Research has found that about 20 per cent of users return to an app after the first day they downloaded it but that the average app has a less than five per cent chance of being used for more than 30 days. Furthermore, around 20 per cent of the free apps available in the Android Market have not even clocked 100 downloads.

This is why creativity and engagement is key. Identifying a niche that will entertain, educate or ease the life of the consumer is vital to its success. But in this increasingly crowded marketplace, both creativity and engagement are crucial to differentiate and activate demand but it can come in different forms – from a quirky idea to impressive use of technology.

Take for example, the augmented reality (AR) app called Lungs designed to show smokers the damage caused by cigarettes. Users can control settings to reflect their own experience based on factors such as their age and how many cigarettes they smoke each day; these all impact on both the visual representation and ‘time taken for lungs to recover’ statistic.

Or how about the BeerGut Fitness app, the calorie check book that will assist you in avoiding the dreaded beer gut telling you whether you’ve earned a drink or need to exercise?

With NHS waiting lists growing daily and falling disposable income making private healthcare more unaffordable, combined with an increasingly informed patient base, the market is ripe for the countless new apps and devices actively targeting consumers keen on preventing, examining, improving and managing their health. So the question remains, is this a route more healthcare companies should be focusing in on in 2012?
In a world where audiences are publicly disclosing increasing amounts of personal information about their lives on Facebook, Twitter and other social networks, health apps are becoming more relevant and increasingly invaluable to companies wishing to have a social media presence. However, it is clear that without a healthy dose of engaging creativity many of these apps are destined to fall by the wayside.

* (Source: MobiHealthNews, September 2011).

Okay, so the picture above is an exaggeration, but it reframes the whole UK pharma social media debate a little. As Neil Crump said in his recent blog post, the guidance is all about conducting projects in the spirit of the code. Furthermore, as Janssen’s @alex__butler tweeted, people hoping that regulation will solve problems of social media in pharma is like hoping the Wizard of Oz will give you a heart, courage and a brain…

The main point with all this is that we can do most things within the social media sphere that you can do in traditional communications activities, it’s just about getting all those folks on the company side on board and included in what will be done and how, all based on having a good rationale/ethical approach and clear processes for moderation when it comes to user-generated content.

There will be no more guidance and there doesn’t need to be any need for it at all. As a traditional Englishman might say, it’s all about just applying a bit of common sense and decency!

Our first clue comes from the reactions that are provoked each time Lady Gaga leaves the house. Everyone from the media to your next door neighbour has an opinion on her new look – shock, praise, derision – the common theme that runs throughout, are the strong emotions that fashion evokes. As anyone who has made a reckless purchase will know, fashion manages to tap into our moods, making us crave the latest ‘must have’ when we are depressed, anxious or deliriously happy. While fashion and health may have very little else in common, they both have the power to create a strong emotional response in us. Needless to say fashion marketers know how to tap into this emotion and are leading the way in social media, building up communities of people who share word-of-mouth on the latest trend. The retailer H&M recently launched a new ‘Social Media Room’ across all of its international websites, importing customer’s new outfits and posts about H&M through a wide variety of media including Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, LookBook and fashion blogs. With a Facebook following of over six million and rising, they have managed to tap into their clients need to express their individuality and creativity.

So the question remains as to whether fashion psychology and trends can realisitically be used by healthcare brands to maintain customer loyalty? In fact, health charities are already jumping on the fashion bandwagon with groundbreaking campaigns such as Fashion Targets Breast Cancer and Get Tested for hepatitis C. A number of companies have also branched into ‘designer’ health products including hearing aids that look like iPod Nanos and designer dummies that deliver medicines to babies. Whilst these examples may be a little extreme, there is definitely something to be learned from fashion marketing, about the importance of making customers feel good about themselves. After all, some of our most popular consumer health brands already understand the power of slick packaging and variations on popular products that fit into individual consumer lifestyles.

