East-to-West-Coast Relocations Ideal for Risk-Takers
Healthcare is among the most profitable agency categories for marketing and PR executives. Healthcare assignments command a hefty 79 percent salary premium compared to other industries like industrial manufacturing and consumer products, according to a compensation study done by Marshall Consultants, an executive recruiting firm with offices in New York and Malibu, Calif.
Across the board, healthcare communicators are a hot commodity, whether on the corporate communications and marketing side or in the PR/advertising agency sector, says Larry Marshall who heads up Marshall Consultants.
For instance, an account supervisor at a PR agency in a large city making an annual salary of $73,000 can expect to make 14 percent more than his or her counterparts in consumer products and 26 percent more than industrial manufacturing executives.
On the advertising agency side, a senior account executive in a large city making $134,400 makes 9 percent more than those in consumer products and 79 percent more than those in industrial manufacturing.
Pharmaceutical, managed care, providers and to a certain extent biotech are the big market drivers. These industry sectors have an increasing need for communicators who are savvy at product launches, developing new business, strategic planning and advocacy/community relations.
'Big Picture' Trends Out West
Although the Big Apple is where the biggest salaries are for agency executives -with salaries ranging from $88,000 for a senior account supervisor to $247,500 for a president/CEO at an advertising agency in New York - a growing number of New Yorkers are test-driving their skills on the West Coast. This East to West Coast switch translates into a 10 to 15 percent dip in compensation, according to Marshall, but for risk-takers the career rewards can be exciting.
If there's any truth to the perception that East Coasters live to work and West Coasters work to live, it's very subtle in healthcare PR and marcom. The fact is both regions are highly competitive and demanding and client needs are vastly different.
On the East Coast, particularly in New York, where big pharmaceutical companies with deep marketing pockets dominate the healthcare market, the demand is strongest for product-specific advertising/PR support. But on the West Coast - where biotech companies are major players - PR/marketing professionals need to be generalists, providing strategic counsel in key areas of IR and overall branding.
For Kathy Witz, PR specialist at Mentus Public Relations in San Diego, who relocated from Manhattan, the transition has been significant - from an agency culture and client relationship perspective. In New York, where she worked on major pharmaceutical accounts with multi-million dollar budgets, the communications focus was on product launches and major media blitzes to support newly approved drugs. Her client contacts were usually within the corporate marcom departments.
At Mentus, her PR skills are being flexed to work with biotech startups with much smaller budgets, typically in the $80,000 range. "Here, the job requires that you have a full understanding of the science industry - which can be very difficult to grasp - and the investor community," says Witz. Other regional differences include:
- Targeting a more narrow media target, primarily in the science category;
- Planning online conferences that allow journalists to interview the client's executives, typically a VP and above;
- Cautiously selling the client on cutting edge PR tools like VNRs and RMTs; and
- Penetrating a much tighter business community where "everybody knows everybody" by more aggressively networking.
In terms of compensation, Witz saw her salary drop by a few thousand dollars, but she believes the pay cut is worth it, for two reasons - career diversity and the opportunity to take biotech communications to another level as the biotech-approval process gets shorter.
"The biotech industry is going through an exciting transition with late-stage clinical trials getting approval, which opens the door for new product launches." She continues, "This is where my New York [product launch] experience will really become an asset."
Ironically, the West Coast has a lot in common with client needs in the Asia-Pacific region, according to Laura Zobkiw, who has worked for Burson-Marsteller's healthcare division overseas and who currently works in its San Mateo, Calif., office.
While overseas, Zobkiw worked for major pharmaceutical clients like Merck, Bristol Meyer Squibb and Glaxo- Wellcome where physician communications and developing third-party alliances were more important than launching consumer-based media efforts.
In San Mateo, Zobkiw is using these skills to develop new business strategies for B-M, which is in the process of establishing a greater West Coast presence. Echoing Witz's assessment of the tight-knit business community, Zobkiw emphasizes that PR executives who come to the West Coast "have to be in it for the long haul" in order to cultivate long-term client relationships.
For PR pros who have earned their stripes elsewhere, the West Coast is an exciting option because of the high-growth potential among biotech companies. "Here, there's more of an entrepreneurial spirit, which requires you to do several jobs at once and be more creative in your approach," says Zobkiw.
(Marshall Consultants, Larry Marshall, 212/628-8400; Mentus PR, Kathy Witz, 619/455-5500, ext. 140; B-M, Laura Zobkiw, 650/287-4022)