EP#23- The Future of Health Brands: Caring Beyond Condition with Lars Bengston, Chief Content Officer of Havas Health & You

[MUSIC] In a year, the world's perception of the entire health industry transformed before our eyes. And COVID-19 expedited this sort of new paradigm in personal health, where people are expanding their definitions for what it means to be healthy from simply surviving to thriving. You just heard from Lars Bengston, who is the chief content officer of Havas Health and New. A company that partners with health brands who are as focused on uplifting the human spirit as they are on physically treating the human body. In this episode, Lars and I talked about the future of healthcare and how the health companies are really tapping into something that the industry is lacked, so they're now caring beyond condition. Really, the essence of personalized care and the ways that health care companies are communicating with consumers. There's been a huge shift around the emergence of storytelling and healthcare. And Lars shares a lot of wisdom about how that's happening, why that's happening now, and how COVID is really accelerated digital innovation in the healthcare space. Prior to working at Havas Health and New, Lars was a publisher of Vice Media, where he oversaw an award-winning body of work across categories. He also built Ariana Huffington's brand content team for Thrive. And most recently, Lars co-created the digital pandemic hit some good news with John Krasinski, which amassed an over 15 million global following in two months, was featured as YouTube's top 10 most viewed content in 2020 and was awarded a special achievement webby. Needless to say, it's an absolute pleasure to have Lars on the podcast, so I'm excited for you all to hear our episode. But before we get into it, I have a message from my sponsor, Romer Skincare. Today's episode is brought to you by Romer Skincare. Based out of Chicago, Romer launched a clean skincare line that covers all of your skin needs, proving that you don't need a million serums and eye creams to get better skin. I love this product because it's sustainable, made of clean ingredients, and Romer keeps skincare simple. Taking care of your skin is an important habit, and I've noticed that when I'm keeping up with my wellness routines, I not only feel physically better, but I'm able to adopt a more positive mindset. So invest in your well-being. Visit RomerSkinCare.com to receive 15% off of your order by using my code "Endorphins 15". Hi, Lars. Thank you so much for coming on to the podcast. Thank you for having me, Stella. It's really great to have you on. And today, you know, we're here to talk about the intersection between health and business and how Havas Health and you build brands that empowers individuals to lead healthier lives. It's pretty cool because I've never done an episode looking at health from this perspective. It's always been on health as a very individualized experience, our mind and body, mental and physical health, but here we're going to talk more about health in terms of the consumer and how brands in the health care space are able to reach these consumers and how they really present themselves in the world. So I'd love to start off by talking about the shift in social media and advertising and how that's kind of changed the landscape for health care companies. So what would you say are some of the key drivers that are fueling this change in the way health care companies are advertising and trying to connect to their consumers? It's a great starting question. The first thing I'd say is that, you know, I think health brands and masks are beginning to learn to communicate outside of the barriers of traditional advertising for the first time and really taking an interest in the person on a human level. What I find very exciting about this time is that there are sort of a few cultural forces at play that are forming together to make this time in particular very interesting for the space. The first for one, consumers like you and me or like doctors or like any patients are just getting smarter and as a result, trust is being placed at a premium. You know, from transparency to walking in walking the wall for social responsibility claims they're expecting brands that play a part of their lives to be there for them beyond the product moment. On the other side, look what we are. In a year, the world's perception of the entire health industry transformed before our eyes and COVID-19 expedited this sort of new paradigm in personal health where people are expanding their definitions for what it means to be healthy from simply surviving to thriving. And now you have companies like Pfizer and Moderna, all of a sudden at the heart of celebratory memes that are being perpetuated by everybody in the world. And all of a sudden, you know, these shifts and cultural wins means that health brands have an opportunity like they never have before to build meaningful and personal relationships with HCPs, healthcare providers and patients, both individually and at scale. And simply put, I think everybody is recognizing now that communicating meaningfully and with purpose really has positive commercial implications for today and especially for the future. Absolutely. I want to talk a bit more about this trust building part of what you were just describing. So how can companies now build better trust with consumers? What does that look like? And how is this more important now than maybe before, maybe in the past 10 years, how has this become more important? Yeah, the short answer is this. Investing in ideas that build trust is a necessity now. You know, don't just sell them something. Be there for them. Consumers like you and