The Lucid Group Award for Public Affairs and Policy Consultancy of the Year

Summary of work

2017 was the year MHP Health relaunched and returned to growth. Recognising the convergence of communications specialisms, we built on our industry-leading heritage in public affairs to bring the rigour and evidence-base of scientific communications and digital strategy to the discipline and influence of public affairs, resulting in 10% fee growth in comparison to 2016.

A change of leadership allowed for retention of top talent and the diversification of the practice with the creation of a new offer focusing on healthcare innovation. Through this we have transposed our health access and communications skills to a new breed of tech clients desperate to break into healthcare.

The new strategy and evolved offer attracted some of the industry’s top emerging talent, including that of other communications agencies, the NHS and patient groups – not forgetting our desire to ‘grow our own talent’ with eight internal promotions. Our client partners remained loyal and were supportive of this journey, increasing their budgets as an indicator of their trust in us, and we added two of MHP’s top five clients in 2017 to our roster through new business success.

Judges' comments

MHP Communications have gone through great change in the last 12 months, heavily investing in leadership and their team. The new Innovation specialty is particularly smart. They have demonstrated adaptability and tackled the changing environment head on. Great team with a compelling leadership dynamic.