Former Rapp managing director John Perkins has secured a major deal for his new start-up, Wethepeople, six months after co-founding the venture, by joining forces with Cheil London to launch Cheil Health.
Wethepeople launched in November last year, with the other co-founders being Patrick Norrie and Michel Dubery – both former Rapp executives – and Joseph Hoyle, who worked has worked at Open Media Technologies as well as Lost Boys in the Netherlands. It is positioned as an agency which uses neuroscience to create marketing strategies and integrated ad campaigns, with healthcare as a specialism.
Cheil Health will be headed by chief growth officer for the UK and Europe Cat Davis and Perkins, who is Wethepeople London’s managing partner. They will run the operation alongside their current roles at their respective agencies and work on separate business.
Dubery and Norrie previously worked with Davis during her time at Grey, where she was the agency’s CMO.
The venture launches with the start-up Map My Gut as its first client. The brand provides a tool that allows health professionals to understand the microbial population of a person’s gut in order to provide nutritional and health advice, and help diagnose and treat a range of conditions.
The agency will aos service Cheil Worldwide client and pharmaceutical group Abbott.
Cheil UK group chief executive Paul Hammersley said: “Cheil Health will provide transformational experiences by combining technology and creativity in this exciting and growing sector.”
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