Gaby Perez

The advertising and media industry is stratified into distinct tiers. At the top are the global holding companies: WPP, Omnicom, Publicis, IPG, and Dentsu. Below them are the large independent agencies and the specialized shops that focus on specific verticals like healthcare, financial services, or technology. Then come the regional and boutique agencies that serve local markets.

Healthcare advertising is one of the most regulated and specialized verticals in the industry. Campaigns for healthcare brands require compliance with FDA guidelines, HIPAA considerations, and CMS regulations. Media strategists in this space need to understand not just media planning and buying, but the regulatory environment that governs how healthcare brands can communicate with patients and providers. This specialization commands premium compensation and creates career paths that generalist agencies cannot match.

For a media professional at a smaller local agency, the jump to a national healthcare-focused shop is a significant career accelerator. But these agencies recruit through industry networks and specialized recruiters. Without targeted positioning that demonstrates relevant healthcare media experience, candidates from smaller agencies are often overlooked in favor of those from larger holding company shops.

Gaby came to Archer Careers as a Media Planner at THE 3RD EYE (formerly VS/BROOKS), a Miami-based agency where she had worked on campaigns for CarePlus and CenterWell across broadcast, print, digital, social, and out-of-home channels. She had nearly three years of media planning experience, strong vendor relationships, and a track record of mentoring junior team members.

Gaby wanted to make the jump to a national agency where she could work on larger healthcare campaigns, expand her skill set to integrated media strategy, and advance her career beyond what a local agency could offer. The challenge was that national agencies rarely recruit from smaller regional shops, and her healthcare experience at the local level needed to be positioned to demonstrate its relevance at scale.

Archer's team designed a campaign that positioned Gaby's healthcare media experience as her primary differentiator. Rather than competing against media planners from large holding companies on volume of experience, the campaign emphasized her specialized knowledge of healthcare media buying, regulatory compliance in campaign execution, and her hands-on experience with brands that national agencies were actively servicing.

Applications to MERGE highlighted her work with CarePlus and CenterWell, both brands in the managed healthcare space that required the kind of regulatory awareness and audience targeting expertise that MERGE valued. The positioning framed her local agency experience as an asset: she had managed campaigns end-to-end rather than operating within a single function at a large agency.

Archer's team focused on agencies with active healthcare practices that were hiring for mid-level strategy roles, filtering out generalist agencies and holding company roles where Gaby's healthcare specialization would be diluted.

Of the 63 targeted applications, 7 resulted in interview invitations from agencies across the healthcare and integrated media landscape, an 11.1% interview rate.

Gaby received 2 offers and accepted a position as Integrated Media Strategist at MERGE, one of the largest independent healthcare-focused agencies in the country. She has since been promoted to Senior Integrated Media Strategist.

Gaby's move from a local Miami agency to a national healthcare-focused shop transformed her career trajectory. In four years at MERGE, she has advanced from strategist to senior strategist, working on campaigns at a scale that would not have been possible at a regional agency.

The promotion within a year and four-year retention confirm that the placement was not just a good interview. It was a genuine career match that continues to deliver growth and opportunity.