PHILADELPHIA, July 27 /PRNewswire/ --

- Expansion to Meet Market Demand for Next Generation Agency Model in Healthcare

- New Offices in London and Boston Bring World-Class Cross-Industry Expertise and Global Reach

Digitas Health, Medical Marketing Media magazine's 2009 Agency of the Year, today announces the opening of two key new locations in London and Boston. This move is a strategic part of the agency's 2010 growth plan. Digitas Health has experienced increased annual revenue growth of approximately 50 percent in each of the last three years, 14 new client brand wins over the past 12 months, and has received substantial recognition in the form of awards and market eminence.

Digitas Health London

The Digitas Health London office marks the beginning of the agency's international expansion efforts, beginning in Europe. The company has appointed June Dawson as senior vice president, managing director.

The healthcare system worldwide is being revolutionized by digital channels that change the very nature of how pharmaceutical companies and brands relate to patients and doctors alike. As budgets shift rapidly to favor these new channels, our clients are pushing our work across borders at an increasing pace. Our international expansion begins in London, a city that will serve as our European gateway office, said David Kramer, CEO, Digitas Health.

June Dawson previously served as digital business director for the London office of Ogilvy Healthworld, She brings more than a decade of pharmaceutical interactive marketing to the role. Her rich career has included work in integrated communications, public relations and journalism, and she has led marketing efforts for many of the world's leading pharmaceutical brands.

The UK is home to two of the leading 10 pharmaceutical corporations, GlaxoSmithKline and AstraZeneca, who, in 2007, comprised 10.1% of the global market share. (1) Pharmaceuticals are one of Britain's leading manufacturing sectors, bringing in a trade surplus of 4.3 billion pounds Sterling in 2007. (2)

Digitas Health Boston

Digitas Health Boston is located within the Boston headquarters of parent company Digitas, which offers a deep reservoir of talent and represents an important extension of the health brand's domestic footprint. As the nature of healthcare marketing becomes more sophisticated, Digitas Health is eager to draw on the skill sets of those who have launched some the world's most creative and successful marketing campaigns for clients across leading consumer industries such as automotive, hospitality and finance, and to share that knowledge base across the agency. Serving as the lead marketing and creative executives in Boston are Kirk Williamson, SVP/Marketing and Michael Tiedemann, SVP/Creative, both of whom bring a rich background of accomplishment.

A simultaneous expansion to sister city Boston allows us the opportunity to reach the talented people within Digitas and beyond who have healthcare and emerging media experience and the significant interest to expand this very successful Digitas Health concept for our clients across the globe, said Kramer.

Leading marketing efforts, Kirk Williamson brings 18 years of consumer and healthcare marketing and general management experience to the role, including several years with Gillette/Procter Gamble, Bristol-Myers Squibb, and Frito-Lay. He also served as an independent consultant in the consumer health and device markets.

As creative lead, Michael Tiedemann transitioned to the role from parent company Digitas, where he had worked for a decade as the relationship creative lead for many of the company's highest profile clients in the automotive and financial services industries. Additionally, as creative director for the Digital Solutions Group at Prodigious, a Digitas company that is the world's only standalone, global digital productions company, Tiedemann standardized the user experiences across multiple brands for a major client.

With the abundance of life science companies and robust selection of universities and leading scientific research institutions, Boston ranks number one on the list of the largest life science clusters in the U.S. (3) With more than 700 pharmaceutical, medical device and biotech companies, Massachusetts is also first in the nation in the number of life science patents per capita. (4)

Digitas Health Global

Now with offices in London, Boston, New York and Philadelphia, Digitas Health has a global presence and serves clients in the most highly concentrated areas for the pharmaceutical, bioscience, medical device and consumer health industries.

Digitas Health has enjoyed a long period of growth and accolades. The company's creative work was most recently recognized by the 2009 Webby Awards, winning the Webby for the pharmaceutical category, and with multiple Gold wins at the DTC awards.

About Digitas Health

Counting as clients many of the world's leading pharmaceutical, bioscience, and medical device companies, Digitas Health is a next-generation marketing agency that helps build healthcare brands that patients, caregivers, and healthcare professionals feel confident turning to and recommending when they are sick, in need, or helping others. With offices in Philadelphia, New York, Boston and London, Digitas Health is a unit of Digitas, leading global digital marketing and media agency and a member of the Paris-based Publicis Groupe S.A. (Euronext Paris: FR0000130577), the world's fourth largest communications group, second largest media counsel and buying group, and a global leader in digital and healthcare communications.

www.digitashealth.com Twitter @Digitas_Health (http://twitter.com/digitas_health) Facebook: Digitas Health Fan Page (http://www.facebook.com/home.php) (1) IMS (http://www.abpi.org.uk/statistics/section.asp?sect=2) Dataview, 2007 (2) HM Revenue Customs (http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/index.htm), 2007 (3) Milken Institute, The Greater Philadelphia Life Sciences Cluster 2009: An Economic and Comparative Assessment (http://www.milkeninstitute.org/publications/publications.taf?functio n=detailID=38801196cat=resrep), May 2009 (4) Deloitte research and Massachusetts Biotechnology Council, Strategic Outlook for 2015 and Strategic Plan (http://www.massbio.org/writable/files/2015_Report/full_2015_report_f or_distribution.pdf), May 2009 Media Contacts: Carly Kuper +1-215-399-3357 ckuper@digitashealth.com Shireen Crowe + 44-7879-417-177 shireen.crowe@direct-pr.co.uk

SOURCE: Digitas Health

Carly Kuper, +1-215-399-3357, ckuper@digitashealth.com; or Shireen Crowe, +44-7879-417-177, shireen.crowe@direct-pr.co.uk