Digitas Health LifeBrands took a trip to The Lone Star state and immersed ourselves in all things South by Southwest (SxSW). The days went by fast and furious as we were pulled into speed sessions, meet-ups, brainstorms, demonstrations, hack-a-thons, pitches, accelerators, and a myriad of other Austin-style opportunities. The next few slides are our attempt to bring some of these learnings home with an emphasis on why the message is relevant to healthcare marketers. Enjoy!

1. SxSW 2015: Key Insights

2. Digitas Health LifeBrands took a trip to The
Lone Star state and immersed ourselves in
all things South by Southwest (SxSW).
The days went by fast as we were pulled into
speed sessions, meet-ups, brainstorms,
demonstrations, hack-a-thons, pitches,
accelerators, and a myriad of other
Austin-style opportunities.
The next few slides are our attempt to bring
some of our learnings home with an
emphasis on the relevance to healthcare
marketers. Enjoy!

3. What it is:
Our bodies communicate subtle messages. For
instance:
• When a person puts their hands behind their head, it
means they want the speaker to stop and give them
the stage.
• When you look down while talking, you’re accessing
your memory, when you look up, you’re accessing
your imagination (or lying).
• Real smiles affect your entire face, fake smiles only
affect the mouth.
Why it matters:
We need to take body language into account when:
• Observing how people are reacting to digital
platforms
• Presenting digital concepts
See What I Mean:
The Language of
the Body
1

4. FOMO, Facebook,
and Pot: Your
Brain On The
New Millennium
2
What it is:
Countless studies reveal that the Internet has resulted in
dramatic differences in the way our brains are wired.
Raashi Bhalla, Creative Strategist at Pinterest by trade,
and neuroscientist by training, explained that we
experience FOMO (Fear Of Missing Out) after seeing
Instagramphotos because of a parallel brain memory
combined with a cortisol spike. When someone likes our
post on Facebook, our nucleus accumbens pleasure
pathway is activated.
Why it matters:
Our brains are rewiring to process and map excess
information and transform that information into tasks and
behaviors outside the web.
The ability to process mass amounts of information
across disciplines can increase our ability to problem
solve. As a digital agency charged with changing
peoples’ behaviors – it was informative to see Pinterest
identifying the science behind how social works.

5. What it is:
J.M. Berger and Jonathon Morgan from the Brookings
Institute discussed their study of ISIS and how the group
has effectively gained attention by disrupting Twitter to
communicate their beliefs and spread terrorizing photos
and information.
Why it matters:
The graphic displays ISIS’ very dense network of
dedicated Twitter accounts that coordinate messages to
gain visibility. Although 50,000 accounts feels like a large
number, it’s only .02% of all Twitter users. However, it’s
their interconnectedness that gives them the ability to be
seen throughout the system.
Health communities have the same makeup: small
communities dedicated to a specific topic. While
traditional marketers may see these groups as small,
helping them form stronger bonds between each other
and to better coordinate communications using effective
content can provide huge visibility within networks like
Twitter.
The ISIS
Twitter Census
3

6. Why it matters:
In meetings with companies like NewsCred and
Spredfast, you quickly realize that facilitating a brand's
content ecosystem is not simply an editorial bandwidth
problem, but a workflow problem as well. Getting great,
credible, and relevant content that fits meaningfully into
people's hectic time-starved day is tough for any brand
(or their agency) to do alone.
The way content and media is created
and distributed continues to evolve
4

7. Why it matters:
With overlap comes opportunity (and risk). It’s crucial to
understand how these value-add media partner services
can be used, and when an agency or brand should be
owning the overarching strategy and design experience.
In healthcare, it’s important to find where overlaps are
disrupting customers’ day-to-day lives so marketers and
brands can help.
Marketing roles are seriously overlapping
5

