Madrid, Spain. Óscar López Moreno, CEO & Founder at Acuam HealthCare.
As a consultant and entrepreneur, Oscar is 100% focused on eHealth (Patient Engagement Strategies and Innovation Solutions), with more than 20 years of experience in the digital realm, with a profile centered on innovative vision, branding, Rich Data, creative thinking, business development and coaching by eHealth Advisory CDO. https://www.linkedin.com/in/oscarlopezmoreno/
Tomilli: According to TopFice’s rankings of more than 90 world festivals, Acuam HealthCare was the HealthCare agency of the year in Spain. How did you achieve this ranking?
From our perspective, we feel that it is the result of 18 years of work with a focus on innovation and venturing into new terrain that is not yet accepted or understood. We reflect the current situation and the health sector in Spain’s need for change, adaptation or even to make demands. We reflect the idea there are different problems with different needs and with different objectives seen from different angles. The strategy from before is not worth anything, it falls short of reaching the client’s goals, the new reality within the pharmaceutical sector demands a more ambitious, more virtual/digital vision and with our processes and especially more effective measurement systems. It is not enough to do campaigns or one-shot actions, impact is not enough, we have transitioned to relationships in the face of campaigns and reactions in the face of impacts. And this was already within our comfort zone many years ago, now it is evidenced within the sector and the rest of agencies or consultancies find themselves forced to adapt, reinvent themselves or in the worst case scenario – to improvise.
You don’t see many pieces from these categories winning at festivals due to the rigorous demands they face regarding the clarity of the message, ¿How do you produce responsible communication in pharma & healthcare while also being creative?
Indeed, communication and marketing in pharma sometimes, or almost always follows some rules, including repeating patterns that limit creativity, while effectiveness is difficult to measure, but above all, the message in unclear because, due to our country’s legislation and legal restrictions, we cannot do everything we would like or undertake the desired strategies or tactics, but it is at that point where the complexity and magic of our work lies. Complying with legal regulations while achieving client’s objectives or helping patients, is key to the work of a “future ready” agency. It is not easy, where providing value is the difference between those who solve briefs and those who help build that brief more accurately, optimizing costs and bringing value to society and the company. Value to clients, patients, the HCPs and one’s own employees. Creativity in pharma goes beyond great claims, graphics and measurable actions… creativity in pharmaceuticals includes combining the needs of your client and their in-house teams to provide value (Value x Value) to professional medical clientele and to invest in society, patients and even in how medical circles, patient associations and administration interact. Market Access of the future is based on digital releases … and it’s all about work. There is a new role of agencies and consultants and it is not what they had been doing, the field teams and representatives will play another role and agencies will have to be more part of the team than service providers. Engagement and qualitative KPI are key.
How have you handled the growing misinformation campaigns about issues as delicate as health on social media?
This issue is something that we’ve been worried about for years. For example, there is a Google search every 3 seconds regarding female health, we’ve been working on our own platforms such as dudasdemujer.com or emibot.io to avoid uncertainty and to help customers avoid ending up in undesirable situations. We currently manage communities of about 200,000 patients per month and manage 1.8 interactions with patients per second. The extent of misinformation regarding pathologies is very high and the manipulation by influencers, brand ambassadors and social media is brutal. Everything, everything in health should be filtered by validated and homologable medical criterion.
What changes have you noted in the consumption habits of Spaniards during the pandemic?
There have been many changes, despite us as consumers not wanting to see them, that is to say, that we have transitioned from physical contact and some online purchases to being almost totally online, to the use of cards instead of physical money. We are looking for healthy aseptic products and havens that will improve 4 critical points to work from in 2021:
- Mental health
- Obesity / eating habits / diabetes
- Immunity and asepsis
- Justification for our happiness and fun /relationship and sports empowerment
With these 4 points, we will set the foundations for strategies for this terrain and to provide solutions, apart from those already existing, in the face of these impulses and collective cries for help.
We consume with more curiosity and with a short-term mindset.
What changes can we expect in the new post-pandemic consumer?
Consumers will be more informed, but also more impulsive, a hybrid in their way of handling their health. Clients that want to take care of themselves, but at the same time they want to enjoy themselves. Health is more important now than ever, and the phrase coined during the pandemic will be a fact going forward – “Health Comes First”.
Digital budgets multiplied globally this year, what do you think will happen to traditional ATL media?
We have to be realists and stop clinging to the past, there are no better or worse media outlets, there are current media outlets and they work according to customer behavior patterns, but now digital budgets are a requirement for health care (distance, ratio, efficiency and measurement). The hybrid model would work for everything (campaigns, events, medical visits etc.) but virtual relationships and sales are a reality in tracking pathology treatments and sales in hospitals and pharmacies. Accept it and move forward or fight it and lose ground. It is time to be bold and determine where you want to be without taking too many risks, nor remaining stagnant.
What do you think has been the new role for advertising this year?
This year has been key, it has been a year of reality, surprises, falls and ascents, it has been the year of speeches made real and tangible. Now more than ever, advertising has to be:
- Real
- Effective
- Motivational
- Social
- Constructive and positive
- … Human
From now on, our health communication and advertising provides an environment and language that is more about relationships, where false claims and social manipulation have no place. At the end of the day, beyond the lab, field teams and medical professionals, we are here to help patients and what they represent today: relationship stories and shared peer experiences. To start only at the chronic level, in Spain health care includes almost half the population with public spending of around 22.000.000 million Euros…