The Medical Advertising Hall of Fame is well-known for its focus on industry history, in particular its celebration of leaders who have grown the business by dint of creativity and hard work. But the organization is switching gears with a social-first initiative that aims to increase industry diversity — and, in so doing, make room for a generation of future inductees from different backgrounds.
MAHF launched the annual initiative earlier this year, and each subsequent year will focus on improving DE&I in a different area of the industry. For 2023, MAHF asked agencies to craft a campaign that would help recruit diverse talent for entry-level positions. The winning agency’s campaign would then be rolled out over the course of six months.
Juice Pharma Worldwide snagged the winning spot this year with “Advertise Your Why,” which seeks to encourage BIPOC and LGBTQA+ individuals to consider working in the healthcare marketing industry. The campaign website is dedicated to educating candidates about career paths in the industry, from brand strategy and creative to finance and account services.
“Advertise Your Why” also showcases a series of videos that feature healthcare marketers discussing their “why” behind working in the industry. Several have been posted on MAHF’s Instagram and LinkedIn pages under the #AdvertiseYourWhy hashtag.
“The Hall is an organization that recognizes achievements, but we wanted to affect change going forward rather than looking backwards and recognizing past achievements,” said Juice CEO Forrest King. “It’s about empowerment — and about MAHF becoming a catalyst for change in the industry.”
In one #AdvertiseYourWhy video, Heartbeat creative director Andy Mathurin noted the importance of being a voice in the room that represents people who look like him.
“I wake up with the strong sense that what I do actually matters,” he explained. “If that’s changing someone’s life through storytelling or some other creative outlet, that’s what keeps me going. That’s my ‘why.’”
MAHF was founded in 1996 to preserve the history of healthcare marketing and document past ad campaigns or movements that truly changed the industry, like the emergence of direct-to-consumer advertising and the shift to digital.
The idea for a diversity-focused social media challenge stemmed from a desire to cultivate the next generation of leadership. MAHF executive director Anne Gideon hopes the effort will spur companies to make opportunities available to people who have historically been marginalized or excluded.
“When we looked at our past roster of inductees, most were older white gentlemen,” Gideon noted. “It’s known that advertising is not very diverse as an industry. We wanted to acknowledge that.”
King said the campaign’s ultimate goal is to “show people we’re here” and get them curious about jobs in the industry, then entice them to act.
“We want to give them a clear path to learn more so that if they want to join, the door has been slightly opened for them,” he continued.
While the effort is in its early stages, King is monitoring its performance in several areas: positive anecdotal feedback; the number of posts, shares and re-posts on social media; and, most importantly, the number of resumes submitted for job or internship openings. As of late July, Juice had received around 15 resumes but, King added, “I’d be thrilled if we get 50 by the time this is over.”
Jennie Fischette, CEO and president of DDB Health, affirmed those longer-term goals. “The challenge will change every year based on the tenor of where we feel it made the most difference and what work we still need to do,” she said.
In the meantime, King encouraged healthcare marketers to boost and celebrate the #AdvertiseYourWhy hashtag.
“Of course it’s a nice little pun, but ‘advertise your why’ — that means ‘tell your story,’” he added. “Tell your story because people need to see other people like themselves in order to say, ‘I can do that. I can be there too.’”
