DDB Health CEO and president Jennie Fischette describes 2022 as a year that “tested our team under pressure.” That’s why even amid modest growth — revenue and head count were both roughly flat, at $65.2 million and 212 people versus $65 million and 208 people in 2021 — she regards the company’s performance as a genuine accomplishment.
“We consider it a year of resilience,” Fischette explains. Among other unanticipated challenges, the agency saw four launches bumped out to 2025 due to slower trial recruitment and changes in funding, among other factors.
Fischette believes DDB Health rose above the adversity. “Our teams were gritty in their approach, and going out and winning a bunch of new business to fill the funnel,” she continues. “They figured out how to be agile and how to work on multiple things while pitching.”
The nine wins included brands from AstraZeneca, Boehringer Ingelheim, Eli Lilly and Pfizer. Managing partner, chief growth and innovation officer Eileen Yaralian touts the AZ addition as particularly gratifying, owing to its narrow scope.
“This was an omnichannel-specific win, where the challenge was to develop modular content so that we could deliver highly personalized communications to customers and to oncologists,” she explains. “What makes it so exciting for us is that we know that everything is moving toward modular content to fuel omnichannel engagement.”
Managing partner and executive creative director Michael Schreiber, on the other hand, praises DDB Health’s work on Novartis chronic myeloid leukemia drug Scemblix for the effectiveness with which it drew on the resources of the firm’s Omnicom siblings.
The company expanded its capabilities in a range of ways during 2022. Internally, DDB Health rolled out its Craft Academy, a continuing education initiative that allows staffers to receive certification in a variety of disciplines, including everything from patient writing to digital animation.
The idea for the Academy came from agency staffers. “They said they appreciate all the offerings that we have at Omnicom, but they wanted more individual skill growth,” Fischette recalls. “We realized it can’t just be one class or one moment. It needs to be executional learning, where you learn the skill and then practice the skill.”
Like many of its agency-world peers, DDB Health turned its attention to AI’s potential — and potential hazards. Yaralian notes that the company assembled a task force and charged it with identifying ways of leveraging the technology.
“We are doing this very cautiously,” she stresses. “We’re thinking about how it can help support more tedious tasks across functions, knowing we always need the human eye on everything. But we also want to figure out how we can use it to kick-start ideas for some low-risk internal aspects of agency life, like team-building events or interview approaches.”
Fischette, however, notes that DDB Health already has plenty on its plate. “It’s about creating depth with the new clients that we brought on board,” she says. “The growth trajectory of this year will be built on the hard work that individuals did last year.”
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Our marketing role model…
The godfather of creative advertising, our founder, Bill Bernbach. He famously said, “Our job is to bring the dead facts to life,” and “Rules are what the artist breaks; the memorable never emerged from a formula.” While Bill taught these lessons decades ago, they are equally relevant today. — Schreiber
Click here to see DDB Health’s Agency 100 2022 Profile.
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From the June 01, 2023 Issue of MM+M - Medical Marketing and Media
