10 Most Promising PR Agencies in Healthcare 2022 by insightscare

VOL 02 | ISSUE 02

Most Promising

PR Agencies in Healthcare 2022

Motti Peer CEO

HealthTech Trends

Digital Transformations in Healthcare to Look Out for in 2022

PowerOfPR

Is PR Essential for Industries Like Healthcare?

ReBlonde Building a Bridge for Companies to Attain Comprehensive Success

Perceptualizing HealthCare!

n a world where every moment is captured into a frame with an intent to give the best version of ourselves, imagine landing onto the moon, spotting yourself among celestial citizens! How would you manage to communicate your identity, share your opinion or pitch your ideas? What would be your go-to strategy to discover new ways of conveying your story? You might think of socializing, sprouting awareness of who you are, what you believe, and why you are significant to the mutual wellbeing of the community. This analogy fits the very shoes of an entrepreneur who conceives an idea into a business and fights tooth and nail to shake hands with the key stakeholders of the market. Riddled by this crisis, companies look out for a perfect recipe to blend technological innovation, creative mindset, communication specialist, and social outreach expert. Did you also think of PR? If yes, then we are on the same page. A famous saying, "If I was down to my last dollar, I would spend it on public relations," stands true for organizations intending for a strong social outreach. For businesses with a requirement of corporate communication and social outreach, tying the knot with PR agencies is not an option anymore; rather, it has flipped into a necessity. As a recipe for success, PR agencies encapsulate a perfect blend of a data geek, creative ingenuity, and media-savvy hacks leading to big impact and even bigger results.

solutions of PR agencies lies an impactful transformation of the healthcare sector. To put it in an example or a case study, The Medtech PR Companies like Reblonde are using new-age advanced PR solutions that execute public relation campaign to facilitate custom solutions, aligning with short and long-term goals. From crowdfunding campaign development to testing market feasibility, PR Agencies streamline the essential communication thread and promulgate individuals and organizations- be it traditional marketing, collateral, and online platforms. In an endeavor to introduce you to such revolutionary stories of Health-mediated PR solutions, we at Insights Care scouted for the astonishing PR agencies that have been revolutionizing the Healthcare sector. Unveiling their success stories is the Insights Care new edition "10 Most Promising PR agencies in Healthcare 2022." In this edition, you will get to read more about the marvels of the PR industry, intending to develop healthcare access across the globe and make this world a better place. As you ﬂip through the pages and scroll your eyes into the PR treasure, ensure to enrich your insight with the articles opinionated by our in-house editorial team. Happy Read!

In my opinion, technological innovation has transformed business as never before, and at the epicenter of successful Bhushan Bhad

Editor’s Note

ReBlonde

Building a Bridge for Companies to Aain Comprehensive Success

Cover Story Articles 24

HealthTech Trends

PowerOfPR

Digital Transformations in Healthcare to Look Out for in 2022

Is PR Essential for Industries Like Healthcare?

CURA Strategies Transforming Healthcare via Strategic Communication

Ramarketing 20

Design Service, Digital, and International PR Agency in the Biotech and Pharmaceutical Sector

Romph Pou Agency Ushering in A New Era of Healthcare PR

Rosica Communications A Top Player in the Healthcare PR Space

TransMedia Group An Award-winning PR Firm, Serving Clients Worldwide

Woedend! Creative Agency Brand Building, Dynamic Storytelling and Making Real Contact

Editor-in-Chief Senior Editor

Sumita Sarkar Anish Miller

Managing Editor

Abhishaj Sajeev

Assisting Editors

Trishika, Bhushan

Visualiser Art & Design Head Co-designer Art & Picture Editor Business Development Manager Marketing Manager

David King Rohil Shinganapurkar Paul Belin Mrunalinee Deshmukh Amy Jones John Smith Sarah Wilson, John Smith, Alex Vincent

Business Development Executives Sales Executives

Kelli, Bill, Anna

Technical Head Assistant Technical Head Technical Consultants

Jacob Smile Pratiksha Patil David, Robert

Digital Marketing Manager Assistant Digital Marketing Manager SME-SMO Executives

Alina Sege Amol Wadekar Atul, Gemson

Research Analyst Circulation Manager

Eric Smith Tanaji

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1 Company Name

Most Promising

PR Agencies

in Healthcare 2022

Featuring

Description

Alaniz Marketing

Roxanne Alaniz, CEO

Alaniz Marketing provides cutting edge strategy, technology, and cross-channel marketing execution built to drive highvalue customers to your business and into your sales funnel.

CURA Strategies

Anne Woodbury, CEO and Founder

Founded in 2016, CURA Strategies is a bipartisan strategic communications and public aﬀairs agency focused on one thing: transforming health care.

June Communications

Iuliana Floricică, Co-founder

JuneCom is an agile marcom unit able to help active businesses access new levels of growth through marketing and communication.

Ramarketing

Raman Sehgal, Founder and Global President

Ramarketing is the agency for ambitious companies looking to raise proﬁle and generate leads in the pharma and biotech sector.

ReBlonde

Motti Peer, CEO

ReBlonde is a technology PR company specializing in technological innovations, health-related technology, cryptocurrency pr and NFT marketing services.

Rewind Creative

Matthew Layton, CEO

Trusted to be bold in digital and creative, Rewind Creative is a full service marketing agency.

Romph & Pou Agency

Ed Walsh, CEO

Romph Pou is a full-service marketing agency that prides itself on being fast and eﬀective.

Rosica Communications

Chris Rosica, CEO

Rosica Communications promotes and protects its clients through traditional and online PR and integrated marketing communications.

TransMedia Group

Thomas Madden, Public Relation Manager

TransMedia Group tells your story across all media. It communicates your organization’s messages at the right time and in the right place to the right audience.

Woedend! Creative Agency

Paul Woltering, Partner and Strategy Director

Woedend! is a creative agency helping you to make real contact with your audience, inspired by your true story.

Cover Story

Building a Bridge for Companies to Attain Comprehensive Success

There’s no escaping the fact that tech is increasingly shaping, and usually improving, healthcare and health outcomes across the globe.

Motti Peer CEO

10 Most Promising PR Agencies in Healthcare 2022

torytelling is a powerful approach when it comes to making an impact on a set of audience. From globally renowned filmmakers to prominent TEDx speakers, people have adopted storytelling and have successfully delivered their message. Utilizing this power of storytelling in a corporate setting gives companies an added advantage in engaging their audience, customers, and stakeholders. Most of the time, choosing the right corporate storyteller—an effective PR agency—becomes a bottleneck for companies considering the vast number of PR agencies in the market. This edition, the 10 Most Promising PR Agencies in Healthcare, brings you an assortment of agencies that have proven their mettle by delivering high-performing PR strategies. On the cover of this edition, we have ReBlonde, an award-winning global PR agency catering to tech startups, enterprises, VCs, blockchain, and crypto startups. Based in Israel, the country popularly known as the Startup Nation, ReBlonde has made a name for itself as one of the world’s leading boutique PR firms for tech companies. A sizable chunk of the clients with whom ReBlonde has worked, including genome-sequencing pioneer Emedgene and medical-imaging powerhouse Nanox, play an active role in leveraging technology to improve health outcomes. ReBlonde is proud to play a part in promoting the initiatives of such companies.