8. The need for speed
What it is:
Velocity is speed with purpose and was a big theme this
year. Astro Teller, Head of the "Moonshot Factory,"
gave a keynote on the importance of failing fast because
it’s cheaper and you learn more quickly. When asked if
he was afraid of the pace of technological innovation, he
replied that it’s not the speed of technology he’s worried
about but our inability to react to the changes.
Why it matters:
For brands, marketing velocity can be tricky. Topical
relevance is transient and erodes quickly. Content
turnaround needs to be fast, but sometimes brands get
too caught up in trends and forget their true purpose.
Finding balance is key.
6

9. What it is:
There were 48 sessions on Health and Medtech at
SxSW. During the American College of Cardiology
Conference, which took place at the same time, there
was one talk on this topic.
Why it matters:
What will it take for patient-empowering Medtech
innovations to truly engage and excite healthcare
professionals, payers (both private insurers and the
government), hospital/healthcare systems, and the
pharmaceutical/biotechnology industry?
It will likely take proof that the onslaught of new data we
are generating can be meaningfully translated into better
outcomes—and perhaps more importantly—
less expensive healthcare.
Democratizing
Medicine
Eric Topol MD
7

10. 8
Is Big Data
the Next
Wonder Drug?
Eric Topol MD, Walter DeBrawer, John Nosta
It’s an exciting time to be a healthcare technophile.
The scale of initial enrollment in Apple’s ResearchKit is
a harbinger of efficient data gathering at a scale previous
unimaginable (and unaffordable).
What will we do with the terabytes of homeless data
being generated by a proliferating array of wearable
tracking systems? We’ll need analytic algorithms to
catch up with the burgeoning data, so that patients
and doctors know exactly what to do with the
increasingly quantified self.
Is it the next wonder drug? No. But it will help the next
wonder drug get to market faster—and will enable it to
be more effective for more people.

11. Thomas Morrow MD
A.I. MD: Virtual
Health Assistants
and the Future of
Health Care
What it is:
The Cochrane Review on compliance concluded that
“most methods…are complex, expensive, and not very
effective.”
Could artificial intelligence (A.I.) solve this problem? Did
the movie “Her” foreshadow one possible future in which
our smartphones will solve this problem?...Maybe.
Why it matters:
Most of us need constant reminders, in a conversational
manner, that responds flexibly to our needs, in order to
change behavior. We don’t carry a doctor or nurse in our
pockets all day. But we do carry smartphones.
The 125,000,000 Americans with diabetes or
pre-diabetes need someone to keep them on track.
Perhaps that someone should live in their phones.
9

12. Technology and
The Evolution of
Storytelling
What it is:
Charles Melcher, Aaron Koblin, Ari Kuschnir shared
current trends in the evolution of storytelling through
the use of technology. Collective collaboration is a
new reality,
creating better and more relevant content for
participants.
Why it matters:
Storytelling, or as we like to say in marketing,
brand narrative, is evolving. We have long sought
to place the consumer at the center, but the
audience is now a highly active participant in the
narrative. Technology has created opportunities,
enabling more empathetic & powerful storytelling.
From the devices we know today to the emerging
proliferation of connected devices (IoT), the craft of
storytelling is at the dawn of a new and powerful
age.
0

13. IoT Decoded:
Sensors, Small
Data and Social
Change
0
What it is:
We are at the beginning of a new era in our
evolution. Just as the printing press opened the
doors to enlightenment and the transition and utility of
information, sensors will rapidly change the world in
which we live. Driverless cars, smart homes, and
predictive and personalized health interventions will
not only change our lives, but are creating a data
ecosystem for continuous improvements in all
aspects of life.
Why it matters:
It is estimated that there are currently 1.5 sensors
for every person on earth. That number is slated to
grow to 50 billion by 2020. The genomic map
inside each of us is only 1.5GB of data (that'll fit on
two CDs). Biologically, we are finite, but
computability is limitless, connected, ever faster,
ever cheaper. That makes solving disease an
optimistic venture once we are more fully hacked.