WORK THAT WINS HEARTS AND MINDS

Stephanie BermanChief Creative Officer

Hill Holliday Health

of their values and identity, even when it comes to their health. We’ve made a lot of progress in creating content that reflects the world around us, but there are still a lot of blind spots where we can collectively be doing better and need to continue to push – which they will make sure to tell you when you get them in a focus group. Many people, Gen Z in particular, are less interested in perfection and the unreal standards of the curated self. There’s a new desire for raw truth with all its struggles and imperfection. A third of consumers are more willing to trust people if they know about their difficulties – and that desire for ‘rawthenticity’ should impact how we interact with transparency and heart on behalf of our brands.

What were the biggest obstacles you faced in 2022, and are there any challenges you expect to see in 2023?

It’s the same answer you’d likely get from most agency leaders – ongoing financial pressure from clients who are under pressure, and the consequent need to do more with less. We’re smart at getting things done well with less money, less time, less process steps, or less people involved, but it demands a careful calibration of what can flex in each situation to deliver for our clients while maintaining strategic integrity and creative quality.

What advice would you give to other creatives/companies trying to break into the Top 10?

These are the questions I ask teams who want to win.

• Can you elevate the craft? We often need to show the solution, which can lead to a whole lot of ordinary, boring lifestyle footage. But if you reimagine it, animate it, push what ‘normal life’ can be, you might just get to something magical.

What are your creative ambitions for 2023, and how important are creative awards in achieving those goals?

just arrived at Hill Holliday Health, and I’m discovering a culture that is committed to creativity, and to authentic work that connects on an emotional level with patients to help them move towards better health. So that is a very promising place to build from, and it’s a great team. Many of the folks I’ve been getting to know in recent weeks helped inform this discussion, as we chart our path forward for 2023 and beyond. There is some beautifully executed work in play for creative awards, and as always, this will be a welcome celebration of our team and our clients. It’s not why you do the work, but famous work matters in attracting and keeping great talent, as well as great clients who are looking for the kind of work we deliver.

Taking a broader view, in a time of cultural chaos and division, great work that wins hearts and minds (and maybe awards) can help people feel that they are seen and heard. Not just in the ads they see or the campaigns they engage with, although that’s important. More in the real changes that brands have the power to impact and support.

How do you spot and evaluate award winning work?

Any work from the industry that excited you from last year?

There was some amazing work driven by innovative technology – those are often opportunities the agency identifies and takes to a client proactively, so hats off to that. But there were a few pieces that clearly came out of more standard client briefs, for projects that need to survive layers of client approvals and multiple medical/legal/regulatory reviews, where teams managed to keep their strong ideas intact and had the tenacity and obsession it takes to deliver push-every-last-pixel-like-yourlife-depends-on-it execution.

The Unwearable Collection from Area 23 for Boehringer Ingelheim redefined what a convention experience can be. House Rules from McCann Health New Jersey for Phexxi is a great use of celebrity, and the production design is just damned gorgeous. The Be You spot from Wunderman Thompson Health for Tezspire could have been so ordinary, but in agreeing to animation the client has a delightful piece that stands out for its thoughtful and engaging patient portrayal. And finally, Now You Know from Anomaly NY for Abbott Freestyle Libre is a really fresh, non-patronizing, yes-that’s-me execution against a painful insight, and there’s not nearly enough of this kind of humor in healthcare.

What trends have you seen emerging within Health & Wellness and Pharma?

Tiktok-first creative. The platform has exploded over the past year and is changing the way in which consumers are consuming content. And the continued rise of the content creators is something all platforms are talking about and leaning into. Social is a learning destination for patients who trust their peers, but there’s more misinformation and confusion than ever, and it’s a big opportunity for the industry to step in and try to ensure patients have accurate information to support their decisions. On a related note, we’re also seeing the rise of HCPs as influencers (#DocTalk), with more HCPs taking to social to help educate and debunk false information being shared.

We’re also engaging with our younger audiences in a different way. They look at their consumption decisions as an expression

• Have you earned trust? If not, take time to build it by doing the everyday exceedingly well.

• Where can you succeed? Your first creative win with a client might not be a big TV or OLV spot. It’s such a big investment and so there are many, many people involved in the decisionmaking process. That’s not to say you shouldn’t push for amazing. But don’t forget to look for smaller, under-the-radar opportunities to shine. MOA videos, printed pieces, convention opportunities are all creative goldmines so dig there.

• Do you have an internal client advocate, who will fight for what great looks like? You need to understand what success looks like to them, what their internal barriers are, and how you can arm them to overcome the hurdles.

First, does the idea solve a real problem, and does that problem align with our brand purpose? Then, have we seen it before? Is it empathetic? Simple? Sticky? Yes? Then we might be onto something.

Is there anything exciting you’re working on now? (That you can tell us about).

Unlocking TikTok for pharma. Harnessing the power of the platform by approaching it as a creator would, not like a pharma advertiser. It’s where millions of people are hanging out, looking to be entertained, informed, inspired. For many young people, it’s replaced Google as the search engine of choice, and has an enormous power to influence.