The consumer health industry in Asia is transforming in front of our eyes. Digital health in Asia is predicted to create up to $100 billion in value by 20251, a huge increase from $37 billion in 2025.

Consumers, including patients, carers and self-carers are increasingly turning to digital platforms for guidance and solutions. Based on a healthcare survey from a recent report in The Economist, 50% of the 5,000 respondents in APAC obtained personal health and wellness information from social media. However, 53% found it to be so overwhelming they did not know what to focus on.

Today it is more crucial than ever for health marketers to reassess their approach and shift to a proactive digital-first mindset. Ogilvy Health Asia's team has identified 4 key pathways for health marketers and brands to do so, driving impactful consumer-centric marketing solutions.

1. Crafting Emotional Content Delivered in the Right Context

The digital landscape is increasingly competitive, and sophisticated, making it even more vital for health brands to make their mark. The sheer amount of information and disinformation, however, means there is a risk of consumers being overwhelmed. To cut through the digital clutter, and resonate with audience expectations, successful brands will need to implement engagement strategies based on emotional content delivered in the correct context. That means an in-depth understanding of different audiences whether consumers, caregivers, or health practitioners. It means tailored messaging to suit each stage of the health consumer journey and platform-specific strategies to deliver it where it matters most.

Effective healthcare communication goes beyond facts. It's about resonating on an emotional level, speaking directly to consumers' needs and aspirations 

• Generate empathy and relatability
• Encourage action and behaviour change
• Leave a deeper mark on consumers' minds

2. Capitalising on Influencer Marketing and Social Media

The digital age has given rise to new voices of authority. Social media influencers, trusted by their vast follower bases, wield immense power in shaping perceptions and decisions.

Online communities are crucial assets in the digital healthcare landscape, creating safe spaces and often acting as the first resource consulted by their users. This is why successful health marketing lies in understanding the role of different influencers and engaging appropriately with them all:

Wellness Influencers
Health and wellness influencers are shaping the conversations in online communities, swaying decision-making amongst patients and caregivers alike. By partnering with platforms like INCA, we identify the influencers that count when it comes to championing consumer health brands and sparking conversation about health products, services and wellness.

Healthcare Professional Influencers
HCPs remain the primary source of trust in healthcare. A 2023 study shows 80% of Asian patients place high value on the recommendations of their HCPs, which is why we support peer-to-peer programmes and identify opinion-leading physicians.

Virtual Influencers
AI influencers represent a new realm of marketing. Virtual influencers can play a significant role in raising disease awareness and supporting patients and caregivers on their health journey.

3. Designing a Personalised Connected Journey

Consumer health decisions don't happen in a vacuum. They are part of an intricate journey, spanning awareness, decision-making, purchasing and advocacy.

Consumer understanding stems from mapping key moments of truth in their healthcare journeys and transforming them into data signals for future engagement. Broadly, the important stages that matter to consumer's health needs are: preventative health, acute care, chronic support and overall wellbeing. 

By understanding the key needs, moments that matter and the data points that brands can leverage, it becomes easier to create personalised and integrated approaches that foster meaningful and timely engagements. This leads to a more satisfying consumer-patient experience, and also enables brands to optimise their outreach efforts to create better engagement approaches across healthcare journeys.

4. Navigating the New Health Commerce Frontier 

The consumerisation of the health industry calls for brands to redefine where they need to be present. E-commerce has gone from 'nice-to-have' to an essential component in this equation.

Today's consumer-centric landscape means convenience and accessibility are paramount, and never more so than when it comes to care access. We've seen several shifts in the industry, highlighted below:

From Service-Focused to Product-Oriented Healthcare
Companies like Halodoc in Indonesia and Ping An Good Doctor in China are paving the way with healthcare that goes from online consultations to home medication delivery and vaccinations. Every transaction is also an interaction between brand and customer and that builds meaningful bonds with the brand.

Continuous Commerce as part of the Healthcare Journey
Brands need a full-spectrum ecosystem encompassing in-store, social platforms, service agents, or AI chat throughout the day to ensure seamlessness from inspiration/information, to purchase, and then to outcome.

Marketplace Commerce
Online marketplaces such as Shopee, Lazada and JD.com might not leap to mind as healthcare marketplaces, but they are pivotal. A carefully thought-through operating model is essential to leveraging those platforms and the blend of data, marketing and engagement they offer when it comes to building customer relations.

Direct-to-Consumer Models
Thinking beyond the transaction is the key to direct-to-consumer for health and wellbeing brands as there is a shift towards re-orienting the experience to add value to the touchpoint. Data-driven learning is the key to tailoring that transition-to-touchpoint transition. An example is Optifast's new direct-to-consumer commerce site in Australia, which offers easy access to its range of weight management products. 

Influencer Commerce
Influencers drive sales in healthcare just as they do in other consumer areas. Shoppable social media posts on TikTok and Shopping in Reels on IG, turn influencers into virtual storefronts for brands, combining education, information, entertainment and engagement.

In A Nutshell

We stand at an exciting crossroads in the area of consumer health. A host of factors - burgeoning wellness needs, tech-driven revolutions, and transformative healthcare delivery models - have ushered in an era of unrivalled potential.

However, seizing these opportunities demands a complete overhaul of our traditional marketing and commercial structures. Delivering credible health content with genuine empathy, harnessing the power of influencers and social media, and curating the consumer journey are not nice-to-haves in this new era. They are necessities. Necessities that demand deep understanding of local cultural context, new marketing models, and technological acumen.

* This article had been edited by Ogilvy China Marketing & Communications Team