Ogilvy Healthworld

Medical Marketing and Media, Jul 2005 by Arnold, Matthew

The seamless merger of two giants has propelled an impressive range of capabilities in 33 countries

Ogilvy Healthworld has come out of last year's mega-merger flexing its global muscle and looking strong.

Owned by WPP Group, the agency network combines Healthworld (the gem of the Cordiant marketing empire purchased by WPP in 2003) with the healthcare units of Ogilvy, one of advertising's grandest names. Healthworld brings a powerful U.S. professional network to the marriage, while Ogilvy boasts a leading U.S. consumer ad business, along with a substantial network of public relations and medical education shops, particularly in Europe, as well as a clinical trials recruiting business called Fast 4wd Ogilvy.

"A lot of scrutiny went into planning the merger to make sure that when it happened, it went smoothly, and we were well-positioned for growth," recalls Steve Girgenti, chief executive of Ogilvy Healthworld. "The end result, clearly, is that we have a pretty significant global network of business units in almost every significant country in the world."

The merger catapulted the two networks, each one vast in its own right, into the pantheon of the world's largest. Ogilvy Healthworld services 1,000 accounts and some 200 clients, among them AstraZeneca, Johnson & Johnson, GlaxoSmithKline, Novartis, Allergan, Pfizer, Roche, Wyeth, Kos and Unilever. They are handled through 53 offices in 33 countries - real offices, says Girgenti, "no smoke and mirrors, not just shingles hanging on some consumer agency's door, but real healthcare practices." All are wholly owned by WPP, except for those the company is buying out in Japan, China and the Czech Republic. Now, after paring down redundant management and offices, the behemoth must show it can turn bulk into business.

"The challenge is to make sure the momentum created in the merger remains, and move forward with a pretty aggressive and smart approach," says Girgenti, who headed Healthworld under Cordiant. "My mission is to take what we've already built and cross-pollinate some services, such as public relations and medical education, from some parts of the world to others lacking them, creating opportunities for our units within those areas."

Top management is mostly in place. In May, the group brought on Angela Rossetti to head its U.S. business as president of the New York advertising practice, reporting to Girgenti. Rossetti, whose experience includes stints at Sudler & Hennessey and Ketchum Healthcare, where she served as chief executive and managing director, worked most recently as a consultant to biotechs, pharma startups and financial firms.

While North American and South American regional presidents have yet to be hired, Shire Health founder Margot James heads the group's overall operations in Europe and Africa as regional president, and Graham Edwards is regional president for Asia-Pacific and the Middle East. In addition, Terry Cully serves as managing director for Canada, and Gloria Gibbons heads the company's businesses in the U.K., where Ogilvy Healthworld operates two PR agencies and three medical education agencies, including Matthew Poppy Ogilvy, Shire Health and Sugar, a former Shire unit merged into Healthworld. Leading the group's med ed operations are Martin Skelton for Ogilvy Healthworld and 4D Communications Americas, Susan Byrne for Europe and Trevor Sills for Asia-Pacific. Based in New York, Mike Guarini leads the company's consumer business.

Ogilvy Healthworld is also finding synergistic opportunities elsewhere within parent WPP. Last spring, the firm outsourced professional media buying and planning work to sibling Conectics, part of CommonHealth. Conectics' Parsippany, N.J., office, a dedicated shop handling the company's Johnson & Johnson business, took on planning and buying for Ogilvy Healthworld's Ortho-McNeil business, while the firm's staff of six in Morristown, N.J., took on the rest.

The group racked up some solid new business and suffered no losses over the past year, save that of Ortho-McNeil's Ultraset, for which the Johnson & Johnson company lost exclusivity in a patent suit. Among the highlights: the U.S. and global consumer and professional assignment for AstraZeneca's Galida diabetes drug, expected to launch in 2007; U.S. and global consumer and professional for Wyeth's Tygasil antibiotic and bazodoxefine osteoporosis drug; U.S. and global consumer and professional for an as-yet-unnamed Novartis hepatitis B treatment; European professional for Boehringer Ingelheim's Ducolax; European professional and U.S. medical education for Levitra; U.S. professional for Roche's Herceptin; U.S. patient communications for Eisai's Zonegran; and U.S. consumer and U.S. and global medical education for Merck insomnia drug gaboxadol.

In addition, the firm's consumer advertising talent recently worked on Merck's first-ever corporate campaign, which launched over Memorial Day weekend of this year. The ads, produced through Ogilvy & Mather New York, feature vignettes about Merck's corporate values and information on the company's patient assistance programs, along with the tagline: "Merck: where patients come first."