In agency code, “transition,” like “flux,” is a word often used to stand in for more drastic terms like “tailspin” or “loss.” When InTouch Solutions’ CEO Faruk Capan uses the word, however, it takes on quite a different meaning. For him, transition means growth. As in launching a New York outpost with 85 employees, building out its Chicago presence and looking to the Left Coast for further expansion.
In total, this growth brings the agency’s employee headcount to around 350 associates. The recent workload shows that these employees will have plenty to keep them busy over the coming months: in just one year, InTouch has picked up 28 new accounts from such notable players as Galderma’s OTC skin line Cetaphil, Baxter’s hemophilia drug Advate, and Alkermes’ addiction drug Vivitrol. It’s also earned more work from established partners like Abbott, which handed over the accounts for its testosterone therapy drug AndroGel and pancreatic enzyme Creon, and Sanofi, which handed over the cancer drug Zaltrap. Altogether, the haul has put the company on track to boost this year’s revenue between 25% and 28% over that of 2011. This is on top of winning 21 awards last year.
“It’s still going well for us,” is how Capan sums up recent activity.
Yet this shop, which has made its name in the digital space and has a major hold on the iPad app world, has found that even being the go-to shop for apps and a respected digital presence isn’t enough. “Clients are looking to us and saying ‘you need to tell us what’s next,’” he said. And he noted that by next, clients don’t just mean messaging, but technology as well. At the same time Capan said clients are looking to be as efficient as they are effective. This may make clients feel as though they are in flux, but Capan says all of this movement towards efficiency and looking at technology and messaging in a new way is “changing pharma, finally, and in a really good way.”
Luckily for Capan, his independent agency has both of these angles down. In addition to having about 100 developers on hand, it has also honed in on the importance of responsive design, which he says may be finally having its moment. This holistic web concept means creating a master website that is designed to work on all platforms, or, as Capan puts it, all screens, from the get-go. This means one build that encompasses desktop, laptop and mobile design needs. This provides a seamless customer experience and reduces overall costs.
It’s also a sign that the agency is keeping its eye on the future. One of the ways InTouch is doing this is through a strategy that asks “how can we become a partner with doctors and how can we become a partner with managed care?” and then building the support to back that up. Case in point is Allora which tackled the sales rep-physician conversation. The latest spin, Allora Docs, is scheduled to be rolled out in the third quarter and is focused on the physician partnership. The ad-free site will funnel all of a physician’s information sources like Facebook / Doximity, news feeds and journal articles into one location.
This may seem a bit strange for a marketing company, but Capan said it’s in line with the digital space which requires not just understanding what’s in demand now but what’s coming next, because “We’ll be there.”
From the July 01, 2012 Issue of MM+M - Medical Marketing and Media
