Ad agency VMLY&R has hired a new creative chief to oversee its pharma and healthcare business. Augé Reichenberg joins as chief creative officer of health, coming from Havas Health & You where she was chief creative officer.
While she's now leading a large health marketing creative team, Reichenberg’s foray into pharma happened by accident.
During an “all hands on deck” pitch for a pharma product at a former agency, Reichenberg found herself fascinated by the process.
“I love the science behind all of it, specifically the biology and how a disease may work in the body and the chemistry of how a medicine will work to combat the disease in the body,” she said.
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Reichenberg went on to create a vast body of work in pharma and healthcare advertising. Before serving as chief creative officer and executive vice president at Havas Health & You, she held creative leadership roles at Razorfish Health, FCB Health and McCann Health.
Reichenberg has been involved with pharma clients including Sanofi, Allergan, Novartis, Pfizer and Bayer and spearheaded the launches of Novartis’ Gilenya and Entresto, along with Amgen’s Prolia.
Among her numerous awards is a silver Cannes Lions Health win in 2018 for Takeda’s Trintellix “Lighter Blue” print and social media campaign.
That campaign was one of her favorite pieces of work and fits with her desire not to do art for art's sake, but to use it as a meaningful tool to help people.
“We did an excellent job of bringing a character called 'Blue' to life who personified their struggles and did so in such a realistic way," Reichenberg said, adding that people replied on social media that "Blue" really understood them.
In her new role, she reports to Jason Xenopoulos, CEO of VMLY&R New York and co-chief creative officer of North America. Reichenberg will work with agency clients Pfizer, Sanofi, Merck, GlaxoSmithKline and AstraZeneca.
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Reichenberg sees the future of healthcare including a healthy dose of the use of artificial intelligence by both pharma clients and their agencies.
“I believe that Big Data can lead us to great insights and great ideas. And I think technology is really the lens through which we can magnify those ideas,” she said.