Redefining Benchmarks The services ReBlonde provides its health-tech clients span the entire spectrum of PR – from classic outreaches that can result in full-on PR storms, to speaking opportunities at events, to groundbreaking thought leadership in top-tier tech publications, such as TechCrunch and VentureBeat, as well as healthcare industry publications. “There’s no escaping the fact that tech is increasingly shaping, and usually improving, healthcare and health outcomes across the globe. ReBlonde’s 360°-view of the tech landscape uniquely positions us as a firm that can match our clients with strategic publications and events, write attention-grabbing pitches, and place thoughtprovoking op-eds for health-tech companies seeking to gain publicity,” says Motti Peer, the CEO of ReBlonde. At the Helm of Progress Motti holds an MBA in Finance and Marketing from Manchester University. As CEO of ReBlonde, Motti is responsible for handling PR strategy for the company’s tech clients, many of whom are MedTech startups. Motti thinks ‘out of the box’ to come up with strategies that boost clients’ growth and expand their brand awareness. Sharing his opinion on how the adoption of modern technologies like AI and ML is impacting the healthcare industry, Motti says, “It’s true that AI and ML are streamlining processes in healthcare, empowering real people to focus on the less tedious aspects of the work. But it actually goes far beyond that.” “These technologies are paving the way for a population health approach that emphasizes screening entire populations for red flags, rather than the individual care that often ends up being more reactive than proactive.”

In PR, our people are everything, and ensuring they felt safe and supported throughout these challenging times was instrumental in coming out stronger.

People who know me have heard me say PR is about connections, and that’s the truth.” – Motti Peer, CEO

Exhibiting Excellence Following is a case study that highlights ReBlonde’s expertise and leading position in the PR space:

The Problem One notable client that comes to mind is Nanox AI (previously known as Zebra Medical Vision), a medical-imaging company that leverages AI to screen entire populations for the early detection of diseases. Recently acquired by Nanox, Zebra worked with ReBlonde’s team from Round A to acquisition, for almost six years. ReBlonde comprehends that even the most groundbreaking technologies can lose their eyecatching appeal without the right messaging. This is crucial to prioritize, especially when establishing a name for clients during their early stages. On par with many MedTech startups, Nanox AI confronted many challenges, like the need for funding and FDA approval. But with a tactical strategy, the team knew that media recognition for Nanox AI was inevitable, and the company’s other business goals would follow. Nanox AI needed the world to know disease detection didn’t need to be constant and expensive, and ReBlonde helped them tell that story.

The Approach The key to generating buzz about a MedTech company like Nanox AI is coming up with a clever angle that communicates why the technology matters. Even tech reporters don’t want to read jargon-packed descriptions of AI technology—they want to understand how it can be used to ﬁght heart disease and breast cancer. Keeping these relatable applications and the goals of fundraising and getting FDA approval in mind, the ReBlonde team honed the angle and got to work. The agency introduced its closest media contacts to Nanox AI, who spread the word, causing overall chatter to skyrocket. Before long, ReBlonde was able to use the organic coverage to push Nanox AI’s $12 million funding story, subsequently resulting in multiple sought-after FDA approvals.

The Results ReBlonde’s media eﬀorts landed Nanox AI in Forbes, Bloomberg, TechCrunch, Reuters, and VentureBeat, to name a few, all of whom recognized Nanox AI for its use of machine learningbased medical solutions. Nanox AI was also named by ‘Fast Company’ as one of the Most Innovative Companies and one of the Top-5 AI and Machine Learning companies and was included in Wired Magazine’s “Tel Aviv’s Hottest Startups” list not once, but twice. These prestigious awards and other press coverage put Nanox AI in the spotlight of the right investors, helping the company nab a $12 million Series B and a $30 million Series C. ReBlonde’s media eﬀorts were crucial in establishing Nanox AI in its early stages up until its acquisition by Nanox.

“It’s an exciting development that offers great promise in improving health outcomes across the board, and we at ReBlonde welcome any positive change that we can help to publicize,” he adds. Learning from experience is always beneficial. Especially if you’re someone starting out in the PR space. In the same sense, we asked Motti for his advice to the budding entrepreneurs aspiring to venture into the healthcare space. In his reply, Motti said, “Hone your value proposition and find a successful PR agency to help you sharpen it. Not every founder is going to be the best salesman—that’s what we’re here for.” “But in a diluted market, whether in tech, healthcare, or anything else, distinguishing between your product and the competition is make or break. Why are you better than the other ten companies doing something very similar? Entrepreneurs who have a good answer to that are already off to a great start,” he added.

From Storms to New Horzions When it comes to the challenges imposed by the pandemic, ReBlonde faced challenges similar to most other companies. “In PR, our people are everything, and ensuring they felt safe and supported throughout these challenging times was instrumental in coming out stronger,” Motti expressed. Flexibility toward the staff and a common-sense approach to sanitation via social distancing, dividers, and other measures served as ReBlonde’s principal doctrine for pivoting from the challenges, and it worked effectively. Talking about the future roadmap for ReBlonde, Motti said, “People who know me have heard me say PR is about connections, and that’s the truth. We’re going to continue to nurture our existing connections and cultivate new ones.” Beyond that, the ReBlonde team will keep doing what it does best: find the most relevant angle for any story and put its clients in headlines across the globe.

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10 Most Promising PR Agencies in Healthcare 2022

CURA Strategies I

Transforming Healthcare via Strategic Communication

n the healthcare industry, policies, innovation, research, and system transformations are happening constantly. To stay on top of it all and execute the strategy-making and communication work, 'PR Agencies' come into the picture. Since technology has opened new doors of communication, PR agencies have been able to do more work with lesser hassle. Gathering information, analyzing the policies, connecting organizations, researching to approach the target audience, and making strategies for clients is what these agencies do. PR doesn't just exist to promote their clients but to also help them further in the industry. CURA Strategies, founded in 2016, is a Virginia-based PR agency that is helping its clients by strategic communication and public aﬀairs in the health care industry. Since the agency was founded, Anne Woodbury, the CEO and Co-Founder has focused on transforming healthcare and wellness. Over 25 years of experience helped Anne to make an agency that is known for issue-based communication and great team culture. In the following interview, Anne talks about the key aspects of her organization and shares some interesting insights from the industry. Please brief our audience about CURA Strategies, its values, and the aspects that make it a leading player in the healthcare PR space. CURA Strategies is an award-winning bipartisan integrated strategic communications and public aﬀairs agency that is focused on transforming health care. At CURA, we understand that many innovative healthcare organizations struggle to disrupt the status quo and break through the noise to reach the right audiences. Our team's depth of knowledge in health and health policy enables us to mobilize our clients' missions by executing communications and advocacy campaigns that motivate the right people to take transformative action.

Our name, CURA— Latin for "care, concern, attention to others"—exemplifies who we are to our clients, to our team, and to the health care system. Our mission is to take exceptional care of our clients so they can transform the health care system and improve lives. At CURA, we operate with CURAge—bold leadership to improve society and help others. Whereas courage is self-focused and individualized, CURAge is others-focused and teamcentered. Brief us about how you have set yourself apart from the competition through your expertise in healthcare PR and communication? Our expertise in health care policy, government relations, and coalition development are what sets CURA apart from other health care public relations agencies. While we offer the full suite of standard integrated communications services (e.g., campaign/media strategy development, creative brand services, stakeholder engagement, etc.), it is our steeped experience operating at the intersection of health care and public affairs that makes us unique. Government legislation and regulation can narrow or expand access to health care innovations with a stroke of a pen. Organizations can thrive or wither based on their ability to anticipate and influence policy decisions. In the six years since our company was founded, we have created, launched, and managed nine national issue-based coalitions to influence policymaking and/or raise awareness of an important health issue. We believe we can help our clients navigate the policy landscape better than any other PR agency—and it is this unique capability that helped us secure the distinction of Global and North American New Agency of the Year by PRovoke in 2018 and landed us over 20 other industry awards wins and nominations. What other services does CURA Strategies offer, and how are you making an impact in the global healthcare industry? Another service offering unique to CURA is that we serve

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Our name, CURA— Latin for "care, concern, attention to others"—exemplifies who we are to our clients, to our team, and to the health care system.

