Dudnyk.pdf

Last spring Dudnyk President and CEO Frank Powers expected to end 2014 up 25% to 30% over 2013, which had been one of the agency’s best years ever. Turns out he was wrong—revenue was up more than 50%.

“It was a transforma-tional year of unprec-edented client growth,” Powers says. “We hired additional talent and took over another floor in our building, which we designed to fit our culture. It was an exciting, rewarding and fun year.” 

The Horsham, PA–headquartered agency hasn’t deviated from its focus on deep specialty product work for both professionals and patients, which Powers feels is key to success. 

“Our vision is crystal clear—we consistently want to be the top creative shop on the planet for specialty products,” he says. 

Dudnyk won eight new pieces of business last year, including four product launches. Relationships began with CeQur, which awarded AOR status for the launch of its insulin-delivery device PaQ, and with BTG, which awarded AOR status for varicose vein treatment Varithena. 

Dudnyk retained AOR status on Northera (for neurogenic orthostatic hypotension) after Lundbeck acquired Chelsea Therapeutics. The agency also retained AOR status on Cinryze (for HAE) after Shire acquired ViroPharma. 

Wins from existing clients included AOR status on a new Jazz Pharmaceuticals oncology product and AOR status on two additional divisions of Dentsply. Work with Onyx expanded to include nurse communications. 

Christopher Tobias, EVP, managing director, notes continued client investment on disease aware­ness and education for HCPs, among Dudnyk’s strengths. 

He also says digital execution continues to evolve and clients are spending more on mobile development—both apps and responsive design. An in-house team that’s integrated with creative and strategy handles each. 

“We’ve seen an increase in analytics revenue because clients are clamoring for it,” Tobias adds. “We brought analytics in house last year with two specialists who report to our chief strategy officer.”

Dudnyk has long been recognized for creativ­ity and nurturing talent. It earned a number of industry awards last year, including MM&M ‘s Small Healthcare Agency of the Year. It was also highly ranked on multiple best places to work lists. 

 “I’m most proud of the culture we’ve created,” Powers says. “Talented people enjoy coming to work here. We also have a tenured staff. They trust one another and work well together. We’ve worked on articulating and living our core values. Our core values are dominantly displayed throughout our new office space. It’s a really healthy, fun place to work.” 

Head count was up from 63 to 71 ending 2014. Twelve more had joined as of early May this year. Naturally, staffing business can be challenging in times of rapid growth. Powers says the agency’s reputation and strong HR leadership really help. 

“There are certainly growing pains, and while we felt those, thankfully our clients didn’t,” Powers says. “We knew we were going to have a big year, and we starting staffing up in anticipation.” 

Powers and Tobias are ensuring processes are scaled to the new revenue level and both are committed to responsible growth management. They expect about 10% revenue increase this year.