IT, consulting and business process outsourcing services specialist Cognizant announced it has acquired Cadient Group, a full-service digital marketing agency that serves a broad spectrum of life sciences companies in the pharmaceutical, biotechnology, consumer health and medical device industries.
The acquisition expands Cognizant’s digital marketing capabilities, helping brand marketing leaders to change the way they position their offerings in the digital landscape as they design, develop and introduce multi-channel marketing initiatives, launch brands, build communities, drive insights and analytics, and create a more compelling customer experience. The terms of the transaction were not disclosed.
“This acquisition was driven by our customers – Cadient Group brings complementary new market opportunities, expertise and intellectual property along with capabilities in brand planning, content development, user-centered design and multi-channel analytics,” said Shankar Narayanan, vice president and global markets leader of the life sciences practice at Cognizant. “Combined, Cognizant and Cadient Group’s capabilities will expand the opportunities for both companies to tap into the spend on digital transformation more broadly, including R&D, the medical segment within life sciences, and the consumerization wave sweeping the health care industry.”
As part of this acquisition, more than 100 digital specialists—with expertise across brand strategy and planning, content development, user-centered design, multi-channel analytics, and digital, social and mobile marketing—will join Cognizant.
“As part of the acquisition, we’re gaining digital assets and intellectual property including Reveal, an insights and analytics platform, Immerse, an experiential marketing platform, and OneVoice, an advocacy campaign management platform,” he said. “The life sciences marketing landscape tends to consist of big agencies that provide creative capabilities, but we feel we can offer an end-to-end solution that spans creative and technological know-how to execution.”
Narayanan explained the company has been working with life sciences customers’ marketing and branding teams to execute digital strategies, so Cadient Group fits well in terms of bolstering their sales and marketing capabilities.
“The life sciences industry has very strict regulations in terms of what companies can communicate about a product, so companies need to strike a balance between maintaining their brand messaging and meeting these regulations,” he said.
Narayanan explained Cadient Group’s experience would play a key role in helping companies manage this balancing act.
“Additionally, messaging needs to reach key stakeholders that can range from providers to payers and customers,” he said. “A go-to-market strategy should include brand and sales marketing that addresses all these stakeholders.”
He also explained life sciences companies are looking to move beyond advertising-based strategies to communicate.
“They are increasingly moving toward mobile and social media, but still need to meet industry regulations on what they need to include or exclude from their marketing campaigns,” Narayanan said. “Thus, the future of marketing for life sciences companies really lies in the hands of regulators and how they will adapt existing regulations to accommodate new and expanding platforms that go beyond traditional television and print media.”