120/80 GROUP Invests to Serve New Markets Propelled by Artificial Intelligence

Agency Adds Strategic Leadership, Launches New Brand, Expands Services

NEW YORK AND SAN JOSE, Calif., April 2, 2024 /PRNewswire/ — Marking five years of unprecedented results in healthcare marketing and communications, 120/80 GROUP today announced multiple investments to support organizations, advocates and innovators who are transforming the U.S. healthcare system.

The firm is accelerating into new markets with strategic executive appointments, an expanded portfolio of capabilities and a scalable organizational structure housed under a single entity, 120/80 GROUP, overseeing two go-to-market brands:

• Based in New York, 120/80 MKTG is the firm’s original brand and remains the nation’s leading digital health consultancy. 
• Based in Silicon Valley, AOx3 is the firm’s new brand and consultancy of choice for innovators proving the application of technology and AI can advance human health and well being.

“We began five years ago with a clear focus on supporting the innovators transforming healthcare,” said Rob Cronin, CEO and founder of 120/80 GROUP. “The onset of the pandemic, however, shined a bright light on many cracks in our nation’s healthcare system and thrust our clients from a supporting to a central role.

“Doctors, nurses, pharmacists and mental health professionals went online to expand access and provide us with care. Health plans and employers made new benefits and services available to millions dealing with chronic illness. Scientists turned to new technology to develop vaccines and therapies faster than ever before. Our clients rose to the occasion and, in the process, began to create a more robust, easier-to-use, integrated and economically sustainable digital health infrastructure. Today, ‘digital health’ is no longer a discrete market within healthcare – it has become the defining characteristic of all healthcare.

“Moreover, the future of healthcare will be driven by compute more than chemistry. Rapidly emerging AI-systems promise exponential advances in patient care, outcomes and access as well as clinician safety and wellbeing. The definition of innovation and innovators in healthcare has changed forever and we are there – recruiting, organizing, investing to tell the story of that transformation, its breakthroughs, challenges and impact.”

Expanded Leadership, Scaled Services
Today’s announcement features a promotion and two new appointments to the leadership team, enabling the delivery of scaled services and expansion into new markets.

• Jen Long – has been named managing partner, chief client officer of 120/80 MKTG. Long co-founded the firm and was previously in leadership positions at Real Chemistry, ICR, Ruder Finn and Schwartz Communications. She has deep expertise in IPOs, M&A and crisis communications. She has launched and counseled many of the top digital health CEOs, the most innovative providers of care and has extensive experience leading GTM communications for companies selling to payers and life sciences. Long has worked on many of the most significant company and category launches and transactions in the history of digital health. She has authored strategies, tactics and playbooks adopted by marketing and communications professionals throughout the healthcare and technology industries.
• Mike Fay – has been named managing partner, chief client officer of AOx3, the new sister-agency brand to 120/80 MKTG, based in Silicon Valley and New York. Fay led corporate communications at Intel, IBM and Sequent. He began his career at FleishmanHillard and Burson Marsteller. He has two decades of experience counseling CEOs of technology companies with expertise in corporate strategy, mergers and acquisitions, financial communications and public affairs. Fay has worked extensively with leading scientists, researchers, engineers, clinicians and policymakers worldwide. As a communicator, he chronicled artificial intelligence advances, technical breakthroughs, the impact of technology communities and coalitions, and tech-related progress for consumers, industries, and society.
• Gary Grates – has been named president of 120/80 GROUP, which becomes the holding company for both 120/80 MKTG and AOx3 along with centers of excellence in corporate communications, content creation, market research and growth marketing. Grates is a well-known figure in communications and change management circles. He has held senior leadership positions at Real Chemistry, Edelman, GCI Consulting, General Motors and Boxenbaum Grates. He is a globally recognized expert on all aspects of corporate communications, regularly counseling CEOs and leadership teams at Fortune 500 companies in the medical device and pharmaceutical industries as well as for leading health insurers and providers along with other industries. He has presented and worked with leading organizations globally and is an adjunct professor at Syracuse University’s S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications.

“Our team possesses a rare combination of knowledge, wisdom and relationships to advise and connect leaders across healthcare, technology and finance who are working together to transform healthcare,” said Long. “We routinely advise executive teams because we not only understand but are in the best position to articulate a forward-looking narrative about companies, categories and competition – one that goes way beyond the numbers.

“Our first five years have been a tremendous period of learning, driving outcomes for clients and staff development. I feel extremely fortunate to wake up every day knowing that I’m working with the best people in the industry.”

“There is something very unique happening in healthcare,” said Fay. “It has been famously and understandably resistant to embrace new technologies, but is already leading in important ways in AI. We believe AI will reorient healthcare around the patient and unlock the aggregate experience of every patient journey to the benefit of every individual. But only if it can be trusted. Our team brings deep experience working with key constituencies across healthcare, tech and related policy communities, and an understanding of how they learn, communicate and intersect with each other. This has been critical to the partnerships we have built with clients at 120/80 MKTG and will be at the core of AOx3 from day one.”

“Today, we are capitalizing on a market opportunity that was earned through great work and a passion to transform healthcare,” said Grates. “These and other investments are designed to propel our clients to the next level of success. We are expanding the market for our services to Fortune 500 healthcare and technology companies that are leading with innovation. The intent is to catapult our position as the consultancy of choice for leading innovators in healthcare while taking away clients, market share and talent from more traditional agencies overly reliant on profitable and repeatable but narrowly drawn services.

“Healthcare marketing and communications is no longer defined by drug launches, pitching to doctors and patients, influencing policymakers and crisis comms,” said Grates. “The market has changed. Investors and customers are prioritizing innovation and execution. CCOs, CINOs and CEOs know this and are turning to us for our one-of-a-kind mix of knowledge, network, and proven ability to help them reposition their brand from ‘drug maker’ and ‘device maker’ and ‘hospital’ and ‘health insurer’ — to ‘innovator.’ And doing so at the right size – no bureaucracy, no nonsense.”

About 120/80 GROUP
Healthcare is changing. New technology. New models of care. New ways of linking payment to value. New policies and regulations. New patient experiences. We operate the two consultancies that are guiding this transformation – 120/80 MKTG and AOx3. If you are a leader or advisor — come talk to us and our clients. Learn more at www.12080group.com, www.aox3.health and www.120over80mktg.com.

Media Contacts:
Gary Grates
media@12080group.com
917-932-4726

Rob Cronin
media@12080group.com
917-414-5289

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SOURCE 120/80 GROUP