In the past, healthcare marketing was often associated with scare tactics, sterile imaging and overly technical wording. However, in recent years, the industry has begun changing its approach with brands opting for fun, creative and personalized tactics instead. Patients and healthcare professionals (HCPs) both have shown increased engagement when advertising feels original, with personalized messaging that make healthcare topics more approachable. This presents a unique opportunity for marketers, especially in an industry where highly relevant and relatable advertising ultimately means helping patients live better lives.
There is a fine line between educational and informative media experiences and language that is unrelatable or inaccessible to some audiences. That’s why figuring out this balance and being able to convey your product’s benefits while also making your audience feel entertained, engaged and at ease is more likely to result in higher brand recall and increased prescription writing behavior.
Stand Out to Consumers With Creative Messaging
One such brand that has shaken their marketing up with a burst of creativity is WestDerm, a dermatology and skincare brand. During MediaPost’s Brand Insider Summit earlier this year, WestDerm’s Veronica Clay, Senior Marketing Manager of Content Strategy, talked about their success in making advertisements fun and engaging. She explored how dermatology had historically used “worst case” skin issues in advertising or portrayed clinicians and patients with forced smiles and sterile backgrounds. WestDerm instead chose to target patients with a positive, inclusive spin on preventative skincare. Their messaging used smiles and warm lighting, ultimately showing audiences that they can still have fun in the sun while taking care of their skin. This approach drove a 25% decrease in their cost per acquisition and led to an increase in real-world actions with 22% more bookings at their clinic. This success is not limited to patients - all audiences, whether HCPs or consumers, respond positively when they are exposed to creative, personalized advertising.
Leverage Personalization to Drive Growth with HCPs
We recently joined forces with IBM Watson to pilot a solution for marketers who really want to customize the creativity in their campaigns. IBM’s Advertising Accelerator uses AI to predict and serve ad units in real-time with the creative elements that are most likely to drive action among each audience, whether you are targeting HCPs or consumers. Ads are then served based on key signals like Designated Marketing Area, device type, and time of day, allowing us to deliver hyper personalized targeting. For our pilot campaign with IBM and CMI Media Group, we focused on targeting HCPs who were treating and diagnosing the brand’s conditions of interest, and retargeted users who visited specific sites.
To truly understand how the hyper-personalized campaign triggered real-world activity, we leveraged our Identity Solution to re-identify the audiences and track their post-exposure behavior. Our real-world prescription analytics informed intelligent in-flight optimizations to increase the impact of media engagement, leading HCPs to eventually write prescriptions and convert new patients to the brand.
Overall, leveraging IBM’s creative AI optimizations through our end-to-end healthcare marketing and analytics platform, drove a 151% increase in conversion rate to the client’s site, showing a highly positive reaction to hyper-personalized advertising. Moreover, the campaign achieved an impressive 40% increase in CTR compared to previous campaigns run by the brand. Our success clearly shows the value of personalization and creativity in healthcare brand recall and awareness.
Why Creativity Matters for Health Outcomes
So, why is taking a more creative approach key in healthcare marketing? Brands can stand out from the competition in a time where consumers are being inundated with advertising, leading to higher retention. Creating better experiences that feel more relatable and personable can help educate patients who need to seek treatment and understand their options in an environment that is friendlier and warmer, rather than sterile and clinical. Additionally, HCPs are tired of feeling bombarded by spam and want to experience informational media that is relevant to them. So, personalizing your messaging to each audience can help your brand cut through the noise.
If you are interested in further exploring how your next campaign can leverage Lasso’s healthcare marketing operating system and incorporate hyper-personalization through IBM’s Advertising Accelerator, get in touch with us at sales@lassomarketing.io.
