Mind the gap: how to improve healthcare disparity through media strategy

Melissa Gordon-Ring, global president, health, IPG Mediabrands, reveals how the combination of privacy regulations and AI is causing an unexpected but growing set of challenges in reaching BIPOC communities with healthcare marketing. And the outcome of these challenges goes well beyond commercial metrics.

There’s a growing problem in healthcare marketing. No. Scratch that. There’s a growing problem in marketing that’s having a disproportionate impact on healthcare provision and efficacy – particularly for BIPOC communities.

And in the true spirit of the law of unintended consequences, the issue has arisen from two largely positive developments in the marketing space: advancing data privacy regulations and AI. Few people would deny the importance of safeguarding how our personally identifiable information (PII) is treated, or challenge the transformative impact artificial intelligence is having, and will continue to have, for brands and marketers alike.

But the evolution of these two factors is creating a major challenge for healthcare and pharmaceutical organizations in reaching underrepresented communities. And the impact of this challenge reaches far beyond the marketing sphere.

In this article I will lay out the landscape healthcare marketers are facing, look at those unintended consequences, and examine what we in the media and marketing communities can do to achieve more positive outcomes.

What’s causing the BIPOC disparity?

Let’s look at privacy legislation first. As technology has advanced, the need to protect people’s personal data has grown – and has been committed into law around the world. Globally, data privacy is enshrined in a diverse regulatory patchwork. Nowhere is this more so than in the US, which has no overarching privacy legislation but currently addresses the issue by area (such as the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act for health) or at a state level. Pioneered in the California Consumer Privacy Act, multiple states have followed suit – including several within the last year.

Many of these laws restrict advertisers’ ability to measure and target consumer segments by race and ethnicity. According to US Census data, by January 2025, over 55% of Black or Latino adults will be in states covered by privacy laws – which means half of the people traditionally underserved by or with lower access to healthcare – can’t be reached by healthcare messaging using standard methods.

AI tech can also present a challenge. In many instances AI algorithms optimizing healthcare marketing campaigns are becoming more and more biased. Why? Because marketers aren’t teaching them not to be. They’re excluding many BIPOC adults from selected campaign audiences. It’s not nefarious, it’s numbers

With programmatic – or, in fact, anything that's biddable – campaigns will always optimize towards the highest performance or fastest sell. In healthcare the key performance metric is ‘script conversion’. Historically, diverse audiences have taken longer to get ‘on script’ (purchasing treatments) than white adults – often due to factors such as having lower rates of medical insurance. So we’re never going to be optimized to those groups unless we’re purposeful about it.

How does this affect the health equity gap?

Beyond marketing reach and a potential reduction in commercial returns, why does the inability to reach certain groups matter so much?

Because this is not about ‘script lift’.

It’s about how these combined tech and privacy factors are exacerbating an already chronic rift in US healthcare provision – the health equity gap.

The Commonwealth Fund’s 2024 State Health Disparities Report ‘Advancing Racial Equity in US Health Care’ states that: “Deep-seated racial and ethnic health disparities persist across the United States, even in states with otherwise high-performing health systems.” More disturbingly, Accenture’s study ‘US health inequity: beyond the statistics’ indicated that health inequities will contribute to over 200 million Black life years lost through a reduction in life expectancy.

But what’s the connection with healthcare marketing? The answer may surprise you. Not being able to reach underrepresented BIPOC groups, a disproportionate number of which already have lower access to healthcare, can actually cut them off from potentially life-saving healthcare information.

A recent joint study from MAGNA and DeepIntent of more than 1,000 US patients and 1,000 US doctors showed that pharmaceutical ads are especially likely to serve as an educational tool for some multicultural audiences. The research showed that non-white ethnic groups were disproportionately more likely to have derived important health benefits from pharma advertising.

For example, 68% of Black or African American respondents said these healthcare ads meant they had discovered a new health condition. This compares with 65% in the Asian American and Pacific Islander and 59% in the Latino communities – and 44% of white respondents.

Similarly, when asked if pharma advertising had enabled them to better manage a health condition, 83% of Native Hawaiian respondents, 80% from Latino groups, and 71% of Black, African American, Asian American and Pacific Islanders all agreed. This compared with 58% of white respondents.

When it came to the value of pharmaceutical and healthcare advertising, the feedback from physicians was even less equivocal:

• 92% said ads increase patients’ awareness of treatment options
• 91% said ads improve patients’ understanding of their condition
• 92% said ads encourage patients to discuss health concerns
• 92% said ads empower patients to take a more active role in managing their health

Many healthcare and pharmaceutical businesses work in therapeutic areas and develop new treatments for medical conditions in which BIPOC patients over index – conditions such as HIV/AIDS, diabetes, or asthma. But if marketers can’t find a way to reach these patients – navigating the challenges presented by privacy regulations and technology’s targeting biases – the cost won’t simply be in dollars.

What should we be doing about it?

So how can healthcare marketers and brands be more accountable and reach underrepresented groups? Here are some steps to consider.

Active hygiene, monitoring and governance for audience data:

There’s no room in the audience generation process for a ‘set-it-and-forget-it’ approach. Healthcare audiences require active management, with inclusion of BIPOC individuals set as a defined strategy.

Ensure that the business rules or training data informing any AI-driven campaign optimization also has this same strategic priority. Harnessing AI in this way turns a risk of bias into a safeguard against it.

In terms of campaign measurement, make sure to capture every engagement properly across target audiences big or small. This includes tracking performance against specific BIPOC audience KPIs. It’s also important that campaign goals should reflect a longer timeline toward script lift and that audience engagement itself is a valid success measure.

Get everyone on board:

To generate and reach BIPOC audiences means engaging with agencies, media, and industry partners. This may well include dedicating campaign spend to niche media that might not normally make your lists but focus on your target communities. Similarly, reach out to internal equity advocates and multicultural leads at pharma or healthcare organizations for guidance on connecting successfully with minority audiences.

Engage experts and community liaisons:

Engaging with BIPOC audiences might mean your campaigns have to partially leave their programmatic comfort zones and go a little ‘off-road’. Connect with experts and advocates who have established ties to and trust within these communities. Seek their guidance to help shape authentic campaigns. These experts could also include physicians, enabling your campaigns to intercept your target audience during regular PCP (primary care provider) moments.

Our industry is constantly evolving. But with these changes, we have to keep people at the center of our decisions. In the service of patients, physicians, as well as commercial goals, it’s crucial that everyone has an opportunity to learn more about their healthcare options.