Healthcare marketing – the 2024 way

The harnessing of creativity, the advent of personalised medicine and the availability of AI tools are the new trends in healthcare marketing to watch, according to WPP experts

This year is set to be the year that shifts the dial for healthcare marketing. The tools and the methodologies now available to healthcare marketers enable much greater scope and reach in messaging. From pharma companies to biotech, med-tech and wellbeing, the opportunities for healthcare companies to communicate with specific audiences in new, compelling and engaging ways has never been greater.

WPP’s experts from across VML Health, Ogilvy Health and Grey have picked out the following top healthcare marketing trends to watch in 2024.

1. Creativity in cancer messaging

Creative marketing campaigns are set to reshape the landscape for messaging around cancer diagnosis and care. Increasingly we will see the power of creativity leveraged to bring about meaningful messaging on improvements in care.

With 2,000+ cancer drugs in development, and improvements in tumour detection reaching new heights, the scope for communicating these shifts in a creative and meaningful way has never been greater.

2. Changing the narrative around cancer

We are seeing emerging medical advancements offer renewed hope in relation to cancer diagnoses. Healthcare marketing must reflect this shift and is, indeed, already doing so.

Messaging around cancer now recognises the progress in treatments and the language used is increasingly around positivity and empowerment.

Already we have seen how WPP and the American Society of Clinical Oncology captured the first-ever sound of cancer cells being destroyed to create The Most Beautiful Sound. This hopeful approach to talking about cancer will influence the future for healthcare marketing.

3. Personalised medicine – the future now

AI algorithms are being used to analyse patients' DNA to help diagnose and treat diseases, thereby creating medicines – and combinations of medicines – personalised to individuals down to the molecular level. This personalised approach can clearly lead to better patient outcomes and more efficient use of medical resources.

We expect this exciting and hopeful approach to cancer diagnosis and treatment to permeate throughout communications going forward.

4. AI is revolutionising healthcare for all

AI promises revolutionary change. AI tools can now predict cancer cases and prompt early interventions. With its capacity to process vast data sets, AI is vital for enhancing cancer care delivery, proactive planning and appropriate treatments.

There are, of course, challenges. Data sets must be representative and, if we are to avoid health disparities worsening, there must be no scope for bias to be entrenched in the data on which AI tools are trained.

To make sure data is representative, communications around clinical trials and treatments available must reach all relevant communities. In fact, AI is shining a light on the way in which healthcare has been developed in the past; and healthcare communications going forward are helping to ensure improved representation in drug development and delivery for the benefit of all.

Managing the innovation challenge

As we chart the future of healthcare – across 2024 and beyond – AI and all the emerging technologies that accompany it will increasingly take centre stage. Effective integration of these technologies into existing healthcare systems is crucial for realising the full potential of these innovations; but the new increasingly tech-enabled future requires the ability to manage all the information that flows from these new systems too.

The healthcare industry and the communications industry alike must navigate this challenge – and do so together. This is what will ensure a technologically advanced, patient-centric and accessible healthcare future for all.