| What is your background, in terms of agencies, accounts, and client-side experience? | |
|---|---|
| Camilla Ross, Account Director | My first job was as a Global Events Director for a pharmaceutical events company, researching and organising congresses in Europe and the USA. My second role was as a Senior Solutions Manager with an agency specialised in designing patient adherence programmes for pharmaceutical companies. My third and current role is with Publicis, as an Account Director, and is my first job in healthcare advertising. I have not worked client-side before, but have always had a client-facing role. |
| Samantha Nunn, Account Director | I have worked in healthcare communication for eight years at four different agencies, from medium size independent to large network. I have worked across a range of accounts from OTC to prescription, domestic and global, and different therapy areas including nutrition, dermatology, oncology and metabolic. |
| Katie McMorran, Group Account Director | I have over 20 years’ experience in advertising and I have worked both in global creative agencies – Ogilvy, Publicis and Lintas - and also client side (Barclays Bank, Barratt Homes). My experience covers both healthcare clients (GSK, Novartis and Sanofi Pasteur) and B2B and Consumer Brands (BT, Royal Mail, J&J, Barclaycard) working on integrated campaigns globally, across Europe and in the UK. I spent 10 years at Ogilvy, where I worked with many global brands and within her last few years was a Board Director, responsible for a number of Unilever brands across Europe (Dove, Sunsilk, Knorr, Comfort). While working at Ogilvy - I worked on new business pitches for my whole career at Ogilvy. I left Ogilvy to concentrate on her family but worked part-time as interim marketing director for a range of B2C and B2B brands. In 2010 I co-founded a UK-based private mental health clinic that is now the largest independent private mental health practice in the UK. Since working full-time again I have worked as a Global lead for a US based agency managing GSK's ViiV brand and I have now been with Publicis health for the past year managing global business for Novartis and Sanofi. |
| Nina Tsalapatanis, Account Director | Local experience: 3.5 years working for Saatchi & Saatchi Health Sydney- most clients were launching new products, all quite different (new to market drugs, new drug to a portfolio, educational launch, new inducation launch) . Heavily involved with clients internal processes in Australia and being on the road with reps. Global experience: 2.5 years working for PLBLondon working on two new Global campaign launches, from beginning through the creative and campaign production to roll out. |
| What has been your role in the new business and organic growth efforts of the agency? | |
| Camilla Ross, Account Director | I would say 95% of my efforts have been organic growth through existing clients, I have not worked on any new business pitches, only two small pitches with an existing client. |
| Samantha Nunn, Account Director | For new business, I have been involved in various pitches, co-ordinating the delivery and presenting to new clients. Organic growth has been a key part of my role through strategic growth of accounts and building strong client relationships and loyalty. |
| Katie McMorran, Group Account Director | I have worked on a number of group/global and UK pitches over this past year. |
| Nina Tsalapatanis, Account Director | Involvement in 2 new business pitches. Organic growth is more common through existing relationships and growing the SOW for the year. |
| As if you were writing to a prospective client, describe the agency in no more than 3 sentences: | |
| Camilla Ross, Account Director | Publicis Life Brands London is a leading healthcare advertising agency focused on delivering cutting edge strategy and creative ideas, with award-winning execution. We work in partnership with our clients to understand their brand’s key opportunities and challenges in order to produce innovative communications. Our access to the Publicis global network also enables our agency to collaborate at a worldwide level to deliver according to our clients’ needs. |
| Samantha Nunn, Account Director | Award-winning health communication agency with creative and strategic expertise at it's core. PLBL offer ideas that push the boundaries and think 'big' to deliver truly effective campaigns that deliver behaviour change that matters. Part of a global network, PLBL has access to sophisticated resource and has acclaimed experience across some of the most notable brands in healthcare. |
| Nina Tsalapatanis, Account Director | PLB is a full service agency wtith experience working with Global and local clients in a variety of disease areas. Being part of a Global network allows insights and offerings to be sourced from across the world. Offereing creative and strategic services using tried and tested tools unique to the network. |
| Now bring the agency to life. You have certainly been through this exercise, however applying it to your agency agency can be quite revealing in understanding more about your "DNA". If the agency were a car, what kind would it be? What color? Why? | |
