This post was created in partnership with Doceree
Key Takeaways
- Unlike in other industries, healthcare marketers need to walk a line between taking a risk with innovation and playing it safe.
- When trust is built between a patient and a health brand, it could also improve the patient-provider relationship.
- Social media and AI can create distrust between patients and their providers due to easily spread misinformation.
From the success of GLP-1 marketing to the viral campaign encouraging men to get a prostate screening, health marketing done right can educate, engage, and even save lives.
During an ADWEEK House Possible group chat co-hosted with Doceree, leaders in health marketing discussed how to stay agile in a highly regulated industry and achieve the “golden metric of trust.”
Taking healthy marketing risks
One of the key themes of the discussion was the tension that health brand marketers face every day: Play it safe, or push boundaries? Kamya Elawadhi, co-founder and president of Doceree, shared that pharmaceutical brands tend to push back when ideas get too creative.
“Even if the agency goes and recommends something really innovative, the pharma brand would say, ‘Do you have a case study for this innovation?’” Elawadhi said. Of course, she continued, “innovation doesn’t come with case studies.” Many brands prefer to be the second to market where there’s less risk.
However, the tide might be turning, shared Craig Romanok, chief commercial officer at Digitas Health.
“Everything has changed so radically over the last five or 10 years, especially with influencers and creators now making a bigger, bigger mark in healthcare,” he said. “Information is coming from 360-degree perspectives and lenses, whether it’s from an influencer who is actually a physician or it could be someone who’s on the medication. It’s probably one of the most exciting moments if you work in healthcare.”
