Healthcare agency 21GRAMS is adding a second global chief creative officer amid its ongoing mission as an advertising agency that “just happens to be in health.”
Tom Richards has joined the W2O Group network agency as its co-global chief creative officer, based in the U.K., alongside Frank Mazzola in New York as the two devise ways to push creativity in healthcare forward even as they deal with COVID-19 pandemic fallout.
Richards comes from Havas Lynx, where he was chief creative officer and oversaw the development of award-winning work such as an AstraZeneca film called “The Attack” that recounts the day a man suffered a heart attack in the ocean surf stylized to mime a shark attack. The ad, for clot-fighter Brilinta, won numerous awards including a Cannes Lion and two Clios. Under Richards’ creative leadership, Havas Lynx was also named healthcare agency of the year in 2018 at Cannes.
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Richards was set to serve as the health and wellness jury chair for Cannes this past summer before it was canceled, but he will reprise that role next year.
Richards’ move to 21GRAMs began with a lunch meeting—pre-COVID-19 shutdowns—after Mazzola told Robert Blink, the agency’s group president and managing partner, and Wendy Levine, the agency president, that Richards would be his top choice as co-creative chief.
“The two of us partnering at the top, even though geographically at a distance, will be a force to be reckoned with. We can cover more ground with our leadership skills—mentoring and advising, but also in craft disciplines in copywriting and art direction,” Richards said.
W2O Group acquired 21GRAMS in January, just months before the COVID-19 pandemic forced new ways to work across pharma and healthcare.
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“With every challenge there is an opportunity,” Mazzola said, adding that 21GRAMS had to figure out things like how to pitch for new accounts via Zoom meetings and rethink promotions that would usually take place in person at medical conferences or in doctors’ offices.
“It does lead to different types of creative, and that’s really exciting,” he said.