Principal: Brandon Edwards, founder and CEO
Ownership: Independent
Offices: Santa Barbara, CA, and Nashville, TN
Revenue: $5.3 million
Headcount: 24
Despite being slowed down momentarily during the "inertia period" before the presidential election and the Supreme Court’s ruling on the Affordable Care Act, ReviveHealth, whose progress tracks the healthcare industry’s, posted a 9.3% increase in revenue.
Launched in 2012, its health technology practice added three clients in 2013, which generated about 10% of the firm’s revenue. Athenahealth, a leading provider of cloud-based services for medical groups, was a big account win that the agency said added a new dimension to the brands ReviveHealth works with. The firm was also named AOR for Valence Health last March.
Health systems, hospitals, and physician groups are still the agency’s strongest client base, accounting for 74% of revenue. Three out of the four largest for-profit hospital chains engaged the firm in the past year.
"Working for three out of four is a certain validator of our in-house expertise," says CEO Brandon Edwards.
Large for-profit operators include Hospital Corp. of America, Community Health Systems, and Tenet Healthcare. The firm also has several nonprofit hospital clients, including Catholic Health Initiatives.
ReviveHealth reported no client losses in 2013 and 42% of its revenue came from existing clients.
Research, strategic counsel, and content generation account for an increasingly bigger percentage of the firm’s revenue as opposed to traditional media relations, notes Edwards.
Investment in staffing
Profit margin dipped to 19%, down from 27% in 2012, in what the firm is calling an investment year, particularly in staffing.
"There were opportunities we couldn’t fully take advantage of because we couldn’t find qualified people who fit our culture fast enough," says Edwards, adding the agency combats the issue by being in "pipeline recruitment mode all the time."
However, ReviveHealth did double the size of its Nashville office and is considering opening a third office in New York or Chicago – possibly both. Significant hires included Evan Smith and Mark Willis joining the firm as SVPs and Shannon McIntyre was named VP. Chief strategy officer Robert Berra departed the agency.
The firm was named PRWeek’s Small Agency of the Year in March 2014.
