On this episode of the AW360 Podcast, we sit down with Eric Weisberg, Global Chief Creative Officer at Havas Health Network, to explore the creative awakening transforming health and wellness communications. Eric shares how social media is helping dismantle the stigma around mental illness, why regulated industries can still be hotbeds for innovation, and how brands are stepping up to drive equity in underserved communities.
We also dig into the surge of investment in women’s health, the rise of “well-tainment,” and why the next wave of marketing leadership may come from health brands—not just follow them. From Gen Z’s unapologetic stance on care to the influence of Apple and Google in the health space, this conversation is a must-listen for anyone curious about the bold, inclusive, tech-powered future of healthcare marketing.
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On this episode of the AW360 podcast, we sit down with Eric Weisberg, Global Chief Creative Officer at Havas Health Network, to explore the creative awakening transforming health and wellness communications. Eric shares how social media is helping dismantle the stigma around mental illness, why regulated industries can still be hotbeds for innovation, and how brands are stepping up to drive equity in underserved communities. We hope you enjoy this episode.
Eric, welcome to the AW360 podcast. I’m so pleased to have you on today.
Great to be here. So to kick things off, tell us a little bit about Havas Health Network and your role there.
Havas Health Network is the world’s largest health and wellness communications company. We are 6,000 people in every part of the globe, and it’s a true 360 point of view of health. It’s everything from health advertising to medical education to payer access. It is a mix between healthcare consulting, healthcare advertising, healthcare strategy, all powered by the world’s biggest data set of health-specific information.
It’s got to be super interesting.
I think so. I mean, look, I spent the better part of my career doing general market advertising with a toe into or perhaps up to my waist at times in healthcare. But I really jumped all in when I came here to Havas three and a half years ago, and I find the space incredibly fascinating. I find the creative awakening that’s happening in the space to be super inspirational. And I think we as an organization, because of our scale, because of the breadth of services that we have, are making a real dent in the future of where health communications is going.
Let’s dive into a little bit about that. How are you seeing social media, just as an example, play a role in reshaping something like, let’s take the stigma around mental illness? And where do you think brands can make the biggest difference there?
I think the reality is, and we’ll sort of unpack this in sort of two parts. One is the real shift to modern marketing across health and wellness brands. Health and wellness brands have traditionally trailed the market as a whole in terms of the use of new technology. Part of that is we’re working in a regulatory environment, and so there was a more conservative aspect to where and how brands spoke. That’s shifting dramatically. That’s the shift to Gen X and millennials being the core audience for consumers for these. It’s also a shift to much younger doctors and the introduction of things like Doximity and Cermo becoming core drivers of these are social spaces that are specific to physician communities. And so that is where a lot of work and content is being made that was traditionally on Twitter or X and LinkedIn, but is shifting into these communities too. And so we see a huge shift to health communication mirroring how we consume media these days. And so that’s every one of the therapeutic areas is starting to create more of their content in that space.
Now you asked a question about mental health and the stigma of mental health. I think, look, there is awakening to the awareness and discussion about mental health in big and meaningful ways. And that started on social media and the communication that we’re creating for brands has the opportunity to sort of continue to erase the stigmas of mental health, to give people access to information in new ways. I’ll just say in that for brands, it can’t be a one and done. Like we’re not going to fundamentally change the challenges of mental health and the stigma of mentalhealth with one campaign or one tweet or one post. I think it really takes a concerted effort of everybody being open to listening and starting a dialogue about it in an ongoing fashion. You know, the healthcare space has undergone a massive transformation in recent years. From your creative lens, what does the future of health and wellness look like?
And I think further to what you were just talking about, you know, having to have more than one campaign, is there an art or a trick or are there hurdles to finding a balance where you’re talking about those things, you’re helping brands speak about this sort of thing on social media and everywhere else for that matter, but not sort of overdoing it, you know, bombarding people to the point where maybe they become, you know, a little bit numb to it.
Yeah, look, I’ll say there are many facets to the question you asked. The future of healthcare communication, I think, at its core is a fundamental shift to creativity, content, and technology being at the center of that. Heretofore, healthcare communication was quite traditional in the way that it created things. There were a lot of metaphors. There were what I call the Pharmageddon images of people running on the beach with their dog or dancing on the street. Like we’re seeing a fundamental shift now away from Pharmageddon to creativity driving the future of health, where technology is driving the future of health, and where we tell stories is fundamentally changing.
