the largest health networks are responding to some of the aforementioned changes. This also includes a debriefing with two of the most serious of the hybrid life science consultancies.
As part of our top 100, we’ve incorporate interactive infographics into the top 11 agencies. Yet all 100 profiles give you a feel for how healthcare marketers are evolving their creative, along with a snapshot of 2017 financial performance, planned initiatives, and predictions. And we also have a Ones to Watch feature, a rundown on up-and-comers.
I hope you enjoy this assessment of the state of play. After 12 more months of transition, I have a feeling the agency world will feel as different as 2017’s must seem to us today.
The 2018 MM&M Agency 100 will launch early on Monday, July 9
This story was updated on July 6 to correct Ashfield’s branding.
From the July 01, 2018 Issue of MM+M - Medical Marketing and Media
