We were lucky enough to catchup with David Cousins, Head of Planning at Ward6.

David started out in the industry working in media planning, strategy and research at Clemenger BBDO Sydney. When OMD was formed and media separated from the main agency, he begged and pleaded his way back into a strategic planning role because he wanted to be more connected to the creative process.

From there he spent four years at Lowe in London working alongside some amazing account planners. People like Gareth Kay who have gone on to be genuine leaders in the discipline.

When he returned to Sydney he felt a little disillusioned with the mainstream industry. Working on fast food, alcohol and washing machines just wasn’t doing it for him. So he took up a Planning Director role in the Publicis Healthcare Groupe simply to get some fresh air. His only fear was that health might be restrictive, rational and unrewarding for a planner. He was wrong.

So much so that seven years ago he and his partners set up their own agency called Ward6 based in Sydney and Singapore.

 

AH: Tell us a bit about your company and what you are doing now

DC: We set up Ward6 for one reason – we wanted to raise the bar in health communications. Not just in the traditionally ‘creative’ marketing levers of advertising and promotion, but across the entire channel mix that contributes to driving a client’s business.

In an interview recently I had someone tell me that their career experience, in med comms and education, meant they hadn’t had the opportunity to be exposed to the creative side of the industry. It’s these sorts of beliefs that Ward6 aims to challenge. There’s absolutely no reason why an educational platform or KoL advocacy programme can’t be approached creatively.
In fact, today’s competitive environment demands it.

For Ward6 it’s about being strategically smart and creatively nimble to deliver differentiating solutions for our clients that break new ground.

 

AH: Tell us about a piece of recent work that you are proud of?

DC: We recently launched (in partnership with Edelman) an integrated national campaign to consumers and health professionals for Lung Foundation Australia.

Targeted at people who consider their lungs to be healthy, it presented a significant challenge when the history of respiratory communication in Australia has been focused on anti-smoking.

We’re in the process of analysing the results but the current data is showing a significant impact on perception and strong numbers in regards to people taking action.

DC: Are there any projects you are working on that we should keep an eye out for in the coming months?

We’ve got an idea germinating at the moment that brings together a number of our core skills into a single engagement with a specialist audience – market research, accredited education, eventing, social media and brand promotion – these things might sound standard, but the approach will turn all of them on their head.

It’s exciting, complex and very difficult to execute – pretty much everything we love at Ward6.

 

AH: If you could win any award for your work this year what would it be and why? 

DC: Right now it’s all about Lions Health.

On an ongoing basis though, the Effie Awards are critical to our business.

You might be able to sell a bag of creative awards to a product manager, but once senior management are involved effectiveness is king.

 

AH: Do we really need award shows? What value do you see them offering?

DC: Award shows play two important roles. Firstly, it’s about attracting the best people to your business.

Secondly, it’s about proving that creativity drives a greater return on investment.

If you’re an agency that simply enters award shows as an act of creative self-glorification, then you don’t get the point.

 

AH: How would you see the work other agencies are making if award shows didn’t exist?

DC: The problem with many agencies in the health sector is that they staff themselves with ‘healthcare’ people first and foremost. Creatively driven advertising people come second and, as a by-product, so does some of the passion for the craft.

If you have a team that are truly obsessive about great creative, then you don’t need award shows to keep you abreast of what’s going on because they’ll do the digging for you.

That’s because people that really love creativity can’t help themselves, they intuitively track down great work to be inspired by.

 

AH: Should healthcare advertising still be regarded as separate from the wider Advertising community?

DC: No. And yes.

No, because as long as we keep making excuses for average work then our clients will never demand anything better, and the talent pool in our sector won’t continue to improve.

Yes, because there have been many examples of the wider advertising community making a complete hash of healthcare communication. You can’t get away from the fact that there’s a level of knowledge and skill required in healthcare that the mainstream agencies simply don’t have.

 

AH: Do you consider yourself as someone who works more in advertising or more in pharma?

DC: I work in the communications industry. The strategic theory and thought processes I apply to pharma brands are no different to how I approached an issue when I worked on Tesco or Burger King.

There are products, brands and audiences, all driven by needs and behaviours. It’s just the context that’s different.

 

AH: Do you think we sometimes use regulation as an excuse to make work that doesn’t live up to standard consumer advertising?

DC: At Ward6 we are very involved with the EFFIE award programme. Every year there is a discussion about the judging process and whether healthcare cases should be judged on different criteria or by a different panel. The outcome of this discussion is always an emphatic no.

Every market has its challenges, how you deal with them will determine whether you achieve greatness.

I think the longer we continue to make excuses for why a large chuck of healthcare creative is below par, the longer we will perpetuate the myth that it can only be that way.

 

AH: Do you think healthcare agencies should start planning their own media to get the creative control they need?

DC: At Ward6 we’ve always been involved in the media planning process. As Head of Planning my view is that planning never should have been carved up. The idea of having brand planners, media planners, channel planners, connection planners creative planners etc. seems counter productive to me. Either you can do all those things or you’re not a ‘planner’.

 

AH: Is it just us or does chasing the ‘pharma first’ make us sound second rate as an industry? Shouldn’t we just be chasing ‘first’?

The whole notion of ‘first’ annoys me. I prefer to chase ‘different’.

 

AH: What is the single change you’d like to see in the industry this year?

DC: I’d like to see the Australian government loosen their restrictions on consumer access to health information in this country.

Not sure if I’ll see that in 2014!

AH: Thanks!