2021 Canadian Business Awards

Located in the historic Aberton Building in Montreal, with its unparalleled view over the Lachine Canal, GLG Communications is a proudly Canadian institution that has established itself as a leading healthcare marketing communications agency of the last two decades. In its comprehensive services, GLG Communications strikes the balance between strategy, creativity, interactivity, and digital innovation to craft market-leading healthcare brands designed to captivate audiences around the world. When Sharon Gallant, President and Single-Owner of GLG Communications established the firm nearly seventeen years ago, it was with a vision to bring a fresh approach to the communications industry. “Prior to founding this agency, I had always worked for large, multi- national, global agency networks. I knew there was a better, more client- centric way to support pharmaceutical brands. GLG is, and always was, proudly independent. We answer solely to our clients. We always tell our clients ‘we have only one mission – yours’”. As such, since its inception, GLG Communications has been continuously evolving to meet and exceed the expectations of its Canadian and global clientele, many of whom have been with the firm since day one. Serving predominantly Fortune 500 companies and blue-chip pharmaceutical clients, GLG Communications’ flexible and transformative nature ensures it is able to deliver the varied qualities and services required by each unique client, setting itself apart as communications agency built for and around the needs of clients. This has always been the driving ambition of GLG Communications, rather than growth or profitability. “Do we want to be big?” asks Sharon. “Oh God, no! I managed a huge agency for many years prior to founding GLG. There is no advantage whatsoever to size. We aim to be the best, not the biggest”. GLG Communications has always focused on developing its inhouse fields of expertise so as to meet even the most ambitious business goals in marketing and communications across a range of disciplines. The firm’s team of established healthcare industry experts enable the firm to provide leading expertise in health and medical sciences, providing unparalleled insights in prescription, direct-to-consumer, over the counter, and behind-the-counter communications. The in-house medical team also handles writing, strategy, graphic design, translation, and regulatory correspondence and negotiation, as well as healthcare education materials and events planning and implementation. GLG Communications has also played roles in the fields of animal healthcare, B2B and B2C companies, and public services, using its broad range of resources and expertise to serve clients and communities across Canada and beyond to make lives easier and healthier. Depending on the needs of certain non-profit mandates, GLG Communications is able to offer some services on a Pro Bono or special arrangement basis – a true measure of agency success. This has made helping the healthcare charity sector a core competency for the agency. Thus, GLG Communications is able to honour its commitment to flexibility in meeting the needs of its clients, a commitment which is represented in the firm’s comprehensive range of services that can be tailored to fit projects of all shapes and sizes. Its Planning services include product positioning, branding and identity alongside marketing and communications, strategic and tactical planning as well as media planning and buying. The Creative department offers full creative development and implementation of those strategies across a range of mediums, from the creation of visuals in the in-house graphic design studio to the digitisation of those designs to make them more interactive and therefore more engaging. GLG Communications also offers Creative services in sales materials, corporate communications, point of purchase, packaging, advertorials, and third-party publications. The firm’s full-service Marketing offering includes everything from direct marketing, customer loyalty, and relationship management solutions to management of media relations and PR, in addition to compliance programmes. GLG Communications also provides quantitative and qualitative market research as well as ongoing brand audits and ROI analysis in its Evaluation services. Finally, going above and beyond to ensure that clients truly feel the greatest benefit of GLG Communications’ expertise, the firm offers Training services, providing creative and strategic consultations and workshops for brands, sales representative training, as well as marketing presentations and development courses. GLG Communications also manages a range of speakers for those workshops and provides opportunities for clients to continue education in any of the firm’s fields of expertise. To offer such a wide range of services in a grand variety of complimentary disciplines, GLG Communications relies heavily on its team, who are champions in strategic planning, creativity, and technology. “We hire ambitiously-minded people who work best with ambitiously-minded clients,” says Sharon. Together, the team works to drive the value of clients’ brands around the world, whether they are a long-term partner of GLG Communications or a new client looking to share in the excellent results the firm has become synonymous with across Canada and beyond. Many of those newer clients have come to GLG Communications having recognised the brand’s adeptness in running marketing and communications digitally, a phenomenon that has become exponentially more prevalent during the ongoing pandemic of the last year. As a result, 2020 into 2021 has been a busy year for the firm, which has worked with existing clients to further enhance their digital mediums and new clients to completely transform their operations. For Sharon and her team, the work of the last year has been immensely fulfilling and a triumph that has been further boosted by the firm’s recognition at the Canadian Business Awards 2021. “It is an immense honour to be named Best Pharmaceutical Marketing Agency in Canada, an honour made all the more special given that all agencies have had to adapt quickly to the pandemic this year. This is an industry that is at its best when teamwork, strategic huddles, brainstorming, and workshopping are prevalent, and GLG, like the rest of the industry, had to completely reinvent operational excellence this past year,” says Sharon. “The GLG team and I are humbled and enormously grateful.” Best Pharmaceutical Marketing Agency - Canada GLG Communications is an award-winning communications agency that specialises in creative and strategic healthcare marketing communications unlike any other. Founded seventeen years ago by Sharon Gallant, who remains today the President and sole owner of the agency, GLG Communications brings together information and imagination to create media that makes an impact. As the firm celebrates success at the Corporate Vision: Canadian Business Awards 2021, Sharon tells us more about the GLG journey so far. Dec20538