Takeaways

• Chris Bevolo initiated our Halloween episode of The No Normal with a tribute to SNL superstar, David S. Pumpkins.
• In the spirit of Halloween, this episode centers on three scary trends facing marketers today, including climate change, political polarization, and you guessed it – Facebook.

 

Climate change as a public health crisis

• Until only recently, climate change hasn't been recognized as a public health crisis. With the rise of severe weather and natural disasters, brands are increasingly focusing on their role in addressing climate change.
• Climate change will drive more significant public health issues that health systems will have to figure out how to manage. For example, the winter storm in Texas last year made it difficult for patients to receive care and providers to deliver care.
• How to avoid a climate disaster by Bill Gates compares climate change deadliness to COVID-19 deadliness. By 2060, climate change could be as deadly as COVID-19 and, by the end of the century, five times as fatal as COVID-19.
• Hospitals and health systems are significant contributors to global warming because they produce massive amounts of carbon and will need to find ways to address their contribution to global warming.

The politicization of health

• The politicization of health isn't a new concept. During the 1918 Spanish Influenza outbreak, masks were a hot topic of political and social debate.
• COVID-19 accelerated the politicization of health. While health has always been a public issue, platforms like social media have increased the rate at which we share, consume, and react to information.
• Society calls for brands to become more actively involved in public health issues, which puts providers between a rock and a hard place.
• Health systems must stand up for medical truths, but doing so can alienate large parts of a community. As community-based organizations, hospitals and health systems cannot afford to alienate those who disagree with their principles and values.
• As the staffing crisis continues, health systems need to also think from an employee perspective so that they can retain talent. Perceived alignment with a political party could impact staffers' willingness to work for their current health system.

Facebook, enough said. 

• Chris deleted his Facebook account in 2018 because he didn't like how the company manages data. This process took "the better half of a day," demonstrating the depth of Facebook's information on its users.
• Facebook is how many marketers built their careers. What used to be seen as the "cute" side of marketing is now a significant driver in marketing strategy across industries.
• Recent news highlights the potential harm of social media on our society, including its adverse effects on mental health and inflammatory content. Reports show that Facebook has knowingly chosen to ignore these problems because solving them would negatively impact revenue.
• Our team's biggest concern about Facebook's recent scandals is that they chose not to take action. By not taking action, Facebook demonstrates value for the bottom line over the public good.
• Stephanie acknowledges that those in the social media space have known for a while that emotional content goes viral much more quickly than non-emotional content. With this in mind, it makes sense that inflammatory content goes viral more quickly and more frequently.
• Around 25% of digital marketing dollars are spent with Facebook today, which speaks to Facebook's monopoly on digital advertising. With Facebook baked into the digital advertising ecosystem, brands must ask themselves if they want to diversify their advertising channels.
• Chase identified whitelisting as the most shocking Facebook practice exposed by the Wall Street Journal, stating that this is hazardous because it lowers the standards for people with more influence, increasing the likelihood of spreading harm and misinformation.
• A few years ago, Facebook changed its algorithm to prioritize content that gets more engagement rather than content individual users express interest in. Since inflammatory content receives more engagement, the algorithm prioritizes it in users' feeds, quickly leading to "us" vs. "them" dynamics.
• Facebook renamed its holding company "Meta," reflecting its goals to build a metaverse beyond the Facebook platform.
• Stephanie follows a 70-20-10 model for financial investments in digital advertising, with 70% of your budget dedicated to what is proven to work, 20% for platforms that work fine, and 10% for experimentation.
• Experimentation is health systems' opportunity to diversify their media mix and to take ownership over their audiences by investing in building out their CRM and bolstering their email marketing efforts.