Klick Health: 2022

Klick Health

175 Bloor Street East #300, Toronto, ON M4W 3R8
312-894-5500 • [email protected] • klick.com

 

QUICK FACTS

Services Mix

• Professional (marketplace/sales)
• Consumer (Rx)
• OTC/wellness
• Relationship marketing/direct
• Media planning + buying (consumer or professional)
• Med ed (on label, non-CME type)
• Payer/managed markets/access
• Working with health tech startups/ innovative tech
• Public health/non-profit/NGO
• Market research/data/analytics
• UX design

 

WINNER

Heart Award
Best Agency Campaign

FINALIST

Agency of the Year, Category I
Most Admired Agency
Best Experiential Campaign
Best Patient Engagement Campaign

 

“After 24 years of unprecedented growth, who would have thought that 2021 would have been our best year ever?!!! Even with the challenges presented by a global pandemic, Klick Health has never been stronger,” the leadership team says. “And as we embark on our 25th anniversary (in the spring) we can’t help but look back at all we’ve accomplished. While much may have changed, Klick Health’s focus on our people-first principle on which we were founded, continues to result in impressive year-over-year growth and momentum.”

According to the management team, “Unlike most hyper-growth companies, we didn’t just sustain our award-winning culture, we kicked things up a notch – even in the midst of COVID-19 – and demonstrated just how much culture can contribute to growth.”

Management says the culture was acknowledged by Fast Company, as No. 9 in its list of 100 Best Workplaces for Innovators; Fortune, as one of its “Best Workplaces for Millennials” and “Best Small & Medium Workplaces”; two Digiday’s Worklife Awards as “Most Committed to Diversity and Inclusion” and “Best On-Boarding Process”; and others for having one of the most admired corporate cultures and being one of the best places to work in healthcare.

Additionally, Klick employees won 11 agency and thought leadership awards, including Lori Grant as the Med Ad News Manny Awards Industry Person of the Year; Klick Ventures as the Manny Awards Vision Award winner; Amy Gomez as PM360 Elite Transformational Leader; Grant again for the PharmaVoice 100; Rich Levy for the MM&M Pinnacle Awards; Jessica Botting for MM&M’s Women to Watch; and Colin O’Young for MM&M’s 40 Under 40.

The number of employees grew 25 percent to 1,498 and revenue grew by more than double the industry average.

“The growth and expansion of our creative production team in 2021 has been nothing short of amazing,” the leadership team says. “We completed more video/broadcast productions in 2021 than in our entire 24 years combined (more than 700!).”

Recent Accomplishments

2021 was also a remarkable year for new business and contributing to positive health outcomes, management says. “Over the past year, we’ve worked with brands that have revolutionized dermatology (treating atopic dermatitis and vitiligo); nephrology (CKD and lupus nephritis); neurology (various conditions); diabetes (continuous glucose monitoring, T2D treatment, hypoglycemia); oncology (various); cardiology (heart failure); rare genetic disorders (sickle cell, ALD, Duchenne muscular dystrophy); autoimmune disorders (Crohn’s, rheumatoid arthritis); opioid addiction; urology (overactive bladder, Peyronie’s Disease); antibiotics (various); vaccines (HPV, dengue, pediatrics, COVID-19); and more.”

Klick Health says, “And while we aren’t at liberty to mention most of our clients by name, we must mention some of the important work we’ve been doing with COVID-19 vaccines. From vaccine launches, to our involvement in supporting various trial-related initiatives, to our growing work in policy & advocacy, to our vaccine confidence initiatives – we are so proud to have been and continue to be at the epicenter of efforts that will ultimately see the world through to the other side of this pandemic.”

For example, Klick Health worked with the U.S. Government COVID Response team to launch Rise Above COVID, the first clinical trial recruitment campaign for COVID-19 therapies. Sponsored by the National Institutes of Health (NIH), the ACTIV-2 clinical study is investigating promising treatments for adults with COVID-19. The campaign was created to generate awareness of ACTIV-2, prioritizing communities of color disproportionately impacted by COVID-19 using sophisticated targeting and a grassroots program in Black-owned barbershops and salons to help overcome barriers that prevent people of color from enrolling.

The agency also partnered with The Vaccine Confidence Project at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine and YouTube to create Community Unity, a 12-part video series to equip people with accurate COVID-19 vaccine & health information they can trust in response to their most-Googled questions. The series uses a combination of social listening and creative execution to break through and resonate with audiences — particularly Gen Z — in a way that other, more traditional PSA’s haven’t.

