A MERGER THAT MATTERS

Pegasus – the fifth largest healthcare agency in the UK – has merged with fellow Ashfield Health agencies Ashfield Digital and Creative (ADC) and Cambridge Biomarketing to form Mind+Matter, a ‘global creative powerhouse in health’.

Global President Ben Beckley says Mind+Matter will be the first global agency to create meaningful experiences by bringing data and emotion together to drive behaviour change.  

“Health is the most vital, exhilarating frontier in communications, and we had to bring this global team of world-class experts together – even if we’re apart.”

“Covid has shown in an instant how our individual health is also a truly global issue, and we need to offer clients a deeply interconnected, cross-sector response to their challenges – we will supercharge health communications with big thinking that’s unafraid to confront the toughest problems out there.”

The Mind+Matter team now comprises more than 250 people providing global client support. Ben Beckley, former president of Cambridge Biomarketing, leads the new agency from Boston in the US, along with Managing Directors Corrina Safeio, Alyse Sukalski and Carina Whitridge, who head up the UK, US West Coast and US East Coast hubs respectively.

Combining proprietary data, a proven behaviour change methodology and emotive, award-winning creative, the new agency gives clients including Bayer, Holland & Barrett, Novo Nordisk and Sanofi access to a broad range of deep specialisms under one roof to ultimately drive better outcomes for clients and their audiences.

“This is a merger that matters,” explains Ben. “It’s a genuine meeting of minds between three thriving agencies to help our clients realise their biggest ambitions.”

“There has been zero downsizing; instead, we’ve grown to bring together the depth, breadth and mind-blowing talent to compete at the very top of the agency big leagues – and that’s where we’re going.” 

At the heart of the offer is the CHANGE methodology, a behavioural science-led strategic methodology co-created with the internationally recognised Centre for Behaviour Change at University College London (itself an expert voice in the public health response to Covid).

With new branding and the formal announcements made, the coming months will see Mind+Matter deliver on an ambitious international growth strategy that will place a proprietary data model alongside this proven behaviour change methodology.

UK Managing Director Corrina Safeio is passionate about taking the CHANGE methodology to the world stage: “We’ve been using this approach for around five years, and on some of our most decorated and effective campaigns,” she explains.  

“Now, we can reach more clients and ultimately more people who stand to benefit from evidenced, considered behaviour change.”

The regional MDs are joined on the global leadership team by Annemarie Crivelli as global Head of Experience and Alisa Shakarian as global Creative Director.

Annemarie, who is overseeing a major investment in Mind+Matter’s data capability explains, “Smart, effective omnichannel experiences always start with the data. We’re already aggregating data and applying descriptive analytics to predict behaviour before it happens … but this is really just the start. Watch this space for exciting updates on our capability to push the boundaries of insight, expertise and more experience across disciplines, markets and therapeutic areas.”

Mind+Matter’s bold creative offer will also have the weight of the Ashfield Health network behind it. Ashfield Health is the new brand for Ashfield Healthcare Communications which has been transformed following the appointment of former McCann Health President of the Americas, Amar Urhekar.

“Ashfield Health is now designed to respond better and quicker to the new challenges our clients face. We encourage independence and entrepreneurialism in our specialist agency teams but also have the unique ability to work as one team when needed. By unifying around our common purpose of make it matter, we have stronger connections that enable us to scale rapidly and provide our clients with tailored expert teams. We can truly deliver life-changing work that matters,” said Amar.

Ben says feedback from existing clients has been overwhelmingly positive: “Our clients have already seen what we can do as separate agencies – the outcomes and the awards speak for themselves – and now we can give them even more as a global agency.

“I’m already extremely proud of this team, and we’ve just scratched the surface of what we can achieve together.”