Anne Woodbury CEO & Founder, CURA Strategies

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as staff for many of the coalitions we have built, including Honor the Gift, Mental Health for the US, and Advocates for Opioid Recovery. We empower our clients by handling high-level planning and leadership responsibilities as well as managing day-to-day operations throughout the lifespan of our client's campaigns, often acting as the turn-key staff. We are able to seamlessly execute all aspects of the organization, from ideation and initial branding to strategy development and daily operations. Through these coalitions, we are shaping health policies to improve lives. For example, through our work with Honor the Gift, a national patient-centered campaign created and managed by CURA Strategies and supported by a national coalition of kidney and transplant organizations, we successfully helped pass legislation to extend Medicare's immunosuppressive medication coverage that others have attempted but failed to pass for 20 years. This new law will ensure that kidney transplant patients will never have to worry about coverage for their immunosuppressive medications. Anne, tell us about your journey in the PR space and how you have made an impact on the CURA Strategies through your role. My career in healthcare reform and transformation started in Washington, DC, over 27 years ago when I started working for my local Congressmember, Newt Gingrich, just six months before he became Speaker of the House. When he went on to the American Enterprise Institute, I worked for him as a project assistant on a health care transformation project where we would spend days speaking with CEOs in almost every industry. This provided us with information that would serve as the foundation of the book we wrote together—Saving Lives and Saving Money. Our book, which outlined commonsense strategies to improving health care, received bipartisan endorsements and served as a source for various state and federal health policies. Twelve years later, craving a new adventure, I joined FleishmanHillard, a global public relations and marketing agency. I had plenty of experience in communications, but my knowledge of traditional public relations was slim. Paul Johnson, FleishmanHillard's regional President at the time, took a chance on the PR rookie that I was, and I will forever be grateful. Four years went by, and I decided to open and manage the Washington, D.C., office of small health care public relations firm called TogoRun, which was a sister agency to FleishmanHillard. After seven years of managing, I found that one of the most career-building assignments was spending three years serving as the global communications leader for Philips Healthcare.

During this time, we were doing mostly corporate communications and marketing, but very little public affairs. It quickly became clear to me that my communications clients, as well as most of the health care C-suite, had limited knowledge of the government's influence over their business. TogoRun is thus where I developed my passion for building a bridge between government affairs and strategic communications. While I will forever be grateful for my experience and for my team at TogoRun, in 2016, I decided to take the leap to launch CURA Strategies, a health care communications and advocacy agency that works with transformational clients and is known for issue-based communications—as well as great team culture. I am overjoyed with how far we have come in the past six years. Being an experienced leader, share with us your opinion on how the adoption of modern technologies and platforms within PR and communications has transformed the industry and what more could be expected in the near future? Technology has enabled so many welcomed changes in communications. The internet, social media platforms, the emergence of podcasts, and subscription TV platforms has expanded our ability to satisfy every niche interest and find communities of people with shared values, priorities, and interests. It has also created micro-influencers, which means identifying the 'who' and the 'how' to make an impact is a key skill. This trend makes me even more confident in CURA's focus on wellbeing and health care and skills in delivering the best outcomes for our clients. Traditional media relations remain important, but there are so many other tools we have at our disposal now. Digital marketing—from paid digital advertising to email nurture campaigns—are tools we are using every day that was not as prevalent for PR firms to use even five years ago. In general, the line between public relations and marketing continues to blur, which I think is a very good thing. To make the biggest impact, we must take an integrated approach to communications, marketing, and advocacy. Long gone are the days of siloed tactics. What would be your advice to budding entrepreneurs who aspire to venture into the healthcare PR sector? Health care is a big part of the economy. Keep your mind open to opportunities, but also consider subspecializing in a particular area of health care. And in the process so finding your subspeciality, soak in as much information and experience as you can—to the extent you can, try to have a diverse client portfolio of different sized clients, so your business is not totally reliant on one big client. Even if you do everything right, you could quickly lose the business because of things that are out of your control, e.g.,

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In CURA, we found not only a top-notch creative, organized, and results-driven PR firm, but also a true extension of our team. It's invaluable to work with people who anticipate the needs of your organization and are quick and willing to meet changing goals.

Client

Endorsements

Nicole Napoli, American College of Cardiology

Transforming healthcare takes more than stories placed in top-tier media. CURA delivers on that for AOR, but they also know how to shape opinions and make change happen. They are a great strategic and operational partner. The success of AOR is a testament to their hard work, intelligence, and dedication. Newt Gingrich, Advocates for Opioid Recovery (AOR) Advisor

the CEO changes and deprioritizes your project, your client contact quits, and the new person wants to bring in the ﬁrm she worked with before or take the business totally inhouse, or the product does not get approved. Having a mix of clients helps you spread out the risk. Additionally, be very deliberate to hire the best people you can and take as much care of your employees as you do your clients. Where do you envision CURA Strategies to be in the long run, and what are your goals for 2022 and beyond? We just celebrated our six-year anniversary, so this is a great time for this question. We do the same type of communications that other health care organizations do, but we found our unique sweet spot in issue-based communications. That certainly includes advocacy, but it is also about stakeholder engagement, corporate thought leadership—or as we call it, thought partnership—and asking big questions and catalyzing and convening other mission-minded entities to help ﬁnd the answers. This is where CURA really shines.

With CURA Strategies, we've found a truly excellent partner in our government affairs and advocacy efforts. They provide us a comprehensive one-stop-shop for strategic advice, grassroots organizing, communications, and legislative activities in the service of our community and have truly integrated as part of our team. Their command of the healthcare landscape, particularly around kidney health issues, is helping us achieve important outcomes in support of our patient and research communities. Chris Rusconi, Chief Research Officer, PKD Foundation

We love working with change-makers, building coalitions, engaging diverse stakeholders, and leveraging the right communications tools at the right time to lean in on issues while also building our clients' reputations. This is a key reason we have a team of bipartisan government relations professionals in-house. Beyond making new laws, the government also serves as a regulator and a payer and is one of the biggest influences in health care. If change is what the client seeks, there is likely a government lever that needs to be pulled. We try not to put ourselves in a box. Some may see it as patient advocacy, market access, market-shaping, thought leadership, government affairs, public affairs, cause marketing, or social marketing. It does not really matter to us. If a client is seeking to make systemic transformational change in health care and is looking for a trusted partner, we want CURA to be their first call. That is our goal.

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10 Most Promising PR Agencies in Healthcare 2022

Ramarketing Design Service, Digital, and International PR Agency in the Biotech and Pharmaceutical Sector

he global healthcare industry is having strong importance in human health and progress. Biotech helps pharmaceutical companies to produce new better products, services, new services, and improvements in existing technology. To exchange ideas, market new products, make bonds between two biotech or pharmaceutical organizations, and create creative ideas to grow better around the world is the work that PR agencies do. If the PR work is done exceptionally well then, the client and company will grow together simultaneously. Ramarketing helps companies to manage reputation, increase visibility in the market, and provide solutions in the biotech and pharmaceutical industries around the globe. The agency is committed to working hard with people and clients of all ages and backgrounds. Doing PR work for biotech and pharmaceutical companies helps the community and creates awareness about healthcare around the globe. To make a diﬀerence, Founder and Global President, Raman Sehgal, started the agency in 2009, solo, with one employee and one pharmaceutical client. His values and entrepreneurial spirit are those things that have driven every employee to work well. Please brief our audience about Ramarketing, its values, and the aspects that make it a leading player in the healthcare PR space. We are an international design, digital communications, and content agency that's in the business of helping ambitious companies that operate in the pharmaceutical and life science sector get noticed.

