Eric Berkeley had worked at Omnicom Health Group for 22 years, ascending to the post of managing partner/executive director of CDM International, when he noticed an industry blind spot.
Holding companies may have lacked the swiftness of independent agencies in developing digital content for clients, but there weren’t many smaller firms with production capabilities that came close to rivaling those of larger organizations.
“When I first got [to Omnicom Health Group], I was like, ‘Wow, look at all these resources that you have,’” explained Berkeley, now the founder and co-CEO of Competitive Edge Digital Studio, which bills itself as a production house specifically built for the healthcare communications industry. “As time went on, I got the sense that this was like the slowest boat in the ocean – and to turn it, and get agile and nimble, was not something that was possible in these enormous organizations.”
That experience prompted what he characterized as a newfound admiration for independent agencies. In his mind, those firms excelled at dealing directly with clients on a daily basis – but faced an uphill battle in attempting to match the high-volume, low-cost digital production operations of agencies owned by large holding companies.
That served as the main motivation behind the creation of Competitive Edge, which launched last month as part of Latin America-based healthcare marketing agency Tugarê Group.
“Our target has always been small to medium-sized independent healthcare agencies,” Berkeley noted. “The goal was to give them the ability to level the playing field from a digital production cost with the holding companies. We’re creatively bona fide and we build what you need, rather than what we need.”
Competitive Edge hopes to differentiate itself based on a few central pillars, Berkeley said. The first is healthcare expertise, with Tugarê Group growing from its position as a former division of Omnicom Health Group. (Per Berkeley, Tugarê has not been affiliated with Omnicom Health Group or flagship agency CDM for nine months.)
Tugarê is based in Brazil, which Berkeley describes as having a strong creative legacy and a “deep talent pool” when it comes to digital expertise. The lower cost of the services Competitive Edge can offer due to the exchange rate is another pillar. And Berkeley pointed to dedicated account management – “if you’re our client, you get the same person every single time you call or email,” he said – as the final one.
Berkeley believes the company’s launch could herald the start of a broader shift within the industry, one that started before the pandemic and accelerated during it.
“This is a movement that’s not going to stop, and we’re right at the cusp of it,” he said. “This may just be part of our first foray into this world, but ultimately it is the way that things are going to go. In the future, one of the things we’ll be doing is going out and knitting agencies together.”
