CommonHealth and Mendoza Dillon Combine Forces to Create Hispanic Healthcare-marketing Group.

Business Editors/Medical Writers

PARSIPPANY, N.J.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Feb. 3, 2000

Joint Venture Pools Intellectual Capital of Two WPP Group 

Companies to Expand Presence in the Hispanic Marketplace

CommonHealth today announced the launch of MD&/Salud, a joint venture between CommonHealth and Mendoza Dillon &Asociados.

The co-founding units are both part of the WPP Group (LSE: WPPL.L; NASDAQ/ADR: WPPGY), the global communications-services company, and both report to WPP Branding and Identity, Healthcare and Specialist Communications CEO John Zweig.

MD&/Salud will be based in Parsippany, N.J., the global headquarters of CommonHealth. It will leverage the combined equity of CommonHealth, the world's largest healthcare-communications resource, and Mendoza Dillon &Asociados, a full-service communications agency specializing in Spanish-language communications, to offer advertising, promotion and merchandising, public relations and consulting services geared toward expanding client presence in the Hispanic marketplace.

Ingrid Otero-Smart, an executive vice president of client services at Mendoza Dillon &Asociados and a 19-year veteran of the communications industry, has been named managing partner of the new unit.

&uot;The communications industry long ago recognized the increasing influence of the Spanish-speaking populace in the U.S. marketplace,&uot; said Ms. Otero-Smart.

&uot;It is only recently, however, that a greater emphasis has been focused on understanding Hispanic culture and addressing this group on their own terms, in their own language, when it comes to healthcare-related issues,&uot; she added.

Matt Giegerich, president of CommonHealth's The Quantum Group and The Xchange Group business units and one of the organization's managing partners, agreed. &uot;We have worked informally with Mendoza Dillon for some time and have been impressed with their breadth of knowledge and ability to connect our clients with the fastest-growing market segment in the U.S.,&uot; he said.

&uot;This is a venture whose time has come,&uot; he said.

Healthcare-related clients served by Mendoza Dillon include Johnson &Johnson, McNeil Pharmaceuticals and Warner-Lambert. MD&/Salud draws from its founding companies the ability to reach previously untapped healthcare markets in the United States, as well as in Puerto Rico, Mexico and other Spanish-speaking countries. The new company is the latest in a series of joint ventures between CommonHealth and sister WPP Group companies. In November 1999, CommonHealth joined forces with Einson Freeman to create EinsonHealth, a healthcare-brand-promotion group. Earlier in the year, CommonHealth and sister WPP unit Enterprise IG, world's leading brand and identity consultancy, pooled their intellectual capital to create Enterprise IG Health. Robert Howells, president of Mendoza Dillon &Asociados, stressed the depth and breadth of the latest joint-venture partners, CommonHealth and Mendoza Dillon &Asociados, noting that &uot;the two companies have between them close to 50 years of healthcare-communications and Spanish-language marketing experience.&uot;

Mendoza Dillon &Asociados of Newport Beach, California, is the largest producer of Spanish-language broadcast advertising in the U.S. With 1999 estimated capitalized billings of $95 million, the company has been responsible for Clio, Addy and Belding Award-winning campaigns, and was awarded the first Gold Effie given to a Spanish-language campaign for effective advertising.

CommonHealth comprises MD&/Salud, Adient, CommonHealth Australia, CommonHealth Europe, CommonHealth Kyowa, EinsonHealth, Enterprise IG Health, Gowers Advertising, Health Learning Systems, the Hill and Knowlton Health and Pharmaceutical Practice, the OZM Group and a partnership in China with the Ogilvy Healthcare Network, ProCom International, The Conectics Group, The Quantum Group, The Xchange Group and Thomas Ferguson Associates.

Med Ad News reported recently that &uot;one [healthcare communications] model has emerged with distinction: CommonHealth's organization,&uot; adding that the company offers clients &uot;the most complete and flexible consortium of services.&uot;