David Hunt – Page 3

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April 24, 2015July 25, 2019

Success in customer experience might be a marathon…

…but you can learn all you need to know in a sprint at Create Health’s CXIH Summit 2015.

This Sunday, the London Marathon will bring together two of the best long-distance runners in the world, as current marathon world record holder Denis Kimetto takes on fellow countryman (and former world record holder) Wilson Kipsang.

For both Kenyans, success depends upon a multitude of elements coming together and working in their favour. Nutrition, training schedules, rest and recovery, and mental preparation must all be spot on. Coaches, dietitians, physiotherapists, and psychologists must all be pulling in the right direction. But what if one element isn’t functioning as it should; what if Kimetto comes to the line worried that his diet’s not been right, or if Kipsang feels his head coach has been off his game? It wouldn’t stop either starting the race, but they’d have niggling doubts running through their minds about how well they could perform.

It’s the same in anything we undertake; from learning to play the piano, to recovering from a chronic condition. Every failing element creates doubt, a doubt that can grow to dent faith in success. A patient who undergoes yet another unsuccessful treatment change is going to lose faith in their doctor, the value of adhering, and perhaps their recovery altogether.

Positive customer experience is considered golden across all consumer-based sectors; whether you’re booking a hotel room or looking for an insurance quote, every element you encounter should run like clockwork, making the road to success as seamless and hitch-free as possible. It’s no coincidence that, with digital so central to modern day lives, Barclays launched their Digital Eagles initiative to improve digital literacy amongst young and old. A customer who better understands how to use the platforms Barclays operates within, is of course, more likely to have a positive customer experience when engaging with them.

Consumer brands invest in customer experience because if they don’t, there are a million other places their customers can go. The situation isn’t quite the same in healthcare, but the implications are no less significant. From a commercial standpoint, a professional who, from their very first interaction with a representative, feels informed and in control is more likely to prescribe and re-prescribe a treatment (and more generally have a positive opinion of a brand). And from an ethical perspective, a patient given the tools to take charge, not just of their treatment, but also of their life in general, is more likely to achieve a better outcome.

At Havas Lynx, we’ve recently been discussing the importance of taking a more holistic view to patient experience in order to achieve treatment success. As such, we’re pleased to be taking part in Create Health’s Customer Experience In Health Summit, held on 12th May in London. The Summit brings together the brightest and most inspiring leaders in customer experience from inside and outside of healthcare, with experts from GSK, Merck Serono and Pfizer talking alongside the best from RBS, Travelodge, AXA and many more. We’ve always really enjoyed working with the Create Health team; they have a knack of creating a relaxed atmosphere that opens people up to genuine debate and discussion. Last year, those of us that attended their event were imbued with ideas and enthusiasm. This year, our very own Rob Fuller and Claire Knapp will be delivering a talk, but whether you listen to them or any of the other speakers, you’re bound to stumble across some enlightening insights.

For more on the power of patient engagement and holistic support, read our latest white paper, Smiles That Save Lives

We’re pleased to be able to offer Havas Lynx clients a 75% discount off the normal ticket price for CXIH 2015. Just use the promotional code ‘havas’ when you come to pay.

April 8, 2015

Conduct

The importance of manners, by David Hunt

Speak when spoken to, remember your please & thank-yous, and listen to others – all important lessons I’m determined to teach my son, Hudson. They are essential to being a well-rounded member of society and equally essential in Pharma’s pursuit of social media acceptance.

We talk A LOT about governance, rules of engagement and process. For me this is the method and internal mechanics, it’s of our concern and not our customers. Of far more importance to me is our product, their experience, which is determined by our behaviour & conduct. There’s little point in engaging in social if it does not help the community, and complement our commercial objectives. If we compromise our personality, we compromise our campaign.

Typically our behaviour is weighed down by bureaucracy; it is uptight, awkward & unresponsive. It lacks critical speed & authenticity. It can feel like a conversation with a committee, most likely because it is. Newspaper Editors the world over take responsibility for their publications. It allows them to publish breaking news, competing with their rivals, meeting the needs of their customers. The consensus is that Pharma cannot be so frivolous, the risks are too great. True, if we are publishing product related information, not true if we are engaging with a community relating to disease awareness. Of course there will be points when we can’t comment, but these should not compromise the many meaningful interactions we can have.

Of course governance cannot be underestimated, but it should be guidelines & not a rule book. It should inspire, not suffocate our interactions. And it must be built on a brand personality & values, a global tone for all markets & platforms.

By trusting intelligent individuals to take responsibility, thus replacing response by committee with a more human approach to social media, we too can become a well-rounded member of society.

