PHM President Andrea Palmer: “Earning Trust is Imperative”
How rethinking data methods, tackling disparity issues and embracing outcomes allows Publicis Health Media (PHM) to disrupt media for health brands.
“Trust is quite possibly the biggest buzzword in health today, and for very good reason. The drumbeat on this will only continue to get louder as more people turn to sources of information other than their physician.”
By E.B. Moss
Andrea Palmer is proud to be disruptive. As President of Publicis Health Media (PHM), the strategic media planning and buying agency within PHCG, she spearheaded the agency’s “Disruptors List” and the industry-convening Health Front forum. She explained PHM’s approach to crafting and delivering conscientious health-related messaging on vetted platforms.
Where are you on “The Continuum”? Does PHM lean more towards brand (awareness) or demand (performance) as a strategy for your clients, or is there a clear focus on both?
I’m glad you asked this question. I actually believe the best strategies have a healthy mix of both. Success—both in terms of patient outcomes and business outcomes—comes when brands can truly connect with audiences. Health decisions, and most brand-related needs, are rarely fast and transactional, so we have to find ways to build trust over time across audiences.
In terms of opportunities and marketing tasks, what are you looking forward to leaving in 2020 and what are you embracing now, in 2021?
Of course, there’s the obvious—I’m very much looking forward to leaving my house and seeing my PHM friends and colleagues again! But I’ve also learned so much this year from our collective experience and I plan to embrace many of these lessons in the new year. We have a real opportunity as marketers, especially those of us who work in health, to rethink how and where we get our data to create more impactful messaging—messaging that will, in turn, create better outcomes.
COVID-19 has really opened the eyes of the wider population to the many social disparities in health. We’ve been aware and working towards rectifying these for some time, but I truly believe that the mission has been accelerated and the industry is motivated to really tackle some of the underlying problems that contribute to this disparity. At PHM, we’re looking at ways to tap into more accurate data sets. Part of the problem is that minority populations aren’t accurately represented in the data used to create campaigns and place them appropriately. This is just one step—a very important step, to be sure—in helping to close the gap. But it’s one where health media can play a vital role.
What does it mean to "reimagine media for health," and how do you inject and measure awareness in your media plan goals?
Health is such an important and varied industry, so we’ve always taken the approach that it’s not enough to follow the path of the tried and true. We look at things through a different lens and in doing so, have been able to bring to life a number of what we call “pharma firsts” where we help break new ground, drive awareness for the brand, and improve health outcomes.
One example that I can share is a campaign last year for Adakveo by N2. This was a drug aimed at Sickle Cell Disease, which affects one out of every 365 African Americans. It’s a rare disease, and one that has long been misunderstood and stigmatized. We wanted to reach this group in a new way and partnered to create the Do U Challenge, a dance challenge that tapped popular social media influencers and ran on TikTok, a first for any pharma company. The response was fantastic and a good example of how we reimagine media for health.
The PHM website states that the firm is based on a philosophy of “the only thing that matters in healthcare: outcomes.” Would a good example be your effort to market breast cancer awareness and action?
Outcomes are everything in health marketing. Breast cancer awareness is a big deal and a great tool in preventative care. But in this situation, we needed to reach patients that had received a diagnosis and were undergoing treatment for metastatic breast cancer. It’s a much smaller population: of the nearly 280,000 cases of breast cancer diagnosed each year, just 6% are metastatic and the survival rate is very low at 27%. The challenge was to identify the patient and where the message would be best received, and then connect them to the campaign with a measurable impact.
In this case, you have to shift from awareness to action. It’s the action that can affect the outcome—here it’s the patient’s treatment and survival.
“We have to make sure the data we’re basing decisions on is accurate and reflects our real societal makeup. We also have to be able to rely on AI to help create these data sets, knowing that it’s learning and learning fast. But the humans are the conscience here.”
How is PHM marketing "trust" in our stepped-up era of digital health and telehealth services? Any projections for what else should be embraced in 2021 in this brave new world?
Trust is quite possibly the biggest buzzword in health today, and for very good reason. Distrust is high, especially during the pandemic, and can have dire consequences. Just look at how many people say they won’t take the vaccine now that it’s being distributed. Earning trust is imperative, and the drumbeat on this will only continue to get louder as more people turn to sources of information other than their physician, including social media, peers, and influencers.
We have to be very careful about where we place information. At PHM, we’ve come up with a solution called “Validated By” to ensure that health content is verified and validated before it ever reaches the public. To date, we’ve validated close to 20 publishers whose commitment to truth and accuracy is well above industry standards.
Basically, it’s about driving confidence and ensuring accuracy.
You've spoken about "creating content with conscience." How does that play in an environment of AI and data-driven marketing? And how can we amplify “conscience” and communicate the impact of SDOH on our longevity and the future of our children?
This is a tall order, but one we have to meet as marketers. As mentioned, we have to make sure the data we’re basing decisions on is accurate and reflects our real societal makeup. We also have to be able to rely on AI to help create these data sets, knowing that it’s learning and learning fast. But the humans are the conscience here. And all of this needs to be filtered through experts and professionals to make sure the results lead to better health outcomes.
The PHM site lists passion and performance at the top of its deliverables. How do you set the tone and expectations for the agency to deliver both? What’s an example?
I’m a firm believer that without passion, performance suffers. We’ve spoken in the past about what fueled my passion for health marketing. As a child survivor of cancer, my career has been a marriage of my two passions to help create better health outcomes for others. And, while not everyone at PHM has a similar story, they all share a passion for health. When someone comes on board, we like to ask, “why did you choose health?” and share their response with the agency as part of their introduction. We’ve grown from a small startup within Publicis into the leading agency in our industry because we are passionate, and that carries over into the work we do.
Thoughts on what you’ll personally be doing differently in 2021?
Where to begin? I learned a lot in 2020, and one thing I’ll carry through that’s different is to focus more on my own health, which sometimes got pushed aside in the crush of work and travel. While I’m itching to get back to the office and see everyone, I’ll do my best to keep up with my fitness routines and playtime with my puppy, Cooper.
March 1, 2021
