McCann Health New Jersey: 2023

McCann Health New Jersey, an IPG Health company

3 Sylvan Way, Parsippany, NJ 07054

212-633-9700 • Jill.beene@mccannhealth.com • mccannhealthnj.com

Quick Facts

Accounts

• Account wins: 5
• Active business clients: 15

Brands by 2022 sales

• Brand-product accounts held: 32

Services mix

• HCP: 70%
• Consumer: 30%

Finalist | Best Medical Device Campaign
Finalist | Best Social Media Campaign
SureSmile is the clear aligners brand that delivers beautiful smiles even to the scariest dentures. During Halloween, McCann Health New Jersey launched social media, posters, and a leave-behind campaign to wish everyone a Happy Halloween and to boost brand awareness.

Client roster

• AbbVie
• Arcus
• Cytokinetics 
• Denstply
• EMD Serono/Merck
• Evofem Biosciences
• GSK 
• Johnson & Johnson
• Mirum
• Nestle Health Sciences/Aimmune
• Novartis
• Novo Hemophilia
• Novo Nordisk
• Sandoz
• Sanofi Genzyme 
• Sanofi Vaccine
• Teva

Finalist

• Best Medical Device Campaign
• Best Social Media Campaign

Last year, McCann Health New Jersey (MHNJ) continued to focus its efforts on creating customer experiences that change behavior, according to the leadership team. “We’ve developed new approaches to our clients’ business that have helped us solve some of our clients most pressing problems and landed a staggering number of creative awards from Cannes Lions, Clios, One Show, LIAs, Creative Floor, MM&M and the Mannys. What’s more, we very proudly achieved the honor of being named the second most creative global health agency in the 2022 Cannes Lions Report.” 

“Our teams are whip smart, deeply committed to building strong brands, and passionate about creating experiences that change behavior,” says Jill Beene, MHNJ president. “Look for us to keep pushing creative boundaries and to build the most effective behavior-changing experiences possible.”

Recent accomplishments

It has been a year of refining and utilizing our proprietary strategic and social science tools to deeply understand customers and uncover the biases and deeply rooted habits and practices that can work against brand success,” agency managers say. “Connecting our best creative minds to those insights, we’ve developed brand experiences that engage, educate, and motivate, and above all, change behavior.”  

Executives say this philosophy is part of MHNJ’s core ways of working and the foundation for game-changing experiences that impact how people think, feel, and behave. “We are looking at the most important behavioral problems our clients face and putting our energy and effort into helping crack the code on those,” says Rodney Sexton, chief strategy officer. 

One example of what MHNJ does, executives say, is for a client in the rare Alagille syndrome space, the agency identified a strong disconnect between what HCPs believe their patients are experiencing and what patients actually experience. “The rare condition causes extreme itching, the impact of which is significantly under-appreciated by physicians,” executives say. “And we set out to bridge that gap in awareness. Using VR, we created an HCP experience to help doctors appreciate the true impact the condition has on daily life.”

“Giving HCPs the opportunity to see it for themselves had a significant emotional impact and was the catalyst for them to re-examine their own behavior,” says Bruno Abner, chief creative officer. 

According to managers, another exciting opportunity the agency identified was in the hemophilia community and how these patients experienced digital media in the form of GIFs. “Today, over text, social media, even in virtual meetings, GIFs help us express who we are and show our voice,” executives say. “But people with hemophilia are left out of the conversation. In fact, when searching for hemophilia GIFs, the top result was Homer Simpson getting his hand caught in a paper shredder – which reinforces stereotypes and misinformation about hemophilia. 

“To challenge this, we took stock of current GIFs and asked, ‘What if we created GIFs showing the incredible spirit of people living with hemophilia? What if they could fight stereotypes? What if the community adopted these to start changing how people think, feel, and behave?’ Co-creating with real people with hemophilia and their caregivers, our teams put their passion into action and created a library of motivational GIFs. With messages of hope and gratitude, our GIF collection went on to acquire an incredible 400,000 views over three months, changing the trajectory of misinformation and stereotypes, and giving those living with hemophilia a new and positive way to participate in changing the conversation.” 

