Heartbeat is a full-service agency for healthcare Challenger Brands. Challengers are playing a high-stakes game—they must battle behemoth market leaders, upend ingrained treatment habits, or transform a “me-too” product into “yes-please.”
The agency is known for serving up distinctive strategies and differentiating approaches, ensuring clients’ market positions are uniquely owned. Heartbeat designs their organization around a 100% integration model, housing media, strategy, med comms, creative, technology, and even point of care/population health under the same roof for the tightest, most integrated campaigns possible. They price work based on outcomes, not outputs. Their innovative model delivers not only alignment, but powerful orchestration, greater efficiency, and maximum impact for every dollar spent—all the necessary elements for Challengers to triumph.
That’s the philosophy, here’s the creds: 250+ employees between NYC & LA; 6 agency leaders with decades of tenure; a pile of awards from the likes of the Mannys, MM&M Awards, OMMAs, and Clios; an industry-leading commitment to diversity and inclusion (with a Med Ad News D&I Champion nod to match); and a President who dared to be quoted as saying, “We celebrate people who stand up and say, ‘You know what? This is dumb.' Damn straight.
Overview
We’re Heartbeat, the marketing agency for Healthcare Challenger Brands and the brave clients behind them. And hopefully you’re our next Associate Creative Director, helping us to deliver game-changing campaigns for Consumers & HCPs.
Read on to learn more about what qualities we’re looking for in a new member of the crew and why you’re gonna dig working with us.
Responsibilities
How you’ll strengthen the team:
Our team is looking for someone who is a strategic thinker and passionate about design. Beyond that, here’s how you’ll make your mark:
- Help develop and review creative briefs that provide strategic insight(s) and creative inspiration.
- Inspire creative teams to produce the best work possible.
- Evaluate concepts, copy and art, at pre-determined points and providing direction prior to review by account management.
- Set high creative standards that lead to a body of work that creates enthusiastic customers and clients, and is consistently recognized by agency management as on strategy and unique to the healthcare sector.
- Lead the creative efforts on new business assignments, as needed.
- Ensure that creative presentations to the client meet the highest professional standards.
- Work with the Group Creative Director to address performance, workflow, and quality issues and develop long-range plans for the team.
- Demonstrate to clients that you understand and appreciate their marketing challenges and are responsive to their strategic needs.
- Train new employees on responsibilities and agency procedures, and work with current creative staff to help them achieve professional and personal goals.
- Work with the upper management team to plan and pursue continuing strategic growth of agency billings and participate in new business pitch opportunities.
- Help ensure that deadlines and budgets are met.
Qualifications
What you’re bringing with you:
Across 6+ years of experience, you know what it takes to slay creative direction. These are the core skills you’ve totally nailed:
- HCP pharma agency art / design experience
- A proven track record of both conceptual and technical creative abilities
- Successful history of running large, AOR pieces of business
- Strong client contact experience and ability to grow business organically
- The ability to work collaboratively with account management and other cross-functional teams
- Excellent presentation skills
- Successful experience managing creatives
- Dependable with the ability to pivot between autonomous and highly collaborative work
- The availability to travel to meet client and agency needs
- The availability and commitment to work extra hours as needed to ensure client satisfaction
Additional information
Hell yes, I want to do all of that. But tell me more about Heartbeat…
Heartbeat is a healthcare marketing & creative agency, headquartered in NYC and powered by ~300 smart people all over the US. In the past four years, we’ve been named a 4-time “Best Place to Work” by AdAge and MM+M and a “Diversity & Inclusion Champion” by MedAdNews.
We care about three big things:
1. Empowering Challenger Brands
We work with marketers who have big mountains to climb and the ambition to make it happen. As their sherpa and sidekicks, we must relentlessly deliver on our core values: insightful, inventive, and courageous.
2. Being the Best Place You’ll Ever Work
This isn’t all pool tables and Bagel Fridays — it’s about giving you the support to do and be your best. Examples include the ability to work wherever (forever), unlimited PTO, and self-care stipends. We also love to let loose, whether through selfie scavenger hunts or bouts of companywide bingo that would shock even the rowdiest retirement communities.
3. Fostering a Diverse & Caring Community
We’re the most diverse agency in healthcare, by design. No matter your story, you’ll find representation and amplification — through our affinity groups, cultural celebrations, and unwavering support no matter what society throws at us. We’re proud to say that you can be anything you want at Heartbeat (as long as it’s not an a**hole).
There’s a reason 1/3 of Heartbeaters have been here for 4+ years and we have a 90% retention rate. We hope you’ll experience it for yourself.
About Publicis Health & Publicis Groupe
Heartbeat is a proud member of Publicis Health, the largest health communications network in the world. Publicis Health is one of the four solutions hubs of Publicis Groupe, the third-largest advertising and media company in the world — offering us unparalleled global reach and resources.
Our Publicis Groupe motto “Viva La Différence” means we’re better together, and we believe that our differences make us stronger. It means we honor and celebrate all identities, across all facets of intersectionality, and it underpins all that we do as an organization. We are focused on fostering belonging and creating equitable & inclusive experiences for all talent.
Publicis Groupe provides robust and inclusive benefit programs and policies to support the evolving and diverse needs of our talent and enable every person to grow and thrive. Our benefits package includes medical coverage, dental, vision, disability, 401K, as well as parental and family care leave, family forming assistance, tuition reimbursement, and flexible time off.
If you require accommodation or assistance with the application or onboarding process specifically, please contact USMSTACompliance@publicis.com. All your information will be kept confidential according to EEO guidelines.
Compensation Range: $105,165 - $165,485 annually. This is the pay range the Company believes it will pay for this position at the time of this posting. Consistent with applicable law, compensation will be determined based on the skills, qualifications, and experience of the applicant along with the requirements of the position, and the Company reserves the right to modify this pay range at any time. Temporary roles may be eligible to participate in our freelancer/temporary employee medical plan through a third-party benefits administration system once certain criteria have been met. Temporary roles may also qualify for participation in our 401(k) plan after eligibility criteria have been met. For regular roles, the Company will offer medical coverage, dental, vision, disability, 401k, and paid time off. The Company anticipates the application deadline for this job posting will be 1/22/2026.
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