Telehealth clinic service Pelago has selected SolComms as its agency of record for PR, comms and thought leadership for 2024. 

Pelago supplies companies with virtual clinic services for substance use management. SolComms will be supporting the brand through media strategy across new employee announcements, clinical data and insights, including profiling CEO and cofounder Yusuf Sherwani, COO and cofounder Maroof Ahmed and cofounder and president Sarim Siddiqui. All of the cofounders are physicians. 

“When we started as a scrappy startup we got enough coverage and it was okay, but for us to really shoot through the sky, the category needs to be amplified,” Pelago chief marketing officer Paige Swanepoel said. “We are on a mission to help as many people as we can and we needed a firm that matched that energy, that drive and we thought that was SolComms and [founder Bruno Solari].”

Pelago issued an RFP in the fall of last year and selected SolComms at the end of December. The agency started working on the account earlier this month. 

The company is focused on using its PR partner as a means to erase the stigma surrounding substance abuse as a whole and to amplify recognition of substance use as a “top five priority” that businesses need to solve, Swanepoel said. Pelago plans to focus this year on expanding its services to companies, acknowledging that both employees and their dependents can benefit from substance use care. 

“People with substance use disorder don’t want to talk about it and employers that have a heavy population with it don’t want to talk about it, but the world needs to get there,” she added. “We need creative solutions to break that stigma.”

Solari and SolComms director of digital health Isabella Morreale are leading the account with a team of three additional staff. 

Financial details of the deal were not disclosed. 

Pelago clients include MetLife, Phillips, GE Appliances, American Eagle Outfitters, Dollar Tree and AT&T, among others. 

Another win for SolComms

Maternity telehealth and in-person care Millie Clinic has also selected SolComms as its agency of record for PR, comms and thought leadership in 2024. Millie selected SolComms in December after searching for an agency partner for months and hit the ground running following the holiday season. 

The company previously worked with LaRue PR at Millie’s point of launch in 2022.

Solari’s experience successfully placing healthcare-focused stories across a variety of publications was a key reason for partnering with SolComms as the company continues to grow and expand, Millie Clinic Founder Anu Sharma said.

Millie’s hope for the partnership is to help navigate the consumer and clinical side of its business, while also garnering placements ahead of its next investor round — a “sweet spot” for SolComms, according to Solari. 

“It’s an election year. Women’s health is political. You cannot talk about maternal health without getting into the hot waters of politics,” Shamra said, noting that as part of the maternity journey, Millie also offers abortion services. “We are a progressive company, we intend to remain a progressive company, but it’s also important for us to have the right expertise around navigating those conversations.”

Milli Clinic currently supports one brick-and-mortar clinic in California in addition to its national telehealth platform. The company plans to expand its physical presence in the state throughout this year. 

The partnership with SolComms is initially under a year contract, but is expected to continue beyond, according to Sharma. Solari and Morreale will also be leading the account as a team of five.

“To get into the reproductive health narrative, the right to choose narrative, some companies might alienate consumers so it’s all about helping brands find what’s within our brand voice,” Solari said. “We do that for so many of our clients in the space companies like TBD Health, Wisp, all in the reproductive space. We help each CEO find that clear executive platform.”

Solari launched SolComms last June as a communications agency focusing on corporate and consumer companies. The firm added TikTok famous makeup brand Youthforia, health diagnostics company Intrivo and physician consulting service Atrops Health to its portfolio over the last six months. 

This article originally appeared on PRWeek US.

To read a March 2024 article about Pelago raising $58M to expand substance use disorder treatments, click here.