Healthcare Marketing Reimagined: BUNTIN's approach to navigating health and wellness marketing in a digital age
With over 50 years of experience in healthcare marketing, BUNTIN is at the forefront of leveraging new technologies, consumer insights, and dynamic media strategies for healthcare and wellness brands. From the challenges of branding a nationwide hospital network to launching innovative solutions for dementia caregivers, BUNTIN's approach demonstrates how a flexible and data-driven marketing strategy can meet the unique needs of this complex industry. Jillian Wyatt, VP/Communications + Community at BUNTIN, discusses how the agency is helping healthcare brands stay ahead of the curve.
Please provide an overview of the clients and categories you work with in the healthcare and or wellness space. What kind of media channels are you using?
BUNTIN has more than 50 years of experience working with clients in the healthcare space. We’re based in Nashville, widely recognized as the capital of the U.S. healthcare industry. Currently, we have three client partners in the healthcare/wellness scope, including the national hospital network, Community Health Systems (CHS), a healthcare tech company serving caregivers of dementia patients, Taproot, and a CPG honey brand often used for homeopathic purposes, Manuka Doctor.
The media strategies for each brand flex depending on their goals and audiences, varying from hyperlocal traditional buys all the way to fully digital and social plans. For CHS, we purchase media across their nearly 100 hospital and emergency room locations nationwide, and media plans are customized to each local market. Those plans are heavy on out-of-home, direct mail, and print. Taproot, being a healthcare tech solution, and Manuka Doctor, a consumer brand, are much more digital with a strong social media focus.
What challenges do they face in marketing, and how are you positioning brand narratives?
For a massive hospital network like CHS, maintaining consistent communication and branding across 100 nationwide locations is a challenge. Hyperlocal plans require nuanced media strategies while laddering up to the broader marketing goals of the brand. In some regions, longstanding relationships need to be navigated to ensure alignment with the CHS brand and budgets. Transparency and clear communication are of the utmost importance to ensure all locations are consistent in their representation of the brand, not siloed. While each location has its own offerings, maintaining trust in the Community Health Systems name is critical.
For a brand like Taproot, the challenge centers more around building awareness. Taproot came to us for help with the launch of their new dementia care app, Elbi, which uses AI learning to help caregivers provide better care for their patients. Together, we conducted research to make the app mutually beneficial for patients and caregivers and established branding, a logo, and naming for the platform. The media and messaging approach for Elbi centers around building education and understanding as the new product is launched in market. Messaging strategies have leveraged communities, like Alzheimer’s support groups, social media, and B2B, to spread the news of Elbi through trusted, word-of-mouth connections.
Given the growing market for wearables and overall innovation in consumer health, what are the opportunities for healthcare brands? Is new technology and social media helping people move to better health?
Evolutions in the industry, like wearables and social media, are helping healthcare brands tremendously. Within the last five years, HIPPA-compliant learning has become available, allowing brands to see what and where consumers are searching. This allows brands to customize messaging and creative based on real consumer behavior. It also allows for the building of data-rooted, custom audience segments.
A brand like Taproot uses these advances in technology to provide better health and services to its consumers. This is the basis of their dementia care app, Elbi, which uses AI learning to de-escalate problems for patient management and give caregivers the tools to provide the best care possible. Using Elbi, a caregiver can input information about an individual’s specific medical history; the app captures this information and incorporates it into a care plan moving forward, improving the quality of patient care.
Healthcare technology has incredible benefits for patients and caregivers alike. It’s proven to improve mental health for both parties, promotes continuity of care, and results in better health outcomes for patients.
What trends do you believe will have the most significant impact on your clients in the next few years?
In the coming years, the most significant trends that will impact clients will most likely revolve around the utilization of customer data in smarter and more targeted ways.
“It’s a really exciting time in the healthcare space as these innovations evolve,” says Kristen Held, Vice President of Channel Engagement and Activation at BUNTIN. “Dynamic creative will be huge. As AI and HIPPA-compliant targeting merge together, ads will dynamically pull relevant messaging to help patients with their specific needs when they need it.”
The continued use of HIPPA-compliant consumer data will allow brands to craft more targeted messaging, output dynamic creative that helps patients with their specific concerns, and create efficiencies in marketing budgets. For example, if someone is searching the internet with concerns about cardiovascular health, the hospital system can leverage consumer data to target them with an advertising message about heart health. This will be the trend with the biggest benefit to clients and patients alike, allowing healthcare providers to become even more helpful and improving the quality of care for patients.