March 25, 2015

Public or private, healthcare should focus more on happiness than holding on

‘Everywhere I see the mistake of ignoring that people have priorities in their lives besides merely surviving another day.’
– Dr. Atul Gawande

In Britain, the current strain on the NHS is a key topic as we head towards the general election in May. In the closing moments of a live debate on Channel 4 News last night, Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt commented that, ‘for the public, it’s not about public vs. private; it’s about good care vs. bad care’. But do we know what good care is?

The healthcare industry has been built upon treatments. Progress to date has been based on innovating around the molecular, on tackling problems in the minutiae of the atomic arena. It has brought some incredible advances and delivered great success in changing lives.

However, it’s a focus that ignores the bigger picture of the patients these treatments are created for. Patients whose conditions may infiltrate every aspect of their lives, and have consequences that they live with until their dying day. For these people, treatment is just one aspect of their journey, and the care they require extends far beyond this. They need help in communicating with professionals, understanding and accepting the implications of their condition, taking control of their health and the other aspects of their life it affects (work, finances, family). Unsupported in any of these instances, patients can feel isolated, confused, and deeply unhappy.

In his BBC Radio 4 Reith Lectures in December, Dr. Atul Gawande exclaimed that, ‘we’ve been rather limited about what we [in healthcare] think our job is, building systems of care for human existence. We think our job is to ensure health and survival, but really it is larger than that. It is to enable wellbeing, and wellbeing is ultimately about sustaining the reasons one wishes to be alive.’

We need to pay greater respect to wellbeing and happiness. It might sound trite to say that happier patients are healthier, but improved wellbeing has been shown to improve cancer outcomes, lower the risk of heart disease and stroke, encourage adoption of healthy behaviours, and even lengthen lifespans (amongst other health benefits).

In an era in which healthcare moves to outcomes based performance models, ensuring patient wellbeing could be a catalyst for improved treatment-brand success. It’s time to look far beyond the pill, from the beginning of a patient journey to the very end, and provide support at every moment in between. Support that instils patients with the happiness, confidence and encouragement to stride on toward a positive outcome.

For more on the power of subjective wellbeing and holistic support, read our latest white paper, Smiles That Save Lives

Watch our introduction of our interview with Lucy May Middleton, holistic support advocate and educator here

March 11, 2015

Ideas

Creativity, More Important Than Ever by David Hunt

You can have a strong brand & commitment to fulfil it. You can have the necessary culture to respond in a real fashion. You can have a relevant, quality, dynamic content strategy. And most importantly, you can share a genuine ambition with your community. But you can still, and most likely will, fail in social media.

In a world that besieges individuals with content, news & entertainment across all manner of devices & channels, standing-out from the crowd is more important than ever. Pharma has spent so long wrestling with social, that when we finally do arrive, we expect that they will come. The world has not been waiting. The world is oblivious to our fraught self-interrogation. That is not to say, we can’t add significant value to our respective communities, it is just that we need to earn the right to be socially significant. Turning-up, standing on the periphery, is not enough.

In my opinion, you need an idea that grabs attention and acts as a catalyst for your social campaign. It requires insight into the community, imagination to be unique, the potential to be valuable & engaging, but it also requires appreciation of social dynamics. It is not an advert, but it is creative. It is an idea that drives participation & interaction, from incremental approval & shares, to endorsement & actions. It takes great talent, with great ideas to unlock the great social opportunity.

In South America we have seen the Colombian League Against Cancer “Cancer Tweets” campaign demonstrating the creative opportunity social media represents.

Great ideas that leverage the social opportunity are still the exception in healthcare. I’m excited to work with clients and colleagues with the imagination and bravery to seize the initiative and make a difference.

March 4, 2015

Good Cause

Doing Good, While Making Money

Social Success, by David Hunt

I talk about this a lot, but make no apologies for the frequency. I’m proud to work in Pharma, and see it as an opportunity to use insight, imagination & innovation to make a difference. I didn’t choose to work in healthcare, I simply liked ideas. In all honesty, as a bullish graduate I would have preferred Nike over Pfizer, but the world changes, and so do we. Today I choose to have a significant impact on society, over a cool one.

Paul Polman, CEO of Unilever, says: “The business benefits from ethical practices are not soft ones about reputation or image. They are hard measures of growth and margin improvement. Wherever you look, it’s a no-brainer“.

