WPP has announced the formation of Health & Wellness, a new sub-holding company that aims to significantly advance the group’s offer across the well-being and health spectrum.
Mike Hudnall will lead the unit as global chief executive officer, a 20 year marketing veteran with experience in healthcare marketing and global client leadership.
“Our clients today live in an increasingly regulated, outcomes-based and consumer-driven world that presents complex challenges and significant opportunity for their business,” said Hudnall.
“We have been incredibly successful to date, and I am excited to build on our achievements and provide our clients with a higher level of strategic partnership, an expanded range of specialised modern services, and specialised healthcare capabilities in new sectors.”
Part of the company’s forward strategy for the year is to create a new healthcare specialist unit comprising four niche agencies – Ogilvy CommonHealth Woldwide, Sudler & Hennessey, ghg|greyhealth group and CMI/Compass – to work under a united vision and leverage shared services, talent and resources.
ghg|greyhealth chief executive Claire Gillis has been appointed to lead an international healthcare division as global chief executive officer. The unit will have hubs in Europe, APAC and MENA.
“Individually our healthcare agencies are well known and respected for their strong partnership and meaningful work they deliver for our clients,” said Hudnall.
“This new structure centres on keeping those brands and cultures alive, builds on those strengths, and enables new cross-agency collaboration that will benefit our clients and provide greater career opportunities for our people. We are focused on sharing best practices, scaling our strengths, and developing new services.”
The company’s strategy also includes developing a specialised health consulting service focused on servicing clients’ needs, whilst creating a strong health-focused data and insight offering, utilising WPP assets to create sophisticated segmentation and targeting.
“Health and wellness is one of the most exciting sectors of the global economy and offers enormous opportunities for our businesses,” said WPP chief executive Sir Martin Sorrell.
“WPP Health & Wellness will build on the excellent work we are already doing in this space and take us into new areas with a much more comprehensive offer. This new unit is significant because it represents the next evolution of horizontality, through which WPP will continue to lead and transform health marketing.”
Last week, WPP announced plans to invest in US virtual reality company SubVRsive.
