New agency focusing on healthcare set up in SG by former Ogilvy directors

Former CEO at FITCH, Southeast and North Asia Andrew Crombie and ex OgilvyHealth’s business and tech director Carl Griffith have launched a new communications and experience agency SCALPELWORKS. The agency aims to find innovative ways to build brand relationships and create new ones with healthcare professionals and consumers alike. Both Crombie (pictured left) and Griffith (pictured right) have over 40 years of combined experience working across agencies, consultancies and brands.

Crombie set up a brand and retail design firm called crombie.design in October 2017, while Griffith has worked with the likes of Havas, OgilvyHealth and Philips.

Speaking to Marketing on the launch, Crombie said that after many years of working on health brands and in the pharmaceutical and medical space, he sees a huge shift in the way that healthcare products and communications will need to be marketed.

“Whilst leaders in the consumer world have discovered the benefits and importance of adopting design thinking as a way of improving overall customer experience and adding value, the medical and healthcare brands are still rutted in the pursuit of ‘selling a product’,” he said. He added that in the medical and healthcare sector, many brands have little understanding of the partial role the product now plays in the overall value proposition that users are seeking.

Hence, SCALPELWORKS will work as a specialist design innovation and communications agency focusing on health and health-related brands. The agency looks to bring a new approach to health marketing, based on design thinking principles, and the fresh insight and perspective of multi-disciplinary teams which focuses on maximising the end-user experience.

“We are specialists in understanding and rethinking customer journeys to create better innovation, engagement and referral. Our people come from the fields of brand strategy, advertising, design, medical writing, digital design, UX design, retail and experience design,” Crombie said, adding:

We create arresting new ways to interact and engage with healthcare professionals and patients alike.

Meanwhile, Crombie explained that in Singapore, there are only a handful of medical and healthcare agencies focused on advertising and traditional communications approaches to healthcare professionals and patients. However, according to Crombie, there are none that offer the more holistic approach to the delivering brand value that SCALPELWORKS does.

Currently, the agency is working with healthcare clients on a project basis. Both Crombie and Griffith are  looking to collaborate with healthcare and pharmaceutical brands which are interested in building better relationships with healthcare professionals and with patients.

“There will be more change in healthcare delivery in the next five years than in the past 50. That’s well established. As such, our interest is with businesses that want to find ways to lock in their customers and who want to be well prepared for when channels change and the Amazons of the world take over distribution,” both added in a joint statement.

In addition, Crombie has also given his expert opinions on branding and design related analysis pieces. Here are a few:
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