Strategy – David Hunt

May 24, 2016July 25, 2019

The future is bright

We believe that the future is bright, that health will improve and that progressive pharma will be successful. Led by emerging science, amplified by technology and powered by engaged patients.

The scale and impact of progress, will be at the discretion of a new breed of physician, the millennial HCP (mHCP). Digitally native, their number increases year-on-year.

Of course, they exhibit many of the traits of their predecessors; knowledge, empathy, ambition. We’re comfortable with the healthcare professional in them. But what about this other side – the millennial? What does it mean when your homework group included Google and Wikipedia? When you spent 14 months of your medical education online? And when you haven’t written by hand for more than a month?

Millennials are visual. They choose SnapChat, YouTube and Instagram. 72% of them use emojis to communicate their emotions – no language has ever grown more quickly.

Millennials embrace progress. 95% make positive associations with the word ‘change’. Their digital tools of choice are in a constant state of beta, as they look to optimise their digital being.

Millennials demand more. They believe big business should take as much responsibility as the government. And, as illustrated by the UK Government and Junior Doctor dispute, they believe in collective power.

It would be wrong to define this generation by their birth certificates, and to suggest that this population only includes those born after 1980. Instead, it is a generation that was forged in the last two decades as its members immersed themselves in a new world. Their habits and personalities have evolved with the technology around them. Put simply, they are digital.

In this world, insight, creativity and design are more important than ever. CREATIVE agencies have a critical role to play, aiding and supporting mHCPs to leverage the science and technology at their disposal.

Scientific knowledge has been, and always will be, the critical capability of physicians. The shift, is in their expertise and confidence with technology. And our opportunity is to recognise these new skills, supporting mHCPs in improving outcomes.

Much of the industry boasts an exciting pipeline of products. As we look to build these brands and partner with healthcare professionals, let’s not forget the millennial within them 😉

To find out more about the impact of the millennial generation on healthcare, sign up for the new white paper, podcast, and YouTube series from Havas Lynx at www.m-hcp.com

References
The Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation. State Health Facts 2015. http://kaiserf.am/1VfEncN (Accessed May 2016)
Ofcom. Media Use and Attitudes Report 2015 http://bit.ly/1E3fFyO (Accessed May 2016)
Docmail. The death of handwriting. 2012 http://bit.ly/1srFRoG (Accessed May 2016)
Bangor University & Talk Talk Mobile. Linguistics Research. 2015. http://bit.ly/1HseRrW (Accessed May 2016)
Pepsi Optimism Project. 2008. http://bit.ly/1R6meY1 (Accessed May 2016)

May 13, 2016July 25, 2019

The Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Millennial Healthcare Professional

Originally written in the late 1970s, Douglas Adams’ well-loved sci-fi masterpiece, The Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy, tells the story of Arthur Dent as he flees Earth shortly before it’s destroyed to make way for a hyperspace bypass. Accompanied by his alien friend Ford Prefect, Arthur finds himself floating around a universe in which small digital devices can tell you everything about anything; where foreign languages can be instantly translated into native tongues; where machine intelligence dwarfs the cognitive capabilities of mankind; and where flagging down a lift is as simple as pressing a button. A universe…rather like the one we live in now.

More than just another sci-fi oracle, Adams has proved an inspiration for those defining a future well beyond his own lifetime, including Dr. Jack Kreindler. A medical technologist and investor, Kreindler is one of a new wave of physician redefining what we expect from HCPs. He spoke to Havas Lynx as part of their research for Generation Now, a new white paper about the millennial HCP (mHCP).

Kreindler’s introduction to Adams set him on an extraordinary and unorthodox career path. To help support himself through medical school, a young Kreindler worked as an IT consultant for Adams: ‘I realised through working with Douglas that we were practicing medicine in kind of the Stone Age. And it got me thinking that perhaps the use of connected devices and information technology would absolutely transform what we regarded as truth in medicine.’

Since then, Kreindler has worked in A&E, specialised in high-altitude medicine, founded a centre for health and sporting performance, and invested in practices driven by machine learning. Each venture has vastly progressed his medical understanding and clinical practice. Moreover, they’ve provided a career diversity that is commonly sought out by millennials. Speaking at an RSM Digital Health Entrepreneurs event last September, Adam Tulk, CEO of Frameshift (who connect HCPs with temporary work), reported that ‘a lot of doctors want to have less of a purely clinical career and more of a portfolio career.’

Many seek extra-clinical opportunities in digital. Having grown-up with digital engrained in their everyday life, and seen its transformative impact firsthand, they have ambitions to harness this power to shake-up healthcare. ‘The key thing that is redefining those ambitions,’ says Dr. Kreindler, ‘is the generation of entrepreneurs that have made it very big; the Larry Pages, the Elon Musks, and the Zuckerburgs of the world. People don’t have the fear any more. They are thinking if they can do it so can I.’ Systems and providers are moving to support such ambitions. NHS England launched its Clinical Entrepreneurship Programme at the end of 2015, as part of a drive to open-up entrepreneurship and innovation to professionals. It’s a clear indication from Sir Bruce Keogh and his colleagues that, far from harming clinical practice, engaging professionals in non-clinical initiatives could benefit the nation’s healthcare.

