#020 ᐧ 07 April 2024

Happy April!

I’m back after a few weeks off. A little bit of self care goes a long way. The plate spinning was a little unreal. And now I’ve popped out the other side feeling positive, calmer and much more my usual self… bar the migraine hangover. Fellow migraine sufferers will know that feeling.

So what have I been up to? It’s been an insanely busy month(+)  at work. Planning and running a two-day workshop for one of our clients at VCCP. It was super fun to host and facilitate. I love this part of being a strategist. More visual thinking rather than internal. Working in big teams rather than solo. An incredible amount of brain power, achieving so much in a short space of time. I even got my nails done in the brand colours for extra showmanship.

We also had the team at Purdie Pascoe (an indie market research agency) present their brand equity model for healthcare. Which looks awesome and I can see how this could elevate brand narratives and sales stories for the products I work on. I’m hoping there’s an opportunity to test that soon.

Plus we had a very cool prospective brief from a client looking to explore opportunities in gaming and immersive tech like VR and mixed reality for healthcare brands. I got to utilise a few of the campaigns featured in the newsletter as stimulus, along with partnering up with our creative innovation lead at the VCCP partnership, Peter Gasston. I loved his opening gambit:

Work aside, we’ve had the Easter Holidays here (and still another week to go). I’m doing a few shorter working weeks and mixing in some fun with the boys. So far we’ve had an epic easter egg hunt, a sunny afternoon at Wakehurst. And incoming, we have a trip to London to the balloon museum and crazy golf on Brighton seafront (weather permitting). Wordle has also magically found its way back into my life. The perfect switch-off but switched-on moment in my day… and currently a 33-day streak.

I’ve saved lots of stories, bits and pieces over the last month. So let’s dive into them, and in no particular order

🤩 Celeb spot 🤩

Pop star protection

In a US state where abortion is illegal, pop star, Olivia Rodrigo, handed out condoms and emergency contraceptive pills during a concert in St Louis this March. The pop star has also launched the Fund 4 Good campaign, a global initiative for people seeking reproductive health freedom.

AI marketing assistant at your service

Hello Charlie Pfizer

I read a super intriguing article a couple of weeks ago about Charlie - Pfizer’s new generative AI platform, which is being used internally to support its people and agencies in the development of new marketing content.

It all sounds really interesting. They’ve worked on this with Publicis Groupe, and it happens to be a spin-off of the Publicis platform, Marcel AI. What makes it tailored to Pfizer is the data it’s trained on and the “skills' ' it provides, that are critical to the delivery of pharmaceutical content. It includes literature reviews and medical papers, fact-checking, legal reviews and a risk labelling system that flags human medical reviewers where they might want to spend more time.

The article goes on to talk about audience modelling. I personally find the role of synthetic data in marketing pretty exciting (and weird). Mark Riton wrote about this last year, and it was in his marketing top ten of things for 2023… here’s what he said about some research that was conducted:

Most of the AI-derived consumer data, when triangulated, is coming in around 90% similar to data generated from primary human sources.

Assume nothing

The new film for Down Syndrome Awareness Day hits harder

What do you get when you speak to real people living with health conditions and let their stories do the talking in your campaign? Powerful stuff like this.

Now, reader, I’m sure many of you have seen this spot already… I had to share anyway, a slim chance you haven’t. Because it’s brilliant.

It shows us the damage of self-fulfilling prophecy when we let negative assumptions become the reality for people with Down Syndrome. It asks you to flip these assumptions to positive so that this will one day become reality.

Media planning on point

Treace premiers new TV spot during the Bachelor finale

I am not watching the Bachelor USA. But some clever clogs at Treace Medical’s agency do. This year’s The Bachelor star Joey Graziadei, divulged on that show that he has bunions. The team at 21 Grams/Real Chemistry were on it with a new ad for the brand that aims to raise awareness of lapiplasty, a corrective procedure for bunions. The ad itself is also worth a watch… it leans into humour, something usually tricky to navigate in health, but they nailed it.

A rising tide lifts all boats - said Currax Pharmaceuticals CEO, George Hampton about GLP-1 drugs' impact on the entire weight loss category

My new fave science communicator

Dr Karan Rajan

Dr Karan cropped up on my LinkedIn feed about a month ago and now I can’t get enough of his myth-busting reels. His content tackles pseudo-science and misinformation on social media and also calls out all that is wrong with women's health. 

If you are based in London, he has a live show coming up in May… I’m tempted.

Here’s his rebuttal to all the Royal Family and Kate Middleton conspiracy theories… enjoy.

@dr.karanr

Princess of wales and cancer

Elmo checking in

And humming his big feelings away

Everyone went nuts when Elmo posted a check-in on Twitter/X at the end of Jan. The world needed the Elmo trauma dump. That familiar little face from our childhood offered a comforting and secure space to open up. 

Now the world of Sesame Street (Sesame Workshop) is doubling down on mental health with a new PSA and strategy to help kids manage their big feelings. The "Love, Your Mind" campaign, in partnership with Huntsman Mental Health Institute and the Ad Council, ensures mental health isn’t overlooked for children and shows how simply humming a tune like Sesame Street’s “Sunny Days” can be a great tool for supporting children’s emotional well-being.

I’m gonna try this one with my eldest, who needs some new strategies to manage big feelings. But I might have to say the idea came from Sonic the Hedgehog and not Elmo to get him to listen.

Women’s leadership is essential in healthcare technology. Female leadership embodies a fundamental shift towards a more equitable, efficient and responsive healthcare system.

The Long Goodbye

…and a long list of complaints

A new TVC in the UK for the Alzheimer Society has prompted 128 complaints to the Advertising Standards Authority. According to an article in Campaign*, the spot was seen as “offensive” and “likely to be distressing to people with or caring for those with Alzheimer’s or dementia” and went on to discuss further criticism from the national press over the weekend; stating the film went “too far” and is “uncomfortable to watch”.

Some of the issues raised have challenged the accuracy and its one-size fits all approach. These are important. It’s the age-old tale, if you try to talk to everyone, you risk talking to no one. Most, if not all health conditions come with nuance. It’s in the nuance that you find really interesting stories… And yet there’s a delicate balance between ensuring you tell an authentic story and making it relatable. 

Is that happening in the ad? Maybe, but it plays out generically, rather than challenging the normal. As her story unfolds in the eulogy, who this woman was, as a friend, a mum, and a wife, and how she was lost to dementia over and over, becomes unsettling rather than relatable for people going through it.

Here’s the ad. Tell me what you think!

*article behind paywall

The misinformation landscape about contraception across social media is the wild west post-Roe v. Wade. Women are getting off the pill amid the explosion of misconceptions fuelled by influencers who put themselves out there as experts on birth control.

OK, this is all the stories I’ve saved up for you this time. I’ve taken a different approach to the content delivery, with shorter roundups and no link dumps/bonus reads. Let me know if it works for you… It is only issue 20. We’re still young, right? We can keep trying new things 😉

If you found something interesting or insightful here today, I’d be so grateful if you could forward on to a friend or colleague who might enjoy it too.  And if you are new here, please do not forget to subscribe.

And now time to enjoy the last few hours of the weekend. Keep your TV recs coming too. We’ve just finished 3 Body Problem on Netflix (OMG, if you’ve seen episode 5, please message me, I am traumatised… I need to talk it out).  If you haven’t seen it, catch the trailer here.

OK, I’m off to do more Sunday

Until next time (hopefully not too long next time).

EML ✌️