Ultimately chronic illness can have a marked impact on a person’s state of mind, making them more prone to depression and feelings of isolation. Regular treatment can also make patients feel as though they are trapped in a continuous cycle of medication, which can erode their sense of self-identity. Taking inspiration from fashion marketing can remind us to consider the emotional side of the patient experience. While we may not be able to re-create the same high as buying a new pair of shoes, we can remember this month to prioritise added-value activities such as support programmes, working with patient groups and even engaging with patients in the online space, to better understand their hopes and fears.

The clip was first posted on Mashable as a calming antidote to the excitement and hype around the iPad2 launch as “basically the most soothing thing ever” (who can disagree?).  But apart from being a lovely interlude to your day, it seems to touch on something consumers are increasingly seeking. Namely elements of the tactile, the nostalgic, the honest, the home-made and the retro. You only have to walk around London’s trendy East End to see how this is influencing fashion. Nobody’s really sure whether it’s ironic or not anymore, but wearing dubious knitwear is a big deal for this not insignificant youth sub-culture…

I suppose what I’m getting at is that while people are becoming increasingly technology-literate across the generations, they are also increasingly looking for the human touch in their experience. And despite what you are told, largely by people with a financial incentive, not everyone wants to immerse themselves in new technology. A manifestation of this can be seen in the way people are abandoning search engines to access online content and clicking through links their peers have recommended to them through Facebook or other social networks. My point is that ‘human’ interaction and genuine engagement is more important than ever if you want to make people really sit up and listen.

Also, looking for the ‘next big thing’ in technology might just prevent you from fully grasping the current one, both as a consumer of online content and as a provider of it. It goes back to that old chestnut of what the point of investing in a bells and whistles website or forum is if there is already an active community just around the corner? Wouldn’t it be far better to listen to that community in an attempt to understand the interests and concerns of those people, and perhaps even engage with them yourself, before even thinking about launching a me-too marketing or awareness initiative to them?

And what about the technology itself and the healthcare setting? Yes, there are numerous new apps and opportunities to optimise technology for healthcare purposes, whether it’s a disease information app or a platform to help doctors manage their patients. But these are no good without fully and truly understanding the audiences that use them. For example, you might think of using Twitter to communicate to a group of young adults about contraception. But the average Twitter user is more likely to be in their 30s than tweeting in school, and unless they ‘choose’ to follow you may be tweeting to yourself!

The worst thing you can do is assume that just because something is new and shiny, people will like it. In fact, the worst thing you can do is make assumptions at all. So why not take a long hard look at that expensive looking digital media proposal and ask the question, is all this technology relevant? If the answer is ‘yes’ then all you have to do is put your best foot forward down the intended path. If the answer is ‘no’ then you should congratulate yourself on your honesty, go back to listening to the people you want to engage with and then get thinking about what you have to bring to the party.

A new video to promote Pfizer’s Man-MOT website does not include any immediate interactivity, although since it directs people to a live online discussion forum to speak with GPs about health issues, this doesn’t quite matter as much. What does matter is that there is a clear direction for viewers to take towards a level of interaction. Without this there is no incentive for people to watch the video in the first place, unless it is absolutely mind-blowingly funny, hugely useful and informative, or shocking (or all three?)

The second video Dominic blogged about recently was on the diabetes ‘BiG BLUE TEST’ campaign. This US-based video promised to donate money to charity every time it was viewed – a shrewd and effective tactic to increase hits. For UK pharma, this is more of an interesting case study to show what a great healthcare video can look like, especially since it now appears comments on videos are possible following the Janssen ADHD video.

Other examples of pharma-developed video content includes the now infamous Pfizer counterfeit campaign. This is a bit of a different beast since the video was also broadcast on UK TV, so is not made to be viral alone. However, it has some of the traits of a good viral video – it’s shocking nature means it travelled through word of  mouth (online and off-line) and it was also highly relevant and accessible to a wide audience, engaging people on their terms in a way that some corporate initiatives might not.

Bayer Schering Pharma has just launched a similarly engaging video which used its own brand of ‘shock tactics’. A series of tweets mentioned ‘the [sex] tape they never wanted you to see’ in the lead up to the launch of the ‘Discover Dennis’ animated videos, created by Aardman of Wallace and Gromit fame. The sheepish, sympathetic character of Dennis stars in eight different videos housed on the InBed website. The quality of the videos is fantastic and the idea of well promoted serialised videos is one that doesn’t seem to have cropped up elsewhere in a similar pharma guise. If companies begin to become comfortable with interactivity and post-moderated comments and invest wisely in such great content, might there even be a bit of a boom in such virals?

