CommonHealth Consumer Group Launches EvoLogue

CommonHealth Consumer Group (CCG) today announced the launch of EvoLogue, a full-service consumer agency that will provide insight-driven behavioral- marketing services to help improve the dialogue between consumers and healthcare professionals. CCG is part of CommonHealth (www.commonhealth.com), the world’s leading healthcare-communications network and a WPP (NASDAQ/ADR: WPPGY; www.wpp.com) company. The EvoLogue name "is a synthesis of the words ‘evolving’ and ‘dialogue,’” said Meg Columbia-Walsh, managing partner and president of CCG, EvoLogue and eBusiness. "The name reflects our belief in the centrality of the healthcare professional-consumer dialogue to improving compliance, persistency and outcomes with both prescription and over-the-counter brands. And it conveys our commitment to providing superior strategic, multichannel communications, including advertising, CRM, interactive and proprietary behavioral-marketing services.” At the heart of the EvoLogue offering are methodologies developed at CommonHealth that provide deep insight into the healthcare-consumer experience. EvoLogue uses these reality-based insights, many drawn from actual exam-room conversations, to create behavioral-marketing communications that "reflect consumers’ actual experiences so they are more emotionally and practically relevant to their needs,” Ms. Columbia-Walsh said. Chief among those needs is for the consumer to adequately tell his or her health "story” in the time-pressured environment of the typical office visit. Right now, Ms. Columbia-Walsh noted, "patients fail to tell their physicians how new conditions or symptoms impact their lives. Doctors often don’t ask open-ended questions or probe for lifestyle impact. And patients tend to leave their issues of greatest concern to the end of the visit. That means that the most critical part of the doctor-patient dialogue often takes place with the doctor’s hand on the knob of the half-open door,” she continued. "Is it any wonder that these ‘doorknob’ conversations so often fail to elicit the desired behaviors and outcomes? The true wonder may be that they succeed as often as they do. We can do better, and we have to—for the sake of patient health, greater in-office efficiencies and the health of our clients’ brands.” EvoLogue staff have deep strategic, healthcare and multichannel expertise and are drawn from a variety of disciplines—from general advertising, CRM and interactive to managed care and professional advertising—the better to deploy against a particular marketing challenge without prejudice or favor. "It’s the old adage: ‘When all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail.’ EvoLogue was formed with the specific intent of breaking that paradigm,” Ms. Columbia-Walsh added. The EvoLogue brand roster includes significant assignments from AstraZeneca, Pfizer, Merck, Johnson & Johnson, Novartis and Genentech. EvoLogue senior staff includes Shelagh Brooke, director of strategic planning; Mark Robinson, chief operating officer; Mark Kosak and Steve Pashkoff, co-chief creative officers; and Betsy Alvarez, director of business development. Ms. Columbia-Walsh concluded, "If we can create a common lexicon that allows doctors and patients to communicate in a kind of shorthand, if we can get both parties past the ‘don’t ask, don’t tell’ phenomenon so widespread today, we will have accomplished what we set out to do.” CommonHealth comprises CommonHealth Consumer Group, EvoLogue, Altum, Carbon, CommonHealth London, CommonHealth Paris, Conectics, Earthborn, Ferguson, HLS, MBS/Vox, Noesis, ProCom, Qi and Solara. The organization also maintains numerous partnerships both within and outside of the WPP network of companies.