When RevHealth CEO Ben Beckley looks back on the agency’s 2023, he does so from somewhat of a remove: The former global president of Evoke Mind + Matter didn’t formally join the company until January 2024. That said, he very clearly knew what he was getting into — and the first months of his tenure confirm to him that his new agency is very much on the upswing.
“Building-type projects like that are what I love,” he told MM+M upon arrival. “I like to roll up my sleeves. When the RevHealth opportunity came on the radar, it felt very familiar to me.”
Beckley joined at a period of transition for the company. In mid-2022, it was acquired by WindRose Health Investors, which meant the last 18 months were mostly about “figuring out what the ship would look like now that private equity has the wheel,” Beckley quips.
In the deal’s wake, RevHealth founding partners Bruce Epstein, Bruce Medd and Brian Wheeler are no longer involved in day-to-day operations (all three sit on the company’s board). The company bulked up its leadership ranks with a pair of hires: chief creative officer Marcia Goddard, formerly of Fishawack Health, and COO Deb Jamer, formerly of McCann Health New Jersey.
Revenue slumped nearly 8% during 2023, to $48 million from $52 million the previous year. That said, Beckley characterizes the firm’s recent results as “Solid — we hit our numbers and didn’t have a lot of client attrition.” It welcomed engagements with Sanofi, Daiichii Sankyo, Bausch + Lomb, Merck and EnteraBio during 2023, adding them to a roster that counts AbbVie and Insmed among its mainstays.
Beckley’s expectation is that, with the support and approval of WindRose, RevHealth will be able to turbo-charge its growth trajectory.
“My remit is to take this place to a whole ’nother level — not because it wasn’t performing, because 2022 and 2023 were solid years, but because there are so many options about where to go next,” he says. “RevHealth has been kind of middle-of-the-pack in terms of the MM+M Agency 100. The question is how we move into the top quarter, or even higher.”
Beckley isn’t alone among agency leaders in viewing AI as a potential driver of growth. In 2023, RevHealth rolled out AmplifAI, a proprietary influencer targeting tool that uses AI to identify the right local influencers for brands.
Another recent addition to RevHealth’s tech toolkit is its 4-D Brand Experiences process, which is designed to shape and control brand narratives by using expertise from a range of disciplines. Not surprisingly, Beckley says that a focus on data is what differentiates it from similar offerings.
“There’s a phrase we’ve probably been saying for 10 years: right message, right place, right audience. The difference is that instead of just talking about it, we have more data than we’ve ever had before,” he says. “That’s the fourth dimension. If you’re not looking at the data, you can’t understand where you need to go. If that sounds simple, well, I don’t think it’s rocket science.”
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Work we wish we did
The bAIgrapher, which helps people with Alzheimer’s write their life stories. This AI-powered biography tool offers a fascinating blend of efficiency and insight. It can sift through vast amounts of data to create detailed narratives, capturing the essence of a person’s life. Plus it provides a fresh perspective, often uncovering connections and patterns that might have been overlooked. It represents an innovative approach to storytelling, blending technology and narrative to create compelling content. — Beckley
