Being brave doesn’t mean being risky, says Wellmark’s associate creative director
Being brave in pursuit of creative advertising in the healthcare sector doesn’t mean being risky, Wellmark’s associate creative director, Dr Ryan Wallman has said.
“Being brave doesn’t necessarily mean doing something that’s really risky, it simply means doing something different,” Wallman told a room of marketers at Mumbrella’s Health Marketing Summit.
Wallman is the associate creative director at Wellmark
The associate creative director at the agency said one way to encourage healthcare brands to take risks is present them with the evidence.
“Because that has been shown so strongly to be effective, it is one way you can make the argument.
“There is evidence there that doing something different to other people is actually really effective and we don’t necessarily have to be risky and break all the regulatory requirements to do that,” he added.
The creative also noted the emphasis the healthcare market puts on rational thinking, arguing that its role can sometimes have too much value.
“Too often the role of rational thinking is over estimated in healthcare, we are assuming doctors make all the decisions rationally which is simply not true, they are humans like everybody else and you’ve got to be able to get their attention first.
“Try and get the emotional appeal before you can get in there with the rationality in any case.”
However, Wallman said the facts and rational aspects of advertising are still important in the sector.
“You’ve still got to have facts, particularly in healthcare, because you have got to have the evidence that would resinate with people, particularly health care professionals.”
Wallman emphasised the importance of creativity to the room of marketers empathising with the fact it is hard to measure.
“It is not easy to measure, it tends to be a source of bum clenching anxiety to financial people and despite that creativity is not just colouring in, it is actually a powerful driver of sales and profitability.”
Abigail Dawson was Mumbrella's senior content journalist covering event content. She left Mumbrella to move into an agency role in 2020.
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