BW Health Group has acquired full-service healthcare marketing agency PulseCX, the company said Tuesday morning. 

PulseCX, which specializes in brand engagement and customer experience, will be integrated with BW Health Group’s other full-service healthcare shop, Benchworks, which has offices in Philadelphia and Chestertown, MD. Jay Bolling, who served as CEO of PulseCX, will lead Benchworks as president, reporting to BW Health Group CEO Thad Bench.

Terms of the deal were not immediately disclosed.

Bench said he viewed the addition of PulseCX as an opportunity to accelerate growth and increase the size and capabilities of Benchworks.

“We really wanted to round out our medcomms bona fides,” he said, adding that he also prized the shop’s strategic and creative resources, as well as PulseCX’s data analytics capability.

Will Reese had been leading Benchworks until this past January. After Reese’s departure, BW Health Group’s management team stepped in to run the firm, including president Tom McDonnell, COO Melissa Johnston and chief talent/marketing officer Brenda Vujanic.

Bench said the two small-to-midsize firms and their combined staff of 55 informally merged last quarter. Before announcing the tie-up, “We wanted to make sure that we are in a good position to seamlessly service our clients,” he said.

Benchworks had 2020 revenue of $13.4 million, the most recent estimate available. Bench said he projects combined sales of $24 million next year.

BW Health Group was formed two years ago as an effort to develop a commercialization platform for life science companies, explained Bench, adding that PulseCX marks the first of multiple planned acquisitions. The group will pursue a buy-and-build strategy, sans involvement from a private equity backer. 

‘We’re doing this all with our own capital stack,” Bench said. “We have generated a lot of interest from various capital partners, and we are evaluating opportunities. But at this point, we’re enjoying being private and see that as our path forward, at least for the foreseeable future.”

BW Health Group’s acquisition is an example of agency M&A activity taking place late in 2022.

In late September, Prime Global acquired creative digital agency Earthware in an effort to bolster its technology capabilities.