• by Elizabeth Elfenbein , Columnist, May 6, 2016

We live in a connected world, which means our healthcare is now connected, too. 

We’re inundated with technology and its ability to drive real-time change. We understand that technology will continue to accelerate, but what does this new technology mean on a human level? It’s going to mean experiences that are more personal and at the same time ubiquitous. Sounds like an oxymoron. Like wearing a smart device that understands your health life better than you do and works to keep you honest. It tells you where you are, what you’re doing, and how well you’re doing it in steps, in sleep, through sight—it’ll even connect with your care team to drive very personalized actions.

If that isn’t enough, it’ll connect with your social world to remind you that you’ve reached your goal or missed a dose. You can now almost literally walk in someone’s health shoes using VR, which allows one to truly empathize and understand what someone is going through on a deeper level. 

What does this mean in the broader sense?

In addition to providing healthcare opportunities for the patient and medical team, technology enables unique creative opportunities for companies that have the smarts and courage to leverage this connected world to invent new products or make their existing ones even better. We are part of what could be called a creative revolution because how we’ve been creative in the past is now being challenged. 

Filtering big ideas through a new, smaller lens

Our business will always be idea- and content-driven, but now our content might have to be filtered through a lens where we can only activate in a specific channel (and I’m talking about social channels, too) to drive a meaningful response. Our ideas will continue to be big, but will also be small and tailored to a specific channel so that content that’s pushed live ignites the intended response. That response could be to take pills 3 times a day, manage a specific diet, or ensure that you’ve gotten in your daily heart-healthy activity.

A new kind of creativity

This is a new kind of creativity. It engages, but goes deeper than before. Our connected world has insights into customer behaviors and understands things in a dimensional way that marketers never could in the past. It affords us an opportunity to create these insights and connect in a more meaningful, more knowing way. Whether driving compliance with medication or keeping a caregiver connected to their care team, we’re living in a time that is truly personal and multifaceted.

So how do we create in today’s world?

One could argue that your engagement brief would go deep and really understand how your customers are behaving in each channel—specifically, social channels. It’s no longer just about media consumption; it’s about changing behavior through connectedness. Knowing that they might engage on Facebook and be willing to change behavior in certain social settings—like sharing accomplishments on Facebook but not Twitter—is key. Social listening and social research is where that can begin. Ideas and content that are created must be authentic, walk in the shoes of the customer (because even technology walks in their shoes), and strike chords because it “gets” the end customer.

Connectedness is a conduit to health 

Connectedness is not only a conduit of content to the health consumer—it provides intelligence that knows where and when the consumer might be receptive to certain information and when they’ll be most willing and likely to take action. Being creative in a connected world allows us to take big ideas and curate them on a personal (one might think small) level in a device and channel of choice, knowing that consumers are just as creative and savvy in the way that they engage with our content.

Connect and win

The way to win in this connected health world is to create content that understands the way that consumers/patients deal with their health challenges. You’ll still need to serve this content up in ways that surprise and delight because ideas must resonate and grab attention—that’ll never change. When you’re connected to someone all the time, grabbing their attention can be more challenging because their expectations have been set. You need to activate your idea precisely when someone is ripe to take action—when they’ve just taken a pill or are about to go out for a walk.