And why wouldn’t it? Many mHCPs are as motivated by a sense of social conscience as theyare any personal ambition. Kristian Webb is a cardiac devices specialist who started up a number of initiatives to provide quality patient information. ‘It was the inaccuracies in medical information online that worried me,’ says Webb, ‘I felt I had a professional responsibility to put more accurate information out there.’ Unlike large healthcare companies and organisations, Webb felt no problem with engaging with patients online, using forums and social channels to direct them to robust clinical information before eventually starting up his own repository for cardiology information.

Engaging with patients online, monitoring them remotely, and providing timely information and advice will all be vitally important as mHCPs move away from treating sick patients and towards facilitating sustained good health. It’s a shift that’s vital if we are to alleviate the burden of aging populations suffering multiple comorbidities. But there will be challenges. mHCPs are going to need skills their predecessors never dreamed of, not least in communication. ‘We know more about when to inspire people, when to motivate them to make a change from the advertising industry than we do in medicine,’ says Kreindler.

Interpreting the wealth of data at their disposal will be as critical. As in The Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy, where the creators of the Deep Thought super computer so struggle to understand the answer it gives to ‘The Ultimate Question of Life, The Universe, and Everything’, so we have not yet mastered the reams of data available in such a way that professionals can easily make use of them.

There’s going to be plenty to keep mHCPs on their toes, especially with the expectations of increasingly empowered patients and the rocketing rate of medical innovation. As such, they’ll need support from all corners. For pharma, this means new opportunities in unchartered galaxies. It’s an exciting, challenging and important time. Just whatever you do, remember The Hitchhiker’s Guide’s golden rule; don’t panic.

More information available at www.m-hcp.com

May 20, 2015

What makes Havas Lynx special?

The #LXAcademy, by David Hunt

“What is your point of difference?”, “Why should I work with you?”, or my personal favourite, “What makes Havas Lynx so special?” The answer is always the same – the people. But “people” does not just happen by chance. It takes investment, it takes values & it takes culture.

On the 30th of April we launched #LXAcademy 2015 at Manchester Town Hall. It was an awesome event, which reflected our commitment to, and investment in, skills development. Lucy May was inspiring as she discussed the opportunities for progressive change in healthcare with a commitment to a more holistic patient journey, fuelled by creativity. Dave Birss then followed with some phenomenal case studies that were deconstructed to their core, as we explored the discipline behind creativity. Dave beautifully illustrated the power of ideas to drive change across society. However, the greatest point of inspiration was the collective passion & expertise of the Havas Lynx community, with over two-hundred experts committed to Helpful Change in healthcare.

Over the next six months there will be over one-hundred sessions, covering Agency Fundamentals, through to Core Expertise and Thought Leadership. Not everyone in an agency has an eye for design, not everyone can use PowerPoint, and not everyone has a quality first approach – they should. The curriculum for Agency Fundamentals seeks to change this. Numerous articles and research papers discuss the most likely reason an agency would be sacked, and it’s almost always a lack of quality, attention to detail, or put another way – the fundamentals. The details count, and they are a priority for Havas Lynx.

I’d like to be a better CEO, and I’m sure that I am not alone in wanting to be better at the day job. We’ll be tackling payors and market access, content designed for a more social world, and the account teams will spend time with a restaurant manager to discuss silver service. It’s amazing the amount agencies spend on recruitment and salaries, and then neglect training and development.

The Thought Leadership programme will include discussing teamwork and marginal gains in a Formula One pit-lane, how an NHS Trust uses twitter to manage patient well-being and how the police negotiate with terrorists. All of the sessions are made available on YouTube, with last year’s #LXAcademy attracting 100,000 views, to further validate the quality.

Like all things the success of the #LXAcademy 2015 will be based on the people, the more they put in the more they will get out. As always, I’m happy backing the Havas Lynx community.

May 7, 2015July 25, 2019

The GENERAL Election 2015

Building Brands, by David Hunt

Our politicians should be expert at the governance and stewardship of the United Kingdom. I’d prefer that they excel at economic strategy rather than twitter, that they can protect the long-term future of the NHS rather than operate periscope, that they drive education standards before using Instagram. I entirely understand their use of agencies to build their brand and develop meaningful relationships across society. I don’t want marketeers in government, I want politicians.

But my God, their agencies should be sacked.

I’m not frustrated by a lack of innovation, but by the lack of appreciation for relevance and authenticity in the social world. This election has been marketed from the 1990s, but without the passion. Society today demands real interaction, authenticity and empathy. Inevitably there will be countless communication experts advising our politicians, but rather than helping them to build relationships, they’re dismissing them.