I are hit with this day loose of information from the moment they wake up to the morning, they go, the moment they go to sleep. So brands and influencers are trying every single day to get this attention, trying to sell them something, trying to point them in a certain direction. And it's exhausting. It's, you know, we've become accustomed to it sort of silently and naturally and passively. But the reality is you can take a step back from your Instagram feed or any sort of social feed and just recognize there's so much in my face all the time. So as a result, people have developed much finer tuned BS detectors than ever before. So in my opinion, to break through, health brands need to evolve and expand how they listen and provide solutions to their challenges in ways that may not expect. The trust, I view trust really as the bridge to a transaction today. And you know, it's simple. It's add value to the person, add value to culture. So it's, I've found it very interesting. This is my first foray into health. I really come from the sort of consumer side of digital creative through vice and thrive global with Ariane Huffington and starting some good news with John Krasinski. But then moving over into the health space for the first time in my career, I've found that health brands today are taking really deep existential looks at how they build trust today. You know, I've positioned have us help the new as really the Sherpas to help guide health brands across the the scary chasm between where they are right now and where they want to go, which is being able to communicate meaningfully in its scale. So part of what's so exciting is that this industry has signaled a shift beyond traditional advertising and into deeper storytelling to be able to make connections, which is really a first for the industry. Absolutely. And I think, you know, you're jumping into this pivot in your career at such a great time because we're in the midst of this pandemic. And now our entire lives are preoccupied with thinking about health. And I think, you know, as you've mentioned, we're thinking about health differently. Now we're realizing that yes, this virus is affecting our physical health. People are dying. People are, you know, severely experiencing long-term health issues, but more so, the impact of the pandemic on, you know, society as a whole has really impacted people's mental health. And just the fact that we can't really engage in basic human connection, larger gatherings, whatnot, it's really caused a big impact or a big dent in our own well-being beyond the physical. And I think, you know, as you were mentioning with Pfizer and Moderna, yes, these are pharmaceutical companies that are developing these vaccines, but they're also not only improving the physical lives of people, but it's actually going to bolster well-being from a more holistic perspective through this emerging technology. And now that we're, you know, building out these vaccines. So it seems like these these health brands also hold a sense of hope and promise as well. Absolutely. I mean, look at what COVID's done. It has accelerated five years of digital innovation in about six months. And as a result, you know, the roles of technology, data, and content that were still being figured out very slowly but surely, but within the, you know, the highly the highly regulated and the highly looked after process of advertising and communicating in the health world, all of a sudden they've evolved and have to come together to form this kind of integrated approach to understanding the person in all of their forms. Not only their health data, but who they are, what inspires them, what scares them, you know, brands are being asked to be to be deeply curious about the lives of their people. You know, understanding how a patient copes with an illness or what challenges the HCPs are facing, what communities they on is to be able to orient solutions to personalize care at the technological and emotional level that actually meet them where they are. This shift beyond advertising and into the deeper parts of a person's life and into the cultural conversations taking place is now imperative to building this personalized care experience that consumers are looking for. I want to get a bit more into this idea of personalized care because we've definitely seen a huge shift now in telehealth companies and the idea of integrative wellness. So going beyond just asking the basic questions, getting it off a checklist, you know, maybe a patient suffering with some sort of issue and instead of asking the traditional questions, physicians that are a part of a more integrative approach or who, you know, do personalized care go way beyond and they collect multiple sources of different data points to see the patient as a whole human, having that whole human approach. And you know, we've seen companies like Ro and Hims and hers. I mean, I've, I became aware of them through social media, through Instagram, through newsletters. And I find that to be really fascinating because something that we think of as, you know, maybe more sterile, something in the healthcare space now is emerging through these platforms and reaching a younger audience in like a cool way or quote-unquote, like something new and innovative. Yeah, it's funny you say cool because I think that the word, the operative word that that would even come from is relatable. And you know, it seems, Hims and the new vanguard of health companies are really tapping into something that the industry, the legacy industry has lagged at for a while, which is caring for somebody beyond the condition. It's really amazing to see this moment where everything in the space of the health world has been oriented towards