By Caroline Gilmour, copywriter

There’s been a major shift in the way people get information about health. Instead of visiting the doctor, people are just as likely to turn to Google as their first step, while patient/illness blogs are giving patients a new way to interact with professionals and fellow sufferers to discuss their condition and treatment.

Yesterday I was at PN’s big event at its St Pete’s offices about the ‘21^st Century Patient’, in other words people like you and me who look for information and support from a number of different places, including online.

Our speakers from the world of health communications talked about the implications for pharma, for healthcare organisations and the government. Not being a healthcare expert myself – but being a person who ‘consumes’ healthcare services – it was a pretty interesting morning.

Here are some of the more interesting points, in my opinion.

The government will educate, but not regulate

Both the EU and the UK government want people to have more access to health information but are in danger of shirking their responsibilities, said Andrew Silverman, Partner at Kreab Gavin Anderson. For example, the concept of a ‘personal budget’ – where NHS patients choose what money is spent where in regards to their health – would help cut central costs, but it needs both an educated public AND regulation in order to result in better health outcomes. With the government looking to abrogate responsibility for regulation, that could be tricky.

Don’t try and strong-arm people into living healthy lives

Telling people what to do has never changed anyone’s behaviour in regards to health, said both Colin Shevills of Balance, and Barbara DeBuono, Global Director of Health at Porter Novelli. If we want a healthier population we need to use a social marketing approach and design communications and services around the customer – who they are, what they believe and how they live their life. But education and transparency is important – people need to make their own well-informed decisions.

Stop being scared of social media

Peter Pitts, Global Head, Regulatory and Health Policy, at Porter Novelli warned us that official recognition of social media as a health education tool – from the EU and other bodies – is going to be slow in coming. But pharma and healthcare organisations shouldn’t wait to make social media a central part of their information campaigns. Start conversations now and try and find creative ways to ensure you’re in line with legal and regulatory requirements. For example, reach out, but then link back to information that you know has been vetted. If you don’t make sure the information is out there, someone else will.

If you’re not online you may as well not exist

Porter Novelli’s Global Social Media Director, Danny DeVriendt, told us that that we’re dealing with a new generation that lives its life online. If information isn’t online then they simply won’t see it. It also isn’t true that the internet always gives unreliable information – Wikipedia has been proved more accurate than the Encyclopaedia Britannica, for example. Health organisations need to engage with customers online through a process of mapping (who’s talking?), listening (what are they saying?), responding (how can I help?) and influencing (why not try this?).

Print isn’t dead, it’s just wounded

Traditional press has taken a hit recently, but it’s still a trusted medium, said Oliver Stroh of OMD International and freelance healthcare writer Jane Symons.  People have a relationship with newspapers and still trust them. Newspapers are also still setting the news agenda and have contributed to successful campaigns such as the one to allow access to Herceptin.

We’ll be posting a link to the video of the event shortly.

Last week Porter Novelli launched its Real-Time Reputation offering, which will help our clients globally stop crises spiralling out of control online.

We’ve been working on our Real-time Reputation offering for a while and delivering elements to our clients, but there seems no more better time to launch it than now.

We’ve seen a lot of global organisations face unprecedented corporate communications challenges recently which have brought a sharp focus on the importance of responding at the right time, in the right place, with the right tone  – think about Toyota, Eurostar, Nestlé, British Airways and BP.

Clients need a different type and scale of support in the social media era compared with the corporate counsel of old and that’s what’s at the heart of our Real-time Reputation Specialty, which includes:

• Vulnerability Audits to help assess risks and the extent to which clients are prepared to handle a resulting crisis or competitive threat.
• Risk Readiness  Assessments, that review everything from messages and materials through to pre-emptive alliance-building.
• Early Warning Monitoring to track digital chatter and sentiment, alerting clients to problems and helping hit the right note from the start.
• Analytics such as an Influencer Weight Score to help companies determine what they really need to worry about versus something they can safely ignore, which is a major challenge with the prevalence of social media chatter.
• “Go Teams” with specialists in crisis communications, social media, customer support and internal communications.  These are on stand-by to offer counsel, support and step into a meeting room at any location our clients might require within a few hours notice across the world.
• Reputation Restoration planning – often powered by social media – to minimize the damage and build back reputation.

How a company responds to a crisis or competitive threat attracting as much news, comment and analysis these days than the event itself. Our Real-time Reputation Specialty will help organisations respond more quickly in the channels leading coverage of an issue and ultimately have greater influence over the way they are perceived to be performing.

If you want to know more, contact Neil.

The Nike ad - Come on Rooney! Oh.

Let’s be clear about this: the 2010 World Cup has been one of the least exciting football tournaments in living memory. When the tournament kicked off on June 11^th, we all settled down in our living rooms in eager anticipation of a glut of great goals, fierce comebacks, skill, ingenuity and flair.  What did we get instead? A ball that nobody seemed able to kick straight, dull, negative tactics, and a rough average of a goal every 4.233 games (small exaggeration). So who is to blame?

Although some have, variously, pointed the finger of blame squarely at defensive-minded coaches, the Adidas Jabulani ball, and even domestic leagues for burning out the players, the current media scapegoat of choice appears to be Nike for ruining some of the world’s best footballers by paying them heavily to take part in the now famously ‘cursed’ Write The Future advert.  However, perhaps we should leave aside the possibility that Wayne Rooney, Franck Ribery, Fabio Cannavaro and Ronaldo have all suffered from a mysterious drop in form as a direct result of an ancient gypsy curse and examine the wider effects of the Nike ad and its contemporaries?

It’s true to say that there has never been a World Cup which has suffered from the same levels of saturation, both in terms of broadcast coverage and publicity. It seems you cannot switch on your television, radio or computer at the moment without being reminded that yes, the World Cup is here, and it will be an astonishing festival of drama and skill, showcasing the talents of the finest players in the world. Advertisements selling The Guardian, Mars, Carlsberg, and, of course, Coca-Cola – among a host of others – have promised a global spectacle, a phenomenon which will excite and unite the entire world in equal measure.  Is it any wonder that the tournament itself has failed to live up to these unrealistic expectations, as the teams turned their focus on the business of winning football matches?

Indeed, it’s interesting to note that despite the best efforts of the official sponsors and advertisers to milk the last drops of the World Cup cash cow, perhaps the most memorable, and successful incident in terms of gaining brand recognition, was the now infamous Bavarian beer ambush marketing incident. The incident was largely memorable because it was so ridiculous, and because it succeeded so admirably in calling into question the lengths that FIFA will go to in order to ensure that its corporate sponsors are protected. Perhaps the greatest irony is that had FIFA not been so heavy-handed, then it’s almost certain that Bavarian beer would be far less popular than it currently is.

The key to publicising this tournament seems to be that saturation is fine – as long as it’s for the officially designated, FIFA approved brands. Will marketers learn the lessons of this summer’s tournament and avoid the scatter-gun over-saturation we’ve seen this summer in time for the 2014 World Cup in Brazil? It seems unlikely. For now, at least, as the 2010 World Cup reaches its climax this Sunday, let’s hope we can finally let the football do the talking.