McCann HumanCare Malaysia launch follows daunting health survey

A joint-venture between McCann Healthcare and McCann Erickson Malaysia, McCann HumanCare was launched to engage brands and companies in improving the quality of life among Malaysians and offering well-researched solutions.

Amar Urhekar, executive vice-president for Asia-Pacific at McCann Healthcare Worldwide, noted that McCann HumanCare aims to make a positive impact toward addressing the lifestyle diseases Malaysians have, and added that the industry needs to start educating children.

“For that reason, a specialist in healthcare is needed to do the end-to-end communications, informing the people of the signs and impacts of these diseases, and motivating them to make behaviour changes,” Urhekar told Campaign Asia-Pacific.

McCann HumanCare will leverage the resources of McCann Healthcare Worldwide and McCann Erickson's full spectrum of consumer communications offerings. It will offer brand management, healthcare strategic planning and patient/consumer insight.

Tony Savarimuthu, CEO at McCann Worldgroup, noted that the launch follows statistics released by the Third National Health and Morbidity Survey of Malaysia.

The survey showed that 29.1 per cent of Malaysians are categorised as being overweight and nearly 14 per cent as obese. Malaysia also has the world's highest percentage of people suffering from diabetes at 11.9 per cent, second only to India.

Over 50 per cent of working adults in Malaysia live with more than two risk factors for lifestyle diseases, including high blood pressure, high blood cholesterol and diabetes.

“This is an appropriate time to launch such a discipline with the government, NGOs, social groups, and food, beverage, and nutrition brands invested in communications to promote good health and wellness-oriented lifestyles,” he added.

McCann Healthcare Worldwide offers integrated communications solutions in the healthcare space, such as healthcare communications targeting end consumers and evidence-based scientific communications for intermediary targets like researchers, opinion leaders, and healthcare practitioners.

Prior to the launch, McCann Erickson and McCann Healthcare have worked together with brands and NGOs to launched healthcare-related campaigns, such as Nestle’s ‘How am I?’ campaign, wholegrain nutrition value for Cereal Partners Worldwide (Koko Krunch), as well as health benefits of coffee for Nescafe.

Together they have also promoted a cervical cancer awareness social media campaign for the National Cancer Society, a stroke awareness campaign for the National Stroke Association, and the Friends 4 Organ Donation campaign.

“The consumer decisionmaking process takes a sharp turn on wellbeing and healthy living,” Savarimuthu said. “The family unit and peer networks play a much larger role compared to other purchase decisions. Understanding this mindset and role of networks is critical in creating effective communications.”

Milan Agnihotri, group director of brand planning and innovations at McCann Worldgroup Malaysia, believes that the healthcare industry’s focal point is moving from illness to wellness.

“The discerning patients (consumers) and their caregivers even want to have their say in choosing a prescription brand. This patient-consumer pull is compelling marketers to improve their services in terms of providing more information and access to neutral support groups. In the near future, patient-consumer relations may emerge as the key marketing tool and the competitive advantage for healthcare companies.”