NEW YORK, June 4 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- In recognition of the need for new direction in the healthcare advertising industry, LLNS (Lyons Lavey Nickel Swift), a top-ten healthcare communications firm and part of TBWA\WorldHealth, has applied TBWA's Disruption(R) to its own operations. The most overt signs of change are a new name and a non-traditional approach to spreading the word.
Today, the agency announced the end of LLNS and the launch of LyonHeart, and the news came in a non-traditional form: a series of unbranded initiatives intended to drive clients, prospects, industry leaders and potential employees to a website (www.jointheuprising.org). The agency purchased space on outdoor kiosks (outside of key clients' and prospects' offices in New York City), provided free papers wrapped in the launch story, placed client-directed magazine feature stories and sent viral emails to drive viewers to their site and explain the agency's new mission.
"Shrinking marketing teams and budgets, monumental sales expectations and increasingly competitive therapeutic categories necessitate that we approach marketing in provocative ways," said Anne Devereux, Chief Executive Officer of LyonHeart and TBWA\WorldHealth. "By turning TBWA's award-winning Disruption process on ourselves, we're 'walking the walk.' We've developed processes for building brand superiority and driving profitability in a way that addresses the new realities of the marketplace, and we're attracting talent that gets 'jazzed' by thinking outside of traditional marketing parameters."
The process of disrupting the agency began a year ago with Devereux's arrival and has already yielded significant new business including agency of record assignments from Cephalon, Schering Plough, Jazz Pharmaceuticals and UCB.
"LyonHeart's self-Disruption has allowed us to challenge conventions in an environment that has become less about risk taking and too often about risk management," said Susan Flinn, LyonHeart President. "Industry constraints and growth targets should not limit innovative thinking. In fact, the restrictive environment underscores the need for significant incremental change." LyonHeart is the agency of record for some of the healthcare industry's leading brands with a client roster that ranges from Pfizer to Purdue.
"What I like best," said Al Nickel, LyonHeart's Chairman, "is that the agency is built on the solid foundation of 20+ years' experience (that's the 'Lyon' part), and we are now elevating it to bring a whole new level of 'heart' to our clients."
In conjunction with LyonHeart's launch, the agency will donate its former stationery, notebooks, pens and other LLNS-branded materials to The International HUG Foundation (www.ihugfoundation.org), a 501(c)3 non-profit organization whose mission is to reach out to disadvantaged and orphaned children in Uganda by providing them with an education, access to healthcare, and an environment that fosters their physical, social and emotional development.
About Disruption(R)
Disruption is a registered service mark of TBWA. Disruption identifies a service, mind-set and methodology charged with creating ideas that help clients gain a larger share of the future. The underlying goal is not to create a "good ad" but to challenge conventions in order to come up with a "big idea" - one that is far reaching, profound and true to the soul of the brand. Disruptive brand ideas in conjunction with Media Arts Planning deliver not just advertising ideas, but meaningful connections between brands and audiences that are media passionate in concept and reflect and trade in the currency of the audience. Disruption helps define strategies that maximize a brand's success in the marketplace, and Media Arts discovers new and effective ways of connecting with audiences, harnessing the abundant potential of connections and interconnections that today's technology and media-rich environment has to offer.
Among the tools used by TBWA and LyonHeart are (1) Disruption planning sessions where, together, the client and the agency mine data, observe market behaviors, reveal consumer/patient needs and track competitive activities in partnership and uncover opportunities that change the game; (2) Connections planning, which layers proprietary and third-party data to identify hot spots that yield the most effective contact with existing and potential customers; and (3) Media Arts, a media-passionate way of working that enables optimization of marketing activities and contectual creative for each relevant platform and audience.
About LyonHeart
LyonHeart (www.lyon-heart.com) is a top-ten healthcare communications company that provides advertising, promotional programs and non-traditional communications for clients in the pharmaceutical, proprietary, consumer, diagnostics, hospital and biomedical segments of the industry. LyonHeart is part of TBWA\WorldHealth, an Omnicom network that integrates the comprehensive expertise of professional pharmaceutical and healthcare agencies with the brand management of consumer agencies. Headquartered in New York, TBWA\WorldHealth has offices throughout the United States, Europe and Asia.
LyonHeartCONTACT: Anne Devereux, +1-212-771-3380, adevereux@lyon-heart.com, orWendy Emanuel, +1-212-771-3540, wemanuel@lyon-heart.com, both for LyonHeart
