How Klick Broke a 52-Year Barrier and Crashed the One Show Party

27 One Show Pencils and the Independent Agency of the Year award later, Klick Health has done what no health-focused agency has managed in the One Show’s 52-year run. As Chief Creative Officer Rich Levy puts it with a hint of wonder: “The first time in history only happens once, and it happened to us.” This isn’t just a win for Klick—it’s a moment that flips the script on what a health agency can be and signals that the creative world is finally paying attention to an often-overlooked corner of advertising.

Early Hacker Roots

Klick was co-founded by a couple of (self-proclaimed) computer hackers  as a medical education agency in Toronto almost three decades ago, far from the advertising awards spotlight, creating CD-ROMs to help physicians attain credits to maintain their professional standing. Clients started knocking on their door asking, “Do you guys do HCP marketing?” and they’d respond with a confident “Sure!” despite having, as Levy admits with a laugh, “no idea how to do it.”

Another client would ask about direct-to-consumer work, and they’d say yes again, figuring it out along the way. The company started helping pharmaceutical clients with digital strategy and became known as an up-and-coming digital health agency, bringing on pharma marketing veterans like now-CEO Lori Grant and growing its client roster across North America. 

Another game-changer came when they started assembling a dream team of industry talent across the entire spectrum of crafts and specialties who shared a vision of creative excellence. And it wasn’t just creative team members. It was a team of medical and brand strategists, broadcast production, gamers and designers. Their common trait was a bit of a chip-on-the-shoulder attitude that healthcare creativity shouldn’t be “good for healthcare” but “good” period.

When you walk the halls of Klick’s offices anywhere in the world and you see people working together in such a collaborative way –hat you wouldn’t know who was the creative person and who was the strategist. Group Creative Director Andrea Bistany, who joined after a successful stint at The Bloc, says, “The work that we produce is a product of the trust and the great relationships that we all have together.”  Tim Jones, Global Executive Creative Director agrees. “Success stems from hundreds of collaborators working in concert toward a single goal, helping people live better lives.”

From those humble beginnings making CD-ROMs, websites and banners, they’ve grown into the world’s largest independent healthcare agency with offices on four continents. Their One Show gate-crashing was driven by three standout campaigns that shatter preconceptions about healthcare creativity—each one delivering work with genuine human impact that resonated far beyond traditional health categories.

Voice to Diabetes: Innovation That Saves Lives

Voice to Diabetes feels like something from a sci-fi movie, except it’s real. Speak into your phone for seven seconds, and it can tell if you might have diabetes—no blood tests, no doctor visits. The tech hits 89% accuracy for women and 86% for men, and it’s already approved in multiple countries.

“This can help millions of people in millions of different disease states,” says Levy, without a hint of overstatement. The project even beat Apple to win an Innovation Grand Prix. When a health agency is out-innovating tech giants, something interesting is definitely happening.

Café Joyeux: Employment With Purpose

The Café Joyeux campaign tackled a stark reality: 81% of people with Down syndrome are unemployed. Their film “47” tells the story of Robert, who got his first job at 47, along with others who found work at Café Joyeux.

But here’s where Klick gets it right: “We didn’t create it for the community, but with the community,” Levy explains. People with Down syndrome worked on the music, sound design, and other aspects of production. If you’re in New York, he insists the café at 52nd and Lexington is “the most joyful place you’ll ever go to get a cup of coffee.” Hard to argue with that sales pitch.

American Cancer Story: Confronting Hard Truths

Sometimes the most powerful creative comes from a single shocking statistic. For Executive Creative Director Tim Jones, it was discovering that gun violence had overtaken cancer as the leading killer of American children. That CDC stat became “American Cancer Story,” a campaign for Change the Ref (who picked up Non-Profit Client of the Year at the One Show). Working with activists Manuel and Patricia Oliver, they created content that refuses to let you look away from an uncomfortable reality.

The Rising Appeal of Healthcare Creativity

Jones tells a story that perfectly captures the industry shift: Four years ago at a Creative Week portfolio review, he was “definitely the uncoolest portfolio review that year” with just one curious creative stopping by his table. Fast forward to now, and “every young creative wanted to come and speak about healthcare creativity.” Why? Because they’re doing “the most interesting work, the most purposeful work.”

The transformation is clear—healthcare isn’t the creative backwater it was once dismissed as. It’s become the place where meaningful innovation happens. Klick’s historic haul at the One Show isn’t just validation; it’s a sign that the rest of the industry is finally catching up to what they already knew.

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