The situation
A US medical device manufacturer had secured Health Canada licensing and a national distributor, with a launch date fixed by a major clinical conference. It had no marketing presence in Canada. The Canadian general manager, based in Calgary, needed a marketing communications lead to own the launch, a digital marketing manager for demand generation, and a bilingual content specialist for Québec, and had ten weeks.
The brief
Three permanent hires with medical device or life sciences experience, comfortable with claims review and Health Canada advertising rules, one of them fluent in French and familiar with Québec language requirements. Two roles in Calgary, hybrid; the content role in Montréal, hybrid.
What we did
- Hired the lead first. The marketing communications lead was shortlisted in eight business days from device and diagnostics companies in Alberta and Ontario, and appointed in week three, so she could interview the two other hires.
- Assessed regulated-marketing judgement. Each candidate walked us through a claim they had taken through regulatory or medical review and what changed. Portfolio reviews were done with the lead once she was in place.
- Ran the Québec search from our Montréal network. Bilingual content specialists with consumer health or device experience are scarce; we approached candidates in pharma and CPG who wanted to move into devices, and assessed French writing with a short, paid exercise.
- Coordinated start dates so all three were in place four weeks before the conference.
The outcome
The launch happened on the conference date with a bilingual website, clinical education content, and a demand generation program live. The general manager awarded us a second search for a territory sales team three months later.
What made the difference
Hiring the lead first and letting her shape the team, and having a Québec network deep enough to find bilingual, regulated-marketing candidates on a fixed timeline.