Jennifer Deutsch, chief operating officer, Antidote 360
The MDC family has a new sibling agency: Antidote 360, a health and wellness firm assembled by executives from Doner, Kwittken and Yamamoto.
Jennifer Deutsch, EVP/general manager of Doner Advertising and one third of Antidote’s senior leadership team along with Aaron Kwittken and Yamamoto CEO Kathy McCuskey, said the agency has been working for six months already, working with clients like Toronto-based healthcare technology company Self Care Catalyst and Gabrielle’s Kitchen’s health-conscious food brand Skinnypasta.
“The mission of the new agency is to help drive additional revenue streams for businesses that either are in, or should be, playing in the health and wellness space,” Deutsch said. “Folks who might not know or understand in the health and wellness space — that’s where we come in.”
Antidote currently operates out of MDC’s offices in six cities globally, including New York, Shanghai, London and Toronto. Deutsch said Antidote is able to offer a full range of services on a turnkey basis, from PR, to social, content creation, digital strategy and market research, by drawing on expertise and resources from MDC’s agency network. Antidote also has access to a network of professionally licensed medical experts.
Each agency account is led by a “client navigator,” which plays the role of a 360-degree account executive. “The client navigator is basically working with the client to put together their priorities for the year, and then we’re reaching out and tapping into and bringing those resources to bear as they’re needed,” Deutsch said. “So it’s not like they have to have an advertising firm on retainer, PR firm on retainer and social agency on retainer. We do all the immersion and training and make it turnkey for the client.”
Here in Canada, she said Kwittken’s and KBS’s Toronto offices will likely take the lead on building the business.
Deutsch said the opportunity for a dedicated health and wellness agency is at least as big in Canada as in the U.S.
“We do know that there are nuances and differences in the Canadian versus the U.S. marketplaces, as well as regulatory differences, and we’re very tuned into them,” she said. As an example, she pointed to Skinnypasta, which sold in Canada first as Antipastos Italian Kitchen, and has completely different branding and packaging tailored to a Canadian consumer audience.
