ONE MORE THOUGHT
Insights @Work, Life, and Work Life
Punching Above Our Weight: The SFC Way
We’re not the biggest agency in healthcare marketing. Not by a long shot.
But you wouldn’t know it by looking at the scoreboard.
In 2024 alone, SFC Group has racked up more than 100 industry awards, stacking our shelves with wins from Hermes, Viddy, NYX, and Titan. And the work? It keeps getting sharper, smarter, and impossible to ignore.
So what’s our secret?
We punch above our weight creatively — and we’ve built our agency that way on purpose.
No layers. No bottlenecks. No bull.
At SFC, we keep things lean for a reason. Layers slow things down. Bureaucracy stifles brilliance. And weeks-long internal approvals? Let’s just say we’ll pass.
Instead, we move fast, think deeply, and make decisions like grown-ups. We don’t have time for endless meetings or five versions of a deck that all say the same thing. We focus on what matters: strategy, storytelling, and results.
Our clients get direct access to the people actually shaping the work — not junior staff relaying messages like game-day quarterbacks. It’s part of why our relationships last, and why our work resonates.
We give our creatives room to actually be creative
This shouldn’t be revolutionary, but in this industry, it kind of is: We trust our creative team.
We don’t over-brief. We don’t micromanage. We don’t censor good ideas to make them safer, quieter, or easier to sell.
Instead, we give our writers, designers, and art directors the freedom — and the expectation — to make work that’s worth talking about. Campaigns that make people laugh, look twice, or feel something. Pieces that spark real engagement, not just internal applause.
And when it works? We double down. When it doesn’t? We figure out why. That’s how we grow. That’s how we win.
Creative leadership that doesn’t settle
Of course, none of this happens without strong creative leadership. And we’re lucky to have one of the best.
Since SFC Group’s founding, our creative department has been led by Brian Zandman, a creative genius who isn’t interested in toeing the line. He’s interested in blowing past it. Brian pushes every brief harder. He elevates the work. And he challenges all of us to ditch the obvious, trust our instincts, and go beyond what’s expected.
And here’s what’s rare: our creative team has stayed together. That consistency matters. It means our ideas get better over time, not diluted. Our process is tight, our standards are high, and our bullshit tolerance is zero.
We’re small. But our impact? Anything but.
We don’t need a giant team to make giant work. We just need the right team, the right mindset, and the space to do what we do best.
So yeah, we’re a small agency. But creatively? We go toe-to-toe with the biggest names in the business — and we’re proud to say we often come out on top.
Because when you remove the noise, trust your talent, and lead with guts and brains?
The work speaks for itself.