Following the retirement of two of Havas Tonic’s longtime leaders Phil Silvestri and Paul Klein, the agency entered an expected period of transition. A few short years (and a global pandemic) later, the ship has been steadied. And for that, you can thank the Wonder Twins.
That’s how managing director Corey Cirillo, who joined Tonic in mid-2020, and chief creative officer David Leonardi, who arrived from Hill Holliday Health in June 2022, jokingly refer to themselves internally. “Even though we come from different backgrounds, our vision is in sync about what we think the future could be for Tonic,” Cirillo says.
The two connected instantly, with Leonardi’s health experience meshing easily with Cirillo’s broader consumer expertise. Together they’ve endeavored to reimagine Tonic’s creative vision and foster a culture that has produced great work over the years for the likes of Merck, GSK and, more recently, ViiV Healthcare, Amgen, Indivior, UCB and Alcon.
Even though Cirillo characterizes 2022 as a rebuilding year of sorts, revenue increased 11%, to an MM+M-estimated $25 million from an estimated $22.5 million in 2021. Staff size grew from 90 at the start of 2022 to 101 at its conclusion, with the company’s first-ever chief strategy officer, Lauren Turner, among the notable additions.
“We treated 2022 as a moment for us to pause, assess and think about rebuilding strategies,” Cirillo says.
Tonic’s big client win during the year was Nestlé Health Sciences, an assignment that pushes the agency into a new category. “We want to take consumer health and wellness by storm,” she adds.
One overarching pandemic-era trend — people taking more and more responsibility for their health decisions — played very much to Tonic’s strengths.
“Our goal is to make being healthy synonymous with being human, from curing illness to promoting wellness, whether it’s physical, emotional or mental,” Leonardi explains. “The culture needs it, and we’re obsessed with creating ideas that help people achieve it. That’s what we wake up every day to do.”
Cirillo agrees, adding that “there’s a significant opportunity in the category for change. We’d like to be at the forefront of driving that change.”
When asked what makes Tonic unique from other agencies in the space, Leonardi is quick with a response. “We have a great snack room,” he cracks. The actual answer to the question goes a bit deeper than that, but it does involve the enthusiasm and uplift that has come with the company’s two-day-per-week return to the office. In short, Tonic believes that having fun is an essential part of the creative process.
“We want people who are passionate and obsessed with using their creativity for good to help people — and who have a heck of a lot of fun while doing it,” he says. “There’s a lot of laughter, and that’s a huge thing for us, because we’re playful leaders. When people are doing great work, they’re having fun.”
. . .
Our marketing role model…
The irony of our perhaps unoriginal pick of the wildly original Greg Hahn and his crew at Mischief @ No Fixed Address is not lost on us. For starters, it just seems like they’re having fun over there. And their work is not only fresh, brave and breakthrough, but each piece of creative is incredibly unique in how it solves each client’s unique problems. Stunts, high-production-value spots, new fake products, new fake words — it all gives us those jealousy vibes we hate to love. Luckily, each jolt of jealousy just becomes the next power pellet of pure inspiration we need to keep pushing. — Leonardi
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From the June 01, 2023 Issue of MM+M - Medical Marketing and Media
