Mark I’ll give you two here.

Mmm agency 100 Studio sessions biolumina, okay, we’re rolling.

Hi, this is Marcus. I’m editor at large for mmm and I’m super excited for you to plug into this episode of a 100 Studio sessions a new podcast series, which gives members of the mmm agency 100 list and opportunity to Riff on what sets them apart.

In this episode we’re focusing on the agency biolumina and the firm specialization in ecology and dispelling some of the myths behind this often misunderstood category. I’m delighted to be joined by biolumines’ president and CEO Kirsten. Kantak along with Diane Eiler Smith. She created officer and Brenda ask Chief strategy officer.

Hereiston van and Brenda, how are

you all and welcome to MMM Studio sessions.

It has to thank you.

So,

you know biolumina builds itself as the anti-cancer agency and it’s on a mission to dispel these myths about working in oncology primarily your chiefly that it’s comprised of 100 the different diseases and while some may think that might make it boring Solomon or serious. It’s really incredibly exciting inspiring and creative.

Pearson’s question for you here as an oncology focused agency. Is there any monotony to working in one therapeutic category?

No.

Short answer. Yeah sure.

We often hear. You know, I talked to a lot of people in the course of my day and my career and I hear from a lot of people that they they don’t want to work in an ecology. That is sorry in an agency. That is just oncology. That’s boring. They don’t want to work in a single disease state. They’re concerned. It might be depressing and while you know, I respect their decision. I I respectfully disagree with them oncology is anything but just something it’s as you said Mark it’s hundreds of different diseases from liquid tumors to solid tumors. If we think about early diagnosis when it’s just in a single location versus later in disease where it’s spread throughout the body there’s there’s cancer that are really rare. There are Cancers that are very common and even within a single disease State like a breast cancer or lung cancer. There are so many different subtypes and biomarkers within it that it’s multiple disease dates within a tumor type. So I think there’s nothing boring.

Or monotonous to this to this to this thing and I think if anything it’s really diverse as compared to some other therapeutic categories in addition to that. It’s one of the most rapidly growing and rapidly changing disease areas with probably the most investment from a scientific in a pipeline perspective from Big Pharma companies. And I think there’s a stat where it’s something like more than 40% of Investments are in oncology

and sort of certainly the pipeline is as weighted very heavily on ecology as we hear both rare diseases and non speaking of that love to get a big picture perspective on how the field has changed over the last 10 years Brenda. Would you like to kind of give us an idea of that?

Yeah, absolutely over the past 10 years or more. We have really come such a tremendous way deaths have declined a third since 1991 due to all these new therapies that we’ve had with targeted therapies immunotherapies and so cancer mortality and in the US particularly prostate breast lung they’ve all seen just increasing survival and better therapies and that’s regardless of whether you’re in the metastatic setting which is very late stage or or these therapies are moving into earlier settings for cure is possible. So people are living longer and longer sometimes even decades after an advanced disease setting which is just impossible to have conceived of you know, one or two decades ago.

Yeah, sometimes we you know, figure the progress is like incremental but and kind of downplay that a little bit but for someone who who’s you know in the thick of it and I think there’s some crazy style like, you know, one of the three of us will be diagnosed.

Point in our life with this that every every week month and year really counts. What does the rapid pace of innovation in oncology mean for for biolumina?

Well, it means that there is a lot more a lot more work a lot more things to do it that the pace of the Sciences. He said it’s it’s both incremental with frequent huge step changes in between and whether it’s an advance in a oral therapy or whether it’s a paradigm changing Cell Therapy carty, for example, all these things are so complicated and we have to make sure that we get the information out to people with cancer. We get the information out to the treaters in a very simple understandable and human and empathetic way because the pace is changing so rapidly and sometimes even flipping on its head. We need to make sure people understand. Hey, this is what this means. This is a new standard of care now, it’s the world is different and here’s how you can fit into this world or this this new change fits into your practice in with your patience. So keeping it simple keeping a human meeting the patients where they are all of

Is communication Things become essential?