Klick Health also added several additional important launches to its portfolio. These include supporting Biohaven Nurtec­ODT’s second launch in just one year. Agency managers describe this as a “first-of-its-kind, game-changing way” to treat and prevent migraine all in one medication.

“Playing in a highly competitive space, Nurtec set the bar high in its first launch – so this second launch not only featured innovative, surround-sound channels to reach patients and HCPs, but also incredible outcomes,” company executives say. “Impactful results such as seeing a 625 percent increase in website traffic on just Day 1, leading to 9 million visits within the year; 5.5 million views of the brand’s (and category’s!) very first TikTok video; as well as so many other pharma firsts on Reddit, Twitter, and more. Ultimately, NurtecODT well exceeded expectations and surpassed year one by becoming No. 1 in the CGRP category by year’s end – and best of all, changing the lives of millions of people with migraines for the better.”

Last year the agency also supported the launch of Endo’s first-ever branded TV spot for Xiaflex. According to the leadership team, the campaign, called “The Bent Carrot,” was created in a completely remote environment and executed in record time — with only six months from concepting and market research to launching in-market. “Since launch, social conversation around Peyronie’s disease has been rising, as hundreds of thousands of people visited the brand website to learn more,” company executives say.

The agency also created Letters to GIST “because living with rare cancer is a uniquely isolating experience. Only ~5,000 new cases of gastrointestinal stromal tumor (GIST) are diagnosed in the US each year, meaning most GIST patients and caregivers will never meet another person with GIST in their lifetimes. The unbranded Letters to GIST video series was designed to create solidarity and emotional connection through the most intimate of forums: personal letters addressed directly to the rare form of cancer.”

Another agency partnership was with the Digital Health Coalition and Healthline Media to address “Improving Health Equity Through Cross-Cultural Marketing.” Additionally, Klick Health has been collaborating internally to deliver new offerings. “In partnership with Klick’s Insight, Brand Strategy, and Client Services teams, Klick developed the Cross-Cultural Navigator, an interactive workshop for clients to uncover their brands’ cross-cultural opportunities, which stimulates frank dialogue around culture and identify that helps establish a stronger client-agency bond and align on future vision,” management says.

The leadership team describes 2021 as being “extremely exciting” for its Applied Sciences offering, which they say added new disciplines, deepened its expertise in machine learning, and broadened its capabilities into mathematics and mechanical engineering. “Our Experimental Technology Lab, for example, is a place of serious scientific and engineering research focused on the creation of patentable hardware,” agency executives say. “The team conducted various research studies throughout 2021, publishing findings one how nature-themed Zoom backgrounds can inspire more creativity than blank or city-themed backgrounds; and how Google Assistant comprehends medication names more accurately than Siri and Alexa.”

Klick Applied Sciences partnered with Lakeridge Health to introduce VancoCalc. The free, technologically advanced medication dosage calculator helps pharmacists and physicians determine the correct amount of vancomycin for treating life-threatening, antibiotic-resistant, bacterial infections. “Determining proper dosage of the last-resort medication can be extremely complicated. VancoCalc aids clinicians in determining an effective and appropriate amount,” managers say.

And in April 2021, the agency announced an industry-leading strategic partnership with Komodo Health. Management says this makes Klick the premier life sciences marketing agency to leverage Komodo’s Healthcare Map – a real-world data and analytics platform.

“The alliance gives our clients access to the industry’s most complete view of anonymized patient encounters and enables demonstrably more insightful and targeted healthcare marketing programs,” managers state.

The agency partnered with the Pandemic Action Network, conducting research on HCP pandemic experiences in timing with The First Wave, a documentary film following a NYC hospital as it battles COVID-19. Management says the findings revealed challenges that continue to burden doctors and nurses in the U.S. well over a year into the pandemic, and point to what is required to be better prepared for this crisis and future pandemic threats. “We cannot wait to share the incredible innovations we are working on for 2022!” Klick leaders say.

And when it comes to Klick’s personnel, “As always, we continued to find creative, new ways to put our people first. We hosted an internal eight-week Klick Wellness Challenge in partnership with HEAL Wellness, with ongoing wellness classes, weekly team and individual prizes, and the grand prize of a Peloton. Not only did the program encourage personal care (from movement, to healthy eating, to stress management and meditation), it encouraged a ton of fun and camaraderie, with Klicksters bonding and supporting one another.”

For the second year, the agency rolled out the Klick Mobile Flu Shot Clinic (an adaptation of its popular, longstanding in-office flu shot program), bringing nurses to administer the shots directly on employees’ doorsteps. “As far as we know, we are the first company in the world to have done this – no doubt why the program was recognized by Fast Company’s 2021 ‘World-Changing Ideas.’”

