The new London, UK-headquartered unit, inventive Health Communications Europe (IHCE), will bring together the US contract services firm's regional advertising, public relations, public policy, market access, medical education, marketing, branding and digital services.
inVentiv spokeswoman Anita Bose told Outsourcing pharma.com that: “We’ve been thinking about this for a while and realized that we could have a tremendous overall impact in the European healthcare environment. First, we’ll be working in greater unison and have a greater impact on the business challenges we tackle daily for clients.
“This “super-agency” structure is also set up to give us the scale to make inVentiv Health Communications more competitive with the multi-national holding companies, not to mention the tremendous efficiencies that come with such a company” she continued.
Under the new structure two of inVentiv’s existing advertising businesses - GSW Europe and Junction11 – will be rebranded as IHCE, while a third agency – Chandler Chicco – will retain its own identity but with the new unit providing operational oversight as Bose explained.
“In the majority of instances, we will go to market as inVentiv Health Communications/Europe, a “super-agency” that will compete with the large multinational holding companies.
“Because Chandler Chicco has a solid footprint in the European market, being named #1 in the Healthcare League Tables for four years running, the company will operate under its own well-established brand identity.
“For inVentiv Health communications brands that are still building presence and global reach, this new “super-agency” structure will serve as a beneficial halo.
Bose went on to say that inVentiv is hiring additional staff for IHCE, particularly in the fields of public policy and digital communications, and plans to ‘co-locate’ existing staff in a single London location.
Comms services competition hots up
inVentiv is latest of a number of contract services firms to expand their European communications offering. Since May, for example, both Boston Healthcare and Quintiles have made acquisitions in the region’s consulting space.
And further afield companies like PPD and INC Research have also sought to grow their contract communications offerings – each citing the pharma industry’s desire for improved market access services as a key motivation.
However, according to Bose, inVentiv’s European move is about providing the broadest possible communications offering to differentiate the firm from peers in the industry.
“inVentiv Health Communications has a much more comprehensive offering than companies like Quintiles. inVentiv’s portfolio of communications companies create cutting-edge content and technologies to deliver information in ways that engage the full range of stakeholders, from health practitioners to policy makers to consumers and caregivers.
“Our suite of services includes powerful branding, creative promotion, reputation management, behavior-changing marketing, medical education as well as innovative digital and social media strategy.