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Cheil has another grab at growth with healthcare JV

Cheil London is launching a new healthcare division Cheil Health in partnership with independent agency wethepeople London

Cat_540x540It will be headed up by Cheil chief growth officer Cat Davis (left), who joined from Grey a year or so ago and wethepeople managing partner John Perkins. They will run the operation alongside their current roles at their respective agencies.

The venture launches with the start-up Map My Gut as its first client. It will also service pharma company Abbott, a Cheil Worldwide client. Wethepeople executives Michel Dubery and Patrick Norrie also did stints at Grey.

Map My Gut provides a tool revealing the microbial population of a person’s gut to provide nutritional and health advice and help diagnose and treat a range of conditions including irritable bowel syndrome, allergies, diabetes, obesity, colitis and autoimmune diseases. The company is run by professor of genetic epidemiology at King’s College Tim Spector. Spector is the author of The Diet Myth.

Cheil UK group CEO Paul Hammersley says: “Cheil Health will provide transformational experiences by combining technology and creativity in this exciting and growing sector.”

South Korean agency Cheil, once owned by biggest client Samsung, needs to find some UK and European growth from somewhere. So far it has failed to happen despite a seemingly constant round of management hires and fires. Cheil and Publicis Groupe recently abandoned a plan for Publicis to buy a large minority stake.

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