Structure and Services

2021 was a year of significant developments across Klick, including new practices and offerings such as Scientific Innovation, Klick Productions, Klick Intelligence, and Healthcare Education, as well as an expansion of the Policy & Advocacy and Digital Transformation offerings, tech leadership, and the arrival of several other senior new hires as the agency hit record-breaking growth.

The agency began 2021 by announcing that two of its managing directors, Ari Schaefer and Greg Rice, had been named co-presidents.

Tim Mitchell joined Klick to lead the new Scientific Innovation practice. “Building on the commercial innovation success that Klick Applied Sciences and Klick Labs have had over the past eight years, we expanded our presence in clinical innovation by launching the Scientific Innovation practice to develop unique new ways to target, reach, and communicate with healthcare professionals. The practice is part of the industry’s largest medical group integrated across a single agency,” Klick managers say.

Klick Intelligence was introduced with Keri Hettel and Meredydd Hardie to provide clients with a competitive advantage and help them understand impactful cultural forces and changing market dynamics, expand competitive assessments, elevate audience insights, and identify undiscovered data signals.

And to bolster the growing Creative team under Chief Creative Officer Rich Levy’s direction, Klick launched its new production capability Klick Productions, led by Executive Creative Producer Laura Denham. “The team has revolutionized shooting during COVID-19, with several proprietary offerings to keep the camera rolling during this unusual time,” management says. “Can we mention again that we completed more than 700 individual productions in 2021? And they’re building a fully integrated state-of-the-art production studio in our Toronto headquarters to take on more work in live-action, animation, motion graphics, AR, VR, and 3D animation.”

After establishing its Policy & Advocacy practice in 2020 with U.S. policy veteran David Bowen, Klick expanded the team in 2021, bringing seasoned industry professionals Brandi Hight Bank and Randi Goeckeler onboard “as we continue to help clients understand and influence the policy landscape through insight, opinion mobilization, and stakeholder alliance development,” management says. “We also created the new role of chief transformation officer, welcoming transformation maverick Ryan Slipakoff as we continue to bolster our technological leadership across the life sciences industry and further drive innovation, new product development, and commercialization within the Klick ecosystem.”

And to support future growth, Klick expanded its Intern Program significantly in 2021 “to supercharge our talent pipeline, and excite and inspire our next generation of healthcare innovators,” according to the management team. “With almost 60 college students in our paid, company-wide program (about 6x the size of prior incarnations), the program provided direct, hands-on client experience and mentorship, and half of the interns were hired full-time at the end of the program (with additional offers made to others who will graduate in 2022).”

Future Plans

Klick Health says, “This year marks our 25th anniversary, so we have many surprises and announcements in store.”

“We will continue to put our people first and when we are able to safely return to in-person work, we will institute a flexible hybrid model,” the leadership team says. “By flexible hybrid, we mean that every team’s in-office/work-from-home schedule will be different, as different teams have differing needs. We are conducting listening sessions with our team members as we prepare to roll out our new model and are excited about what’s to come. (In fact, already this year, we were named a Best Workplace for Hybrid Work!)”

In 2022, one of the agency’s DE&I goals is to train all staff who conduct candidate interviews in anti-bias interview techniques. “After a careful search for the right partner, we are rolling out training on inclusive interviewing techniques, followed by additional training on other inclusive leadership topics,” Klick executives say. “We will continue our anti-racism talks, which kicked-off in February 2022 with an inspirational discussion with the founder of the Center for Anti-Racist Research at Boston University and author of ‘How to Be An Antiracist,’ Dr. Ibram X. Kendi.”

Klick’s Cross-Cultural Marketing capability is also collaborating with the Intelligence team on what executives characterize as “an exciting New Majority America Health Study that will fill a major gap in healthcare market research, and look forward to publishing the results in a peer-reviewed scientific journal in April.”

To further new production capabilities, Klick is building a state-of-the-art production studio at its Toronto headquarters. “From full production shoots, to editorial edits, to voice recordings, and more – our new studio will allow us to create content for our clients faster than ever.”

Managers vow that the agency will continue its “future-forward trajectory” in 2022 by adding more new practice areas, expanding others, and attracting more top talent companywide to support ongoing record growth.

“To ensure the high-touch, superior client experiences Klick is known for providing, we recently welcomed seasoned healthcare marketing leaders Hannah Davis and Tatiana Lyons to oversee two of our Client Success Teams, and project management and delivery veteran Ayaz Gowa to lead Klick’s expanding Project Management Office,” Klick management says.