Sure.

Yeah, just to build on that. We know that patients are really becoming experts in their care and we have to bridge the gap people living with cancer and their Care Partners. They’re more involved than ever in decision making they’ve got ideas and questions about their treatment and we can’t trivialize that we have to meet them with respect and dignity and I think as an industry you really need to listen and engage patients in ways that we’ve never done before to really realize the full potential of today’s advances and as Brenda said just to reinforce it really need to meet them where they are in terms of their knowledge and Empower them to share their goals with their care team to get the therapy that’s best for them.

Yeah. So it’s really good point about the need for empathy and Cancer Care like, you know, the medical establishment certainly has the technical side, you know down and the data but the empathetic side is so important, you know to round out speaking of of that there’s

Perception that oncology is all about the data and the science which for many equals boring Diane. How do you keep the creative fresh and exciting?

Well, we’re all inspired by the purpose of our work like we have this really compelling Mantra biolumina creative with purpose, you know, we really believe that we need ideas that are as all inspiring and mind-blowing as the brands we represent. You know, we really want creative with purpose where like every element of the creative are and copy. It’s living in service of a really bold idea and supporting each other and Perfect Harmony.

And as Brenda said earlier, like we love the science. We’re excited by it. We’re inspired by it and also the life-changing benefits that are Our Brands can provide to people living with cancer. We had a recent opportunity like it was last year where we got to share some of our work before it was launch with real patience who were living with a rare form of ovarian cancer to really learn from their own experiences, and it was so moving and inspiring to our team because we were literally it was virtual but it was as if we were sitting with these women in their living rooms and understanding how our work was resonating with them and to just to hear reactions from real patients, you know, they they wanted the work plastered everywhere because they felt that someone’s finally taking me seriously my disease seriously.

Hmm,

and yes, we’re very inspired by our work and we’re also excited by some of the new advances and creative execution and delivery including AI so we’re like really supercharged over the possibilities for even better work

Mark. It’s interesting that you said earlier when when Brenda was talking to that, you know, obviously the Healthcare Community hcps have the medical side of things down, but it’s interesting in that oncologist in particular, right? We’ve talked about how exciting and how how much there is changing in the world of oncology. Imagine being an oncologist that you have to keep up on all the science across all of these different disease States 200 different disease dates, right and it’s all brand new science. So we can’t make the assumption that they’re able to keep up with all the advances that are happening and it’s important for us and the brands that we represent that we’re telling the Brand Story that we’re making sure that they’re aware of the information and that also as patients and caregivers their educated they’re informed they’re empowered to make sure that these

These decisions that are you know, in many cases life and death. They have the information and the empowerment to make those decisions and to have the right conversations with their with between the patient and the hcp.

Absolutely. It’s great Point Kirsten. There’s so much to keep up with even for specialists in particular areas, you know.

That we can assume you know that they’re up on the latest which is what keeps you you all going every day, you know and doing your jobs. I’m sure how do you attract and retain talent to work at an agency? That’s exclusively focused oncology.

So

Attracting and retaining Talent is something that keeps me up all night many nights. It’s one of the most important things we do. It’s one of the most important things that that Diane Brennan and I focus on I’m right because we as an agency we’re only as good as the people who choose to make biolumina the place that they want to build their career. So from we we consciously choose oncology as our focus in that in in and of itself brings purpose. We believe as we’ve said it’s this the Space is really rewarding in terms of what we’re able to work on the clients. We’re able to work with because the area is so quick growing and quickly changing we and in order to really attract people at all levels of the organization from people entering their career to people that have been in their career for a long time maybe in other disease States. We we think it’s really important to focus on purpose. You know, there’s a McKinsey study that said especially post pandemic people really want to connect to the why behind what they do. They don’t just want to go into work.

