While there’s no getting around the enormity of Omnicom’s acquisition of IPG and its impact on healthcare agencies, Blake Shewey, CEO of Snow Companies, says there were two profound moments where people — finally — exhaled.
Following months of anxiety and speculation, shortly after the announcement that Snow would absorb YuzuYello, which specializes in patient support services, and YuzuZest, which provides patient ambassador services, “we were able to get on a Teams call with the Yuzu organization and just talk,” she says. “We explained who both of us were as organizations. It was the chance to just sit with it and to acknowledge that we can all do hard things.”
The team’s January visit to Snow’s headquarters turned speculation into reality. Presentations on capabilities moved the sentiment from “they seem nice” to “now we know who they are.”
Ben Matus, group management director, says the Yuzu team felt much the same way. “The more we understood the capabilities within the broader Snow organization, the more sense it made. Yuzu had done a lot of the same ambassador-type programs, focused on developing content for patient support programs — anything after a script is written to help them start and stay on therapy. And with what Snow is doing, learning from patients, it gives us a lot of great opportunities in the future.”
In the beginning, Shewey adds, “There was this huge sense of, ‘Is this just one thing replacing something else?’ And we’ve realized it’s actually building something even better.”
That future is already evident in work for clients such as Genentech, says Lynn Kirkpatrick, chief of client services. “We’ve been building learnings for the whole company over time,” she says. “Then when we brought in the Yuzu team, we were bringing in new capabilities. In that very first meeting, the client said, ‘These are exactly the people we need in this moment to drive this forward.’”
The new team quickly organized a two-day workshop in San Francisco with patients and client team members. “It really elevated our work,” she says, “and the client was excited about how seamlessly it all went.”
Those capabilities have changed Snow’s approach to growth. “We’ve grown organically through word of mouth rather than cold outreach,” says Nadine McGowan, chief growth officer. The acquisition of Yuzu has meaningfully expanded what it can offer clients, particularly by allowing the agency to work further upstream in designing patient support programs, rather than just executing them.
Clients appreciate Snow’s thoughtfulness, and the ways the agency “supports strategic storytelling and program structure,” writes Chaeli Wallace, senior manager, patient community and education, rare disease business unit at Takeda. “Balancing compliance, storytelling and the human experience is not easy, and Snow navigates it exceptionally well.”
MM+M estimates that revenue at the newly merged shop rose 25% in 2025 to $130 million, up from $104 million. While 20% came from the merger with the Yuzu teams, 30% came from new clients and 50% from existing clients. (That roster includes 240 brands for 100 different clients, and seven of the top 10 pharma companies.) It also saw the number of staffers increase to 483 employees at year’s end, up from 390, and growing.
What is an interesting way you’ve seen a brand use AI?
The ones truly standing out recognize what AI can never replace: real human connection. In an AI-saturated world, authenticity is a premium commodity and the foundation of trust. Brands such as iHeartMedia’s Guaranteed Human embrace this philosophy, deploying AI behind the scenes to optimize and enhance, never to replace the human experience. At Snow, we embrace the same approach: AI powers our behind-the-scenes processes, but real patients remain at the heart of everything we
do. — Shewey.