Brian Kaiser was appointed as Executive VP, Activation & Experience Strategy after Executive VP Cam Bedford retired. Kaiser leads a large integrated team of strategists across Activation, CRM, Experience Design and Social developing go-to-market solutions that will adapt to the changing market and help clients address a wide range of commercialization challenges.

Building on the best Brand Strategy team in life sciences, the agency welcomed several senior strategists to its Brand Strategy group, including Senior VP Sara Bamber; Senior VP Christina Mullen; VP Kathryn Bernish-Fisher; VP Quinn Murray; and VP, Group Director Laura Romeu.

Klick established a new Corporate Reputation Health Practice, welcoming Senior VP Luke Perez and VP Kerri Allen. The Intelligence team also launched Klick Sharp Targeting, a proprietary, new, customizable targeting tool that leverages deep medical knowledge and sophisticated data possibility to identify and prioritize hard-to-find/hard-to-understand audience groups, and ultimately driving actionable target segments across all marketing channels. “The tool was created in response to the targeting challenges life science companies face due to the need for complex data definitions of patient audiences or disparate data sources,” according to agency leaders.

The agency “significantly” expanded its new Digital Transformation team, and launched an Organizational Excellence practice to help clients build sustainable operating models, talent plans, and transformation strategies that help drive successful digital transformations. New employees include Transformation Senior VP Jenna Mitby; Solutions and Digital Consulting Senior VP Eric Vacin; Solutions Consulting VP Jasmeet Kambo; Organizational Excellence VP Danielle Tasson; Data Solutions & Architecture VP Kalyan Koduri; and Technology VPs Nelson Figueiredo, Bodgan Nastase, and Anthony Velez.

Klick Media has more than doubled in size over the last couple years, managers say. “EVP of Media Dave Leitner, who heads up the one-stop media shop for health and wellness marketing, credits his team’s transformative growth to expanded programmatic, paid social, and video offerings, a proprietary and expanded full-service media offering for branded and unbranded pharma campaigns that can address disease conditions across both patient and HCP audiences, and expansion into the OTC space,” Klick executives say. “With the transformative growth, Leitner has welcomed a wealth of talent and expertise as of late, including Media Strategy & Planning VP Herman Mallhi.”

Philanthropy/Citizenship

When it comes to the difference that is Klick, our employee experience wouldn’t be complete without the important work done by our Employee Resource Groups (ERGs), DE&I efforts, and our charitable giving program – Klick Cares,” according to company leaders. “From providing a safe space for important discussions, to connecting and educating Klicksters and putting the power of philanthropy into their hands, we are all better Klicksters for the efforts of these groups.”

Based on its first-ever diversity benchmarking survey, the agency’s DE&I council established a set of diversity goals to be achieved over a two-year period. “We published them, along with our diversity data on our careers site, demonstrating the commitment to transparency that’s essential to our progress,” management says. “We launched a six-month Diverse Mentorship pilot program that engaged Klicksters of color as mentors for senior Klick leaders. The mentors raised awareness for these executives about the experience of Klicksters of color at work and the issues that impact them, while the executive mentees built relationships of influence for their mentors.”

Management describes the DE&I Council as acting as “a catalyst for progress,” and the council grew in 2021 to represent a greater range of backgrounds, experience, levels, and geographies. “Our DE&I commitment also extends to the way Klick interacts with the world, including our spending and suppliers; we enhanced our supplier tracking to include the ability to track spending with minority-owned businesses to set goals for our future spend.”

“We had some amazing anti-racism talks in 2021,” Klick says. “Among them, incomparable author of ‘The 1619 Project’ Nikole Hannah-Jones spoke with our Chief Brand Strategy Officer Carl Turner about the origins of medical bias; the insightful and inspirational Jeff Perera spoke to us about allyship to people of color, how to champion societal change, and further Klick’s inclusive workplace culture; and Dr. Jason Chambers and Dr. Christopher Boulton gave a thought-provoking talk called ‘The Ghosts of Mad Men: How We Got Here and Why We’re Stuck.’

Klick elevated and expanded its ERGs for maximum impact on both the agency’s culture and work, “providing equitable space for Klicksters through ERGs like Klicksters of Color, Queer/LBGTQ+, Parents, Women, Mental Health, and more.”

Klick says, “Just some of our ERGs’ important work included: Klicksters of Color celebrating Tamil Heritage Month with a virtual cooking class with Chef Soumiya Aathe; parents building community during the pandemic by hosting Focused Conversations and The Grown-ups Table discussions; Queer/LGBTQ+ hosting virtual events like “The Queer Advantage” with Andrew Gelwicks and “Coming Out Day Storytelling Night,” along with a Queer Mentorship Program; women focusing on growth and professional development through workshops such as “Build-a-Bio” and events like “International Women’s Day Virtual Speed-Mentoring;” and Mental Health co-hosting a clinical panel called “All About Therapy,” featuring a discussion with a registered psychotherapist and Klick’s Medical Strategy team in an effort to destigmatize therapy.”

