Every professional toolbox has its essentials – the must-haves that make the building, connecting and assembling possible.

For healthcare marketing and communication, creativity is the power drill. It has capabilities that can do all the things that shape campaigns and engagements, not just by making them attractive but by delivering compelling messages with clarity and effect.

Creativity is not an easy-on-the-eye catwalk of concepts; it acts as a glue that bonds pharma organisations, healthcare professionals (HCPs), healthcare systems and patients. Far from abstract, it is a fully functioning tool.

And it has never been more important. Organisations need to connect with more diverse patient groups as they seek to develop and trial rare disease therapies. Digital tools, social media and omnichannel communication open up fresh possibilities, but it is a frenetic, noisy arena with a demanding and discerning HCP audience.

Social media now provides new and rapid routes to HCPs and patients, but a lot happens on the internet in a minute: nine million Facebook messages are sent, 20,000 people are active on LinkedIn, 575,000 tweets are posted, 174,000 Apps are downloaded and 167 million TikTok videos are viewed. That is every minute, every day.

“Creativity is massively important but it isn’t the goal. Creativity is only a route to which we achieve objectives – it is a tactic or strategy,” said David Youds, Chief Executive and Founder of the Resonant Group of agencies. “Whichever way you look at it, and however you employ it, creativity is something to be used to resonate with your audience, and to be seen, heard and differentiated.

“It is a tool to bridge the gap between what we want to say and what the audience wants to hear.”

But, despite having boundaries defined only by human imagination, creativity in healthcare has a range of nuts and bolts challenges. Regulations restrict boldness, financial squeezes impinge scope and social media can be a swamp of misinformation and disinformation.

Youds, whose independent Resonant Group includes Origins, Bedrock and Anthem – award-winning agencies that cover patient-focused insights, public relations and healthcare communications – also sees the growing power of data as a potential adversary for creative ideas.

“The industry has become even more regulated over the last 25 years and is now totally based on data, while budgets have moved from commercial departments to medical affairs departments, from the marketeers, to the scientists, and the result is that campaigns have become far less emotional and more data focused,” he added. “This means the communication becomes scientific, academic and data delivered, making it less likely to resonate."

“But I think more scientists and medical affairs teams are realising that to get that data across, it has to resonate emotionally. Some people feel that communication is made when something is said, but people who believe in creativity know that the message isn’t delivered until it’s heard. And to be heard, across difficult ominchannels, we need to be more creative.

“We need to ask ourselves: ‘What is the communication that the patient group needs to hear in order for them to be involved?’ And it’s not about the data – they definitely want the story. They want to believe in it. They want something that paints a picture for them.

“Understanding the audience is essential in any type of creativity to keep it relevant. That, for me, is huge.”

The patient voice is increasingly influential at all stages of product development and it features large in the evolution of regulatory frameworks that are being tilted towards real-world evidence and patient input from R&D through clinical trials to commercialisation.

The FDA recently announced it is developing a series of patient-focused drug development guidance documents to guide how patient and caregivers’ experiences and data can be used to enhance product development and regulatory decision-making.

‘Digital tools, social media and omnichannel communication open up fresh possibilities, but it is a frenetic, noisy arena with a demanding and discerning HCP audience’

Youds said: “Reaching out and connecting to patients is massively important. I think drug companies do get that, some better than others, and there is definitely a realisation that more creativity is needed.”

He highlighted that creativity needs commitment from clients to have an open mind and challenge their comfort levels to get the best of products and initiatives.

“We all know that it is something that is commonplace outside healthcare and many clients acknowledge they need to be bolder and braver just to be noticed. Pharma organisations really need to be prepared to go further to communicate and resonate with today’s audience.

“The results can be hugely rewarding and much higher than a campaign that just pushes data; we’ve seen impressive levels of audience engagement from building insightful analogy, narrative and emotion into the communication of important factual health issues and product data points.

“Free thinking is a component of creativity but it has to be applied to a definite purpose.”

Graeme Garden, Creative Director at the Purple Agency, believes creativity alone does not empower communications and campaigns.

“You can make something look great, shiny and eye-catching, but in the pharmaceutical sector you have to do a lot more than that,” he observed.

“Any creativity applied has to be informed by a deep understanding of the disease area and the patients involved. As Creative Director, I get immersed in the condition, the science, how the drug works, how doctors and patients react, because it is critical to get an understanding of the entire ecosystem before building anything creative.

“Often you are operating in areas that have multiple therapies with marginal differences, so you need to understand what is important to the patients. These are complex areas and we have to be more creative to connect.”

Garden feels that social media and omnichannels offer opportunities, but using them requires careful navigation. He views the increasing product development in rare diseases and the advent of novel therapies as an ideal springboard for industry creativity.

“There’s a huge push into rare disease awareness and it is becoming more of an interesting place to play creatively, as you can do more. You are still bound by codes and regulations but, because we are not talking about what a specific drug can do, there is scope to talk more directly to doctors or nurses through channels such as LinkedIn. HCPs are probably more open to viewing content on rare diseases because it is new and they have a passion for finding something different, so if we can ignite their interest then that could be very rewarding, as it will ultimately benefit patients.”

The Purple Agency works across the full healthcare marketing spectrum and provides insight to develop B2B communications. It illustrated the power of creativity with its ‘Meet Gary’ initiative for the Motor Neurone Disease (MND) Association after discovering the statistic that more people in the UK had MND than were called Gary.

‘Creativity acts as a glue that bonds pharma organisations, healthcare professionals, healthcare systems and patients’

Bringing a Gary to life in drawing form and deploying the concept across channels, it used the character to connect with HCPs who had little experience of MND patients, to help them recognise symptoms and diagnose the condition early.

“There are still some clichés being used in pharmaceutical sector advertising with people walking along a beach with a kite flying in the sunset, but there is some great creative work out there and pharma is taking more notice,” added Garden, who has produced award-winning campaigns across a range of media.

“There has definitely been a shift with companies understanding that if you have something to say, you have to stand out. There are much more interesting campaigns going out on traditional media and social media now.

“Pharma is being challenged, and has to work harder, because there are less blockbuster-type drugs, but this is a huge opportunity to explore creativity and the channels available. There is a rise in film and animation components to build more cohesive stories, which is really exciting.”

He advocates increased collaboration between marketing and creative elements of a campaign to make the best of omnichannel communication, to guard against being swept along, or away, by its frantic pace.

Garden added: “I see some absolutely brilliant creative working in this industry. There’s amazing work coming out across networks and across independent agencies. We are faced by different challenges than we might have had in the past, particularly as budgets are tighter and timelines are tighter – a lot tighter.

“But we are in an interesting and exciting phase. Standards of creativity are really high at the moment and we have to ensure that they are given the space to really propel campaigns to greater reach, connectivity and results.”