BBDO in Pink With Access Health Win

SAN FRANCISCO – In its first significant new business with since its merger in January with TFB, BBDO has captured the $3-million Access Health Marketing account.
The Sacramento, Calif.-based Access, which will market a new telephone service to managed care companies, selected BBDO after a three-month review that had been narrowed to a list of six finalists that included Baxter/Stone, Santa Ana, Calif.; Speer, Young & Hollander/L.A.; Borders, Perrin & Norrander/Seattle; and Saatchi & Saatchi and Rogers & Associates, both S.F.
The win follows the appointment last month of former Apple marketing executive Bruce Mowery as executive vp and general manager of the agency. It provides an important psychological boost to the shop as it struggles to gain its footing after a period of flux. Though BBDO in July had been named agency for Glen Ellen Winery, that had not resulted from a competitive review.
‘I think it will give people the feeling things are happening,’ said Rod Kilpatrick, executive vp and executive creative director, BBDO/S.F. ‘It will energize people.’
Initially, BBDO will promote Access’ new ‘Personal Health Advisor,’ which provides 24-hour, toll-free access to medical information to members of subscribing healthcare services. The campaign will be aimed at healthcare executives and will be a mix of print and direct mail. As the service grows, consumer campaigns are expected.
The ability to recognize the program as a business-building tool and means of managing the flow of patients, rather than simply a phone service, is what distinguished BBDO, according to Karen Portugal York, president of The York Group, the consultant in the review.
But York also said that Mowery, who joined BBDO late in the review, enhanced the agency’s attractiveness because of his work at Apple, where he developed direct marketing and corporate identity programs similar to the task ahead for Access.
Copyright Adweek L.P. (1993)