The agency’s interns participated in the Integrated Learning Project (ILP), which grouped them into small cross-disciplinary cohorts to work on an independent project for United We Raise, a start-up working to improve maternal and infant outcomes among women of color. At the end of the 2021 internship program, the intern cohorts presented the ILP solutions they developed for pro-bono client United We Raise to a panel of senior Klick leaders and the client, who crowned a winning solution. “The client was moved to tears by the presentations.”

According to the leadership team, the Klick Cares philanthropic giving program “continued to make a difference in the communities in which we work and live by putting the power of giving in Klicksters’ hands.” Employees donated to charities such as Rainbow Railroad, Water First, Chinese for Affirmative Action, Native Women’s Resource Center.

In 2021, employees made 6,000 individual “Klick It Forward” donations, resulting in 32,886 meals donated to Toronto, Philadelphia and New York City; 226 newborn survival kits given to SickKids, as well as toys, games, and genome sequencing; a partnership with Black Girls Code that helped create a virtual platform to extend the organization’s reach internationally; 316 family kits of medical supplies and groceries, 80 group-home kits, and 21 oxygen concentrators donated during India’s deadly COVID-19 wave; $75,000 raised in September by the Klick Cares for SickKids Foundation; and 12,000 trees planted on five continents through One Tree Planted.

“To further our environmental goals, we teamed up with Climate Smart for formal training on carbon auditing. Using their tool to measure our carbon footprint allowed us to not only offset 100 percent of our carbon emissions again in 2021, but work toward a carbon reduction strategy,” agency managers say.

“We collaborated with acclaimed artist Daniel Mazzone (dubbed ‘The Next Andy Warhol’) to create a four-story art activation on the front of our Toronto headquarters to kick off The Shoebox Project for Women’s 2021 Holiday campaign and announce our national sponsorship of the charity, as part of Klick Cares. Passersby were encouraged to scan the installation’s QR code, which led them to a page where they could support the nonprofit’s mission of helping women experiencing homelessness.”

Among the agency’s pro-bono creative efforts was The Curious Eye, which managers say is an award-winning first-of-its-kind storybook designed to help screen children for color vision deficiency (color blindness), a highly undiagnosed condition affecting one in 12 males and one in 200 females, globally.

“Created in partnership with the Children’s Eye Foundation of AAPOS with an advisory board of ophthalmologists, the book’s illustrations mimic the clinical, standardized Ishihara diagnostic test, but transform it into a fun and engaging adventure,” Klick execs say. Parents who suspect their child has color vision deficiency can find a local ophthalmologist for clinical diagnosis via TheCuriousEye.org.

“Interactions on CEF’s social channels increased by 13,944 percent, and the week after launch, CEF’s homepage saw a 1,065 percent increase in visitors,” management says. “The book reached audiences around the world, generating 64 million-plus earned press impressions from coverage by outlets like The Wall Street Journal, Luerzer’s Archive, Verywell, Medscape, and The Daily Mail. Eye specialists, parents, and teachers around the globe (including Spain, Poland, Brazil, South Africa) requested translations of the book.”

Management adds, “And then, as we neared the end of 2021, we created our holiday video, like we do every year. Only this year, we offered every Klickster a $100 bill to #SpreadJoy in their communities. The three-minute production featured many of the 630 Klicksters who participated bringing joy (and often tears) to unsuspecting people across the U.S. and Canada. For every YouTube view of the aptly named ‘#SpreadJoy’ holiday video, we donated $1 to Make-A-Wish to help spark joy for children with critical illnesses. More than 4.5 million views and 132 million press impressions later, we like to think we helped make the holidays a bit more joyful.”

Management says, “So, what’s ahead for Klick Health? We’ve got a lot in store for our 25th Anniversary this year and we don’t want to spoil any surprises! But we promise we will continue to evolve, grow, and be different from other healthcare agencies. We have waaaaay more people, practices, offices, and clients than we did when we set up shop in April 1997, but our culture, creativity, and refusal to accept the status quo are as true – and steadfast – today as ever. At Klick, we’re always in Beta. Always evolving. Always innovating. Always putting our people first. And always partnering with our clients to help people all over the world live longer and healthier lives. All of this provides the proof that indeed – There’s something different here.”