The new chief digital officer at Makovsky, Justin Chase, says the client-customer relationship in healthcare has fundamentally changed.
“Our clients are no longer selling a product or a service, they are selling a result. It’s our job as marketers and communicators to produce that result. Coming from a background in health and CPG, my clients have been extraordinarily data focused.”
He cautions however that data can paralyze decision-making rather than enhancing it. “I very much believe data is the exhaust of the digital age. There is such an excess of data at this point [that] it’s easy to develop a certain myopia and become data dependant. My fear is that data will not only inform the ideas and strategies we create, but it will reform them. If we get to a point where we are reverse engineering based on data, I don’t believe that’s a good thing.”
Chase explain that there’s an important middle ground to be found when using data: “My goal is to find the delicate balance between data and creativity. If I can synthesize that I’m confident I can produce impactful results for my clients.”
When asked what some of the more important things he’s learned through his career are? That focusing on immediately growing the business in the short-term isn’t always the best avenue of approach, he says.
“People think driving business with immediacy is of the utmost importance, and, although it is indeed crucial,” he points out, “I am reminded of the parable that involves sacrificing long-term benefit for short-term comfort. That is never something I want to be accused of, so I always put the people first and make relationship building the number one thing I try to accomplish early on.”
From the January 01, 2016 Issue of MM+M - Medical Marketing and Media