I think the short answer to what is the future, which is the future is that health and wellness brands will drive where creativity and innovation is in the business as opposed to following where the business as a whole is. And I think we’re seeing that starting to happen, but I think in the next, you know, two to five years, we’re going to see a dramatic shift where the health brands are really driving where the future of health is.
How do broad marketing concerns like, let’s say, privacy issues impact your efforts? We live in a regulated industry. It has always been regulated. It will continue to be regulated in the future. And I think that’s been used as an excuse to limit creativity and limit innovation. I don’t fundamentally buy that. I didn’t come over here into the world of health to be less creative or less innovative. I came here because I believe that regulation shouldn’t be an excuse. And that doesn’t mean that we should ever do anything irresponsible or not be sensitive to people’s privacy. I don’t mean that by any stretch. But I don’t see regulation as an impediment to innovation and creativity.
And when I look at other regulated industries, that’s insurance and banking and alcohol, we can sort of go down the line of other regulated industries. In each of those, you saw a creative awakening and transformation that didn’t use regulation as an excuse. It learned to innovate within the box that it needed to communicate responsibly in. And that’s the way I see the future of health.
All of your examples are very creative spaces for advertisers and marketers these days. Or weren’t in the past, right? I mean, they either didn’t exist or the work was glam vertising in those spaces as well. Yeah. You and I probably remember a time when there was no insurance marketing whatsoever. It was just non-existent. Now it’s every second or third commercial on the television.
There’s still a clear disparity in health care across different communities, different demographics. What are some of the most impactful ways that creativity and communication can bridge those gaps? I’m glad you bring it up because it’s something that’s deeply personal and a passion space of mine. I don’t think you have to spend more than a few minutes in health and wellness communications to realize that there are haves and have-nots of health. And I see that as an opportunity and a responsibility for us as Havas Health, but also our brands to help bring a health for all mentality to things.
How can we help improve the health of entire communities, not just people that have the most means to health? And I think part of that gets back to your question about the evolving nature of media. 55% of the content that we consume now is not ad-supported, so advertising isn’t the solution. Most of the work that has been trying to help communities that were underserved was wagging a finger or bringing judgment to that. It was a negative as opposed to a positive. If you get diabetes, you’re going to lose a toe. It was that kind of work.
I see this opportunity, and this is true across the board, to start living into creating content and entertainment that is also educational in nature. We call that well-tainment. Some people call it edutainment. Well-tainment is part, for me, of bridging the gap to helping become a more inclusivecommunication vehicle. That’s bringing knowledge, erasing stigmas, and doing it through entertainment. Women’s health is finally seeing a surge in both innovation and investment. What do you think is driving this momentum and how are you seeing brands approach that space differently than they have in the past?
Yeah, it’s interesting. We put out a piece around CES called Superwomen, and it was looking at just this. You know, what is the awakening of a focus on women’s health, the ending of stigmas that existed in women’s health to access or treatment? And you asked a question like why? Well, women are 51% of the population, yet they make over 80% of the health decisions. If you look at the market, the mother is usually the chief medical officer of the house. She’s the one making… I know that’s certainly true in my life for my wife taking care of me, but it also means she’s taking care of her parents. She’s taking care of our son. In spite of the fact that for a long time, these chief medical officers have been making 80% of the decisions. Of the 41 billion that VCs were spending on health-related technology, in 2023, only 2% of that was dedicated to women’s health.
Wow, that’s a crazy disparity. Staggering.
Yeah. You know, looking ahead, as it relates to women’s health, there’s a need to rewrite that narrative. What does that new narrative look like to you, and how would you tell creative leaders to help bring that to life?
I go back to your question about the changing dynamics of media and the changing dynamics in mental health, the mental health space of erasing stigmas through social conversation. One part of doing that, the shift is driven by millennials and their expectation that we’re going to talk openly about these things. If you look at Gen X, Gen X and baby boomers, they never spoke of women’s health issues. They never spoke of perimenopause or menopause symptoms. You see this shift as millennials are coming into that perimenopause area. There’s an open discussion about those things. There’s an open discussion about mental health. There’s an open discussion about medical gaslighting that has limited women’s access to health. And we see technology becoming a big shift. My partner in Superwomen, Chloe, has sort of dove deep into the shifts that are happening here. And technology and the health ecosystem that we each have around us is fundamentally shifting to become personalized and to become focused on women’s health issues in a way that we’ve never seen before. Investment has followed and brands have a unique place to sort of be ahead of society even in sort of erasing stigmas and addressing the issues.
