The start of 2021 was a shelter-in-place situation for Juice Pharma Worldwide. By the end of the year, it was all-hands-on-deck.
Operating under the fog of COVID-19 uncertainty, the agency constantly tweaked its business and expectations over the course of the year. It emerged with a foundation for long-term stability.
Early in the year, according to global CEO Lynn Macrone, Juice temporarily shifted its focus from the pursuit of new business to supporting the launch of four new brand initiatives. This, she reports, required significant focus.
“One of our major mantras is to ‘delight and deliver,’ because we’re very much about keeping clients. It’s so much better to keep them than to have to keep going in and replacing them,” she explains.
One launch of particular interest was executed on behalf of Impel Neuro-Pharma, which introduced a migraine medication in May 2021. Understanding that the new product was attempting to penetrate a heavily saturated market, Juice focused on creating a “distinct, creative voice,” recalls U.S. CEO Forrest King.
The agency ultimately produced a campaign around a new and not easily visualized device, one that inserts into patients’ nostrils and sprays directly into the upper nasal cavity.
“By focusing on that device, which is awkward, we were able to work with the client to make the device the star,” King continues. “People don’t want to stick things in their nose, so we created a campaign with a sense of humor. Within a couple of months, Impel was beating its projected uptake.”
Other client work, for the likes of Merck, Alkermes, Emergent Biosolutions and Novartis, proceeded similarly smoothly, affording Juice the luxury of tweaking its approach once anew.
“Now we have the opportunity to focus on targeting new clients and on outreach and sales. Right now, it’s about outreach and building a pipeline,” King explains.
In the end, the strategy paid off. 2021 revenue totaled $33 million, up 7% from $30.7 million in 2020.
Like any number of other medical marketing agencies, Juice was forced to exert considerable energy during 2021 on recruiting and retaining talent. The company emerged relatively unscathed, increasing staff size from 102 to 107 full-timers. It made two critical additions to the agency C-suite: Roseann Roccaro as CFO and Patrick Denton as head of brand and engagement strategy.
According to King, another important process-related development for Juice was the continuation of Resonate CX. This is Juice’s method of “turning insights into activation” and creating a story for client brands that operates across a range of channels.
“Resonate CX is a process that is unique to Juice because we are centered on customer experience,” Macrone adds. “At the end of the day, it’s the most important aspect of what we do: Ensuring that we engineer a successful customer experience.”
. . .
Work from outside pharma you admire…
Progressive’s campaign featuring Dr. Rick, who helps young homeowners turning into their parents, is simple perfection. I love the insight targeting the specific insurance-buying demographic, the situational choices, the pitch-perfect copywriting and the featured actor’s portrayal of Dr. Rick. It’s inspiring to see creativity that is so on point and deeply amusing. — King
From the June 01, 2022 Issue of MM+M - Medical Marketing and Media