Built on integrity, entrepreneurial spirit, genuine kindness, inclusion, attentiveness, and a commitment to continuously sharpen our craft, Ramarketing is a proactive and deeply creative agency, trusted by clients across the globe. It is home to some incredible talent who work together, and as an extension of our clients' teams, to drive tangible results in the pharma and biotech sector. Our attitude - along with our PR expertise, technical digital skills, design capability, brand know-how, and specialist knowledge of the industry we serve - makes us a leading global player in our space. We are particularly proud to have supported some of the organizations involved in the development, manufacture, and distribution of the COVID19 vaccine. Brief us about how you have set yourself apart from the competition through your expertise in healthcare PR and communication? First and foremost, we believe our values set us apart. We really care about what we do and the clients we serve. It's

We really care about what we do and the clients we serve. It's simple - if they succeed, so do we.

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About the Leader A seasoned marketer with a particular passion for PR, Raman's career saw him work for two PR agencies and Heinz, before beginning his journey in life sciences as the Head of Marketing at a pharmaceutical contract manufacturing organization (CMO). Determined to use his insight for the success of more businesses in the industry, he founded a marketing agency, which he called Ramarketing. What began as a single-client agency, run from his dining room table alongside his full-time job, soon became a multi-million-dollar global agency thanks to his dedication, entrepreneurial spirit, hard work and crucially, his deep understanding of the sector. There was no fancy start-up story, no 'aha!' moment... simply organic growth resulting from an opportunity he seized and was able to maximize, thanks to his expertise. Raman is our Founder and Global President here at Ramarketing. He is also the host of a leading podcast, a thought leader in the sector, and recently became a best-selling author with his book, The Floundering Founder. We live by his values and are driven by his entrepreneurial spirit. The work we do, the way we do it, and our understanding of the impact that it has (both on the sector and the people we work with) are all thanks to him. We, ourselves, are a success story – a business serving the pharma and biotech sector who have experienced phenomenal growth – and this experience enables us to support other organizations on the same journey.

We've helped well over 100 companies globally to reach new buyers and markets, make an impact and turn their marketing frustrations into commercial results. Every year, since 2009, we have grown organically, and we are so proud to be a thoroughly sustainable, as well as a proﬁtable business: one that's here for clients both today and tomorrow. What other services does Ramarketing oﬀer, and how are you making an impact in the global healthcare industry?

simple - if they succeed, so do we. We ﬁnd that this attitude, and the growth we enable for our clients, sets us apart from the competition. Aside from our values, our focused expertise means that we can oﬀer our clients support unlike any other. We live and breathe life sciences; our agency was spun out of a fastgrowing pharmaceutical contract development and manufacturing organisation (CDMO), so this sector is weaved into our DNA and everything we do. Reaching, nurturing, and converting prospects for those in the global pharma and biotech outsourcing space, as well as creating and protecting brands, has been our core specialism since day one – it is all we know and all we do.

What we do makes a difference. The work of our clients (and their clients) also makes a difference. Our job is to connect our clients to pharma and biotech companies who are developing products that, quite literally, save lives. We are the agency for fast-growing and enterprise-level businesses. We help service providers thrive - whether they are conducting clinical trials, supplying technology for use in the drug development cycle or even manufacturing COVID-19 vaccines on behalf of a pharma company. We approach every client's needs holistically: we look to diagnose the challenges and issues they face, understand the specific landscape of the drug development spectrum in which they operate, identify their differentiators, establish a strong brand presence and growing demand for their

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You don't need to be an expert in everything, just in the niche in which your clients reside.

products and services. Only with a personalized, wellinformed approach can we be sure that each of our clients will achieve their marketing objectives. Being an experienced leader, share with us your opinion on how the adoption of modern technologies and platforms within PR and communications has transformed the industry and what more could be expected in the near future? The maintenance of your brand's reputation can no longer be achieved through trade events and word of mouth alone. Businesses have long since needed an integrated approach and a deeper understanding of the essential role that digital has to play in the marketing mix. Suddenly, organizations are ﬁnding that they don't have to simply be corporate entities and that, by having a brand that expresses their values and people, they are able to transform their performance and reputation.

niche in which your clients reside. Knowing their world will help you thrive. Honing in on your area of specialism enables you to gain unrivalled expertise and become an agency that, to your clients, feels specifically designed for them. Define success. It is easy to simply think of your agency (or yourself) as a supplier, but you should be more than that: you should be an extension to your clients' teams. A trusted advisor. Teams must, as we all know, share the same goals and definition of success in order to work optimally and achieve highly. The same goes for your internal team – all being on the same page is crucial for consistent and highimpact marketing. Where do you envision Ramarketing to be in the long run and what are your goals for 2022 and beyond? Our mission is to become the world's first choice of marketing agency within the life sciences outsourcing sector. We are known for our global expertise, sector specialism, and likeability, but we want to also be known as the agency that offers a global presence and demonstrable commercial impact. We have worked very hard at demonstrating the value of content and PR. In order to do this, we are constantly growing, learning, and adapting. We are investing in our digital marketing team, understanding the increased call for digital services and the opportunities for innovation in this area. Future goals for us also include setting up offices in both APAC and mainland Europe, as well as expanding our current team. For us, more people mean more skills and even better services to benefit more clients.

Especially in response to the increased public interest in the pharmaceutical industry resulting from the pandemic, we expect to see many more businesses embrace new, innovative, and creative opportunities in a trend that will see the whole sector become more open, available, digitally communicative, and successful. What would be your advice to budding entrepreneurs who aspire to venture into the healthcare PR sector? Find your niche. All exceptional marketing is built on a thorough understanding of the sector, and sub-sector, and of course the needs of the speciﬁc buyer you are selling into. You don't need to be an expert in everything, just in the

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HealthTech Trends

Transformations in

Healthcare to Look Out for

in 2022 D

igital technology has transformed almost every industry sector, including Education, Retail, Banking, Manufacturing, IT, Communications, logistics, healthcare, hospitality, etc. The Healthcare industry, which was traditionally operating, got a big boost from digital transformation. This sector needed the most modern and superfast systems at all levels due to the gravity of importance at any given stage. Primarily as we consider the basic points of operations, mainly R&D, consultation, diagnostic and pathological procedures, medication, treatments, hospitalization, monitoring, and analysis; digital technology has been created as a multi-disciplinary concept integrating all the vital work procedures in a single line to be easily connected, reviewed, and enhanced in the main objective of the process.

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Technology has penetrated all functional sections of the healthcare industry in many ways.

easily connected under one system without the need to move the patient.

Dynamic Resource gateway: Having opened the vast internet resource and accessibility to multiple global research laboratories, doctors and clinical scientists are better equipped with searching for necessary medical knowledge resources. It has helped in recruiting the medical staﬀ, sourcing visiting consultants, and connecting with numerous diagnostic centres and blood banks.

Round-the-clock assistance: 24X7 and 365 days dedicated functions have boosted in saving the lives of patients in accidents or other medical emergencies. Quick, timely medical support has steadily controlled the death rate.

