Coming up with new creative ideas is tough enough, but what happens when you work in a sector filled with legal restrictions and tight regulations? Constraints are a tricky issue for anyone designing for healthcare brands who face the challenge of balancing creativity with compliance.
Invariably, many healthcare brands opt for safe, uninspired creative (think upbeat or defiant people of a certain age at a farmer’s market or a yoga class). But why should the healthcare sector, with its profound impact on our everyday health and well-being, settle for anything less than beautiful, ground-breaking design that has the potential to make a meaningful and measurable impact?
Central to the issue: the perception that legal and regulatory boundaries stifle creativity. This fear of taking informed risks restrains creative leaders and clients, leading to repetitive, homogeneous branding and campaigns. How frequently do we encounter functional yet bland pharmaceutical brands or clichéd depictions such as lifestyle campaigns of smiling couples on a beach or families playing sports in the park to advertise medication?
The conventional approach may drive sales but lacks originality and fails to forge a lasting, trusted connection between the consumer and the brand. We can and should be doing better. Effective communication through thoughtful, human-centric design demands a unique and uncharted approach to creative challenges.
Constraints As Catalysts For Creativity
Our creative organizations are responsible for cutting through and redefining the space in which we communicate on behalf of our clients. Rather than seeing these legal and regulatory constraints as limiting, we should ask: How can we embrace them? What possibilities do they present?
Embracing the space within the constraints is a possibilities mindset rather than a prohibitory one. It means seeing guidelines as a prompt for unconventional thinking and unparalleled creativity.
An example of this that stands the test of time is the original Zoloft campaign. Existing within rigid constraints didn’t stop the creative team from creating work that was (and is) differentiated, powerful, simple, beautiful, and resonant. They used straightforward, playful animation to explain what Zoloft did in the brain rather than just focusing on the generic outcomes for patients. This campaign broke through at a time when mental health communications were a clutter of safe, repetitive, and easily ‘approvable’ work. In a sea of trite sameness, Zoloft came along and explained the solution, respecting the viewers’ intelligence. Ultimately, working within legal constraints should always be seen as our opportunity to find new and innovative ways of creating work that is both memorable and effective.
Be Fearless, But Know The Boundaries
A profound understanding of regulations and constraints is the first step to cultivating genuine ground-breaking creativity.
How far we can push creatively varies from client to client. But first, we must show that we have a proper understanding of where the hard and fast boundaries are and that we understand their purpose.
How can we embrace the constraints? What possibilities do the boundaries present?
Society of Valued Minds: Authenticity Breeds Connection
In today’s content-saturated environment, authenticity is more important than ever in building connections and trust. Amid the proliferation of content, misinformation looms large, and authenticity is instrumental in genuinely connecting with your audience. It is mission-critical to cultivate an understanding of “the science behind the sell.” Yes, the science! Your audience wants to know more and are perfectly capable of understanding more.
When working on the Society of Valued Minds, a social media initiative committed to helping destigmatize the conversation around mental illness, our boundary was that we couldn’t mention any therapeutic or drug treatments. So, our challenge became: how do we find ways of helping people and offering support without explicitly pointing to any specific treatment?
We needed a genuine way to transcend the boundary while respecting our audience.
To do that, we allowed the people who were part of our campaign to tell their stories, creating a micro-influencer-led community. This approach with real people created an openness and the space for conversation that ultimately helped make mental illness support feel uncomplicated and accessible. We combined their stories with playful typography, bold color, and eye-catching animations, creating an approachable design system that was relevant and engaging for our specific audience.
Pushing for that authentic conversation with an audience based on real experiences helps people connect to a brand and each other through emotional resonance and authenticity. It shows that the healthcare industry’s constraints should be the exact thing that motivates creative innovation, allowing creatives to craft supremely designed campaigns that resonate and revolutionize.
This guest post was written by Gino Carolini, creative director at healthcare creative agency minds + assembly. He has over two decades of experience shaping and crafting 360º brand stories and experiences for a wide range of clients. Having spent most of his career in general consumer advertising, he joined healthcare with a diverse portfolio and category experience spanning cpg to luxury hospitality.