Authentic health-related content is more effective at resonating with viewers and has demonstrated an ability in this era to broaden distribution and collaboration options. but authentic health content also strengthens internal and external stakeholder-engagement within regulatory and compliance frameworks, leading to higher awareness, more effective engagement and improved outcomes.
Health content is unique and the majority of health system employees lack direct interaction with patients and consumers. However, the content they produce must navigate stringent restrictions, uphold ethical standards, and cater to diverse stakeholders. The stakes are high, as the information can be life-saving or, at least, life-altering. Content, whether branded or unbranded, has to navigate complex pathways, educate varied audiences, boost professional morale, effectively engage stakeholders and inspire people who can feel isolated in the face of what feel like insurmountable challenges.
At FIXING US, we firmly believe that health communications demand expertise that contrasts with the generalist approaches and strategies offered by marketing experts and agencies. For healthcare brands and pharma businesses, using a partner with deep understanding of patient pathways and who understands the complexities of the healthcare industry and how to manage different markets and compliance teams offers a competitive edge and strategic advantage.content is more effective at resonating with viewers and has demonstrated an ability in this era to broaden distribution and collaboration options. but authentic health content also strengthens internal and external stakeholder-engagement within regulatory and compliance frameworks, leading to higher awareness, more effective engagement and improved outcomes.
Health content is unique and the majority of health system employees lack direct interaction with patients and consumers. However, the content they produce must navigate stringent restrictions, uphold ethical standards, and cater to diverse stakeholders. The stakes are high, as the information can be life-saving or, at least, life-altering. Content, whether branded or unbranded, has to navigate complex pathways, educate varied audiences, boost professional morale, effectively engage stakeholders and inspire people who can feel isolated in the face of what feel like insurmountable challenges.
At FIXING US, we firmly believe that health communications demand expertise that contrasts with the generalist approaches and strategies offered by marketing experts and agencies. For healthcare brands and pharma businesses, using a partner with deep understanding of patient pathways and who understands the complexities of the healthcare industry and how to manage different markets and compliance teams offers a competitive edge and strategic advantage.
A Distinctive Approach
Conventional agencies typically adopt different versions of the same approach, focusing on content creation and its value in terms of how it communicates key messaging to target audiences. This differs from our approach which pivots around real patient and healthcare professional (HCP) experiences and threads key messaging through their stories in a way that is genuine, authentic and engaging.
This approach also helps make the content creation process an effective collaborative tool that can engage and create relationships with all stakeholders including charities, patient groups, policymakers and the media, fostering marketing and PR opportunities and establishing commercial and other forms of relationships.
Once content is produced, the fact that it is authentic, and less curated or storyboarded, helps it to resonate more deeply with target audiences and to become a more shareable story that retains its emotional depth and serve brand communications’ needs as well as being more consumer-centric. This is not to say that you need to compromise the ability for authentic content to contain a brand’s key messaging but to approach it differently whereby you organically or more naturally weave brand messaging into content within the context of specific parts of a journey where it does not appear forced, gratuitous or overt.
We call this “authentic+” – meaning that content fully retains its authenticity and relatability while integrating genuine brand messages organically. What you get is more dynamic, whether designed to be part of a marketing campaign, PR or earned (i.e. free) media, educational initiatives or for one of our TV shows on NBC in the US or BBC in the UK.
Authentic content with brand messaging weaved naturally into relevant parts of it, as opposed to overtly polished content, is very powerful. The difference in terms of its resonance and engagement is stark.
Check out this summary of how our approach compares with the generalist agency approach:
| Generalist Agency Approach | FIXING US Approach |
Focus & Specialization: | Typically a broad and general approach designed to cater for multiple brands and industries. | Focus on health journeys and health-related content only, with a deep understanding of patients and stakeholders. |
Understanding of Target Audience: | Rely on market research to understand target demographics and market dynamics. | Deep understanding of patients and stakeholders, using in-depth interviews, ethnography and immersive research to capture real emotions and experiences. |
Regulatory Compliance: | Basic compliance knowledge across a number of industries. | Extensive understanding of compliance and regulations of the healthcare industry for internal and external communications and collaborations both globally and locally. |
Tone & Authenticity: | More commercial and ad-oriented, with focus on product benefits and value propositions - with a greater focus upon aspiration. | Embedded key messaging within genuine stories and experiences, prioritising authenticity and trust - with - more depth and focus on engagement and inspiration. |
Collaboration with HCPs: | Collaborates with HCPs via transactional relationships (e.g. a paid spokesperson, work-for-hire). | Work closely with HCPs and their patients as part of a non-transactional collaborations that are patient-centric and designed to lead to advocacy. |
Stakeholder-Engagement: | Transactional relationships within a corporate partnerships model. | Non-transactional engagement that supports authenticity and integrity of journeys, with opportunities to collaborate with recruitment and distribution of content. |
Filming Techniques: | Mainly crew-based filming, curated testimonials and retrospective direct-to-camera footage. | Greater focus on remotely-directed and self-filmed footage in order to achieve greater authenticity and intimacy, supplemented by limited crew-based footage. |
If you want to chat to us about how this approach can benefit you, and get tips on how you can make authentic and engaging patient journeys and health-related content, please get in touch. We’d love to help you.
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