Havas Village X experienced a leadership transition in late April, with well-regarded Havas Health & You group president Cheryl Fielding departing to join Evoke as chief client officer. Havas quickly replaced her by promoting two agency veterans, chief strategy officer Federico Chiesa and EVP, director of client service Tim O’Grady, to co-managing directors.
The elevations, Chiesa believes, speak to the depth of Village X’s bench as well as the deep roots of the firm’s culture.
“It ensured that everything that our great staff has been building for years doesn’t get disrupted,” he says.
Village X excelled in the new-business arena during 2022, picking up four Amgen brands (including a coveted DTC assignment for plaque psoriasis blockbuster Otezla) as well as work from Pfizer (the agency’s first engagement with the company) and ViiV Healthcare. On the back of this growth, revenue grew 5% in 2022, to an MM+M-estimated $47.3 million from last year’s estimate of $45 million. Head count nudged upward from 160 people at the start of the year to 168 at its conclusion.
O’Grady and Chiesa call out the agency’s work with two A-list clients as presenting special challenges — and potentially greater rewards. For Novartis, Village X entered the oncology space in a more substantial way than it had in the past.
“Oncology is one of those areas that requires a very specific expertise,” Chiesa says. “Once you do it well, it leads to confidence that you now have a team ready to grow the oncology side.”
The Otezla work, on the other hand, challenged Village X to work across a range of audiences and marketing disciplines. “It’s HCP, DTC and some medcomms. The collaboration and consistency across teams helped us build efficiencies and create stronger work,” O’Grady reports.
While Village X’s work with Arena Pharmaceuticals came to an end in early 2022, when Pfizer acquired the company, the Havas team views the parting as a sign that it had done its job well.
“It showed that we can take something from the ground up, fill some operational and organizational gaps, and get somebody to a place where they exceed expectations and attract bigger companies,” O’Grady says. He expects that the relationships forged with former Arena team members will lead to additional work for the agency.
Like many of their agency-world colleagues, Chiesa and O’Grady expect 2023 to be a year of reduced spending.
“We’re seeing the size of the business come down,” Chiesa says. “All of us are preparing to pitch for smaller numbers.”
He believes, however, that Havas Village X is positioned to succeed in the current environment.
“The numbers may be changing, but the types of work that clients are looking for isn’t. We think our agency is better suited to address them than an agency that is, say, 80% HCP or 80% patient,” Chiesa continues.
O’Grady agrees, adding, “We can pull in any kind of skill set that we need from our network at a moment’s notice. Market needs change pretty rapidly, and we can react.”
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Our marketing role model…
We always ask: What would Keanu do? He is genuine and goes his own way with purpose — and takes others with him. Keanu is philanthropic: If he has it, he gives it away, and without much fanfare. The respect he commands is quiet and ever-present, as he understands his place in the world through elevating those around him. And he is inclusive: His endeavors feature diverse collaborators that bring out the best in everyone involved. — O’Grady
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From the June 01, 2023 Issue of MM+M - Medical Marketing and Media