You know, with all of this rapid change in your space, what excites you most about working at the intersection of creativity, health, and even technology right now?
I think the thing that excites me the most is that health is becoming a place where the most creative people, the most innovative products, and the most famous brands in the world are investing. You look at where we are in terms of how you define a health brand. We sit here today, practically every brand in the world is a health brand. Apple, Google, Amazon, Walmart, all making an investment in their future and putting health at the center of it. I mean, Tim Cook said, Apple’s biggest contribution to humanity will be in health. We’re all sitting around with this health device in our wrist. The interconnectivity of the Apple ecosystem into our doctor’s offices and powered by our personal information is getting greater by the day. That’s driving creativity and innovation in terms of communication too because Apple is also one of the best marketers in the world. So they’re creating health communications that are inspiring what all of us are doing. And so I think all of that gets back to where we started, which is that the future of health is that health and healthcare communications will be driving creativity and innovation in our industry, not following it as it has in the past. That’s what excites the hell out of me.
You’re the jury president for health and wellness at Cannes this year. In your mind, what does that mean for the industry?
I think Cannes and the industry’s commitment to creativity is greater than ever before. I think we get back to what defines health and wellness today is changing every moment. Every brand is a health brand these days. We see the biggest brands in the world making health their purpose. I’ve seen my role as the jury president for health and wellness at Cannes and the jury in general to sort of set the benchmark to where things are going. I mean, we’ve talked throughout this conversation about how my vision for wherehealth and wellness work is going is that it will lead the industry in terms of creativity and innovation. We’re not there yet, but we’re on our road there. So every can, every jury is an opportunity to set the benchmark for where things are going. And I think we’re going to see some of the best work in the world this year there. And I think what we award the Grand Prix and the Golds to will really set the standard that other people will judge where the business is going.
Last question, and this is sort of a bonus question based on something you said earlier that I’m just sort of curious about. You had mentioned that, you know, millennials were largely responsible for the rise of the discussion around women’s health care. When you look at subsequent generations, you know, Gen Z, Gen Alpha, are you seeing an acceptance of that? Do you think that that trend will continue and perhaps even grow? I think there’s no question. I think we’ve only seen the tip of what this is. And we’ll take women’s health for an example. The generation that is born today will live to be 100. So the young women that are born today will live to be 100 years old. That means on average they will spend half their lives in a post-menopausal state. So when we look at the open discussion and the melting of stigmas around menopause and the discussion of them along millennials now, now imagine when we take that to Gen Z or Gen Alpha, and that’s an even larger portion of their life. Not only will that inspire investment, but I don’t believe those generations will accept it. There will be no stigma and there will be no acceptance that women’s health is only getting 2% of the investment of VCs. It will not be socially acceptable to that generation. What a time we live in.
Your enthusiasm for your work is infectious. If one wanted to find out more about your work, where should they go? You can go to HavasHealth.com and you can see a link to the story behind our network, a link to our agencies around the world. You’ll also see on all of our social channels a ton of really interesting thought leadership. We have a GLP-1 consultancy that we launched that’s linking every brand to the impact of the $500 billion business that GLP-1s is going to become. You’re going to see discussion about neurodiversity, which is one of the areas that we’re particularly interested in helping brands connect to a community of people where 50% self-identify as being neurodiverse, whether that’s dyslexia like myself or ADHD or families that have any mix of neurodiverse aspects as part of their life. And then you see lots of interesting things like Superwoman that we’re talking about, which is looking at the intersection of technology and women’s health and how that’s transforming that. So our social channels, HavasHealth.com, all good places to see what we’re up to here.
Excellent. Well, Eric, this has been amazing. And thanks so much for taking the time to be on the show today. Absolutely. Pleasure to meet you.
Thanks for listening to AW360. For more podcasts like this one, be sure to check out Advertising Week’s ever-growing roster of podcasts for the advertising, marketing, and technology industries, including The Trustmakers, our podcast with the Edelman Trust Institute now in its fourth season. You’ll find all of Advertising Week’s podcasts at www.advertisingweek.com slash podcasts. Thanks for listening.
