How embracing creativity transformed ‘boring’ Sanofi Consumer Healthcare

“As a previously boring self-care company, we were not a destination for creatives who wanted to explore crazy ideas: they prefer to go to a Heinz or a P&G or a Unilever or Nestlé or anyone else rather than us,” he tells The Drum.

We’ve all seen the traditional healthcare ads, starting with a gray-scale world and a person in pain who takes some medication before the world around them suddenly brightens and life is wonderful again.

“That ecosystem, which has been perpetrated over decades, has been so ingrained into the brains of people in this industry that it generally doesn’t allow us to go outside and explore different ways of expressing our brands,” says Hernandez.

Yes, healthcare advertising is regulated, but Hernandez says the industry holds itself back with what he calls “perceived constraint,”

“There is a little bit of weight that we carry with us that hasn’t allowed us to unlock the potential of our brands to the degree that other industries have been able to do, even if they’re regulated. We did it to ourselves.” He gives the example of the financial and travel industries, both highly regulated but able to connect with consumers emotionally.

For Hernandez, healthcare has more license to inject emotion into its communications. These are products that can help people sleep, relieve their back pain or help with digestion. “The relief we can generate can create an emotional connection with a brand that is far beyond any other industry. The only thing is that we have been our worst enemy.”

The task then was to “evangelize” the business.

Looking outside the category

To execute his plan, Hernandez and 12 marketers from different Sanofi brands went to Cannes Lions to learn from creatives outside the health category. “While other people go to Cannes to do the partying, we had a full-on four-day agenda. We wanted to see who does experience planning better than anyone else, who does brand better than anyone else, who talks about emotional connection in health better than anyone else.”

On the fifth day, the group came together to compare notes and create a seven-point plan to make Sanofi a more creative place. The plan was presented to the leadership team, who approved it, and then the marketing function began implementing it.

Some highlights include the formation of the ‘Creative Lab,’ which brings together internal and external experts to meet for three hours a month to review Sanofi’s previous month’s marketing output. The group also invites marketers from aspirational brands such as Red Bull and Dove into its offices to see what it can learn from them.

Then there is the ‘Crazy Creative Fund,’ which permits Hernandez to take money from the budget to fund out-of-the-box ideas. Anyone from the Creative Lab can pitch an idea and the commission is decided by democracy. So far, the lab has funded nine ideas, including its Cannes Lions win.

One other action point Hernandez flags is the changing of the briefing process – what he calls “a dramatic simplification of the process,” It’s now a single page and the word ‘and’ is banned, as are bullet points. He says that allowing people to make choices makes them less brave. “This then translates into less bravery in the way that creatives look at your brief and translates into less brave ideas.”

The strategy has seen Buscopan run a Fashion Week campaign and Enterogermina produce a gaming activation called ‘Ready Player Mom,’ the latter landing Sanofi its first Cannes Lion.

Since Hernandez introduced his plan, Sanofi has seen 250% increase in creative awards compared with the previous year.

“By embracing creativity as a way of operating the organization, agencies are now telling us that we’re considered a destination because talent wants to come and work for us because they can bring ideas.”