Concentric Health Experience’s 2018 was, in the words of founder and CEO Ken Begasse, “not just about growing, but growing in a healthy way.” The growth came in the form of new work across a range of conditions and therapeutic categories — oncology, postpartum depression and ALS among them. Revenue spiked 18%, to an MM&M-estimated $56.6 million from $48 million in 2017.
While overall head count shrank by 20 bodies, to 228 at the end of 2018, Concentric bulked up its C-suite with a pair of A-list hires. Chief talent officer Patricia Enright joined from Publicis Groupe, while chief medical officer Joe Sklar arrived from Pixacore. The firm also added a new role in its market-access unit, tapping former Centron VP Kristen Roeckle as head of access strategy.
Begasse says Concentric’s nimbleness allows it to react quickly to emerging trends, both internally and externally. “We listen to what our clients are saying about their needs, which informed what we call the ‘core-four model.’ It’s a union of strategy, engagement, creative and commercial talent,” he explains “That allows our clients to scale and allows us to be flexible with the type of capabilities that are needed as the nature of the brand experience changes.”
On the client side, Concentric added work from AbbVie and Genentech (on leukemia co-promote Venclexta), Novo Nordisk (the global assignment for obesity injectible Saxenda) and Sage Therapeutics (the global assignment for Sage Therapeutics’ postpartum depression drug Zulresso) during 2018. But like many other firms, Concentric took a hit in the wake of a handful of network consolidations. Longstanding clients Novartis and Bayer (for which the firm handled oncology products Stivarga and Nexavar) both consolidated their marketing within larger networks.
“Those were things that we can’t control,” Begasse says. “What we can control is the work we did for those clients. Despite the disruption in some of our client roster, our growth signifies the type of agency that we are. We’re adaptive. We’re resilient.”
In early 2019, Concentric faced a different kind of shake-up when The Stagwell Group, a growing network, purchased its parent company, MDC Partners. Begasse is optimistic about the deal and about its impact on Concentric in 2019 and beyond.
“The role we played with MDC, and it’s already playing out with the addition of [Mark Penn] and his team at Stagwell, Concentric is the pure healthcare vessel,” Begasse says. “The vision has always been, and it still continues to be, that Concentric grows as an individual entity. We grow with our partners and we bring together some of the advanced capabilities from our partner agencies into the healthcare world in a way that is accessible to our clients.”
From the July 01, 2019 Issue of MM+M - Medical Marketing and Media