Strengthening the Research and development: The scientists in various domains of medical research use modern technologies of AI, Augmented reality, data assimilation, and processing. Facilitating clinical research and support: This involves designing and developing epidemiological service trials, developing and customization in the process of collection and management of clinical data, and further analysis. Monitoring the quality of healthcare: The entire process, right from patient enrolment to the quick data collection, periodical diagnosis and related treatments, monitoring of changes in the results, creating an analysis of the treatment with the doctor's opinion, have all improved the quality of the treatment. Precise diagnosis coupled with the right and timely medication or treatment results in recovery in the minimum time period. Real-time tracking: Inventory tracking, storage, and management are crucial functions for any medical facility. All the essential drugs, medicines, vaccines, consumables, accessories, medical aids, blood units, plasma, etc., need to be stored in suﬃcient quantity. This includes the availability of Doctors and ambulance services. Streamlining the entire process: The entire process is uniﬁed in a central system that helps in easy tracking, coordination, updates, reports, analysis, surveys, and analytical study. Global Connect: Enabling the role, opinion, and consultation of multiple Doctors, researchers, and joint consultation on critical procedures. Quick and easy communication: Digital technology has made entire communication easy, smooth, and seamless. Regardless of the location of the consulting physicians, diagnostic centres, and other facilities, all things can be

Remote consultation: Modern integrated software platforms connect the patients easily to the doctors through audio or video calls facilitating the data sharing for clear communication and patient experience. Smart projection: Modern tools in software systems that read, identify, and analyse in their built-in frameworks; help in the creation of smart, accurate, and logical projections. Close monitoring in various stages of pregnancy in the foetal development and response to the expected growth parameters and also in the sectors of fertility solutions, oncology, and cosmetic surgeries. Real-time consultation: Virtual meeting platforms have helped in Audio-visual interactions for real-time consultation. Data Science: Data management and analytics in important complex case studies have strengthened the decisionmaking process helping in various stages. Wearable technology: Modern devices like heart monitors, pacemakers, hearing aids, automated wheelchairs have made the treatment and the life after treatment easier. Robotic applications: A better control, accuracy, speed, and reliability has been established in certain niche areas of healthcare which are active assistance in complex surgeries, disinfection, and sanitization, supply-analysis-delivery operations, patient care with symptom analysis, assistance, etc. The Journey Ahead The role of digital technology has miraculously elevated the quality, accuracy, and speed of the procedures resulting in faster recovery and well-being of the patients. We can gladly look up to the phenomenal advancements and the magnitude of its eﬃcacy that has transformed human lives into a blessed lifestyle.

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Our clients know that we are not just another vendor. We are invested in their success by helping to promote their mission and service, as well as achieve market goals.

Ed Walsh Public Relations Manager

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10 Most Promising PR Agencies in Healthcare 2022

Romph Pou Agency T

Ushering in a New Era of Healthcare PR

hroughout the healthcare industry, the reason why PR and marketing are considered essential, lies in the fact that organizations need a voice to not just reach a certain audience, but make a tangible and measurable impact on patients and other stakeholders.

Tyler and San Antonio, Texas. It represents healthcare clients in ﬁve states, West Virginia, Louisiana, Arkansas, Texas, and New York.

From devising strategies for brand awareness to the launch of telehealth platforms, PR agencies have proven to be a signiﬁcant factor for healthcare companies in achieve their objectives.

Romph Pou Agency has set an industry benchmark in such a way that its clients know it is not just another vendor. The agency is invested in its clients' success by helping to promote their mission and service, as well as achieve market goals.

This edition, the 10 Most Promising PR Agencies in Healthcare, places the spotlight on agencies that deliver to the best of their potential and spearhead associated healthcare organizations towards success. One prominent name among such industry leaders is Romph Pou Agency, a full-service marketing agency that prides itself on being fast and eﬀective. It combines datadriven thinking, smart strategy, and award-winning creativity to fuel growth for its clients. As Romph Pou Agency recently marked its 40th anniversary, its growth trajectory has constantly been an upward one — from a company of two employees to the largest full-service marketing agency in Louisiana serving clients nationwide. The agency currently has more than 100 employees with oﬃces in Shreveport and Baton Rouge, Louisiana; and

Expertise that Ensures Excellence

Following are the aspects through which Romph Pou has made its mark in the world of PR: Experience: Romph Pou's Public Relations Manager, Ed Walsh, spent 25 years in the television news business before joining the agency. Walsh's team includes Jeﬀ Cowart who serves as vice president for the agency's Texas branch. Cowart is a veteran newspaper journalist of more than 20 years and a former healthcare communications and marketing executive. This expertise is the foundation that helps Romph Pou design winning public relations and public positioning campaigns. Delivery: the agency believes video is an important storytelling tool with multipurpose use. The team develops two-minute to three-minute video vignettes, similar to stories in a news broadcast. The vignettes are then

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submitted to media partners to gain coverage. They can also be used by clients on social media and for internal marketing purposes. Collaboration: the team understands what a reporter needs to tell a story. It works with media partners and build relationships, so it is top-of-mind when news outlets need an interview or sound bite for a healthcare story. Riding the Tech Wave Romph Pou Agency is data-driven. In that sense, it demonstrates a return on an investment to the clients and how their marketing eﬀorts translate into appointments, conversion, growth, and revenue. The agency's data team has developed its own proprietary data management and analytics tool called SCORPIO®. By using SCORPIO®, they are able to target healthcare consumers who are most in need of a particular service. The agency has also worked closely with clients to develop a resource of video questions and answers. If a patient has a question about an ailment or a procedure and they search on the internet, Romph Pou helps them to get that information directly from one of its doctors. Instead of reading about a possible diagnosis and treatment for their symptoms, these doctors appear on their screen and oﬀer the answers. Exemplary Leadership Every successful organization has a certain individual who comprehends the necessities and intricacies of doing business every day. For Romph Pou, it is Ed Walsh, the Public Relations Manager. Ed has created strong relationships with the agency's clients, the news media, and the communities that it serves. From his deep experience in television news, he has adopted the values and foundation of authentic storytelling that rings true not only with clients but also with the audiences for whom the stories are intended. This PR expertise adds a strong dimension to Romph Pou's position as a full-service agency.

messages. In this age of information, most people are getting their news and information from their smartphone. Targeted digital advertising helps us serve potential patients with relevant, long-format healthcare stories.” "Many of our healthcare clients transitioned to virtual appointments because of COVID-19. We believe this will continue, with new apps that accurately take your temperature, your pulse, and other vitals. Over time, we believe that digital concierge healthcare will become more prevalent. Doctors will see more patients via the web and provide services that don't require an in-person appointment," Ed expressed. When asked what his advice would be to the budding entrepreneurs aspiring to venture into the healthcare PR space, Ed says, "Technology is changing every day. There are new social media platforms, new apps, and new media, but don't put all of your eggs in one basket. Just because it is the newest and freshest piece of technology, it may not work for your client. While the younger generation is well-versed in technology, the older generation still mostly relies on the old-fashioned ways to get their information.” Towards New Horizons For 2022 and beyond, Romph Pou Agency's growth coincides with the growth and expansion of its current healthcare clients. As their patient base grows, many have expanded with new clinics into new geographies, which has naturally expanded the agency's responsibilities and scope of work. "We pride ourselves on integrating our team into our client's marketing department. We are an extension of their team that understands the mission and creates solutions for communicating to the public with the ultimate goal of better health in the communities that we serve," concludes Ed.

We asked Ed to share his opinion on how the adoption of modern technologies and platforms within PR and communications has transformed the industry, to which he said, "New technology has made it easier for us to tell client stories and to target the people who need to hear health

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10 Most Promising PR Agencies in Healthcare 2022

Rosica Communications A Top Player in the Healthcare PR Space

isinformation and fake news have become the most pervasive aspects of the digital world. They are passed on to internet-connected devices 24/7 via various social media apps and news websites. A non-clear or misinterpreted piece of information has the potential to cause massive havoc all over the world within a few minutes of getting published. Therefore, it has become important to pass on the right kind of information through trusted sources. If internal or external communications in the healthcare industry are not created and distributed through the proper channels, they may be misinterpreted by the media and confuse the general public. Communicating news related to healthcare requires expertise to provide clarity. Rosica Communications is helping the healthcare industry to share communication in a simply and eﬀectively manner with internal and external stakeholders, allowing them to give the right impressions. Founded in 1980, Rosica Communications oﬀers specialized services like content development, social media management, online reputation management, search engine optimization, digital marketing, and crisis communications to represent stakeholders in the right light. We interviewed Chris Rosica, President of Rosica Communications, to get insights on his journey to make his agency a top-level health industry PR service provider.

