Grey Launches Grey Healthy People

NEW YORK, Sept. 21, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- James R. Heekin III, Chairman and CEO of Grey Group, today announced the global launch of Grey Healthy People, a next generation health and wellness communications division, with headquarters in New York.

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"Grey Healthy People breaks the mold of existing healthcare agencies.  Our new division is designed to leverage Grey's 94 years of expertise in body, health and wellness gained from many of the world's largest and best-known health clients and brands," Jim Heekin said. "Healthy People will provide proprietary best practices, points of view and original consumer research to better serve our clients' evolving needs."

Heekin continued, "While Healthy People is a specialized division, it is totally integrated within the overall agency, in order to leverage the vast resources and talent within Grey.  This approach will inject a new level of creativity in the health and wellness arena."

Grey Healthy People: Full Service, Global

Grey Healthy People expands the traditional healthcare agency mandate to embrace wellness in its totality and deliver cross-platform, integrated marketing solutions for clients competing in the health, wellness and lifestyle industries.  

The agency's full-service integrated offering includes strategic brand development and positioning; advertising (OTC and DTC); digital marketing and CRM; social media; HCP; sponsorship and event planning.

With its opening in New York, Grey Healthy People includes five offices and 300 professionals with operations in the United States, Europe and the Middle East with plans for expansion to Latin America and Asia Pacific.  Global billings across more than 30 brands total $500 million.

Grey's current clients in health and wellness include: Allergan, Bausch & Lomb, Boehringer Ingelheim, GlaxoSmithKline, Eli Lilly, Pfizer, Energizer Personal Care and UPMC (The University of Pittsburgh Medical Center).

Accomplished Leaders: Maldari, Baiocco

Two long-time Grey senior executives with deep healthcare and consumer experience will lead the new division.  Maureen Maldari has been appointed President of Grey Healthy People, both the global and New York operations.  Rob Baiocco will serve as Executive Creative Director of both entities.

"The health and wellness category is experiencing explosive growth as baby boomers upend our stereotypes of aging to embrace healthy, vigorous lifestyles," Maureen Maldari said.  "Rob and I have a tremendous opportunity to create a new agency paradigm that brings health and wellness communications forward to the future.  Our mission is to go 'beyond the pill', mobilize Grey's creativity and knowledge to help marketers better leverage every dimension of human health and communicate the vital roles brands can play in the preservation, longevity and enjoyment of life."

Rob Baiocco said, "You've heard of tech brands and beauty brands, we are about body brands.  If it has anything to do with the human body we will be experts.  And from that deep understanding will come our insightful creative and competitive edge."

Grey Healthy People will carry on Grey's work with the Ad Council on a host of health-related campaigns for the Department of Health and Human Services, including SAMHSA's Mental Health Awareness work, and AHRQ's Treatment Option Awareness, Men's Preventative Health and Patient Empowerment initiatives.  And Grey Healthy People now becomes one of the longest active agency members of the Consumer Healthcare Products Association (CHPA).

About Grey

Grey is the global advertising network of Grey Group.  Grey Group ranks among the largest global communications companies.  Its parent company is WPP (NASDAQ:WPPGY).  Under the banner of "Grey Famously Effective Since 1917," the agency serves a blue-chip client roster of many of the world's best known companies:  Procter & Gamble, GlaxoSmithKline, Diageo, Darden Restaurants, DirecTV, Pfizer, Canon, 3M, Eli Lilly, ETrade, NFL, Boehringer Ingelheim and T.J. Maxx.  Grey was featured in FAST COMPANY magazine's "50 Most Innovative Companies in the World" issue in both 2010 and 2011 (www.grey.com)

Owen Dougherty
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SOURCE Grey