| Camilla Ross, Account Director | I don’t know much about cars, but the first one that sprung to mind was the Toyota Prius – it’s not flashy but it’s practical and efficient. It was also the first mainstream hybrid car, so has lower CO2 emissions. It’s constantly evolving to the world we live in today – concerns for the environment, as well as reducing noise levels. I would pick silver, as it’s still about feeling/looking slick and modern and silver is often a colour associated with technology advances. |
| Samantha Nunn, Account Director | Bugatti Veyron in blue. French, high performance, expensive, fun! |
| Nina Tsalapatanis, Account Director | Currently I think we are considered an average agency, a bit 'me-too', so would say a Vauxall Corsa |
| Specifically within Healthcare, which categories, conditions or disease states does your agency do most of it’s work within? | |
| Camilla Ross, Account Director | Dermatology, oncology, MS, vaccines, cardiovascular, diabetes (so mainly chronic conditions), nutrition and also a bit of animal health. |
| Samantha Nunn, Account Director | It's really varied. Includes neurological, immunological, oncology, metabolic, nutrition, respiratory, HIV and animal health. |
| Nina Tsalapatanis, Account Director | Diabetes and respiratory are the main ones, with Dengue being one of the largest account. |
| Which 3 - 5 services does the agency most often provide these clients? | |
| Camilla Ross, Account Director | Digital detail aids, brand strategy, congress activity, new creative campaigns, creative concepting in general (e.g. for congress or new launch campaigns). |
| Samantha Nunn, Account Director | 1. Brand strategy 2. Creative campaigns 3. Messaging 4. Sales tools 5. Websites and apps |
| Nina Tsalapatanis, Account Director | velopment of promotional materials/tactics, strategic facilitation/insights, Congress trade stand builds, Development of Digital Detail aids, internal engagement tactics. |
| List the top few agencies that you do/will compete against most often. | |
| Camilla Ross, Account Director | McCann Health Sudler & Hennessey Ogilvy Havas |
| Samantha Nunn, Account Director | Hive, Ogilvy, |
| Nina Tsalapatanis, Account Director | Omnicom and WPP |
| In the eyes of clients, what do you provide of value, that none of your competitors do? | |
| Camilla Ross, Account Director | The full package, so excellent strategic thinking through to creative concepting and execution, with a dedicated strategic and commercially aware account team to partner with the client on the journey. With the merger of our 3 agencies under one leader, we’ll also be able to continue to offer the expertise of our wider team i.e. med ed and PR depending on the client need. And of course, we always have the benefit of access to the wider network at our fingertips. |
| Samantha Nunn, Account Director | Inspiring creativity and robust strategy. |
| Nina Tsalapatanis, Account Director | For existing clients, knowledge of their business and needs, creative input |
| In the eyes of clients, what do your competitors provide of value, that you do not? | |
| Camilla Ross, Account Director | I think so often it comes down to cost |
| Samantha Nunn, Account Director | Efficiency, fast-turnaround, cost-effectiveness. |
| Nina Tsalapatanis, Account Director | are looking for in terms of execution |
| Are there any negative perceptions about the agency that might hold back your new business efforts? | |
| Camilla Ross, Account Director | I would say we are often criticised as being “too expensive” so perhaps cheaper execution and faster turnaround? |
| Samantha Nunn, Account Director | The agency is perceived as expensive. Clients tend to position us for large creative and strategic projects and then use competitors for tactical delivery because of budget and time restrictions. Also, I think some of our clients see strategic counsel as more of a barrier and they prefer to work with an agency that will just do what they ask. |
| Nina Tsalapatanis, Account Director | we can be percieved as expensive |
| On a scale of 1-10, how well do your presentations back up the agency’s recommendation with an irrefutable logic trail? In other words, how well do you typically build a strong argument for the agency’s recommendation? (10 = we are always strong in this area) | |
| Camilla Ross, Account Director | 8 |
| Samantha Nunn, Account Director | 7 |
| Nina Tsalapatanis, Account Director | 6 |
| On a scale of 1-10, how well do you build your presentations around a new and unexpected strategic consumer insight vs. a predictable consumer insight? In other words, how well do you always have something brand new to share about the client's target audience? (10 = we are always strong in this area) | |
| Camilla Ross, Account Director | 9 |
| Samantha Nunn, Account Director | 8 |
| Nina Tsalapatanis, Account Director | 7 |
| On a scale of 1-10, how well do you build your presentations around a new and unexpected creative/concept/program/tactical idea? (10 = we are always strong in this area) | |
| Camilla Ross, Account Director | 8 |
| Samantha Nunn, Account Director | 10 |
| Nina Tsalapatanis, Account Director | 7 |
| On a scale of 1-10, how well do you demonstrate the business impact of your recommendations? (10 = we are always strong in this area) | |
| Camilla Ross, Account Director | 7 |
| Samantha Nunn, Account Director | 5 |
| Nina Tsalapatanis, Account Director | 4 |
| Overall (and as you consider the questions above), what do you believe most holds back the effectiveness of your client and new business presentations? | |
