Jim Larmon
Jim Larmon is Chief Creative Officer for Unlock Health
This post is part of a series that explores how Unlock Health makes great work easier.
I read an article recently that said that human attention is arguably the world’s most valuable resource, but it’s increasingly difficult to get that attention. There’s just so much coming at us all the time, and so much of it is really similar. Especially in healthcare marketing where historically marketers have played it pretty safe.
I drove down a highway and saw a billboard with a doctor and a patient looking at a chart. I knew that photo. It’s a stock photo, and I’ve seen it used so many times. How can your brand stand out when you’re literally using the same imagery as everyone else?
Don’t Be Wallpaper
People are trained to avoid advertising, and healthcare advertising is doubly something they want to avoid. Nobody wants to think about getting cancer, or heart disease, or having a hip replaced. But the reality is that healthcare is something we all have in common. We all want to stay healthy, and we will all need healthcare at some point. As marketers, we need to break through and create awareness so we’re top-of-mind when they do need to make healthcare decisions.
Marketing requires investment. Time, imagination, effort — and yes, money — go in to making the creative product people ultimately see. But if it isn’t interesting, it’s invisible. Everything you’ve invested becomes something that’s just wallpaper people are passing by. What a waste.
Push Boundaries
In other industries, marketers are really pushing the envelope when it comes to creativity. If they come up with something that becomes a meme or a slogan on a t-shirt, that’s a win. In healthcare, our clients aren’t looking for that.
There’s a sensitivity that in healthcare, people can be in very vulnerable moments. You can tell stories about pain and vulnerability as long as you’re doing it in a way that’s honest and in service of the brand. But not every emotional connection in healthcare needs to be heavy. There is a place for humor as well — a place for making content that people will remember fondly. So, look for interesting stories and tell them well.
Compared to other industries, healthcare marketers are still at the beginning of the curve when it comes to pushing boundaries, but we’re making progress. The Cannes Lions Awards is probably the biggest award show in the advertising industry. Pieces that win these awards are brilliant, innovative, and beautiful. These are not necessarily words you’d associate with healthcare advertising. And yet, there’s a category devoted to Health “Celebrating creativity in branded communications in this highly innovative but fiercely regulated sector with the unique power to truly change lives.”
Be Honest
Cause marketing is very popular right now — everyone wants to be connected to something good. It works if you’re a company that makes shoes and you’re donating shoes. Or you’re a company with an endless summer persona doing ocean clean-up. Not every cause marketing campaign is successful, and when they’re not, the backlash can be brutal.
Here’s the good news for healthcare marketers. Your industry changes lives — literally saves them — every day. When you build your marketing around your organization’s mission and purpose, you have a solid foundation to make an emotional connection with your community.
Here’s the flip side of that coin. Because healthcare is highly local, if the story you’re telling doesn’t ring true, that’s a problem. Your employees will be the first to let you know, and your patients won’t be far behind.
Great Work Doesn’t Need a Huge Budget
When you think of the ads that people are talking about on Monday after the Super Bowl, you know those are expensive — big ideas and bigger budgets. It doesn’t have to be that way though.
Great ideas, great memorable ideas, aren’t budget contingent. At Unlock Health, we like big ideas told simply, the simpler the better. Strip your idea down to its essence and focus on the connection you want to make with it. But do it thoughtfully and with care. TikTok is full of content that’s fun, engaging, and memorable — and also not expensively produced. Consumers right now are very tuned into how content is made, and things that are highly produced can turn people away rather than attract them.
Three Key Takeaways
- Embrace authentic storytelling. Focus on crafting narratives that connect emotionally with your audience. It’s not just what you say, it’s how you say it.
- Don’t be afraid to take risks. Healthcare marketing tends to be somewhat risk-averse, but creative risks can help your brand stand out. There are many, many ways to tell similar stories.
- It doesn’t take a big budget. But craft matters! Prioritize simplicity and authenticity.
Standing Out is Critical. How often do we forget that it’s the creative product that people actually see out in the world. Make it rewarding. Make it interesting. And people will notice.
For today’s healthcare marketers, a hard job is made even harder because achieving your goals has required a roster of agencies — the strategic agency, the creative agency, the tech agency. And yet there’s always been the missing partner — the agency who understands healthcare so deeply that it makes great work easier. Unlock Health is a new kind of full-service agency that makes great work easier through a combination of art and science — creativity fueled by data, insights, and deep expertise in the business of healthcare.