Healthcare marketing and comms agency, Deerfield Group, is creating a new model for growth while making a series of appointments and promotions to help bolster its plans.
The agency’s new model, “Built for This,” is being set up to support its next phase of growth, the company told Fierce in an exclusive look at the plans.
The approach follows a path other healthcare agencies are also pursuing, namely in the areas of technology, innovation and AI, but it will all be “anchored in human expertise,” Deerfield said in a statement.
That expertise includes new hires in leadership roles, with Brian Rocks joining as chief financial officer and Shelby Rauen as head of strategy.
The company has also expanded the roles of Dominic Viola, chief innovation officer; Tim Frank, chief marketing officer; and Amanda Sellers, chief communications officer. The moves come after Deerfield's strategic majority investment from Martis Capital.
Deerfield is also using Fierce Pharma Week in Philadelphia this week to launch its Industry Pain Benchmark Survey. The effort aims to “uncover operational pain points healthcare marketers and communicators experience,” the agency said.
The survey will also put the Built for This approach into practice in real time at Fierce Pharma Week, where the agency will “collect insights and feedback directly from clients on the key pain points plaguing healthcare marketers and communicators,” it said.
Those pain points include everything from budget and timeline pressures to the growing complexity of approvals and channel mix.
“Deerfield is an agency on the move. We have challenged the status quo from the beginning and are constantly evolving to anticipate and meet our clients’ changing needs,” said Frank Burrell, chief executive officer of Deerfield Group, in a statement to Fierce.
“We have always led with innovation, but our core has always been, and always will be, our people. As technology becomes a commodity across the industry, senior-level judgment, experience and relationships are what set the agency apart.”