Finalists for Clio Health’s “Of the Year” awards were revealed today. Winners will be named at the Clio Health Awards on June 12 in New York City. Tickets to the event can be purchased here.

Independent Agency of the Year Finalists:

Bensimon Byrne
Klick Health
Serviceplan Germany

Agency of the Year Finalists:

Ogilvy PR
VML Madrid
VML New York

Network of the Year Finalists:

IPG Health
Ogilvy
VML

Advertiser of the Year Finalists:

Café Joyeux
CeraVe
SFBO (Sociedade Franco Brasileira de Oncologia)

These awards will be presented on stage to the respective independent agency, agency, network, and advertiser that has received the most overall Clio Health Statue points for winning entries submitted across all medium types. Congratulations to all the finalists!

The evening’s first panel, “Breaking Through the Clutter: The Power Of Purpose-Driven Marketing,” focused on purpose-driven measures vs. transactional strategies.

“The healthcare market is hyper-competitive. Consumers have great choices,” said Ramon Soto, chief marketing and comms officer at Northwell. The brand leads with purpose-driven marketing to cut through clutter, but not all healthcare is purpose led. Rather, many are focused on transactional aspects. But, Soto notes, consumers don’t consume healthcare that way.

Few people think “what am I going to do when I have my next heart attack?” he says.

Of late, the brand has focused on gun violence in New York market, which drives purchase preference for the brand, helping consumers to know the brand before they need the brand, Soto says.

And there was a doctor in the house—Dr. Jose Prince, chief of pediatric surgery, at Northwell, and one of the docs featured in Netflix’s Emergency: NYC.

He walked attendees through a clip from the show and asked, “How do we make a difference [to curtail gun violence]? That’s the struggle on our end.”

“After 25 years of pulling bullets out of children in our country … We’re told to stay in our lane. If we just stay in our lane, in my sterile operating room, how much can I really accomplish?”

Firearms are now a leading cause of death for U.S. children. “How is that acceptable?” Price asked. “It’s a uniquely disastrous problem we have created in our country. But I’m very optimistic because we can tackle complicated things and make a difference.”

Michelle Hillman, chief campaign development officer at The Ad Council, explained how the organization works to shine a light on stories in a human and authentic way, rising above politics.

“Gun violence is a public health crisis and that’s the way we treat the work,” she said. 

Ad Council campaigns in this regard “are designed to be inclusive, respectful, talking to gun owners in their own voice … but helping them understand that safely storing guns is a gateway to preventing tragedy.”

Defining health equity and how ‘well-tainment’ can help

The next panel, “Changing The Script: Creativity at the Intersection of Health Equity & Entertainment”— moderated by Muse by Clio executive director Charell Star—began by defining terminology.

“Sometimes treating people equally can be inadvertently unfair,” said Dr. Olajide Williams, professor of Neurology, vice dean, Columbia University Medical School, and president/co-founder of Hip Hop Public Health. He noted that distributing vouchers in regions with health options won’t have the same impact as in zones of deprivation, because folks in the latter still needs access and accessibility.

“It’s the access to quality healthcare for everyone” that’s paramount, agreed Damien Escobar, global chief music officer at Havas.

“The biggest driver of life expectancy in the U.S. is zip code,” Williams said. “Whether it’s dental health, stroke, asthma literacy, by using a Hip Hop model that targets kids in a fun way, you can get them to do pretty much anything.”

“Money is not the solution to this. Millions have been spent to close the health equity gap and it continues to grow,” said Eric Weisberg, global chief creative officer at Havas, Health & You. With “Well-tainment,” delivering messages via episodic television, gaming sports and the like.

Such an approach helps translate complex concepts “to clients, consumers and everyday people,” Escobar said. “When a brand is doing something correct, it shows up in culture and it becomes a thing in culture.”

Ideas shaping consumer healthcare

The evening concluded with “Challenging Convention: Building a Fast-Moving Consumer Health Brand,” featuring Andrew Loucks, head of N.A. consumer healthcare chief at Sanofi, and Claudine Patel, who leads brand and innovation.

“The role of self-care and consumer health at large has a very tangible and sizable impact on society,” said Loucks. “How can we be the solution around alleviating universal healthcare tensions that we all know and feel? By making healthcare as simple as it should be.”

He noted an Icy Hot campaign with Shaq as one example.

Patel explained how traditional health and pharma advertising is not relatable. “How often does one run through a field of flowers only to stop and take an allergy pill?”

Some innovative efforts include a team-up with Live Nation on behalf of allergy medication Xyzal, and a Dulcolax partnership with Jeannie Mai.

There’s only a few more days to submit nominations for the second-annual Clio Health Innovators, celebrating those who work behind the scenes to drive and support creativity at agencies, health brands and wellness organizations.

It’s free to nominate someone, and multiple nominations from the same organization are OK. Self-nominations, however, are not. Winners will be announced in May and featured at the Clio Health Awards in June.

Nominees must be health marketing (or marketing adjacent) professionals working at an agency, brand or health/wellness firm. They may be at any stage in their careers. Clio defines such innovators as behind-the-scenes all-stars who contribute to campaigns and communications in meaningful ways.