I agree 100%. Havas Lynx aims to help patients, their families and HCPs to improve outcomes, whilst also driving the commercial success of our clients. We call it #HelpfulChange, and whilst it sounds improbable and unrealistic, it has been the central strategy behind our success. It aligns with the increasing trend for Pharma companies to out behave the competition & benefit through their enhanced brand equity. Unfortunately the more conservative in our industry wait for others to fail & win by default. Doing nothing, but doing nothing wrong, they would argue. These people fear their brand, and lack the courage their power affords them to improve society. Those that embrace this power, those that choose to make a difference, and show courage in their actions, will succeed in today & tomorrow’s social world – they’ll have a brand with meaning.

Johnson & Johnson have invested in Care4Today, through Janssen Healthcare Innovations. Like many others, they believe innovation can improve outcomes. However, unlike the majority, they have invested significant time & resource to bring forward that day. They will both make a difference, and secure a competitive advantage.

AstraZeneca invested in a critical testing infrastructure for non-small cell lung cancer. Monthly tests increased from 18 to 452 over the course of the campaign. Patients were more accurately diagnosed, treatments more accurately prescribed.

Novartis support Skin To Live In and, despite the regulatory challenges, aspire for it to be the most progressive campaign in healthcare communications, supporting the community & building brand equity – a fair trade.

These are just a few examples from our portfolio, beyond Havas Lynx there are numerous other superb cases of brands doing good and making money. It is the future of our industry, one that will be shaped by passion & courage.

February 19, 2015

Content is King, so they say…

Participate in something greater, by David Hunt

“Content is King” is a great expression; catchy, weighty, easy. It’s also misleading, absent of substance, and wrong on many levels. As of January 2014, the Internet has 861,379,000¹ websites, or if you prefer Google has indexed 200 Terabytes of data²which is just 0.004% of the total Internet. Either way, there is no shortage of content. There is however an appetite for relevant, topical, bespoke content delivered as part of an expert brand strategy – the social world requires brain not brawn.

Content is a form of advertisement, albeit positioned as a more sophisticated strategy. The objective remains to elicit an emotion that drives an action. However, despite this universal truth, the world has changed. It is more connected, more social, and ultimately more judgemental. It is no longer enough to tell stories; we need to craft a collaborative narrative. Being instant lacks longevity and durability. Producing content without emotion and relevance dilutes and devalues brands. Today, more than ever, the market requires insight, imagination and innovation. Our Havas colleagues in Australia produced what I consider to be the best social campaign in healthcare: The world’s most powerful arm.

Great agencies are more, not less, critical to the brand building process. So too is a genuine brand. We can no longer manufacture our image, we can no longer limit the format of our customer interactions, we are exposed, open, and unintentionally honest. A strong authentic brand personality is essential. It must represent the values of a business and be aligned to the personality of their customers. Fonts, colours and high-gloss photographs, pale-away versus behaviour and conduct. Social success today relies more than ever on the principles of brand development.

The scale of the Internet is infinite, standing out from the crowd is harder than ever, unless of course you join the crowd. Become more than just an isolated part. Participate in something greater. Unite your community through a shared ambition. Do more. Social success is inextricably linked to the power of the collective to make a difference; it requires more than a content production line.

January 29, 2015

Making a Difference in Healthcare, Our Ambition for 2015

Agency Management, by David Hunt

Science, creativity & innovation afford us the opportunity to have a profound impact on people’s lives – we must take it.

There is no shortage of passion or courage to make a difference. There are however countless barriers. It is widely believed these barriers exist entirely in Pharma, as large organisations juggle safety & rigour with innovation & opportunity. However, I believe that the barriers to innovation are equally as prevalent in agencies & consultants, but more easily dismissed as we hide behind the usual excuses of rules, budget & proven proposals. Our strategy for 2014 sought to establish the most expert talent in our industry, in 2015 we intend to remove the barriers that typically distract agency teams from fulfilling their potential. #LYNXLife seeks to minimise frustrations & inefficiencies, and optimise expertise & focus.

The HAVAS LYNX family numbers over 200, in the UK alone. It includes a small senior team, supported steadfastly by the LYNX Leadership team of thirty, the LXLT. Our ambition remains – to be the most significant healthcare communications agency in Europe. To fulfil this ambition we must continue to bolster the team with senior appointments. At the end of 2014 Dr Vernon Bainton joined the team, and we intend to continue this trend with further key appointments across the creative studio and client facing team.

In 2013 we launched HAVAS LYNX MEDICAL, led by Dr Nick Broughton, which has gone from strength-to-strength, combining science, creativity & innovation – beautiful science. The team is fast approaching 20 and is set for a great year in 2015. Also in 2013, we launched HAVAS HEALTH SOFTWARE, led by Andy Stopford. Again the team has been hugely successful, developing the Care4Today platform. In 2014 we launched H4B Manchester, combining Pharma insight with consumer ideas. The H4B team have moved to new offices at 54 Princess Street, and are actively recruiting as we expand to meet market needs and demand. In 2015 we intend to launch HAVAS LIFE MANCHESTER, and complete our Havas Health family. The new agency will combine the heritage of the Havas Life network, with the creative & digital expertise synonymous with Manchester.

