Inside the FCB Network's Epic Year in Healthcare Advertising

“I have been working in health for many years, and I have never seen better work, more creative thinking, amazing ways to solve problems and change behavior, and it gets better and better every year,” says Kathleen Nanda, chief creative officer of FCB Health New York.

The FCB network itself is a big part of that. Its recent work across multiple office has earned FCB the coveted prize of Clio Health’s Network of the Year for 2020-2021.

In the video above, Nanda talks more about the agency’s work and the landscape of the category. Below, check out all of FCB’s Clio Health wins from this year. And to see all of this year’s Clio Health winners, visit Clios.com.

Google AI/Canadian Down Syndrome Society, ‘Project Understood’

Because people with Down syndrome have atypical speech, Google’s voice assistant misunderstands about one in every three words they speak. Project Understood used their voices to train Google’s speech recognition model to understand them. The goal was to rally members of the Down syndrome community to donate their voice to Google in the hopes of improving voice technology for everyone.

Woojer, ‘Sick Beats’

Sick Beats by Woojer is the world’s first music-powered airway clearance vest for cystic fibrosis (CF), using the clinically proven modality of sound wave therapy to merge the music kids love with the daily treatment they need, all on the Spotify platform.

NTMFacts, ‘Trapped’ and ‘Unbreakable’

People suffering from nontuberculous mycobacterial (NTM) lung disease aren’t being diagnosed. Their complaints about painful and disruptive symptoms are getting attributed to underlying conditions, leaving them misdiagnosed for years. To finally get doctors to raise their index of suspicion for this rare disease, Area 13 paired real NTM patients with animators from around the world to create original films that communicate how hard it is for NTM patients to live without a diagnosis.

Constant Therapy, ‘Tip of the Tongue’

People who have suffered a stroke or traumatic brain injury often experience aphasia—the loss of ability to understand or express language due to brain damage. One very common complication is known as literal paraphasia, or the mixing up of sound-alike words. To depict that specific struggle, Area 23 brought literal paraphasia to life in a bold, iconic poster that clinicians can hang in their offices.

Cyramza, ‘The Momentous Moments of Max and Maxine’

Cyramza is a treatment for advanced-stage lung cancer. Area 23’s brand platform, “Momentous Moments,” taps into the insight that for these patients, little things like shooting hoops with their grandkids or a sweet kitchen dance with their long-time spouse can feel so much bigger, because they’re fighting for every moment they can get. “The Momentous Moments of Max and Maxine” brings this sentiment to life in the story of a man able to lose himself in a day of play with his beloved granddaughter Maxine, so much so that he feels like a kid again. It’s this deep commitment to life that fuels his—and his fellow Cyramza patients’—fight.

LifeStyles, ‘Publicly Traded’

When search activity around sexually transmitted diseases rose in Australia, LifeStyles dropped the price of 30-packs of its condoms accordingly. FCB/Six crafted a data-driven, real-time “index” that tracked six infections—Chlamydia, HIV, syphilis, herpes, gonorrhea, and HPV—based on internet searches (of either the diseases by name or their symptoms) and geographic location. That info appeared, stock-visualization style, on PubliclyTraded.com.au. If STD transmission appeared to be heating up, LifeStyles cut its local pricing.

‘The Trial For Clinical Equality’

African Americans are 13 percent of the U.S population yet only 3 percent of patients in oncology trials. Hispanics are 19 percent of the U.S population yet only 6 percent of patients in oncology trials. Clinical trials are often the only way someone with advanced cancer can survive. To inspire the entire healthcare community to act, “The Trial for #ClinicalEquality” campaign was created and robustly launched across digital platforms. The starkness of black and white visuals, combined with intense expressions on the faces of these real people further pushed an emotional connection that brought to life the depth and gravity of this very human, and very immense issue.

March of Dimes/Providence Saint John’s Health Center, ‘Gabriel’

“Gabriel” tells the story of a family with a preterm baby and its struggle to overcome this life-threatening condition. Production of the film started five years ago, during Gabriel’s mother’s pregnancy. Gabriel was born premature (at Saint John’s Health Center) and filming continued through the entire ordeal to save his life.

Horizon Therapeutics, ‘Down and Out Kidney’

Nephrologists care for the kidney. But when it comes to protecting the organ from uric acid and gout, they defer to other doctors. “Down and Out Kidney” takes an integrated approach to break this entrenched behavior. Area 23 created a dark, cautionary tale starring an innocent kidney whose growing interaction with uric acid endangers not only himself, but his “friends” – Foot, Hand, Bone and Heart.

Accord Ltd, ‘The Biggest Company You’ve Never Heard Of’

Accord are the U.K.’s biggest generics supplier. But several name changes have meant hardly anyone actually knows who Accord is. FCB Health Europe wanted to give pharmacists a memorable introduction to the biggest name they’d never heard of—with bright orange, straight-talking, cheekily designed ads that celebrated Accord’s lack of recognition, using it as a disarming way of talking about the scale of their business.