Three Ways Healthcare Brands Can Make the Most of High-Profile Media Moments

Healthcare brands are showing up on the world’s biggest stages, but are they doing it right? 

Healthcare brands are officially part of the mainstream. They’ve been front and center since the pandemic hit, for obvious reasons – and now, they’re finally taking the stage. Not just any stage, either. Healthcare brands are showing up on the world’s biggest stages – from the Oscars and Grammys to the Super Bowl, Fashion Week, the Olympics, Coachella and more. 

Considering the boundless opportunities for healthcare brands in these arenas, there’s no doubt they’re in the right place at the right time. The question is, are they showing up the right way?  

Our healthcare marketing experts weighed in with three ways healthcare brands can make the most of high-profile media moments:  

 

1. Show up with your audience’s values in mind

“Healthcare brands are showing up on some of the world’s biggest stages to share their stories with patients and consumers in new and exciting ways. But how they show up matters. Recently, several hospital systems and treatment centers came under fire for making large investments in Super Bowl advertising while labor challenges that have led to chronic overcrowding and understaffing have gone unsolved – and that did not sit well with employees and patients. Brands must be deliberate about showing up in ways that are authentic and aligned with the values of the people they want to build relationships with. As they evolve their marketing mix, there is whitespace for brands to explore in leveraging brand acts – big, brave, bold brand experiences that cut through the noise to make a statement and do good for the world.” 

– Nigel Downer, SVP, Head of Jack Health U.S. 

 

2. Take it to the next level by thinking outside-the-box and into the real world

“It is not uncommon to see large healthcare brands sponsors major events. Just look at the biggest sporting stage –  the Olympics. In the past and present, pharmaceutical companies like Sanofi, GSK and Johnson & Johnson have all sponsored the games, using this opportunity to increase its global visibility and promote its brand as a company committed to improving health and wellbeing. 

“However, what we are starting to see more of, is that sponsorship of the world stage becoming more targeted. Take a look at Sanofi’s sponsorship of London Fashion Week.  A campaign that used clever editorial-style fashion spreads to highlight the symptoms of IBS and the solution of their Sanofi brand Buscopan. A great campaign that ran on social, digital OOH and some select women’s publications, however… one could question if further impact could have been made, if they’d also embraced the power of experiential?” 

– Jo Hull, SVP, Director, Jack Health EMEA 

 

3. Leverage sponsorships to create community connection and impact

“Healthcare brands are increasingly embracing mainstream sponsorship opportunities to generate awareness but more importantly to build and differentiate their brands. Sponsorships help humanize brands and make their benefits relatable, they provide healthcare brands with ways to contextually prove their promises, and perhaps most importantly, healthcare brands can use sponsorship to create community connection. Hospital systems are turning their sports team sponsorships into full business partnerships, with co-branded “Performance Centers” that house both team practice and hospital sports medicine units. Team partnerships demonstrate commitment to the community, important in an era of mergers where hospital management is often no longer local.”  

– Pat Heffernan, SVP, Co-Head, Jack 39 

 

With the spotlight on the healthcare industry for better or worse, how healthcare brands show up in these key cultural moments, on these great stages, has the potential to make a huge reputational impact. Get it right, and brand affinity shoots through the moon. Get it wrong, and your brand will miss the boat on the healthcare sector’s biggest marketing opportunity in decades.