Global Warning: Can Traditional Advertising Survive In Health?

Global Warning: Can Traditional Advertising Survive In Health?
B&T Magazine
Edited by B&T Magazine



Toby Pickford is the chief creative officer at Ogilvy Health and is currently representing Australia on the Health & Wellness Lions jury at Cannes Health Lions. In this opinion piece, he discusses whether traditional advertising can survive in the health industry.

Right now, it feels like traditional advertising is the polar bear on a lone iceberg. The space for it seems to be reducing every year as tech heats up to a new high.

Tech’s helping to diagnose, reveal, monitor and educate. It’s helping to increase inclusivity, improve depression and reduce anxiety. Helping the deaf, the blind and the lonely is only just the beginning of its power. Tech is well and truly flexing its muscles here at the Cannes Lions health & wellness judging sessions and could possibly sweep the board.

All is not lost for trad advertising and communications though. To me, it feels as though tech is filling more of the functional role and traditional, more of the feeling.

Having said that, traditional print-based tools are very effective in certain countries where tech cannot reach or be as useful and tactile.

There are some amazingly simple ideas – some big, bold and beautiful ones – that show there’s still a chance for traditional advertising. Film and sound are the only mediums that can bring a jury to tears or make them laugh out loud. I can’t see tech doing that. Not right now anyway.

So, if traditional is to create some parity here, agencies and clients shouldn’t give up on it. It still has a very important role to play. We need to be even more insightful, clever and braver – that’s what’s helping some of the best traditional work step out of tech’s shadow.

Who will be the overall winner here at Cannes health & wellness, tech or traditional? Could it be a mix of both? With three more days to go on this health & wellness jury, anything can happen and everything could change.

Whatever happens on finals day, I hope we can show off a body of work that will set a new direction for healthcare creativity – one that will truly inspire agencies and their clients to be braver than before.

JuryRoom




Latest News

Sydney Comedy Festival: Taking The City & Social Media By Storm
  • Media

Sydney Comedy Festival: Taking The City & Social Media By Storm

Sydney Comedy Festival 2024 is live and ready to rumble, showing the best of international and homegrown talent at a host of venues around town. As usual, it’s hot on the heels of its big sister, the giant that is the Melbourne International Comedy Festival, picking up some acts as they continue on their own […]

Global Marketers Descend For AANA’s RESET For Growth
  • Advertising

Global Marketers Descend For AANA’s RESET For Growth

The Australian Association of National Advertisers (AANA) has announced the final epic lineup of local and global marketing powerhouses for RESET for Growth 2024. Lead image: Josh Faulks, chief executive officer, AANA  Back in 2000, a woman with no business experience opened her first juice bar in Adelaide. The idea was brilliantly simple: make healthy […]