We develop high-quality content and repurpose and syndicate it to eﬀec vely impact stakeholder communica ons, image, and lead genera on.

Below are the excerpts from the interview: Please brief our audience about your agency, its values, and the aspects that make it a leading player in the healthcare PR space. Rosica Communications was established in 1980. Its values have always embodied creativity and resourcefulness. We serve as a thinking partner to our clients and deliver awardwinning results. In fact, in Q4 of 2021, we won four PR industry awards, and we were named by Forbes as one of the "Best PR Agencies in America." The most gratifying part of the Forbes recognition was that the award was based on interviews with our clients. We feel

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The Agency President Chris Rosica is president of Rosica Communica ons. He has also authored three books: The Business of Cause Marke ng, The Authen c Brand, and The Power of B2B social media. Chris co-founded Interact Marke ng, a digital marke ng agency, in 2008. Regarding his beginning in the public rela ons industry, Chris remarked, "I was involved in a healthcare technology startup in the 1990s. When we sold that company, I was contempla ng what to do next. At the me, my parents had a PR ﬁrm and they said, 'we need an exit strategy.' Three years later, I bought them out." Talking about how he developed an interest in the PR industry, Chris says, "I have always been a writer. When I was in college, I wrote for a local Miami magazine, so I've always accelerated at storytelling and content development. I've wri en three books, contributed to Inc. magazine and other na onal and regional publica ons, and regularly ghostwrite for our clients. This certainly helped to accelerate my interest in PR." honoured that they value our team, PR strategies, and outcomes and their satisfaction is paramount. Another value is truly caring about our clients' success. We treat their goals and objectives as our own. There are various types of healthcare PR and services that agencies oﬀer. Rosica Communications focuses on media relations, thought leadership development, crisis communications, disease awareness and advocacy, content marketing, key opinion leader development, and supporting

our client-partners' lobbying eﬀorts through strategic PR and communications. Brief us about how you have set yourself apart from the competition through your expertise in healthcare PR and communication? Since 1980, Rosica Communications has specialized in media relations. We are always looking towards the future, adapting and evolving. Over the years, we've added services, and today the agency oﬀers a breadth of services.

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Client Testimonial A er evalua ng results over the past year from the more than 30 public rela ons firms with which Pfizer has contracted in various states, Rosica has outperformed all others. - Karen Boykin-Towns, Senior Director Government Affairs, Pfizer Inc. In 2008, we started a digital marketing agency – long before healthcare PR firms were embracing digital. That agency is alive and well today and is called Interact Marketing. Interact serves numerous healthcare clients, primarily hospitals, large physician practices, reference laboratories, and medical device companies. Another differentiator with Rosica is our ability to create and execute integrated marketing programs where public relations, content marketing, social media marketing, SEO, stakeholder communications, and conference marketing are combined to accelerate results. We develop high-quality content and repurpose and syndicate it to effectively impact stakeholder communications, image, and lead generation. What other services does your agency offer, and how are you making an impact in the global healthcare industry? Rosica's integrated marketing communications services include thought leadership, corporate and brand positioning, marketing strategy, social media marketing, influencer marketing, media relations, crisis communication, KOL development, video strategies, content development and marketing, corporate communications, issues management, cause marketing, digital marketing (SEO and SEM), and website development. Being an experienced leader, share with us your opinion on how the adoption of modern technologies and platforms within PR and communications has

transformed the industry and what more could be expected in the near future? Technology has been pivotal in healthcare PR. The internet has played a major role in taking PR and communications to the next level because we're now truly able to integrate marketing, public relations, and communications – and measure its efficacy. There are many tools we've demoed and adopted. With new tech, these platforms are only as good as the commitment an agency has to train its people in them. As it stands, most software offers far more benefits and capabilities than ever get utilized, but the basics are often misunderstood. It's clear to me that you must not only have the courage to venture and try new things but the commitment to stick to it to become an expert. What would be your advice to budding entrepreneurs who aspire to venture into the healthcare PR sector? I believe that having a peer-to-peer network and finding mentors are essential. For entrepreneurs, I highly recommend joining a professional network. I have been involved with the Entrepreneurs Organization (EO), Young Presidents' Organization (YPO), Vistage, and others. In the Entrepreneurs Organization, I had my own advisory board called a Forum group. We met monthly, and members, who did not compete with one another, regularly presented issues. It was strictly confidential, and we all received candid input – experience not so much advice – that helped me grow. All of the entrepreneurs were people outside of healthcare PR, but their parallel experiences were invaluable. Where do you envision your agency to be in the long run, and what are your goals for 2022 and beyond? We certainly want to be named to the Forbes list of the best PR agencies in America again in 2022. We also want to retain at least 95% of our clients this year, and we are on track to do that. We also want to grow by 20% in 2022, which we feel is a realistic and aggressive goal. Most of all, we want to do meaningful work and work that impacts our clients' goals and objectives.

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PowerOfPR

Is PR

Essential for

Industries Like

Healthcare? “

ublicity is absolutely critical. A good PR story is inﬁnitely more eﬀective than a front-page advertisement."- Richard Branson.

In a broader perspective, PR is the status of the image created and maintained professionally through certain organized and planned PR activities and events. PR activities are systematically carried out through the press media coverage of the company's programs, initiatives or events. In some instances, press conferences are called to address the news media through focused PR propaganda. PR is seen through numerous industries of sports, business, agriculture, education, politics, social, cultural and healthcare sectors.

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Healthcare sector too? Yes! Healthcare also. Gone are the days when the medical fraternity refrained from any kind of public communication adhering to the soft, sober and dedicated-to-serve ideology. In the recent decade, many health care institutions, hospitals, research centers, and medical diagnostic centers have taken active initiatives in spreading awareness about their facilities and services. Advertising is a commercial communication known to everyone. Whereas the PR exercises like press notes, interview coverage, news magazines, social films work from a different perspective, increasing the reliability of the information as it comes from the editorial department. Technically, doctors and healthcare professionals do not have the policy to advertise openly as they fall under the 'essential lifesaving services 'category. So, the need to communicate evenly and stand out in the competition, public relations activities become imperative and reliable communication resources. Many hospitals plan social initiatives of conducting free health check-up camps, eye check-up drives, blood donation camps in various urban and rural areas. The basic underlying purpose of the social work is met with an active response from the people. This initiative is covered with photographs, video testimonials, feedbacks and reviews from different people in the public; and is carried as their PR activities through various print, online, electronic and other mass media. Reputed hospitals like Cloud nine, Apollo group, Ruby Hall Clinic, Jehangir Hospital, Aditya Birla Hospital etc., all regularly apply PR initiatives from time to time to remain noticed and become the preferred choice of any treatment for the patients. Healthcare research institutes like Serum Institute, Bharat Biotech, Dr Reddy's Laboratories, Zydus Cadila, Biological E, Gennova Biopharma and Panacea Biotech had actively participated in the national health meet with honorable prime minister Narendra Modi. Their contribution to the crucial lifesaving research in vaccine creation and production has helped save the lives of millions of people in India and worldwide. This pharmaceutical and virology