the sort of traditional approach to advertising and comes heavily scrutinized with every single word and every single message. And then when it's finally approved, it gets basically copy and pasted to as many markets as possible across many channels as possible and put in the person's face. What the new vanguard of these brands are doing quite well is starting a conversation. They are expressing a deep genuine curiosity about your life and my life. They're inviting your perspective into their communication. And they're actually using your feedback through the channels that you're already on to make their product better. This is not necessarily a novel approach, but for a very industry as highly looked at and as highly slow moving as the healthcare industry, we're starting to take a look at just why we haven't gotten to this point yet, why we haven't evolved yet. And so I start to see a really incredible opportunity for all these health brands. You know, you have brands like Coca-Cola and Nike, which are shoes and sugar water that are pumping out some genuinely incredible communication with people and really forging new paths for understanding leveraging technologies and new ways leading into platforms all because that is where this evolving consumer of theirs is going. And health brands have this really amazing opportunity to follow suit, but unlike the others, the focus of their mission, the focus of why they're here is to heal. And they sit on this unbelievable amount of meaningful stories from individuals, stories of perseverance, of failure, of success that really have the power to change their life, if told correctly. And so the opportunity here to match what the cultural consumer is asking for, which is to be connected with, with an unleashing of these stories and a deep listening to be able to orient the communications of these brands towards answering the challenges that they're hearing today in the marketplace is endless. And the idea of not only creating ads that sort of place themselves right into the cultural conversation, to be able to integrate into the cultural conversation through ideas that actually spark ecosystems. To me, an idea that's backed in a human insight has the power, if you listen enough to have an audio version, to have a video version, to have a text version of a single message, dependent on where your consumer is at the point across those platforms across those times. So that level of personalized communication is really underpinned by a foundational understanding of the person beyond their conditions traditionally. Right now, it benefits these healthcare companies to learn about the struggles that doctors have when they go home, how they're struggling with mental health, how they're supporting others, what they're being asked to do, because what these doctors and healthcare providers are saying through their daily behavior is these are our challenges. Help us. At any point you want to add to this conversation, we're here. And that's another really important point is that consumers today might be smarter and there might be a lot more selective of what they click on and where their attention goes. But at the end of the day, they are still asking the brands that they interact with, especially the brands that heal them, to go beyond that moment of healing and into the rest of their life. You have, you know, for chronic diseases, or for diseases that require a good amount of management beyond the diagnosis of the treatment. There are these patient support programs that a lot of these brands have. These patient support programs are designed to basically increase the compliance of the medication you're taking or the treatment you have. How those are presented, you know, you've gone into a doctor's office. I'm not sure if you've ever had a health scare, but anyone who's had a real health scare knows how kind of stark and cold the response might be on the clinical side. We're handed pamphlets, you know, we're handed PDR, you know, we're emailed PDFs with 6,000 words and some really cold imagery. The entire approach feels very very much like you're kind of putting a giant pile of papers right in front of someone who's already been given a piece of, you know, really terrible or scary news and say, okay, here you go. Right. We've given this to you. It's on you to, it's on you to figure this out. Yeah. It's very sterile. It's very sterile, you know, going into a doctor's office or even going to the hospital. Like it's not really this exciting, innovative environment. It's very much focused on the immediate. So I come in with this one health concern, fill out this questionnaire or get this pamphlet of information and that's going to, you know, inform you of the potential issues that you're facing. It doesn't feel like they're approaching you from, you know, the entire perspective of you is an entire being. Right. And the reality is these current communication systems are just leaving a lot on the table as it relates to actually being able to do what they're setting out to do, which is to increase compliance. To increase, you know, we have technology and content and storytelling at our fingertips readily available and with amazing use cases from other industries that we can adopt for this world. It's just a matter of wanting to take that first step. And it's what I've, you know, something I've noticed in my short time in this world is the conversations that have with our partners have been really, really purpose-driven, really beautiful and meaningful, an acknowledgement that the way of the past hasn't, you know, will not be the way of the future. And a request for partners like Havas Health and You to help them actually get there. Yeah. And I love