The so-called TV debates, have been nothing of the sort. A debate; a formal discussion on a particular matter in a public meeting. The country has simply been subjected to a series of sound bites that have little or no reference to the points or questions made either side. When Tony Blair was campaigning in 1997, society was largely restricted to traditional media. Budget ensured exposure and the message manufactured the image. Voters were limited by physical proximity, their discussions taking place in their location. Today we can be nationally dismayed, frustrated and lost. If politicians won’t participate in a debate, then today we can conduct one without them. The fact that they have remained oblivious to the need to be relevant and genuine demonstrates either ignorance or arrogance, but is most certainly costly. Like many others, I don’t need perfection, I don’t even need to agree with all of the policies, but I would like to participate in a democracy. In 2015, true engagement beats stone slabs every day.

“The Community is King” should be more pertinent than ever in an election. Our horizons are broader when searching for answers, our community is larger when arguing our case. Technology has ensured we no longer have to tolerate a “politician’s answer”, and that an irrelevant leader can become an irrelevance. Stage management is understandable as there is a lot at stake, but not to the point that the show should be cancelled. For the Prime Minister to ask for the country’s endorsement to tackle world leaders on critical affairs, but be unwilling to debate local opposition in a public setting, is a critical oxymoron. As a business leader, I believe David Cameron has done a good job leading the economic recovery, however his decisions to build a relationship with the majority is fundamentally flawed.

More than ever before, the United Kingdom has the opportunity to be a community, debate national politics and shape our future together. It’s just a crying shame that no one told the politicians.

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.

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.

October 22, 2014

One World?

Maximising global efficiencies, by David Hunt

I’m incredibly fortunate to travel the world doing a job that I love. Five years ago it was the likes of Barcelona, Geneva & Milan, as I covered Europe. Today it is both the Northern & Southern Hemispheres, East & West. Typically we deliver academies & build expertise in social media, closed-loop marketing & integrated communications. My first day back to work in 2014 was in Osaka, being simultaneously translated as we discussed transforming field force interactions. (It is a really quite mind-boggling scenario when you stop to think.)

Beyond seeing the sights & sampling the local cuisine the different cultures, inside & outside the office, are fascinating. The insight it provides to shape global campaigns is invaluable.

The pharma industry is obsessed, rightly so, by closed-loop marketing. We believe in the value of personalised stories. At the same time we chase an increasingly global approach to communications. It’s a striking contradiction in policies. It represents an awkward balance of broad & narrow brush. It is also one I agree with, largely. But, I do think it lacks a subtlety. Are we one global community, a single market, the same the world over? Because on the surface, driven by geography, politics, religion we appear incredibly different. A campaign conceived in the US will not work in China. A Japanese campaign would be dismissed in Europe. South America emerged as the victors from Cannes Health Lions, but their ideas would be lost on some.

We certainly don’t need local campaigns and the necessary investment would be foolish. Cultural campaigns, however, would be an interesting concept, aligned through a consistent scientific story, that marries clinical data & patient benefits. Representing efficiencies & relevance, the solution would allow local markets to provide context, relevance & individual customer experiences.

I’ve learnt a huge amount on my travels, the most significant being humility & respect.

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January 2, 2014

Addressing the needs of pharmaceutical marketing and embracing 2014

2014, what are the strategic priorities for HAVAS LYNX? By David Hunt

Embracing 2014 and building on our strengths

Agency life is exciting, fluid & often unpredictable. I believe that the success of an agency depends on the team & the culture, and the ability they afford an agency to respond to change. However, whilst responding to the market, competitive landscape & technology is essential, so too is a bold strategy. As we embark on 2014, what are the strategic priorities for HAVAS LYNX?

People make an agency. Their talent, expertise & commitment deliver great campaigns, great innovation & great service. In 2014 we are launching the LX Academy to develop expertise & knowledge.

And it’s not just our people that shape our fortunes, the impact of good & bad clients is immeasurable. A good client values your opinion & respects your service. A bad client jeopardises your product, profitability & most importantly your people. In 2014 we will be as selective as our clients.

HAVAS LYNX Medical was launched in 2013. 2014 will be their year. Combining scientific expertise, digital innovation & ethics, they will provide unsurpassed medical education & scientific exchange. Led by Dr Nick Broughton, they will deliver significant ROI through smart, integrated campaigns that are defined by customers & not tradition.

The fantastic teams in LYNX London, LYNX Local & HAVAS HEALTH Software will continue to prosper & build on robust foundations. They are each unique & entirely designed around the needs of pharmaceutical marketing. LYNX London are shaping global strategies for Novartis, Janssen & Roche. In their fourth year, LYNX Local continue to ensure global campaigns have a local impact. And HAVAS HEALTH Software are a technology start-up that is redefining healthcare communications.

Founded in 1986 as Creative Lynx, HAVAS LYNX were driven by ideas & strategy. In the early noughties we embraced & defined digital in healthcare, but we never forgot our roots. As we move forward many of our clients partner with us for their strategy, ideas & innovations. Our ambition for 2014 is to continue this trend, delivering best-in-class campaigns that are defined by customer needs & not technology.