How Entertainment and Creative Courage Drive Health Equity

Inequality in healthcare provision costs lives. That's why it's so essential that brands strive towards prioritizing health equity. This approach also drives stronger levels of customer engagement and combats stigmas surrounding some health conditions.

Large barriers block level access to health and health care opportunities, especially in terms of broader inequities related to gender and sexuality, ethnicity and race, and economic status.

For instance, people in the LGBTQ+ community report more challenging experiences accessing care than non-LGBTQ+ peers. More than one-third (36 percent) of LGBT+ people say that they have had a negative experience with a healthcare provider, compared to 22 percent non-LGBTQ+ people.

At Dentsu Creative we believe it's important to ensure that people can see themselves in content because many health conditions do not discriminate. The cultural fluency capability within Dentsu Creative ensures that our work resonates with audiences and is grounded in clear recognition of the diversity of people.

The diversity in our own teams has certainly helped with this."Dentsu brings together creative teams from all backgrounds, nationalities, race and more, which creates the secret sauce for maximum out-of-the-box and strategic thinking, and ultimately brings this amazing content to life," says Anna Nolan, senior brand manager at Haleon.

The consumer health company approached us with a social media brief to speak about its Preparation H hemorrhoid treatment. This involved speaking to the LGBTQ+ community in a way that's both bravely authentic and entertaining, and reflects the growing presence among LGBTQ+ audiences around Preparation H and hemorrhoid conversations on social.

Leveraging innovation and emerging technologies

We take a full funnel approach to social. This mattered with Preparation H because we're not just thinking about driving people to hit the like button or leave a comment, but to follow the brand from discovery to purchase, and make an investment beyond dollars.

By creating content that speaks to our consumers, not at them, we're forging connections that go beyond the check-out line. By paying attention to the conditions they face, the particular ways those conditions have an impact, as well as how our consumers spend their money, we're able to ensure content lands throughout the funnel.

The new organic social activity for Preparation H recognizes rising levels of discussion regarding hemorrhoids within the LGBTQ+ community. Sexual health and after-care fuels the conversation. It was important to reflect this in our creative approach.

"With everyday health top of mind, we want to have those honest conversations and real talk with consumers about the problems they have in the way that they talk about it," adds Nolan. "We need to get more comfortable with this."

With this in mind, we cultivated an inclusive social presence that made everyone feel seen, heard and supported around their booty problems by creating an open dialogue.

At every stage we work with both Haleon and the cultural fluency team to ensure we avoid stereotyping and negative tropes, and that the content is educating, entertaining and sufficiently compelling to share with consumers.

The power of creative content

The excellent organic social results for Preparation H illustrate the strength of our approach, and the importance of introducing this into the media mix for the brand.

Shifting to more inclusive content, speaking to the LGBTQ+ community, we have seen increases in engagement rate as high as 400 percent. Collaborations with LGBTQ+ creators have generated over 140,000 video views and reached 132,000 accounts, 16 percent of which were not previously following Preparation H.

We've also seen a tremendous response in the comments section, where our consumers are sounding off about how the content resonates. For instance, one said: "@preparationh thank you for this, you don't understand how much representation matters! Good for you." Another added: "Love it... we need to stop bottom shaming people just live your best life guys."

All of which demonstrates the positive power for healthcare brands providing content that is entertaining, provides value and promotes inclusivity.