They can come from practically any discipline, including marketing, creative, strategy, account services, medical, R&D, product innovation, comms, care and engineering. Clio’s seeking unsung heroes who deserve to be honored for driving companies forward in this dynamic sector.

Read about last year’s innovators here. Know someone who fits the bill? Nominate them here.

What does it take to win a Clio Award? It starts with what’s inside you.

To highlight Clio Health’s new call for entries, Grey Health & Wellness dissected a Clio Award to see what it’s made of. The striking image, titled “The Anatomy of Great Creative,” shows the inner working of a Clio—look closely for technology parts, organs, and did I spy a Chinese takeout box. There’s also a “purpose-powered pump” (heart), “jargon translation tunnel” (brain), “idea protection peripheral vision” and “breast bone of bravery,” to name a few.

The creative ends with a call to action: “Show Us What You’re Made Of” and the Jan. 13, 2023, deadline. The campaign is running via email, online and Clio social channels.

“We all know it takes something extra inside you to not only craft a winning piece of work in health, but to see it through the process and avoid all the pitfalls that might diminish its creative intent,” say Laura Potucek and Josh Eastman, group creative directors at Grey Health & Wellness. “In the health world, when we want to learn more about something, we break it down and dissect it. So we thought, what if we cracked open a Clio Health statue and playfully revealed what it takes to win?”

Once the concept of looking inside a Clio was decided, the agency researched 3D artists and chose Untitled Army to bring the campaign to life “with a mix of boldness, humanity and a dash of ‘What the eff were they thinking?’ “

Naming the body parts was both the most fun and most challenging part for the group.

“Too many organ ideas, too little time,” the pair tell Muse. “We had to strike a balance between pulling in the audience and not overwhelming the page with labels. There was a nod to the unique challenges we face in healthcare advertising, like the self-regulating MLR-teries.”

CREDITS

Agency: Grey Health & Wellness
CCO: Tim Jones
Worldwide Chief Creative Officer: Javier Campopiano
Group Creative Directors: Josh Eastman, Laura Potucek, Guy Bricio
Associate Director Copy: Sahar Sehgaal
Associate Director Art: Sttenio Costa
3-D Artist: Untitled Army
Comp Illustrator: Maria Capolongo

Essity Libresse/Bodyform, ‘Viva La Vulva’

Grand Clio, Branded Entertainment & Content (Health & Wellness)
Grand Clio, Integrated Campaign (Health & Wellness)

Entrant Company: AMV BBDO

Just like the client’s previous “Bloodnormal” campaign challenged taboos around representing periods, the “Viva La Vulva” campaign confronted taboos around representing vulvas in order to overturn a long history of shame and objectification. 

It included the famous lip-sync music video as well as a slew of activations—vulva mirrors, origami books, GIFS in social, educational content online from The Wonder Down Under authors, print ads tackling the causes and consequences of genital shame, giant vulva murals in public toilets to tackle the gender graffiti imbalance, and a “designer vagina” fashion bursary to celebrate vulvas and wear them with pride.

Johnson & Johnson, “5B”

Grand Clio, Film (Health & Wellness)

Entrant Company: UM

The feature-length documentary 5B, commissioned by Johnson & Johnson, is the inspirational story of everyday heroes, nurses and caregivers who took extraordinary action to comfort, protect and care for the patients of the first AIDS ward unit in the United States. 

SickKids Foundation, ‘SickKids VS: Crews’

Grand Clio, Social Media (Health & Wellness)

Entrant Company: Cossette

To find new donors for a new SickKids hospital, Cossette turned existing donors into advocates for the brand by dividing them into crews, based on dozens of real groups in Toronto. The insight was if people identified on a personal level with existing donors, it would be much easier to convince them to join the cause.

The “SickKids VS: Crews” campaign featured hundreds of real donors and their crews, including Toronto-based athletes, media personalities and social influencers to recruit new donors within their crews in support of SickKids using strategically targeted media. From there it caused a chain reaction, turning every new donor into another influencer and advocate for the cause.

Lartruvo, “Get Up Alarm Clock”

Grand Clio, Social Media (Pharmaceutical)

Entrant Company: Area 23

The first challenge patients face is the shock of a soft tissue sarcoma (STS) diagnosis, which emotionally paralyzes them during the very time they need to act. They lose their sense of agency and their sense of self. 

The GET UP Alarm Clock acts as a daily reminder of who they are and why they continue to get up. For people with this disease, staying in the right frame of mind isn’t easy. Starting the day by feeling the support of people who care about them can help them tap into their inner strength, and it can make an enormous difference in their emotional health.

Grand Clio in Integrated Campaign (Health & Wellness)
Grand Clio in Public Relations (Health & Wellness)

Bodyform | Blood Normal
Agency: AMV BBDO (Integrated)
Agency: Ketchum (PR)

Grand Clio in Out of Home (Pharmaceutical)

Lartruvo | The World’s Smallest Booth 
Agency: Area 23, An FCB Health Network Company

Grand Clio in Digital/Mobile (Health & Wellness)

The ALS Association | Project Revoice
Agency: BWM Dentsu

Grand Clio in Film (Health & Wellness)

Montefiore Health System | Corazón
Agency: JohnXHannes

Grand Clio in Direct (Health & Wellness)

Pediatric Brain Tumor Foundation | Imaginary Friend Society 
Agency: RPA