DeVries Global, an integrated communications specialty firm with offices across the U.S., Asia and Europe, announced the appointment of Christa Lombardi as SVP, Health + Wellness. Lombardi is charged with managing and growing the agency’s N.A. health + wellness portfolio. She will be based in the New York office and report to Jessica O’Callaghan, N.A. MD.
DeVries has built its business and reputation on consumer marketing, and has been extending its culture-first approach to the healthcare sector, with clients around the globe ranging from pharma leaders like Roche and Sanofi, consumer health brands like o.b. and Carefree, and OTC brands that include Mucinex and Airborne. The agency also supports the recently rebranded Center on Addiction (formerly CASA and Partnership for Drug-Free Kids).
The agency’s mission around decoding culture was developed in response to a crisis in marketing called Brandbiguity—the loss of brand relevance, value and distinction—which afflicts brands across sectors, including healthcare. “What DeVries uniquely offers to our health and wellness clients is the ability to decode the world their patients and consumers live in, and to do so in a way that is compelling and empathic and distinct,” said Heidi Hovland, DeVries Global CEO. “Trends around wellness and self-care, behavioral and emotional health, and women’s health overall, paralleled by a growing appetite for innovative communications across the healthcare spectrum, represent a perfect storm of opportunity for DeVries.”
Lombardi’s background, which spans pharma, consumer health and lifestyle marketing, was a bulls-eye for the agency. “We are at heart consumer marketers, with a rich heritage of marketing to women, a key audience for health and wellness companies, brands and solutions,” said O’Callaghan. “Christa has deep and diverse experience across the sector, which is critical, and also brings a creative, collaborative, client-centric spirit that fits perfectly with the agency’s culture, as well as our ambition for health + wellness.”
“I couldn’t be more excited to join and build the team at DeVries,” said Lombardi. “Many health clients are looking for a new approach to communications: to marry credibility with creativity, and reputation with innovation. Together we’ll harness the power of inspired communications to reassert relevance, value and distinction.”