| Camilla Ross, Account Director | I think sometimes we are not always given all the information we need when pitching, so perhaps the angle we take may need refining. Often it also comes down to budget – the client does not provide a budget and then we are deemed too expensive or the ideas that we end up presenting are far outside their capabilities. I scored lower on the “business impact” of our recommendations, as I think that is always a tricky one to demonstrate but probably most holds us back. |
| Samantha Nunn, Account Director | I think new business presentations can sometimes be archaic in their nature (including our own) and we could think a little differently about how to engage new clients and tailor our presentations to them. The structure of creds presentations always seems to follow the same format and if I were a client I would be bored of seeing the same thing all the time. |
| Nina Tsalapatanis, Account Director | Personally I believe we need to increase our focus on the impact on the client's busness and not only what the creative idea will look like, but how we will help them overcome the internal challenges of implementation. New campaigns and when clients restrcuture brands or part of their business, their biggest challenges are internally and if we dont recognise that we arent showing that we understand their needs from us as a whole (position ourselves as a parner, not just a supplier) |
| What are the top 2 or 3 changes or trends you see in terms of how clients are interacting with agencies? | |
| Camilla Ross, Account Director | I've noticed that a few of my clients employ a LOT of agencies to do slightly different things and they themselves sometimes do not know who should lead on what. That puts pressure on the agencies to work seamlessly and collaboratively together and identify which agency should lead/own which space. With some of my clients, I find that we are also not included in the planning stages of projects early enough and therefore being looped in too late to influence the overarching creative idea. |
| Samantha Nunn, Account Director | 1. Clients do not provide briefs anymore - we write the briefs and they sign them off. 2. Clients have increasingly less time to interact with their agency. 3. Clients seem to expect more for free, although I suspect that's a precedence that we have set with them. |
| Nina Tsalapatanis, Account Director | some business is being pitched out on a job by job basis- instead of having an agency of record, they have a few and are making them bid for each one |
| What are the top few changes you see in terms of why clients put accounts into review? | |
| Camilla Ross, Account Director | Depending on the life cycle of the drug, there may be budget cuts and our rate card is put into review. Sometimes clients want fresh blood/ thinking on an account. Sometimes clients have moved between roles and they want to retain the relationship they’ve had with another agency. |
| Samantha Nunn, Account Director | I believe accounts are put into review to streamline and cut costs, and sometimes to see fresh creative thinking. |
| Nina Tsalapatanis, Account Director | unhappy with the customer service |
| If you’re able to answer, how is most new business coming in to the agency (i.e., competitive reviews/RFPs, proactive prospecting, referrals, etc.)? | |
| Camilla Ross, Account Director | I'd say a mix, a lot of opportunities do come through from the network. |
| Samantha Nunn, Account Director | RFPs, through an outsourced agency and referrals. |
| Nina Tsalapatanis, Account Director | Pushed down through the network |
| Bottom line, what do you think the agency most has to do to improve at new business? | |
| Camilla Ross, Account Director | I'm quite new to this, but I would personally want to see more sharing of best practice. Our teams have done a lot of pitching recently and we could get more streamlined in terms of what is the correct pitch process to follow, how much as an agency are we willing to invest in each pitch depending on the size of the opportunity, which team members should work on it, what are the exact steps that should be taken to create the ideal pitch deck, which key slides should be in every deck that goes out, practice run throughs etc. |
| Samantha Nunn, Account Director | Have a clear vision, a clear postioning and a clear brand. I do not think for the past year we have always gone for the right business, which has meant low conversion rates with our pitching. We are currently rebranding which is great, and I think this is the opportunity to launch our agency properly - being present with our elevator pitch in press, at award shows, on the road, with our pro bono work and in our creds meetings. It's not just about having a logo and a slide template. |
| Nina Tsalapatanis, Account Director | Streamline process to become more agile and invest time in new business search or organic growth- get out of the everyday and look beyond the walls. |
| Any final advice for us as we prepare your training program? | |
| Camilla Ross, Account Director | It would be good to see an agenda in advance if possible and if there is anything we need to prepare/ bring? |
| Samantha Nunn, Account Director | That's all I think! |
| Nina Tsalapatanis, Account Director | Challenge us and challenge our thinking- really looking forward to this! |