Attending the Swaay.Health Live 2025 conference was a powerful reminder of what makes healthcare marketing unique. More importantly, we saw the value of gathering with peers in the space to benefit from the genuine sense of community among a group of purpose-driven leaders with a passion for storytelling and continuous learning.
The healthcare landscape has continued to evolve significantly over the years, making this conference all the more important to ensure that brands can follow industry best practice amongst these shifts, and ensure they do so while maintaining brand authenticity and trust.
Regardless of the session, one core message was evident throughout the entire conference – healthcare marketers universally agree on the importance of keeping the patient at the heart of everything. Whether marketers represent a provider organization, health tech vendor, or even a variety of clients within an agency capacity (as we do), everyone agrees that the sense of storytelling to improve patient care and outcomes is a key motivator.
We loved making new connections and learned a great deal from these sessions. Here are three of our main takeaways from the conference:
1. The Power of Brand is Greater Than Ever
The notion of ‘brand’ was prominent throughout most sessions. What was clear is that one’s ‘brand’ goes far beyond a logo or tagline – it’s about building trust, credibility and emotional connection. One session dove into the neuropsychology of brand highlighting the need to stand out as to not be forgotten – critical in a crowded market like healthcare – and the value of consistency when building your brand (hint: repetition matters).
These concepts not only apply for an organization’s brand but also translate to building an individual’s personal brand. In both cases, all agreed that your brand is what people say about you when you’re not in the room. Ask yourself, what do you want to be known for and considered an expert in? A strong personal brand reinforces your organization’s brand in tandem, because in reality audiences want to hear from people, not companies. That’s why personal brand is a critical component of a strategic executive thought leadership platform.
The importance of brand is relevant across all industries, but in healthcare specifically where trust is paramount, a strong brand can be the difference between being gaining traction and getting lost in the noise.
2. The Critical Need to Keep Up with an Ever-Evolving Media Landscape
Earned and paid media both proved their staying power at Swaay.Health, emerging as major topics of discussion inside and outside the conference rooms. Sessions with leading healthcare journalists highlighted just how quickly the media environment is evolving and how these changes are reshaping pitching and communications strategies.
With reporters inundated by pitches, it’s more important than ever to craft concise, relevant outreach tailored to each journalist’s beat – grounded in research of recent coverage and news trends. Meanwhile, the rise of podcasts, video content, and hybrid event formats is prompting communicators to rethink what a PR strategy in 2025 can look like, encouraging creativity and flexibility in approach.
Another key takeaway was the increasingly blurred line between earned and paid media. Sponsored content now offers not only priority and promotion, but also new opportunities for relationship-building and editorial familiarity. As one journalist put it, “what works in earned should be amplified in paid,” highlighting the need for a comprehensive, integrated media strategy. Navigating these complexities is far easier with a partner who understands the nuances of today’s media landscape and can maximize the impact of both earned and paid efforts.
3. ABM Is Transforming Healthcare Marketing Strategies
An industry-wide interest in Account-Based Marketing (ABM) was apparent based on the sessions and questions asked during them. For many healthcare brands, the transition to ABM is still very new and leaders were looking to understand and share what has worked and what hasn’t in order to improve and hone this shift in approach. In short, there’s a clear appetite for this type of strategy, amid shrinking budgets making it difficult to take risks and learn from them.
Luckily, other industries have embraced this shift successfully, and learnings from those deployments can help guide healthcare marketers toward best practices. Collaboration with an agency partner that has experience and expertise deploying ABM for other brands across various vertical markets can help healthcare marketers navigate this strategic shift.
Catch us at Swaay.Health LIVE next year
Events like these remain invaluable for nurturing relationships with key healthcare marketing leaders, helping make connections and learn from each other’s expertise. Ultimately, it’s about showing up with a willingness to learn, listening, and providing value.
As the landscape continues to evolve, we at TEAM LEWIS remain committed to prioritizing real-world events – not only to stay ahead of industry trends, but also to ensure we have the context and relationships needed to bring our clients’ big ideas to life.
Interested in working together? Reach out here.
