Havas Health & You is doubling down on consolidation. This time, the pharma and healthcare agency network has pulled together its worldwide marketing under its first-ever global chief marketing officer.
The new CMO, Megan Rokosh, will parlay her recent experience as director of communications at Havas Health along with years of entertainment, media and sports communications experience—not to mention her healthcare expertise gained in marketing her family’s medical legal expert business.
Two years ago, Havas merged its professional and consumer pharma and health agencies under the Havas Health & You banner and the leadership of CEO Donna Murphy, who joined Havas Health more than 30 years ago when the agency boasted just 40 employees.
Today, with 4,000 employees in 70 countries across its network of agencies, Havas Health needed someone to focus on the commercialization partnership and sponsorship side of its business, Rokosh said.
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“Having a marketing function that operates at the network level is essential for us. We need line-of-sight on how and where we’re acting from a consolidated point of view across all of the different functions around the world," she said. "And kind of a brokerage at the network level for major partnerships as well, which will be something we’ll be more and more active in."
One thing she’s especially excited about is Havas Health's work with Vivendi, the French-based media and entertainment giant that acquired parent company Havas Group in 2017. Her background in media, sports and entertainment and potential intersection with Vivendi properties such as Universal Music Group and Gameloft come with a huge “competitive advantage in the utilization of content such as music and gaming to advance health outcomes,” she said.
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That will be important in the growing and competitive world of health and pharma marketing.
“If you look at the consumer palette, health and wellness is starting to reach a level of cultural impact that from my perspective we haven’t seen before. Wellness is at $4.2 trillion this year,” she said. “You see disruptors, you see direct-to-consumer brands, and you see pharma literally evolving by the second.”
She predicted that not only will the category continue to grow and thrive, but that Havas Health & You will be an agency to watch within it.