However, much like 2014 our key focus will be customer experience; across patients, healthcare professionals & clients. We’ll endeavour to provide the highest level service across every interaction, as we continue to build our agency through repeat business, referrals and recommendations.

January 12, 2015

Our Impact in 2014

Agency Management, by David Hunt

2014, great clients, great work, great team – a great year. They’ll always be lows, but not often are they so outnumbered by the highs.

Creative Lynx was founded in 1986, shortly after a design graduate joined, today he is a Managing Partner. In 2000 the agency sponsored a Product Design undergraduate, today he is the CEO. HAVAS LYNX have a heritage of investing in bright, passionate, ambitious talent, and 2014 was no different. Over twenty graduates joined the team this year, bringing a freshness to our thinking and contemporary ideas to our strategies.

Not so long ago our business was national, and whilst we still very much enjoy the challenges
that the local market represents, today the majority is global. It ensures our ideas have a more significant impact, that we can make a bigger difference & do more. But it also ensures that we support our local economies, generating significant inward investment to London & Manchester. In addition, we created an additional thirty jobs, or one job every two weeks.

Roller Coaster - blog

I’ve talked a lot about #LXAcademy, it reflects the pride I take in our achievement and the excitement for the 2015 curriculum. The #LXAcademy is not about new business, driving commercial success, or making money. It is a recognition that for all the big ideas & business strategies, we are only as good as our people. And the #LXAcademy ensures that ours remain the best.

In the last two years HAVAS LYNX have raised over £60k with a social reach of 200k for the causes we champion, and in the two weeks before Christmas we sponsored a year’s education for 42 children in Africa. It’s humbling to realise that the team’s passion to make a difference doesn’t start & stop with client budgets #HelpfulChange

January 5, 2015

‘Never do you see as much hope and ambition as on the 1st of January’

Does pharma need to reshape traditional borders and practices in recognition of universal digital behaviours? Can this be the catalyst to improve outcomes across the globe? What role can HAVAS LYNX play to unlock this opportunity? What are our ambitions for 2015?

The Global Opportunity, by David Hunt

In the fifteen years since I started out in healthcare communications, I’ve noted that typically when a company seeks to shake things up they appoint a new e-commerce manager, set-up a small innovation hub, or change a few job descriptions. Yet in those same fifteen years, I’ve gone from making calls on my phone to living my life through it. Our attitudes and habits have changed drastically and we know that our industry needs to better reflect this. But do we know how?

Do we need to run things differently?
Social media and wearable technologies offer great opportunities to pharma, but tech alone won’t transform pharma, just as the latest Garmin watch won’t propel weekend joggers to Olympic glory. We need to look at our processes. In my opinion, we are quick to leap into lengthy rollout processes, when we should be quicker to dive into prototyping.

Play To Cure: Genes in Space is an app created by Cancer Research UK, whereby users identify critical faults in real gene data by zapping asteroids and collecting space dust. This visionary combination of gamification and crowd sourcing for clinical benefit is the result of of rapid prototyping. Over the course of a two-day game jam, teams of developers, scientists and academics conceptualised and experimented to produce 12 prototypes. The most promising idea was taken forward, developed and released. Even after the release, developers took advantage of the virtues of digital to make further updates.

Shouldn’t pharma be this iterative and agile, and learn through experimentation?

For further information, please review our white paper on Wearables and for more information on Gamification please see our presentation on slideshare.

Is it time to redraw the map?
Some time ago, we carved up the world into vast market regions (EMEA, Asia-Pac., etc.) and we’ve stuck by these distinctions ever since. Why? Last year, 45% of Scottish people said they didn’t feel adequately represented even within the British Isles. Yet where geography and culture still divide, technology unites (in behavior, not beliefs); the average internet user in Germany spends the same amount of time online as the average user in Kenya.

Do we need to find new criteria by which to map our markets? Could technological uptake or HCP preferences be more incisive distinctions? Why should different therapy areas or different companies define markets in the same way? There are questions to be asked, most important of all: could a smarter choice of market distinctions offer a competitive advantage?

For further information, please read our white paper on the Global Opportunity

Can we fit into our users’ world?
The taxi I took on New Year’s Day was an Uber, a company non-existent ten years ago and now reputedly worth $40 billion. What makes Uber great? I use Uber because it’s quick and convenient. I have friends who take comfort in the safety it offers, others who love the ease of payment and splitting fairs via the app. Like many of the decade’s most successful digital start-ups (Airbnb, Dropbox, etc.), Uber offers a neatly packaged, universal service that fulfills a range of users’ needs.

