We never had such a bright future

TU SALUD celebrates 20 years, two decades of a successful career that some of us, privileged people, were lucky enough to experience up close. In addition to the pertinent congratulations and best wishes, this anniversary is a unique opportunity to look back and analyze how the panorama of the world of health communication and information has changed, especially to understand what the future holds for us. the best way possible.

Today, more than ever, health information is essential, not only for the general population, but for all companies, entities and organizations that make up the Spanish healthcare landscape. To outsiders, this reflection may seem commonplace, but we cannot forget that this sector has experienced a type of latency in communication for many years, especially in the pharmaceutical field. Understood from a traditional reductionist conception (limited to public relations), communication was a tool that contributed little to a business model that almost did not need this type of action to flourish.

Some understood that this was an unsustainable situation: the times called for a revolution in the way agents in the sector (companies, organizations and even public administrations) presented themselves to society, as well as in the information they provided. We are talking about pioneers like our president, Carmen Pino, who more than 30 years ago founded a communications agency specializing in health, a risky venture, but one that time has marked as a winner. Another honorable example is this newspaper, which, almost since its inception in 1998, chose to bring health information to the general public in a different way: accessible, but rigorous; a difficult but necessary formula, because if this supplement has shown anything, it is that the population wants to be informed about health.

But if what this sector experienced between the 1990s and the beginning of the century was a revolution, what we are witnessing now is not far behind. Communication has become a strategic and transversal axis for any healthcare organization and this success is due to the efforts of many to give it due importance. Even by understanding it in a completely different way.

Not long ago, the health field followed the communication trends that many colleagues were introducing in their respective sectors (in some cases, out of a more or less well-founded fear of regulation and self-regulation). Today, at least, we play in the same championship. Thanks to this evolution, it is not uncommon for the population to know in some detail some of the most important advances in Science. Nor do you look at how healthcare corporations run large campaigns with innovative formats that were until recently exclusive to large consumer companies. We are also fortunate to have a unique generation of journalists, capable of starting their own newspapers or appearing on prime-time talk shows. Likewise, we found that health has become a priority and strategic sector for large communication agencies in general.

At Alabra, far from being a problem, we understand the emergence of new agents in the sector as an additional motivation to continue being the reference agency. Competitiveness fosters talent and allows us to explore new ways of reaching our audiences. We believe so, because, in the same way that others accessed this sector, we did so in others, and not without success.

This whole revolution is completed with what I was commenting on: we understand communication as something different from the traditional conception that has existed in this and other sectors. Planner Media evolved into Alabra for this exact reason. The brand change responded to a strategic transformation lasting several years based on the premise of conceiving communication as any form of corporate expression. We move forward with a transversal concept at a time when the market begins to value and demand a positioning that goes beyond previous structures that compartmentalize and complicate all the company's processes and that do not respond to the current reality. In this scenario, communication plays a fundamental role in the business strategy of any company. For us, communication is everything, and within it there is a range of tools that can be used individually or in combination, depending on a specific objective and audience. The revolution is in understanding that relations with the media and marketing (to give an example) are not only not antagonistic, but are part of a whole. The fact that Alabra is today a pioneer and leader in the design and execution of digital marketing campaigns for the pharmaceutical industry is a sample of our new positioning and this way of understanding communication.

All of this paints an exciting picture. Never before have we had such a bright future for health communication. For those who haven't done it yet, now is the time to embrace this new way of understanding communication. In any case, we will all be lucky to count on YOUR HEALTH.