The state-side expansion is set to strengthen the presence of Havas Health & You and Havas North America while additional senior hires will bolster the group’s clinical trial offering.

As the world’s largest health and wellness network, Havas Health & You (HH&Y) announces the expansion of Havas Lynx. The UK-based contingent now joins the Network in North America, sitting within the Havas New York Village. The move presents an opportunity for Havas Lynx to build on 36 years of exponential growth and creative success, as well as a chance to embed their industry-renowned culture stateside.

Patient advocacy has never been more important, especially as the rapid proliferation of Gen AI sweeps through the healthcare space. The need for stronger and more inclusive brand communication is ever more apparent. Havas Lynx New York aims to create authentic and meaningful experiences to engage with patients and improve outcomes at every step of the patient journey. Specialisms at the agency span across patient identification, patient representation and inclusivity, unbranded patient activation, patient advocacy engagement, and patient support services.

The presence of Havas Lynx in North America comes off the back of an exciting time for the agency. Its continued growth has seen development in its own specialist offerings, such as its patient recruitment arm for clinical trials – Faze – which today announced two new additions to its senior team.

Kate Spencer and Denisa McKnight join Faze, bringing over 40 years of combined experience in clinical trial recruitment. Spencer, who founded Publicis Langland’s Clinical Trial Recruitment division and successfully led the business in supporting more than 450 clinical trials across Europe, joins ex-Roche Senior lead, McKnight, as they look to bolster delivery on global projects working hand in hand with the new Havas Lynx New York team.

Havas Lynx New York is overseen by CEO Claire Knapp, while day-to-day operations are driven by Ludmila Crowther, an experienced Global and US client partner with over a decade of experience in healthcare, digital transformation, and patient marketing. Alongside Ludmila, multi-award-winning Gabriel Araujo joins as Creative Director. Previously an Executive Creative Director at Cheil North America, Gabriel is a passionate hands-on creative with experience delivering outstanding campaigns across multiple continents.

Having soft-launched Havas Lynx New York last year, the team is already making an impact. It recently launched Over and Over Again, a campaign aiming to combat the taboos surrounding masturbation and menopause, with creative focused on a “menopause treatment you’ll be happy to take”. The campaign went live in December 2023 with billboards hitting streets across Manhattan.

“Havas Lynx has a rich history crafting explosive creative to deliver an impact that matters for patients, our people, the brands we work on, and the world around us,” said Claire Knapp. “We couldn’t be more excited to bring our patient strategy, activation, and patient support service experience to the global and US stage and I am honoured to see Havas Lynx become part of the incredible legacy created by HH&Y in North America. I look forward to building on what’s already been an outstanding period for Lynx as we take this next step.”

Mark Evans, Managing Director at Faze, comments: “Launching operations in North America will allow us to offer on the ground expertise for clinical trial site support, patient community outreach and a closer connection to the HH&Y North American agencies, including partner Trinity Life Sciences to bring predictive analytics, helping more clients identify the right patients in the right place to accelerate trial recruitment.

“This is an exciting time for Faze and the wider clinical trial recruitment industry. Welcoming Kate and Denisa represents the culmination of a significant growth period since our inception in 2018.”

Most recently, Havas Lynx ranked 38th in the UK’s Best Workplaces, while also helping to increase biomarker testing by 41% across tumor types in its “Mapping The Tumor” campaign. 2023 also saw the launch of Havas Lynx’s proprietary data product, Point.1, which offers the most comprehensive and flexible ex-US healthcare professional data available. It was the analysis of Point.1 data that uncovered the global mental health crisis of healthcare professionals and led to the release of its whitepaper, Healing the Healers.

“Havas Lynx has a strong heritage of creating patient activation in complicated ex-US markets for clients,” said Eric Weisberg, Global CCO HH&Y. “This further solidifies the value of the agency’s unique specialisms that they will be bringing to the US market to bolster HH&Y’s impressive presence within North America, to help unlock the ubiquitous power of patients for clients.”