Would you rather sell trainers or make work that changes people’s lives? That was a question posed by a creative leader in our Truth About Talent: Health Marketing report.
While some in the advertising industry have long called “peak purpose”, the truth is that people actually do want to make work that makes a meaningful difference. Work that changes, or even saves, lives.
While it’s easy to be cynical about what motivates people in their careers, the ability to make a positive impact is driving career decision-making. A shift that is driving a new wave of progressive talent into healthcare marketing. According to Market Data Forecast, the global healthcare advertising market was worth $42.28bn in 2024 and is expected to reach $67.87bn by 2033. The World Health Organization estimates the global population over the age of 60 will reach two billion by 2025. A demographic shift that is prompting increased spending in healthcare advertising.
Our research, which is rooted in in-depth interviews with industry leaders, revealed that the opportunity to make work that matters is a genuine differentiator for talent. This “purpose advantage” is not only helping the healthcare marketing industry retain talent but attract new talent to the sector.
The purpose advantage
A week after Robert F. Kennedy Jr, Donald Trump’s controversial pick for health secretary, received Senate confirmation, health equity is firmly in the global spotlight.
From campaigns focused on dogs detecting cancer to closing the gender health gap, healthcare is a sector in which creative talent can make a difference beyond the bottom line of a company’s profits.
Our research shows that healthcare leaders take this responsibility seriously, particularly when it comes to pushing for more inclusive hiring practices.
When patients are the most diverse customer base in the world, it is no surprise that the industry is consistent in its approach to inclusion. This drive is underpinned by a genuine drive to ensure that staff can balance the demands of their lives with their work. In fact, many of the most successful agencies have this ethos of fairness and flexibility-first baked into their foundations.
Stereotype Smashing
Yet while our research showed that purpose is driving the sector forward, challenges remain. Stereotypes are still stopping some in the industry from ever considering a career in healthcare marketing in the first place.
Stereotypes matter because they stop people from achieving their full potential. While healthcare advertising is in the midst of a new wave of creativity, you might still believe the myth that healthcare advertising is where creative careers die.
According to our report, 59% of leaders in healthcare believe that the advertising industry undervalues the importance of creativity in healthcare.
This disconnect risks talent missing their opportunity to thrive in the sector, because they fail to look beyond the stereotypes.
Healthcare affords talent not just the appeal of purpose and making work that matters, but relative stability. These stable budgets mean that young talent has the opportunity to work on big shoots quickly. This is a sector where talent can make an impact quickly.
Busting the purpose myth
Assumptions are the death of creativity. Yet the uncomfortable truth is that far too many assumptions persist when it comes to both purpose and creativity in healthcare advertising.
Too often talent buys into the myth that you need specialist skills to work in healthcare. That you can’t pivot in and out of healthcare from other sectors. That you can’t push the boundaries because of regulation. That you can’t be creatively brave in healthcare. That you can’t make work that makes a meaningful difference.
Our research tells us that the opposite is true: purpose matters. If you want to solve some of the industry's biggest creative and ethical challenges, then the healthcare marketing industry is for you.
The global opportunity to use creativity at scale to drive access and understanding of health issues which genuinely changes lives is monumental. Consider for example the pandemic of misinformation; a threat that some industry healthcare leaders believe can be abated through the creative use of AI.
Let’s not dismiss people who want to create work that makes a meaningful difference. Let’s instead commit to doing a better job of lighting the pathways for talent and breaking the stereotypes that still persist. Now is the time to celebrate wanting to make work that matters.