You a job, but they want to go to work and and feel fulfilled feel like they’re making a difference feel like they’re contributing to the the betterment of their Community the betterment of society and I think the the ability to focus in in oncology which affects so many of us gives a lot of people purpose it certainly gives me purpose and I know for Diane and Brenda it does as well people who have purpose of their job also their studies that show that they have they’re more productive. They’re healthier. They’re more resilient it really it makes an impact on them. And I think that that one tracks people but it also routines people at the agency we’ve heard from our our teammates that you know, they find purpose and different aspects of oncology by some really digging in and and loving the beauty of the science some around making the the science beautiful and and kind of communicating it to the world and in simple and compelling ways making sure that we’re telling these oncology stories and simple human ways as Diane and Brenda have both talked about

Some cases one of the most important things that we do is rely on our project management team in terms of getting us helping us figure out how to get from point A to point B from the start of an idea to an actual finished executed project and if we think about the world of oncology, right Mark, I’m gonna I’m gonna fact check you here. We there’s a there’s a reference that we got from our medical team that it’s not one in three, but it’s one in two people that are impacted by cancer, which is two of us two of us in this four four person group, right? We’ll be impacted by it. And I think people are drawn to right the ability to make a difference and even if it’s even if it’s a small difference, we recently had this really

emotional opportunity to be able to talk to our teammates about how they work that they do at biolumina impacts them personally and we heard some of the most moving stories about how they as individuals were able to help their loved ones navigate the cancer experience because of working at biolumina because of the knowledge they gained working here and because of their Partnerships with the medical team and with the strategy team and with folks that are connected within the space and if you think about

Me being able to make differences at that individual personal level. What we’re able to do is much larger than that, right because of the brands that we work on because we’re able to touch so many people’s lives like we can have an impact not just on each other individually, but we can have an impact on the entire oncology Community which you know, I find obviously really inspiring

Yeah, the impact that you have is Amplified, you know, given the broadcast tools that you’re disposal and and the messaging that you’re behind it sounds like a really incredibly fulfilling line of work and you express that that really beautifully what’s next for the agency.

We’re on a mission. We wanted we want to change this phrase from just oncology from a

negative start embracing this Mantra of I want to work in just oncology because it’s the most fast-paced creative inspirational areas that we can be involved it. So that’s our that’s what we’re trying to do. We’re trying to give people excited about working on ecology helping them understand that it’s not a niche little area that it’s a privilege to work with some of the brands and clients that we work with there. And there’s so much opportunity here, right? Brenda’s talked about all these different scientific advances and we think about you know cell therapies. That’s Cutting Edge stuff. We think about our dtp and DTC opportunities that we’re working on as well. Those are moving in in a really personal way for a lot of people there are brands in the late stage as Brenda said in metastatic disease where there are no choices and we’re we’re having this great opportunity to launch a first new drug in 20 some years, which is just you know, I think mind blowing for so many of us and then there’s places where we’re looking at early disease and that’s we’re curing people like that’s remarkable.

where we’re launching targeted agents in early disease and there’s the opportunity to cure people which again wouldn’t happen 10 20 years ago, and I think the other part about

Oncology is again. It’s not boring. It’s not State. It’s not clinical. It’s not just the data. It’s a super competitive space in many of these disease States. So we can’t just say here’s the data choose our drug. We have to say we have to really tell a story. We really have to contextualize that we have to tell them what it means and why it’s important for them and that that’s the work that

You know, we’ve we’ve built our Career Zone and will continue to build our careers out and we feel like there’s something really special about the work that we do in the world of oncology special about the work that we do at biolumina and we want everyone to say I want to work in just oncology.

Well the it is a very exciting area and you personify that very nicely really brought that to life. It’s an area that’s constantly evolving and as it evolves and as biolumina deepens, it’s oncology Focus. We look forward to doing this again.

Kirsten Brendan Diane. Thank you so much for joining us on a100 Studio sessions. I hope to talk to you again soon.

Thank you Mark. Thank you.