Nearly a dozen healthcare communications agencies have joined forces to form a new transatlantic ‘micro-network’ that aims to enrich the relationship between healthcare providers and patients.
Watershed Bridges is led by Bob Chandler, former inVentiv Health Communications president and co-founder of Chandler Chicco Companies, and the partnership involves 11 specialist agencies the US and the UK.
Chandler explained: “We believe our value – and uniqueness – in launching Watershed Bridges is being able to link together senior-level talent on a moment’s notice.
“Each entrepreneur-owner has decades of relevant experience and, in addition to embracing the practical advantages of this arrangement, each member has signed on philosophically to follow an agreed upon conduct of business and a rational sharing of client successes.”
Watershed Bridges is currently comprised of the brand-focused agencies wethepeople, Brandforming, Sawtooth and Parry Branding Group, as well as digital, social media and video specialists in the form of PatientWisdom, BK Digital and Midnight Media Group.
Public affairs specialist Publick House, strategic consultancy Rothenberg Communication and grassroots marketing firm HealthTalker also join, while Chandler’s recently-launched venture MaxAscent, a consumer- and patient-focused communications consultancy, completes the number.
The inaugural members hope that by pooling resources and expertise to offer clients a wider range of services with a more geographically diverse reach, they will together be able to achieve more than they could independently.
Michel Dubery, a partner at London-based wethepeople, said: “I’m proud to be a founding member of this boutique-like network, with global reach.
“Clients come to agencies to get thinking that is different than their own, but with today’s corporate network agencies more and more resembling their clients, it has become increasingly hard to deliver. That’s why we exist.
“In wethepeople, we treasure and nourish different ways of thinking and in Watershed Bridges we have found a group that treasures it too.”