Adding Authenticity to Healthcare Marketing with Storytelling

We all know the power of stories, but too often, businesses turn to features and benefits. Opting for transactional marketing with product photos and bullet lists of facts. Animus Studios, a video-first creative studio based in Riverside, RI, helps brands connect with their audiences in two key ways:

● Authenticity that connects with audiences: Leveraging real people and real stories to humanize brands.

● Creativity that makes a brand unique: Pushing organizations to own their niche and separate themselves from competitors.

People are very skeptical. To build trust, we need to be vulnerable. For large brands, the easiest way to do this is through stories of real people: your team, your customers, your end-users, your communities, your causes.

Many brands talk about storytelling, but few are able to follow through on a story. An easy starting point is to curate existing stories around you. Keep your eyes and ears open. Jot down stories in an ongoing list so you have them at your fingertips.

When BD sought to promote a product used by surgeons, they opted to tell a hero’s journey, a compelling storytelling format that people love to follow.

● A hero up against a compelling challenge. In this case, an elite swimmer facing a surgery that could limit her ability to compete.

● A guide helping the hero resolve their conflict. Here, a leading surgeon ready to uphold the highest standards of care.

● A clear conflict, climax and resolution. Tension of a surgery is resolved by successful results.

Watch the video to see this story structure play out.

Brands love to be the center of attention — making the logo a tad bigger, infusing brand colors, upholding your guidelines, maintaining your voice. Unfortunately, this isn’t necessarily the path to being unique and standing out in a crowd.

To stand out, you need to do something different and lean into something unique. Replacing fluffy jargon or cliche phrases for words that feel a bit odd or words that you own. Creating visuals that look different from anyone else in your space. Zigging when they expect you to zag.

Doing this in industries with lots of red tape, compliance, and restrictions can be challenging. But challenging doesn’t mean impossible. A solid approach to finding your fascinating: Changing the tact of your brainstorming sessions to intentionally break norms while having clear guardrails to help decide while ideas to elevate.

When Vertex Pharmaceuticals aimed to share patient stories during the pandemic, the usual method wasn’t an option. Rather than filming patients with a webcam, Animus Studios turned to animation.

● Developing a unique artstyle that felt organic and human

● Using animation to showcase scenes that couldn’t be filmed

● Capturing audio interviews with subjects to drive an authentic story

● Reducing production costs by eliminating the need to travel and film

● Creating an ongoing series and repeatable process

Now more than ever brands need to be both authentic and creative in order to connect with their audiences. It isn’t enough to focus on the transactional sale through facts and figures. People buy from brands they trust and brands that stand out.