WFCA secures 5m BMI relaunch task

WFCA, the Tunbridge Wells-based integrated agency, has won the £5m BMI Healthcare relaunch advertising business.

The full-service shop has also been tasked with media planning and buying for the healthcare brand. It won the business following a review overseen by Haystack.

BMI is the UK’s largest provider of independent healthcare services, with 47 acute-care hospitals nationwide. WFCA has been tasked with relaunching the BMI Healthcare brand, as well as driving revenues and occupancy rates.

BMI Healthcare is part of the General Healthcare Group and handles more than 250,000 in-patient and 750,000 outpatient visits each year. It also works with the NHS to provide operations under contract and private wings within the grounds of NHS Trust hospitals.

Its last big push was in 2003 when the healthcare provider launched a new brand identity created by Merchant Design. The identity combined white space and images of people in “natural” poses.

General Healthcare Group launched in the 1970s in order to capitalise on the UK’s burgeoning private health care market.

In 2006 it was acquired by a consortium led by Network Healthcare Holdings, a South African healthcare company, and including three UK-based financial and property investors. It is thought the new ownership is behind the decision to relaunch the BMI brand, which earlier this year acquired nine hospitals from rival Nuffield.