GCI Health is thrilled to be named a finalist for Healthcare Agency of the Year by The Holmes Report. This is the ninth year in a row we have received this recognition, having won it three times (2011, 2015, 2017). The 2019 North America PR Agencies of the Year are the result of an exhaustive research process involving more than 150 submissions and 50 face-to-face meetings with the best PR firms across the US and Canada. This honor is due to our tremendous growth, both in revenue and staff size, our industry-leading culture resulting in an extremely high retention rate, and the innovation we continue to bring to all our breakthrough work. Our amazing write up is below:
GCI Health (WPP)
At a time when the healthcare sector is going through unprecedented transformation — mergers and acquisitions, vertical integration, new CEOs — the gulf between patients and physicians and the industry that serves them has never been wider. For companies like GCI Health, which serves the entire range of healthcare companies, from pharma to biotech to medical tech to health IT to the payer/provider sector, that means facing new challenges and more complex assignments while maintaining a laser-like focus on the core values that define and differentiate them.
That was why GCI made the decision three years ago to talk about putting patients at the center, and why it decided last year to talk about “people at the center,” reflecting a more holistic view of those individuals but also acknowledging the need to reach out to physicians, pharmacists and other influencers. It’s also why the firm launched the Healthiher movement, a platform developed to address the fact that 50% of women put their spouses, children and parents ahead of themselves when they’re thinking about health. Now it’s changing its own culture to ensure it lives up to the inherent promises, and challenging the rest of the industry to get on board with these issues.
In the meantime, the firm is enjoying record growth. Fees were up by a staggering 40% last year, with 40 new accounts including BMS, Pfizer, Merck, Abbott, Seattle Genetics, Alexion, Spark Therapeutics, and the Educational Commission For Foreign Medical Graduates (while 95% of existing clients were retained). GCI now has fees of around $60 million in the US (with another $5 million or so overseas). And it now has about 225 people in offices in New York, Boston, Philadelphia, Atlanta, Chicago, Washington, DC, and on the west coast, as well as Canada, the UK, and now Singapore.
Interesting work includes the “What the HL” campaign, activating newly diagnosed Hodgkins lymphoma patients to ask about their treatment options; promoting the Freestyle Libre alternative to fingersticks for type 2 diabetes patients; and raising awareness of stoke risk in people with atrial fibrillation (Afib) through a unique digital concert series, “Tune in to Afib."