research segment has gained momentum during and postpandemic and was given widespread publicity openly. The government health department conducts many health drives for spreading awareness in public about various topics of malnutrition in children, women's health, family planning, male vasectomy, TB awareness, HIV awareness, Alcohol deaddiction, drug abuse prevention, Checkup and vaccination about Hepatitis A, B, C; blood donation drives, Eye donation awareness and voluntary registration, kidney and liver donation registrations and understanding about health issues of senior citizen like Alzheimer disease, Dementia, Parkinson's disease, prostrate complicate and various types of Cancers etc. Government PR activities are conducted through many mass media like theatres, hoardings, common areas in government offices and public transport locations. Effective PR is considered to have worked well with the noticeable drop in patients and the frequent surveys conducted by the health department officials. In the rural areas, wall paintings, bus shelters, small hoardings, health camps and cultural events are taken to spread the message. A press conference is a planned meeting with the press journalists from various media. The hospital management gives a detailed presentation about their new initiatives, new medical facilities, the inauguration of new infrastructure etc. For any press conference, certain norms are generally followed, which are most necessary to get the desired exposure and generate a positive brand image of the medical institution. Formal invitation, press kit, concise and pinpointed presentation, presence of all the important senior management team members for the active question-answer sessions and the social initiative of their objective to be clearly highlighted. It is most necessary for any PR activity to be successful is to make the press note newsworthy. The newsworthiness of the information depends on the recency, relevancy and the specialty aspect added to the 'newness quotient' of the press note. Every PR activity is planned with the professional PR agencies who have the proper network in the media industry, who have the knack for creating and formulating the PR articles and who initiate the release of the press articles in the planned manner.

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TransMedia

Group C

onsidering the constant evolution of the healthcare industry, public relations (PR) is proving to be more essential now than ever. Organizations that wish to stay ahead in the industry should invest in good PR to create demand. PR helps organizations send a solid message across platforms to position them as an industry leader. This is where a public relations agency plays its crucial part. PR helps companies with communication, both internal and external, building the brand, and enhancing business growth. TransMedia Group has been one such brilliant multi-lingual PR agency that has helped organizations tell their stories across all media. In the following interview, Thomas J Madden, the CEO, Chairman, and Spinman of TransMedia Group, and Adrienne Mazzone, the President of TransMedia Group, talk about the excellent work that their firm has been executing in the healthcare PR space since its inception. Please brief our audience about your agency, its values, and the aspects that make it a leading player in the healthcare PR space. The most productive prescription for keeping companies in healthcare healthy involves at least two major media hits a month, plus weekly social media posts followed by appearances on television but only after undergoing media training allowing PR experts like us to take X-rays of your delivery so we can surgically remove any dull spots and concentrate on five or six message points that most build confidence and enhance your brand. Brief us about how you have set yourself apart from the competition through your expertise in healthcare PR and communication?

An Award-winning PR Firm, Serving Clients Worldwide

We set ourselves apart from other PR firms by emphasizing three things about TransMedia Group that make us measurably different. 1. Our 40 years of experience in grooming our healthcare clients for the big leagues in media. 2. Our many success stories in having healthcare clients featured on network television, in major market newspapers, and national magazines. 3. The impact our PR has had on our clients’ bottom line, for example, our publicity making the founder of Rexall Sundown, a billionaire. What other services does your agency offer, and how are you making an impact in the global healthcare industry? We love working with international companies as well as leading healthcare companies in other countries like Israel, where for many years we successfully represented Dr. Eli Fisher, whose company has become a household name there, and today we’re helping Meir Medical Center raise funds for devices to save infants in pre-natal births. Tom, please brief us about your journey in the healthcare PR space and how you have made an impact on the agency through your role. My experience with healthcare started years ago when I broke my neck in a diving accident when I was a young lifeguard in Atlantic City, NJ. It was then that I developed a strong admiration for doctors, nurses, and healthcare professionals who nursed me back to health. When I started TransMedia Group in the early 1980’s one of my first clients was Boehringer Ingelheim, a large pharma company in Connecticut that asked me to promote a

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10 Most Promising PR Agencies in Healthcare 2022

Thomas J Madden CEO, Chairman and Spinman

Adrienne Mazzone President

We need to send pitches to media that stand out and news releases that shine enough for media to notice and act upon.

mental energy aid called Ginkoba M/E, for which I came up with the phrase “Good News for your Brain” and made thousands of buttons with that phrase.

with a typewriter, not even a laptop, which for me was a giant step upward.

It was fun, and some of my best PR campaigns were fun, which is probably why they worked. One time I was promoting Laugh Factory, a comedy club in New York City, and we handed out thousands of toothbrushes on Times Square that said: “Fight Glum Disease” at Laugh Factory.

While there are so many marvelous ways to spread communications today, I still believe we need to express ourselves eﬀectively, and that requires writing skills, which in today’s new metaverse I feel are losing eﬀectiveness, something that I write about in my latest book, ‘Wordshine Man’, due out in March.

Being an experienced leader, share with us your opinion on how the adoption of modern technologies and platforms within PR and communications has transformed the industry and what more could be expected in the near future?

We need to send pitches to media that stand out and news releases that shine enough for media to notice and act upon. This takes writing skills that we need to keep sharp regardless of what technology is transporting them to recipients.

Technology is an area that’s always running ahead of me, and I’m forever trying to catch up with it. But it’s revolutionized the PR professional. Keep in mind that I started

What would be your advice to budding entrepreneurs who aspire to venture into the healthcare PR sector?

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Exhibiting Excellence “Tom and the TransMedia team have been an incredible partner, but more importantly have essentially been an extension of our team, as we entered into our next phase of growth at Health Karma. They truly understand the importance of building brand equity and have been able to communicate eﬀectively in what is complex health care and media space.” “This collaboration has truly helped to extend the reach of Health Karma being recognized for providing an easy-to-use and personalized solution that empowers consumers with the tools and resources to navigate the confusion and cost of the healthcare system. We have great chemistry with the team at TransMedia Group and are conﬁdent in their ability to tell our unique story in ways that connect to the needs of consumers and businesses across the nation.” – Health Karma

Besides the science and proof of eﬀectiveness, healthcare needs passion behind it, a penchant for wellness, a strong desire to convince people to preserve and protect their health, especially today while we’re under unceasing pandemic attack. It’s one of the reasons I started the online publication Dietary Supplement News, which my health-conscious daughter Adrienne Mazzone runs, while she’s also a proliﬁc president of TransMedia Group. Today we need those Vitamin C B and D supplements and many others more than ever to keep our immune system on track and at its best. Where do you envision your agency to be in the long run, and what are your goals for 2022 and beyond? I see our agency expanding in many rapidly burgeoning areas like telemedicine. We represent iRecovery which is assisting so many people dealing with drug addiction and other medical problems surging today via telemedicine and advanced companies like Health Karma, which is taking all the hassle and complexity out of navigating a plethora of healthcare options.

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10 Most Promising PR Agencies in Healthcare 2022

Woedend!

Creative Agency Brand Building, Dynamic Storytelling and Making Real Contact

he healthcare industry is one of the most important in today's world. Technology has risen up to the next level. Before the digital era, the connection between the healthcare industry and consumers was limited to geographical limits, now it has become more geographically vast and is growing fast. The digital era has given access to people to get information and be connected to any healthcare organization around the globe. So, the importance of staying connected to the consumers and creating a good image among them became more valuable. Where the health problems are rising day by day, healthcare organizations are more focused on the work 24x7, so the PR agencies assist these organizations to communicate with their clients. Woedend! Creative Agency is one such company that is bridging the communication gap between healthcare organizations and people. The company has worked in the industry for over two decades now and specializes in storytelling, communication, branding, PR, email marketing, and much more. The Strategy Director and Partner, Paul Woltering, is the key person in this creative agency and the experience that he possesses is helping Woedend to achieve new heights. He also happens to be one of the members of the APG NL (Account Planning Group Netherland) board. In the following interview, Paul Woltering elaborates more upon the organizations role in the PR space. Please brief our audience about your agency, its values, and the aspects that make it a leading player in the healthcare PR space.