As part of IPG Health, executives say MHNJ  is aligned with the belief that EDI (equity, diversity, and inclusion) is a shared responsibility, and that driving lasting and systemic change means focusing on the four core pillars of business – “Our People, Our Culture, Our Creative Solutions, Our Impact.”

“This philosophy encompasses our network’s EDI strategy – EDI+You – which formally launched late last year and is a strategic evolution of our longstanding commitment to EDI,” MHNJ managers say. “This strategy is designed to be actionable and ownable by every single one of us as EDI are too important to be the responsibility of any one person, team, or even department.  EDI+You super charges the many EDI-focused initiatives already underway across the network so we can continue to learn from each other and bring our clients the best of all of us in everything we do. 

“With this philosophy behind us, we began a unique partnership in 2022 with IDEA [Institute for Development of Education in the Arts], a grassroots organization with 25 years’ experience working in low-income BIPOC communities to provide arts-based programs and workforce development in New Jersey. This partnership focuses on finding solutions that deliver meaningful impact on EDI for our people, our work, and our clients.”

At the end of 2022, the IDEA team collaborated with the MHNJ Black Employee Network to produce an expert-filled roundtable discussion on Kwanzaa as part of the MHNJ “Truth Well Spoken” podcast series.

“We are thrilled to be able to participate in the active exchange of creative ideas with such an amazing and diverse group of thinkers,” Beene says. “Through this partnership, we are living the benefits of EDI in real time and solving real problems for our clients.”

Structure and services

In support of the agency’s vision to create experiences that change behavior, leaders say they organized MHNJ to drive more integration across core disciplines. “Building more highly integrated teams was critical because it encouraged cross collaboration among our teams, even if our clients were operating in silos,” says Pamela Pinta, group management director. 

As business transformation gets traction in pharma, calling for more intricate solutions, managers saw an opportunity to change the way MHNJ showed up with clients and to underscore its unique cross-discipline skill sets and innate collaboration. “In keeping with our test and learn culture, we piloted Partner Leadership Teams – core discipline leaders whose goal is to drive innovation, strengthen relationships, and find solutions to our clients’ most pressing problems,” executives say. “During 2022, we identified opportunities to strengthen the construct and will continue rolling it out across the agency in 2023.” 

Important changes were also made across core disciplines, leaders say, as Pinta and Kristina Teng were both named group management directors and were charged with overseeing the business leadership team. “Together they continue to transform the traditional ‘client services’ role to become ‘business leadership,’ with greater focus on bringing value to clients, omnichannel, and experience-first marketing,” executives say, adding that creative director partners with complementary backgrounds have also been put together to optimize the creative solutions the agency develops, and the agency has continued its commitment to develop an integrated approach to strategy.

In same vein as other IPG Health agencies, when it comes to its return-to-office approach, MHNJ continues “to lean into IPG Health’s philosophy of flexibility, accountability, and trust,” executives say. “Unlike other agencies and networks, we trust our employees to work with their teams to figure out what works best for themselves, their families and their clients. “

 Future plans

At McCann Health New Jersey, we continue to be all-in on creating experiences that change behavior,” leaders say. “In 2023, we will continue to employ a test and learn approach, fine tune our offering and focus in on what’s keeping our clients up at night.”   

Philanthropy/citizenship

With an employee-driven philosophy on charitable works, we continued our long-standing association with NJ Edge, an organization dedicated to helping those living with HIV,” agency leaders say. 

“We also continued our commitment to the National Association for Mental Illness and participated in NAMIWalks in support of mental health awareness. Teams collected canned and dry goods and coats to help ensure those in need had food and warm clothes during the winter, and they also continued their annual ‘Bake-Off’ tradition, auctioning employee-created baked goods and donating proceeds to local food banks. We encouraged employees to take advantage of volunteer time off, offering a number of both virtual and live opportunities to contribute to local organizations and causes.”

(top left to right) Michele Diaz, VP, HR business partner; Rodney Sexton, chief strategy officer; Gillian Walker, executive VP, managing director; ChrisAnn Patrick, executive VP, director of finance
(bottom left to right) Pamela Pinta, executive VP, group managing director; Jill Beene, president; Bruno Abner, chief creative officer

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