Our lives are filled with such brands – we pick and choose the ones we like and build our own digital ecosystem with them. These ecosystems are an intrinsic part of our lives and pharma must learn to fit within them. The biggest consumer brands have managed it, pharma should be no different. We have the insight, commitment and expertise to make a difference.

Rather than offer all-in-one solutions, how can we integrate with the brands already established in people’s ecosystems?

For further information, please review our presentation that introduces our thoughts on Personal Ecosystems.

Can we deliver holistic improvements that drive better outcomes?
What one thing are patients, payers and professionals the world over looking for? Better patient outcomes. However, this doesn’t necessarily require better treatments. A range of factors contribute to patient wellbeing – adherence, lifestyle, mentality – and a combination of incremental improvements in such areas can make a huge difference overall. Digital is undoubtedly a tremendous vehicle for encouraging behavior that delivers these improvements. Dr. B.J. Fogg provides extensive academic evidence, but for more immediate proof we may look at Fitbit – it doesn’t make runners better, but it encourages habits that make runners better – and it is just the start.

What small improvements can pharma instigate to dramatically promote the success of a treatment?

Should we re-evaluate how we prioritise markets?
In any industry, it’s typical to focus on the markets that represent the biggest commercial benefit. However, I believe there’s a broader criterion pharma should consider. Consumer brands such as TOMS and Patagonia are built upon their strong social conscience. Could pharma engender such values in its approach to the global market, and look to promote a greater equality in treatment around the world? Driving positive outcomes in low-income markets would have an incredible impact on vulnerable populations, whilst providing a compelling, ethical positioning.

It might be ambitious, but could we expand the global medical debate beyond science to include morality and social responsibility?

Our resolution for 2015 is to find a few answers, and fulfil our potential to make a real difference. We’re excited to work with partners that share our values, beliefs and ambitions.

For more information please see a recent key note talk on the topic, or read our latest white paper.

November 5, 2014

#LXAcademy Awards

At the heart of an agencies success are the people. Heritage, structure and framework are simply the platform. As a business we are committed to attracting, developing, engaging and retaining the very best talent. The #LXAcademy was conceived to build core expertise, and inspire imagination, curiosity & courage, across science, creativity & technology. The #LXAcademy Awards was a celebration of everything we have all achieved in 2014 – it was our finest night.

The submissions were exceptional & really quite humbling. The team behind Care4Today combined insight & innovation, with passion & belief. Their presentation belied their engineering background & claimed the Grand Prix award. The team driving Novartis Dermatology deservedly won Creative use of Technology, as we continued our track record of being digital pioneers at EADV. Combining consumer technology with pharma insight, they quickly & efficiently created a unique point of difference in a competitive environment. Having clocked up 320,000 miles for AstraZeneca and revolutionised their Japanese market, the team of the year was entirely deserved. Not everyone can travel the world & consistently bring energy, ideas & value. One of my personal highlights for 2014 is our partnership with Lundbeck, we share vales & ambition, and I was delighted that our team recorded best online campaign, it demonstrated superb alignment of insight & innovation. It also demonstrated a client-agency relationship working in tandem, towards a shared goal, delivering results. #SKINTOLIVEIN rightly won campaign of the year, described by a Big Pharma CEO as the most progressive digital campaign in their portfolio, there was little more for the judges to add. However it was also impossible to ignore the effort, expertise & collaboration required to make something so unique and of so much value to patients & pharma.

There’s a buzz in the agency & the awards epitomised this. It has also set expectations for 2015, with regards to #LXAcademy, the awards and #LYNXLife, which is scheduled to be launched in January. Our number one priority is our talent, we believe that the rest follow. Our staff retention is at 90%, we receive 120 applicants a week and 50 people have celebrated 5 years with the business. HAVAS LYNX is a great agency with great clients, and the #LXAcademy Awards were a fitting celebration.

None of this would be possible without @carlwalker & Lisa Jones, driving the #LXAcademy, supported by the amazing internal experts and our external thought leaders. And a special thanks for organising the awards to Sam Luk & the LX Ambassadors.

You can watch some of our inspiring LX Academy thought leadership sessions on our Youtube channel and see photos from the night on facebook and twitter

Author: David Hunt

Author, Healthcare Heroes. Speaker at Harvard Business School, Financial Times & Exponential Medicine. Ex-CEO Havas Lynx (Cannes Health Agency of the Year).