Woedend! Creative Agency began in 2000 as a digital agency. We strongly believed digital would transform society and the way brands behave and people live their lives. But now, with the world ultra-connected and always on – with smart algorithms deciding who we are – it's time to return to 'first principles': making real contact with consumers. That's why over the years, Woedend! transformed into a full-service creative agency so we have ready access to whatever it takes to make this contact. We support brands wanting to build a strong relationship with their customers. Our strength is the ability to find and express their true story in all touchpoints with customers and stakeholders – from a global branding campaign to the user experience of a printed instruction leaflet. It's about finding the essence of a brand so you can more easily build a whole supportive marketing and communication ecosystem. For Abbott, we created a 6-part video series 'Checkpoint Len', which shows Lennart biking from Amsterdam to China. This would be a challenge for anyone but more so for a person with type-1 diabetes. However, by using the FreeStyle Libre sensor to monitor his glucose levels, Len becomes living proof of Abbott's brand promise: "Life to the fullest". Brief us about how you have set yourself apart from the competition through your expertise in healthcare PR and communication? The patient journey is different for everyone. People have different demographics, interests and needs. That's why we developed 'Modular Storytelling' to maximize interaction while keeping a brand's DNA consistent. The brand story

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By having everyone on the same page, speaking the same language and sharing the same stories, we can further accelerate innovation.

Paul Woltering Partner and Strategy Director

has dynamic modules that can adapt to different audiences, their client histories, the type of device(s) they are using, and the editorial context it appears in. In this way, we can create personal and engaging stories for real people. For instance, to elevate awareness for the infectious STD 'hepatitis B', Woedend! made intimate video portraits of three very different gay men. We showed that while lifestyle may vary, full vaccination against hepatitis B is important for all gay men. What other services does your agency offer, and how are you making an impact in the global healthcare industry? The healthcare industry also involves a dizzying array of stakeholders: scientists, business people, caregivers (both as individuals and large organizations), regulators, legal and administrations experts, etcetera… So how do you explain what your company or brand does in this vortex of complexity? How do you tell your story in a simple, straightforward and engaging way? This is where creativity comes in: to translate your story with the right

content, tone and visual language so it fits and reflects your brand in every possible situation and for all contact moments in the patient/customer journey. By offering an integrated 360-degree approach, Woedend! can reach all involved audiences and stakeholders – including your employees and, ultimately, the patients. For instance, to strengthen and promote the Amsterdam region as the leading Life Sciences & Health innovation hub in Europe, it all started with creating just one short video. In the end, we had created a whole online platform Smart Health Amsterdam, complete with brand strategy, brand identity, and a practical communications toolbox, where all the stakeholders could come together to seek inspiration and collaboration under a shared goal of putting people first in health and healthcare.

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The Pharmaceutical / MedTech world imposes the necessary restrictions and law regulations. And each time I am surprised by the diversity of concepts and content the Woedend! team comes up with. We've worked with them for almost two years now, and it's a great pleasure. ·John Kooijman, Marketing & CRM Manager Benelux, Abbott Diabetes Care

Client Testimonials Client

With the Amsterdam Economic Board, we were looking for an agency to help us translate a complex message of how to leverage digital care solutions to work for health in a brief movie clip. We had no idea where to start – but there was Woedend! They took us under their professional wings, guided the whole process, were very keen to know exactly what we wanted to bring across and in which form, and started creating a movie that was more impactful and eﬀective in getting our message across – and more beautiful! – than we had anticipated. Naturally, we came back to Woedend! with a branding request for Smart Health Amsterdam. There we had the same great experience. Well-thought-out proposals, repeatedly ﬁnetuned to result in a beautiful logo and brand identity – with the bonus that Woedend! got all involved stakeholders aligned on brand identity and messaging. On top of that, they are just great people to be with.

Collaboration and work close together with all diﬀerent external specialists and stakeholders are the key to success.

·Jeroen Maas, Lead Health for Smart Health Amsterdam/Amsterdam Economic Board (now with Philips)

Please brief us about the featuring person's journey in the PR space and how they have made an impact on the agency through their role. Paul Woltering is Partner and Strategy Director at Woedend! Creative Agency. The younger Paul was always interested in how people behaved and what inﬂuenced their decisions. For instance, why did they buy mashed fruit in a small plastic bottle for two euros, when they could buy a nice crisp apple in the same store for forty cents?

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Paul studied Communication Science at the University of Amsterdam. His career began at Ogilvy (and later at BBDO) under the wings of his mentor Professor Cor Molenaar, who specialized in the development of CRM and e-commerce strategy. After eight years of work experience, Paul became strategy director at Woedend! Creative Agency in 2004, and a partner in 2006. In 2007, Woedend! started to work with their first healthcare client Pfizer. Other healthcare clients soon followed, including Medtronic, NHG (the Netherlands' society of house doctors), Soa Aids Nederland, Smart Health Amsterdam, AI Technology for People, Aidsfonds, Diabeter, Sense, Zilveren Kruis, and Abbott. Being an experienced leader, share with us your opinion on how the adoption of modern technologies and platforms within PR and communications has transformed the industry and what more could be expected in the near future? The world is becoming more and more transparent. The world of PR and communication is making a shift from advertising to real and authentic storytelling – with honest stories that show the added value of a company and its employees, services and products. People now expect that companies and brands take responsibility and play an active and positive role in society. And people choose the brand that fits their needs, lifestyle and the hopes they have for their children's future. Meanwhile… By making use of all the data we leave behind in both the real and digital worlds, brands can predict our behaviour more precisely than we can ourselves. This is scary. But at the same time, we've gotten used to it. We expect a personal approach with relevant content that fits our personal situation. That's why a shift is taking place in PR and communication: from mass marketing to mass customization – and in some cases to fully personal communication.

For instance, the latest research shows that 66% of consumers prefer to interact with brands online. So be ready for the metaverse (whether it's VR, AR, XR and/or MR). One inspiring example is EndeavorRx, a video-game-astreatment for kids with ADHD to improve attention function. Also, in Dutch we have a saying: "to prevent is more efficient than to cure". And the shift to prevention is a rapidly evolving domain within the healthcare sector, especially after COVID-19. Get on board. Last but not least… Look at everything from the perspective of the client/end consumer/patient. And remember: patients hate to be called patients. Where do you envision your agency to be in the long run and what are your goals for 2022 and beyond? We believe in making real contact and that's also how we prefer to work with our clients and healthcare professionals. For 2022, we hope to do that again literally in real-time and in real rooms. In this way, we can collaborate more closely in an agile way – making short sprints, evaluating the results, improving and then repeating the process. Step by step, we can work together for a better and healthier future. This approach also hinges on a larger communication vision: bringing together all the different parties required to spur positive change in such a complex industry as healthcare. By having everyone on the same page, speaking the same language and sharing the same stories, we can further accelerate innovation. Collaboration and working closely together with all different external specialists and stakeholders are the key to success.

What would be your advice to budding entrepreneurs who aspire to venture into the healthcare PR sector? It takes a lot of time and money to bring medical innovation to market. A lot. So, you must be passionate yet patient – and ready to juggle a whole range of stakeholders who are all following their timelines. You also need to stay on top of a constantly evolving world.

47 | February 2022|www.insightscare.com