What if a healthcare campaign didn’t tell you what to feel, but showed you, tailoring to your surroundings, demographics, and culture?
To many, especially consumers, a traditional broadcast advert or poster in a train station won’t do that. That’s because nothing is exciting or stand-out about it. Even the most creative agencies and forward-thinking companies struggle to break the ‘boring’ stereotype of healthcare content, when we could be undergoing a total metamorphosis in our storytelling techniques.
We’re rigid in our ways of creating. Brands tend to suffer from old-fashioned workflows and struggle to keep up with innovative methods of marketing and advertising. But generic messaging on TV and radio just doesn’t cut it anymore, especially for younger generations seeking something new. It’s time to think about how people consume media and stop alienating audiences that could resonate with your offering.
Don’t fade into the background
One family, in the same room, looking at the same screen. Television undeniably brings people together. And in the past, when the adverts rolled, we tended to either watch them or do something else until the show was back on. Although the TV advertising and marketing industry is still highly profitable, it’s expected to have an annual growth rate of -3.73% from 2025 to 2029, marking its slow fizzle out.
That’s because we’re constantly connected. There’s at least one device with us wherever we go. While Gen X still turns to cable and satellite for their entertainment and media consumption, television’s grip on younger people is loosening. Their attention is simply too stretched across other platforms, and new tech like AI is taking centre stage.
As professionals in the healthcare sector, we need to acknowledge this shift and move to new mediums. But many companies, like large industry groups and the legacy creative studios supporting them, find themselves stuck in outdated workflows. We’re still seeing the same lengthy review processes, unrealistic deadlines, and rigid briefs. So, for us to truly adapt and appeal to younger audiences, we need to reconsider our core operations.
Marketing in the machine era
It might feel like we’ve been thrown into the age of AI. We’re seeing it roll out in social media copy, generated images, and even entire ads. But, in reality, it’s been building for decades and monitoring its progress in the past might have been helpful for many healthcare companies and creative agencies.
We’re also looking at some increasingly popular modern technology in advertising. Think of surreal out-of-home campaigns, AR experiences, and digital humans in ads to protect patient confidentiality. These formats don’t just promote a product, they tell a captivating, attention-grabbing story. We can represent conditions through animation, especially invisible ones. Better still, new technology generally attracts a younger audience, something those in the creative healthcare space should be constantly striving for.
Keeping up with new developments can be difficult, so consider having an R&D function, even if it’s just one employee, in your marketing and advertising team. They can find new technology, see how it works, and implement it within creative workflows. Having someone constantly looking out for the next best thing could break companies out of their old-fashioned pipelines and enable them to create truly engaging and exciting campaigns.
Acknowledging the evolving healthcare audience
Our ranging target audience puts the pharma and healthcare industry in a unique position, and it’s up to us to take full advantage. We can’t just continue following the same playbook, especially when it comes to new creative tech and AI. Short-form content is booming, young people’s attention spans are changing, and expectations are different when it comes to advertising. Platforms like TikTok are having a ripple effect and signal a clear need to push for bolder, fresher, newer campaign materials.
Creative studios have been aiming for exactly that for a long time. We understand the need to produce content that appeals to all ages, which involves taking a look at new methods. Some studios are already doing amazing work, but many of us find ourselves stunted by that legacy workflow and the traditional belief that medical marketing can only be done in one way.
Moving away from traditional healthcare campaigns is exactly what we need, changing the preconception that its marketing and advertising content is only for older demographics. Start by thinking about how you can expand and repurpose work across mediums, not just the traditional TV and radio formats, and integrate fresh tools wherever possible. As we’ve seen with social media, people increasingly value interactivity, relatability, and inclusion, and they’re no longer afraid of AI.
Make the change
Despite the evolving nature of the medical industry and its audience, one thing remains true: our priority is to focus on the consumer. We create content to engage them, but also to show them that they are being thought of, catered to, and seen.
Refreshing your healthcare marketing is one of the ways to do this, especially for younger audiences becoming increasingly disconnected from traditional media. By investing time and effort into creating a new technology stack, we can enable more demographics to engage in content. Legacy companies just need to take the plunge and prepare for their workflow to change.
About the author
Glen Taylor launched Alongside Global, a collective of creative businesses with sights set on transforming the world of marketing production. A lifelong creative entrepreneur, Glen helmed Taylor James over a 22-year tenure, leading a team that delivered global marketing visions for numerous Fortune 500 companies. As a strategic leader and pioneer of integrated production, he has always been at the forefront of disrupting the marketing industry and pushing production capabilities to be more creative and efficient.
