SCOUT Health: 2021

SCOUT Health

1375 Peachtree Road, Suite 180N

Atlanta, GA 30309

Telephone 

404-91-SCOUT

Website 

findscout.com

 

QUICK FACTS

Accounts

Account wins 4

Active business clients 8

Brands by 2020 sales

Brand-product accounts held 14

$50 million-$100 million 2

$100 million-$500 million 4

$500 million-$1 billion 3

$1 billion or more 3

Products not yet approved/launched 2

 

SERVICES MIX

HCP (digital and offline) 50% 

DTC/DTP (digital and offline) 50%

 

According to its leaders, SCOUT Health is the longest-running agency focused on rare disease and specialty pharma. “Established in 1999, SCOUT is dedicated to improving the lives of patients, caregivers, and healthcare professionals throughout the rare-disease and specialty pharma community,” management says. 

RECENT ACCOMPLISHMENTS

2020 was, of course, a unique year marked by unexpected challenges,” agency leaders say. “Of paramount importance was the health and general well-being of staff, clients, vendor partners, and collective families.”

“The COVID-19 pandemic immediately turned our attention to the understanding that success in 2020 would be measured by protecting and supporting our staff, clients, families, and communities,” says Jennifer Brekke, CEO of SCOUT. “However, we knew we could not lose focus on the important work of ensuring our clients could reach the HCPs, patients, and caregivers in the rare-disease community.” 

Recognizing the importance of uninterrupted healthcare services for the rare-disease and specialty pharma communities, SCOUT leaders say the agency deepened its collaboration and partnership with Code and Theory to leverage additional digital innovation for its clients and the patients they serve. 

2020 also marked SCOUT’s continued investment in elevating expertise and offerings surrounding genetic disorders and complex disease states, management says, adding that the continued focus on rare and ultra-rare disease, as well as expansion of gene therapy expertise, attracted new clients to the agency in 2020. They note that these clients have potential groundbreaking gene therapies for people living with very rare, debilitating diseases. 

“Our staff gets very excited about working on these life-changing, transformational therapies,” says agency President Raffi Siyahian. “They have chosen to dedicate their professional craft to helping patients and families who are hungry for information about rare diseases and potential therapies.”

In addition to prepping respective markets for these new potential gene therapies, in 2020 the team at SCOUT worked with a long-time client organization to refocus what has been, arguably, the largest and most successful disease education campaign in rare disease, according to agency leaders. The refocus set the stage for the work SCOUT and the client organization executed to successfully launch a next-generation narcolepsy therapy. 

STRUCTURE AND SERVICES

SCOUT Health is a full-service agency with offices in Chicago, San Diego, Atlanta, and New York. The SCOUT Health New York team is embedded within its partner agency, Code and Theory, with a deep team of digital transformation experts. Brekke says this arrangement allows the agency to tap into a broader range of specialty capabilities as desired.

The leadership team says SCOUT Health also has a division based in Atlanta, SCOUT, which is a leading consumer and business-to-business company. According to management, this relationship helps SCOUT Health provide strategically focused consumer insights and tap into the proprietary brand development approach called The Human Brand Method, which continually measures the “humanness” of a brand to optimize connection with the intended audience. 

“While SCOUT Health is a preeminent power in rare-disease and specialty pharma marketing, the firm also has expertise in a broad range of non-rare disease states and drug categories,” the leadership team says. “Rounding out the agency’s experience is a track record in animal health, medical devices, and diagnostics.” 

FUTURE PLANS

In recent years, SCOUT Health has been focused on one of its key goals of developing expertise in the field of gene therapy. “We believe gene therapy has begun to, and will continue to, unlock many of the codes to addressing rare diseases at the core,” Siyahian says. “With that in mind, we continue to invest in this area.” SCOUT Health has plans to launch two proprietary programs focused in gene therapy, which will be available to clients in early 2022. 

The leadership team says SCOUT Health continues to invest in innovative technologies, developing innovative ways for its clients to have real, authentic conversations with HCPs diagnosing and treating rare and ultra-rare diseases. “These conversations become increasingly important where frontline physicians may see very few, if any, of these patients yet are being asked to accelerate the path to diagnosis,” agency management says. “Future plans focus around streamlining journeys utilizing digital innovation as well as looking at new ways to leverage more traditional methodologies.” 

Upcoming plans also include looking at how SCOUT can provide the optimal work environment and flexibility for its staff while ensuring to continue to exceed client expectations. 

“2020 totally shifted the dynamic of the creative work process,” says Chief Creative Officer Rick Conrad. “We learned quite a bit about how our teams like to work. We’ve had to adapt and think differently so we could empower our teams to continually elevate our creative output. As the world eventually returns to normalcy, our offices and scheduling plans will be more malleable to accommodate what we’ve learned this past year. The goal is to create an environment where we can execute our best work.”

PHILANTHROPY/CITIZENSHIP

SCOUT Health continues its long-standing relationship as a proud corporate sponsor of the Tunnel to Towers Foundation that, in 2020 alone, provided more than $50 million in housing and programs to support first responders, veterans, and frontline healthcare workers and their families, agency executives say. They add that the agency provides strategic marketing services to the foundation to build awareness and support for its initiatives across the country. 

In consideration of the worldwide events of 2020, SCOUT Health extended philanthropic efforts across numerous organizations to help those who had been severely impacted by the pandemic. This included aid to frontline healthcare workers, the homeless, and restaurants chosen by staff members, according to agency leaders. 

2020 also was an inflection point for the country, industry, and agency in terms of diversity, equity, and inclusion, the leadership team says. “It was a much-needed wake-up call for us to dig deeper, to understand our blind spots and deficiencies, and frankly to do better.” Brekke says. “SCOUT will continue to persistently pursue better practices and education around equal opportunity and a more diverse and inclusive environment.”