the point you made earlier about brands like Nike and Coca-Cola. Like these are brands that people in America really identify with. And they have very strong values. I mean, Nike, for example, you know, once they start selling the Michael Jordan's like Air Force ones, that really, I feel like it was a catalyst to building out Nike's brand as a whole and what they stand for. And so when I wear a piece of Nike clothing or even when I'm scrolling on Nike's Instagram, it's become beyond just the brand and the products that they sell, but it's what they represent and how I can relate to the brand. And so I think what I'm hearing is that the future of healthcare companies is hopefully to mimic that sort of model, like increased relatability and, you know, rely on other sources of maybe its partnerships or however these brands are going to do it where they're going to build better trust with the consumers. And in doing so, you know, get people more excited about healthcare. Because I don't think a lot of people are, you know, as we've talked about, like, no one really likes walking into a doctor's office, especially if you have a health scare, there's it's not really a welcoming environment. Absolutely. And now with the rise of technology that actually makes those trips shorter, that actually helps condense those incredibly long and frustrating processes into direct interactions. The rise of telehealth has not only brought everything a lot more immediate, but it's actually had as significant implications on how a doctor and a patient communicate. When you're, you know, there's almost nothing as comforting as the personal touch of a doctor, you know, a hand on your shoulder to be able to deliver that news. When we're chatting face to face across a screen like this, it becomes very too dimensional. It doesn't necessarily mean that empathy is lost, but it means it has to be found elsewhere. So I think the role of content and the role of technology helps us not only connect closer, but actually forge these new neural pathways of empathetic connection between one and another. And that's why I think it's really exciting because you can use these really amazing stories from the people from from HCP's other experience and actually use the profound amount of data that these brands are holding to synthesize it and create something that eases the experience of a person. I really like that idea of, you know, forging these new neural pathways to build greater empathetic connections because I think some people might be hesitant about the future of healthcare and technology. will really in general the future of technology and how that might essentially take over the world in not the most positive way. And having interactions like these over a screen takes away that human component to an extent. So do you think that there's a way that we can move forward with the benefits of technology and healthcare while still maintaining human like qualities like empathy, compassion, et cetera? - I think we have to. When the world opens up in its version two of itself, telehealth is not going to go away. These immediate, what technology provides is immediacy in which we've seen on our addiction to social platforms can be a bad thing, but when it comes to being able to access care quicker and more immediately and maybe broader, it can save lives. I've found it interesting. The cultural gaze in general has shifted towards the leaders in the health space working to secure this safer tomorrow and set up this new age of healthier living. So how this world shows up through technology and through storytelling and through content and how they communicate now actually plays a bigger role in today's culture than ever before and has more serious implications. So it's not just treating the condition through medicine. It's about building connection through technology and content and using that to create amplified solutions. - To today's HCP is in patient challenges so that we're able to actually rewrite old perceptions, reimagine traditional methods of communication and make way for new ways of telling stories that actually have the power to change lives. - Yeah, I mean, it seems like everything now is moving towards the trend of storytelling but the importance of getting down to that more human connection and really having the ability to tell a meaningful story and just dig a bit deeper into people's personal histories and all these stories that really humanizes the experience of being in the healthcare field. And I wanted to touch on more about social media and the interplay with social media and the role of influencers actually with getting specifically with the COVID-19 vaccine like getting that information out there and encouraging people to get vaccinated. So I'm curious to hear your thoughts on the role of micro influencers and social media influencers in the healthcare space and kind of making healthcare brands more relatable or cool like the term I used before. - Sure, and you bring up a great point because there's a time, I think there's a fast growing gravity towards this idea that part of, we're talking about helping health brands reorient their communication to a more contemporary human-focused way, social and specifically evangelization through different influenza voices that are trusted by those consumers or those HCPs is imperative. So one thing that I'm very excited about and what we're trying to do at Abbas Health and U is actually help the industry understand the principles that govern good content creation and good connections. Those principles that underscore how the best do it from an individual publisher to a brand, to a influencer, et cetera. The use of influencers and the use of like-minded people