Healthcare experts launch start-up

Former Grey Healthcare strategy chief Matthew Hunt is joining forces with pharmaceutical comms specialist Stephen Buckley – and a mix of practising medical professionals – to launch a new healthcare agency.
11 London already counts four pharmaceutical companies and two healthcare charities among its clients, working on a variety of strategic and creative content projects.
Hunt (pictured, left) started his career at Rapp, and then had spells at Whitewater, DraftFCB, and Digitas before joining DDB Healthcare as planning director. He switched to Grey Healthcare in 2011, leaving last summer. Over this time he has worked on numerous healthcare and charity brands including RSPB, Oxfam, Beiersdorf, Barnardo’s, Johnson & Johnson, Bayer, GSK and Merck.
Buckley (right) began his career at Syntex Pharmaceuticals, then joined Saatchi and become managing director of its medical education division aged 29. He then set up his own consultancy, Bullet Communications, which was sold to Blackwell’s in 1998.
He has run Magnetic for the last eight years. He will become executive director as well as a director of 11 London.
Hunt said: “We spent a lot of time with clients and employees in the industry informally asking them what they want from an agency nowadays. The result is a better blend of creative and medical talent and more nimble ways of working together.”
Buckley added: “As we’re able to work quickly we can help our clients capitalise on topical media opportunities as well as creating more traditional campaigns. Pharma and healthcare marketing has so many inherent delaying factors, the last thing clients want is for the agency to add to this – quite the reverse, in fact.”