Rich Levy, chief creative officer at FCB Health, converted junior copywriter Megan Miller to healthcare, despite the fact she’d been turned off the agency by a recruiter at her university’s job fair. She told the Lions Health delegates that she’d found the agency, “low energy” upon her first meeting.
This second-day session focused on the topic of talent recruitment, with Levy sharing sobering results of student surveys the agency had conducted. The upshot, most advertising and marketing students were not considering healthcare, and would only ponder it as an option if they literally had nowhere else to go.
A spark of hope, Levy points out, in that a good sampling of students agreed they might consider healthcare as a way of doing good in the world. Certainly that’s one track to exploit in the constant, hungry search for dynamic young people to bring into the profession.
Perhaps the profession also needs to review notes from another of today’s session, on “Chasing Cool in Healthcare”. R. John Fidelino of Interbrand, invited the audience to take apart the palate of the industry through new eyes – in colors, and every form of expression. “We need to be passionate in our belief that healthcare is an awesome industry.”
Judging by the swell of applause that greeted Levy’s introduction, he is one of the agency’s most powerful persuaders.