that have found ways to thrive beyond their condition or HCPs that have found new ways to forward meaningful connections with their patients in an increasingly digital world. Those perspectives are, they have the power to actually change the lives of those audiences for the better, to inspire something in them, to spark a new way of thinking that actually might lead to a better version of your current life. The rub is that in a very traditional advertising methodology and especially with around all of the legal implications and the legal restrictions that come from this, these brands need to begin thinking about and we're helping them think about ways to actually broaden and expand things like their medleegal review processes in order to invite those perspectives in. If you're talking about a skin condition or you're talking about a debilitating asthma or you're talking about something else, the first thing I do when we're talking where we're looking at these challenges from brand says I go on Reddit and I go on TikTok and I just Google these conditions, I just look at the hashtags and I'm always blown away at the robust and rich community of people that are propping themselves up, that are holding each other up, that are keeping each other motivated, that are sharing stories, that have these cathartic releases, that are sharing new treatments and their experiences with them. And I'm just, every time I'm blown away, I'm forever inspired. You know, when we're talking about a bipolar condition, the Reddit for bipolar has 125,000 people on it that are really keeping each other floating, keeping each other happy and safe and giving people reasons to keep going and new methods to try. And I think these brands that we're talking to hold so much incredible data and so much they have such a strong and high vantage point over the world to be able to pinpoint and look at these stories from their patients, from their HCPs, from the researchers that are actually creating this from the motivations why that can be integrated into these cultural conversations and actually used as a really important mental healing self for a lot of people looking for answers. And being able, you know, going back to the trust aspect, being able to invest in content in a quote unquote unbranded way, that is to say, communicate with the person at the individual and cultural and conversational level and understand them and provide solutions in order to bridge that trust before you sell them anything. That opportunity is wide open and the manifestations which you could bring that to life are endless. And that's honestly, that's what keeps me up in the best way, you know, helping figure out the right pathways forward so we can start shipping away at the old way and actually trying and testing and learning some new approaches to connect. - Absolutely, and I think especially with TikTok, the rise of TikTok therapists, you know, I mean, because of the algorithm, you could have so many different types of videos on your free-u page, but there's this, you know, big trend now with making mental health less taboo and talking about it and by doing that and by having doctor figures and therapists and people come onto the app to really share their stories and provide advice, it really builds that community and it kind of humanizes these conditions that people are dealing with. So I totally agree with you. Like there's these health brands are kind of sitting on a gold mine right now. Like there's immense potential and opportunity. So, you know, I'm so happy we had the opportunity to talk about this today. It's really interesting to understand the healthcare sector from a business and marketing perspective rather than looking at the health of the individual or maybe from a more clinical side. So, again, thank you so much for coming on to everyday and Dorfins, it was wonderful to have you here. Before I let you go, there's one question that I ask every single person that comes onto the podcast. What is something that brings you a bit of endorphins every day? - I would say what I'm doing right now with this job and with this new responsibility, it gives me an opportunity to exercise the things that I love the most, which is collaboration connection and community. Being able to, I'm a connector. I naturally, I find a lot of joy of connecting to or more disparate people that have specific needs. And I am able to do that every single day here. I'm bringing in friends from previous lives that are coming from a non-health care space and providing new fresh perspectives. I'm collaborating with artists from musicians to painters all in service of bringing to life different ways to visualize some of the things we're talking about. So this new era of connection and collaboration is something that brings me a lot of Dorfins. - I love that answer. Thank you again so much. I would totally agree. I think, right now I'm finishing up my last semester of college, which is so weird to think about. - Congratulations and condolences. - Thank you. I know it's crazy. Did not expect my final year of college to look like this, but I've been trying to really make it a fulfilling experience and I think in building those connections and being able to give back to the communities, that's also something that brings me in Dorfins as well. So I really love that answer. - Fantastic. And what you're doing on this, on and with this podcast is exactly that. So I'm an honored guest. - Thank you so much, Lars. - Thank you. (upbeat music) Thank you for listening. If you liked what you heard, please follow, rate, review every day in Dorfins on whichever listening platform that you use to stream my episodes. Thanks again and I'll see you next time. (upbeat music)