Global Healthcare Marketing Firm Networks with Students, Faculty in Special Showcase/Lecture Combo

The Hull College of Business held a unique event for business and health students on Tues., Oct. 11, when global health marketing giant Dentsu Health took part in a Business Showcase and health lecture.

Dentsu Health was created in 2021 from the existing healthcare marketing elements of parent company Dentsu. Its experts specialize in health, wellness, and pharmaceutical marketing. Representatives of the company flew into Augusta from multiple locations in the U.S. and Canada for the panel.

Dentsu Health, with 2,000 employees, is a link between potential clients and the rest of the Dentsu business units, with 66,000 employees. “We get a chance to be on the cutting edge of what’s new and exciting, what’s happening in the marketplace,” said Kent Groves, Ph.D., Executive VP, Global Head of Strategy.

“Regardless of the discipline that you’re in, what you decide you want to do, there isn’t a discipline offered on this campus that isn’t a capability that Dentsu Health needs,” Groves said. “We can use people that don’t go into medicine but have studied science.”

He said the company needs employees who can calculate statistics, build brands, and create television programming, among others.

The global health care industry is $10 trillion, explained Lynda Gordon, Senior Vice President of Data, Analytics, & Technology, and the U.S. is $4 trillion of that amount. The reason it is so large is based off the different kinds of companies: research and development, pharmaceutical, insurance, medical equipment, distribution, and health providers. She also explained data sources for the marketing of products and drugs.

“Digital marketing has become really key in health care. When you didn’t have a digital identity and you didn’t know how to reach somebody, you pretty much went with big broadcast. That’s why you see so much advertising in magazine and TV for pharmaceuticals,” Gordon said. “More and more now, it is going digital. When you get an ad for a pharmaceutical product, it is because you have been mapped as being a potential customer.”

Because health data is protected, there is no database of customers. Instead, artificial intelligence is used to determine potential customers based on demographic data added to medical claims information.

After the Showcase and networking, Groves delivered a health-topic lecture to another audience, focused on the research of how consumers are changing the way people think about health management.

“Health is not about delivering in silos. Health is about delivering across a matrix and different elements of that matrix all have an impact on how effectively it can be understood,” he said.

Groves lecture centered on research called the “Renaissance of Human Care: The Longing For Lost Interactions” and the technology adoption in healthcare has been accelerating since the COVID-19 pandemic.

Consumers have developed expectations that health brands should create both empathy and a more accessible and supportive experience.

The College hosts multiple companies each semester as part of its Business Showcase Series, an opportunity for companies to introduce their industry, culture, and opportunities to students and then network with them.