Stepping back a little, it’s worth thinking about what all this tells us about healthcare videos? Firstly, in some cases a video or series of videos is enough to centre a campaign around, without costly website build. Secondly, there is an obvious point to make about where the interactive element fits – if not on the page where the video sits then where else? Thirdly, it is easy to copy something that has worked online before but will this actually catch on? Finally, there is the ‘pub test’. In the same way a national newspaper journalist will often test the strength of a story by considering if it’s something they might mention in a pub conversation, so should a video have the same ‘tell a friend’ factor. Just as social media needs to be ‘social’ to work properly (not a wall closed for comments), so a viral video needs to be ‘viral’.

In addition to the interactivity, Psoriasis 360 speaks to the maxim of ‘content is king’. In the words of a patient commenting on Andrew Spong’s post about the site, “I don’t care who provides the info as long as it is good, this page is.” You can’t get much better testimonial than that.

However, there are always going to be alternative viewpoints. On Andrew Spong’s post about Psoriasis 360, a debate sprang up about why patients would want to join this pharma-sponsored forum and not an existing, well built community platform such as Talk Psoriasis. This is a highly valid point – why create something that already exists and thrives elsewhere on the internet? It is always important to know what is out there before treading on well worn ground. This said, there are patients that are connecting on Facebook and at Psoriasis 360 so it is working. Whether the momentum remains over the long term will largely depend on how much investment and effort Janssen put into providing updated, new and ideally truly unique content.

Regardless, this is one of the most exciting things to happen to pharma social media in the UK and deserves credit for advancing the argument for social media and make a difference to patients, as they themselves have attested to.

This is an example of something fun being effective, but what about something that plays on the emotions in another way? Health stories in the press are full of these, whether it is a war veteran denied vital treatment despite fighting for his country, or a sick but ever-lively child raising a smile in a television charity campaign, or even shock stories about the next big health threat to the nation. The bottom line is that if you can get people emotionally involved in a subject they are more likely to be moved to act. Where possible, this consideration should be factored into every element of a communications campaign.

The subject of listening to patients returned when Dr Alex Wyke, CEO of PatientView, highlighted that patient groups are now increasingly looking to get involved in improving healthcare systems, and feeding back on the value of treatments and treatment protocols. This raises issues on which the debate focused, which can be watched on the MedComms Forum video of session one.

The subject of patient interaction was also central in the day’s third session, all about healthcare social media. The all too familiar debate on pharma social media versus pharma’s legal-regulatory obligations was in full effect here. But this time a practicing pharma social media expert provided unique insights into how things can be done. Alex Butler, Digital Strategy and Social Media Manager at Janssen, discussed their ADHD YouTube page, which enables user comments unlike most UK and European online pharma projects. Alex discussed how such an approach was feasible and valuable, providing an impressive case study on pharma providing interaction with an online community for clearly educational purposes. Aurora Health PR’s Neil Crump added several insights on the matter, and he has previously written on the ADHD YouTube page in his company blog which is well worth reading.

Whatever your opinion or point of reference, it cannot be denied that healthcare is changing, not least in the UK but throughout Europe and especially in the US. As such, the value of debates like these is clear, and important to engage with as early as possible.

We have blogged before about some of the best iPhone and iPad health apps around, and the massive growth in the number of apps. And while it is too early to see what health apps will be available on the Playbook, it is clear that tablet devices such as these could soon be preferred over laptops. They will inevitably also influence laptops themselves, where usable apps are preferred over complex software.

Like the iPhone and iPad, it is possible for anyone to create apps for the Playbook. This means the app market is crowded and competitive and any ventures must make the cut, either by being niche interest or better than what already exists. Apps for healthcare professionals must bear this in mind, but there are still untapped opportunities to help patients manage their healthcare in a range of ways using tablet devices. Neglect this and others will prosper, making the market yet more crowded and more competitive.