BBD Perfect Storm launches Health & Wellness division

Nick Dutnall, formerly MD of Aesop, will lead the specialist proposition as managing partner.

BBD Perfect Storm is setting up a new division under the name Health & Wellness and we hope to confirm a launch client towards the end of the month.

The division will be led by Nick Dutnall, a specialist in healthcare marketing, who starts today (11 January). Dutnall's career spans more than 20 years and has included tenures at Saatchi Healthcare, Smith & Nephew, McCann Health and, more recently, the role of managing director of Aesop, until the agency went into liquidation when coronavirus hit its business early in 2020.

Dutnall said the new agency division would be “at the forefront of shifting the emphasis of messaging towards service and the emotional benefits of the health product story”.

Jason Foo, chief executive of BBD Perfect Storm, said the agency believed there would be a “new era" for the health and wellbeing sector after the Covid-19 pandemic.

Foo was enthused about the idea of establishing a health division after suffering a serious bout of Covid-19, from which he has recovered.

He added: “We can see the emerging importance and opportunity in the health and wellbeing sector. We believe that, following the pandemic, we are at the dawn of a new era of interest and demand for this sector by consumers and businesses.

"But this converges with the need for brands to avoid the typical healthcare marketing tropes, which have been detached from mainstream brands. The Covid-based advertising of 2020 has demonstrated the consumer need and demand for the humanity in all communications We want to humanise the wealth of stories which get lost in clinical and data-driven campaigns.”

The launch comes two years after BBD Perfect Storm set up a specialist male marketing division called New Macho, which has since won clients including the Dove Men+ range, Kraft Heinz and Ruffles in North America.

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