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WPP buys medical agency CMI for key role in ‘GroupH’

When the subject of healthcare agencies comes up it’s usually time to hit the pillow rather than the keyboard but WPP appears to have landed a big one with Communications Media Inc. in the US. CMI is based in the intriguing environs of King of Prussia, Pennsylvania, with offices in New York, Philadelphia and New Jersey.

download_5CMI had revenues of $38m in 2015 and claims to work for ten of the top 20 pharmaceutical advertisers in the US. It was founded in 1989 and now employs 210 people.

Intriguingly WPP is going to shunt Ogilvy CommonHealth Medical Media, the media practice of its wholly-owned Ogilvy CommonHealth Worldwide, into CMI. WPP also says that CMI will become a media investment management hub for GroupH, parent company for WPP’s healthcare specialist companies. GroupH, presumably modelled on WPP media holding company GroupM, is a new one on us.

GroupH sits in WPP’s Branding & Identity, Healthcare and Specialist Communications group (which includes direct and digital). Collectively these companies generate about $6bn in revenue and employ a mind-boggling 80,000 people.

One Comment

  1. It’s a shame that your very first sentence perfectly demonstrates how ignorant and narrow-minded some individuals in our industry can be. If you can bother bringing yourself to become better informed you’ll see that there is some smart work coming out of healthcare agencies, far better than many traditional consumer or other B2B focussed agencies.

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