Moving into the second year of COVID, when many agencies were still trying to keep their people engaged and balance work/life issues, H4B Chelsea rallied. The shop rode a late burst of organic growth and new clients to keep revenue at the $100 million mark, flat versus the year-ago period.
It would prove to be Christian Bauman’s swan song as president/chief creative director. Bauman left to become chief creative officer at The Bloc in April and Violet Aldaia, who joined the agency as president in September 2020 from Daggerwing Health, assumed full leadership of the firm.
Aldaia says she is committed to nurturing the creative flair that earned Chelsea, as it’s known internally, its flagship status in the Havas Health & You stable.
“The areas we’ve been investing in will be the areas we need to play in,” she explains. “Creativity at the core and the craft will always be part of our business.”
Eric Weisberg, the former Doner and JWT creative leader who joined Havas Health & You in 2021 as global chief creative officer, is set to play a big role in the future creative vision for Chelsea, Aldaia notes. The agency is also searching for its own chief creative officer.
“There’s such a huge and strong creative team already here,” she adds. “The transition creates room for that next generation to stand up, stretch and take on additional responsibility.”
On the client front, Chelsea won seven brands last year within six companies. That included new or expanded engagements with Pfizer, Novartis, Amgen, Hutchmed, Trevena and Vifor Pharma.
Among its notable launches were Astellas Pharma’s knowvms.com campaign, which sheds light on new science behind the origins of vasomotor symptoms experienced during menopause. Chelsea also engineered the rebranding of HealthCorps, a nonprofit focused on working with high school students in underserved communities to increase resilience and success through health education.
In the loss column went Sanofi diabetes med Toujeo, due to client restructuring. The agency retained other business from the drugmaker.
When all was said and done, Chelsea exited 2021 with the same number of AOR engagements, 13, with which it entered. And while talent was added to the strategic planning, medical and customer engagement/CX teams, staff count was flat at 300 full-timers.
However, Chelsea did add a pair of practice areas last year. One is devoted to creating content for nurses and is led by associate managing director and RN Lisa Chobanian. The other is a digital opinion leader practice led by SVP, customer experience Jill Friedlander, which aims to drive dialogue around clinical data.
Aldaia says she is intent on moving Chelsea into a wider range of categories, including the emerging self-care and at-home testing fields. And Chelsea will continue to invest in CX, digital and data. The pandemic, she believes, spurred a renewed appreciation not only for health but for the importance of high-quality health communications for doctors and patients.
“If we can be at the table in some fashion with the creativity we do it with, it’s such a wonderful business to be in,” she says.
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Work from outside pharma you admire…
We loved the Adidas Liquid Billboard because it’s the epitome of an immersive experience. This beautiful stunt allowed women to see themselves as they’ve seen athletes and models for years. It inspires confidence while reinforcing the brand’s commitment to inclusive athletics. — Eric Kraus, EVP, executive creative director
From the June 01, 2022 Issue of MM+M - Medical Marketing and Media
