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A full-service marketing, creative branding and digital communications agency specializing in strategic content creation.

A Full Service Branding and Digital Agency | Lewis

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Fresh insights from the Food and Beverage team at Lewis

Our team is watching the food and beverage industry go through a moment of massive change. Social media has become the new tasting room, reshaping how people discover, share, and try new products. In this environment, brand recognition alone simply doesn’t cut it. Today’s audiences want more. They’re looking for brands that feel as alive and dynamic as the culture around them—brands that spark curiosity, conversations, and clicks. 

We’ve seen this play out in our work with the Kentucky Bourbon Trail. Even the oldest distilleries with centuries of history aren’t just leaning on tradition. They’re experimenting—launching new product lines, collaborations, and limited editions that keep fans talking (and posting) well past the first pour.


Influencer content has gone from being a nice-to-have to being one of the biggest drivers of trial. Over <a href="https://www.foodengineeringmag.com/articles/102772-2025-trends-in-food-and-beverage-defined-by-tariffs" target="_blank" rel="noopener"> three-quarters of Gen Z</a> say they’ve tried a food or flavor because they saw it online. For them, scrolling isn’t a passive pastime—it’s an active hunt for their next food or drink obsession.

Bourbon and beer brands know this well. Distilleries and breweries are taking what happens in the real world—tours, tastings, bottle drops—and amplifying it online. Those moments feel authentic, but they’re also built to be shared, sparking trial digitally and creating demand on shelves.

Curiosity sells. Nearly <a href="https://content.nestleprofessional.us/story/top-2025-food-and-beverage-industry-trend-report/page/4/2" target="_blank" rel="noopener">40% of people</a> say they’re more likely to visit a restaurant if it offers unique flavors, and almost half of Gen Z and Millennials are ordering more adventurous drinks than they were just a year ago. Novelty is the hook, and people are hungry for it.

Craft beer is proof. A citrusy IPA, a small-batch sour, or a limited barrel-aged release is never just a drink—it’s a story worth telling. And when brands frame those flavor experiments as cultural experiences, they do more than quench thirst—they create demand.

Growth Meets Saturation - Navigating a Crowded Market

Of course, there’s a flip side. Beverage categories like seltzers and probiotics have exploded, sometimes with <a href="https://www.ey.com/en_us/insights/consumer-products/beverage-industry-trends-innovation-challenges-and-growth" target="_blank" rel="noopener"> three or four times</a> the SKUs of traditional beverages. More growth means more noise. Products trend quickly, and their lifecycles are shorter than ever.

Food and beverage companies are catching on. In fact, <a href="https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/amid-economic-uncertainty-four-out-of-five-food--beverage-brands-plan-to-boost-innovation-spend-in-2025-yet-only-2-are-fully-digitized-302515038.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">83% say</a> they’re upping their investment in innovation. But in a marketplace where every product is vying for cultural relevance, it’s no longer enough to rely on traditional advertising. The brands that win are the ones showing up in cultural moments, balancing the short-term spark of trends with the long-term pull of brand storytelling.

That balance is key. Quick-hit moments on social media drive discovery, but brand purpose sustains loyalty. We’ve seen it firsthand with beer and bourbon: the limited-edition drop fuels the buzz, but it’s the enduring brand story that keeps people coming back.

For today’s food and beverage brands, the challenge is clear: **find the cultural moments where you can lean into excitement—and turn fleeting trends into lasting impact.**

Key Takeaways: Turning Food & Beverage Trends into Lasting Impact

- **Social Media Drives Discovery:** Modern consumers, especially Gen Z, are influenced by what they see online. Leveraging authentic, shareable content can spark trial and amplify product launches.
- **Novelty Creates Buzz:** Unique flavors and limited-edition releases capture attention and fuel conversations. Curiosity is a key driver of engagement and demand.
- **Trends vs. Saturation:** Exploding categories mean products must stand out. The most successful brands balance short-term trend excitement with long-term brand storytelling.
- **Innovation is Non-Negotiable:** 83% of food and beverage companies are increasing investment in new products. Staying relevant requires blending creativity with strategy.
- **Cultural Relevance Sustains Loyalty:** Participating in cultural moments turns fleeting hype into enduring brand impact, creating loyal customers beyond the initial trend.

_By strategically leveraging trends, social media, and innovative flavors, food and beverage brands can transform short-lived moments into lasting consumer engagement and market growth._

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Don’t Chase Food & Beverage Trends—Turn Them Into Lasting Impact

After years of helping companies transform their marketing operations, we've formalized what's been working into a dedicated offering.

It's called Growth Multiplier, and it addresses something we've seen everywhere: talented marketing teams held back by outdated ways of working.

**The challenge we keep hearing**: Your team was built for a world where campaigns ran for months, not minutes. Where digital transformation was a five-year plan, not a Tuesday emergency. Where you could choose between hitting this quarter's numbers OR building tomorrow's capabilities.

That choice shouldn't exist.

Growth Multiplier embeds experienced fractional marketing leaders directly into your team. We don't hand you a deck and disappear. We deliver quick wins while teaching your people new ways to work—no buzzwords, no 18-month transformation plans. Just practical support that multiplies what you already have.

The pace of change in marketing has never been more relentless. AI is rewriting the rules monthly. Consumer behavior shifts overnight. Your team is stretched thin, your budget keeps shrinking, and leadership still expects growth.

We built this because the old model—choosing between consultants who deliver strategies you can't execute and agencies who run campaigns while you figure out everything else—doesn't work anymore.

Learn more about Growth Multiplier and take our Growth Readiness Assessment at
<a href="https://www.growwithlewis.com" target="_blank" rel="noopener">growwithlewis.com</a>.

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Introducing Growth Multiplier from Lewis: The Fractional Marketing Leadership You've Needed All Along

Last year, Lewis joined forces with our client, the **Kentucky Bourbon Trail®**, to pull off something truly historic—**a global, 24-hour toast to Kentucky Bourbon**! On September 17, 2024, in celebration of their 25th anniversary, we hosted a livestream toast at the top of every hour for an entire day. Bourbon fans from across six continents and 32 countries joined in, raising a glass from wherever they were in the world. 

This year, the World Bourbon Toast™ is going even bigger—and we’re thrilled to be part of it again. On September 14, we’ll host the **World’s Biggest Toast** to Kentucky Bourbon at the world’s biggest food, Bourbon, and music festival, **Bourbon & Beyond** in Louisville, KY. Again, we’ll be streaming live throughout the day, sharing interviews, festival moments, and behind-the-scenes coverage, all building up to one exciting toast from the main stage.

And just like last year, this celebration isn’t just for people in the crowd. Wherever you are, you can be part of the moment. All you have to do is raise your glass, snap a photo or video, and **Toast & Post** with **#WorldBourbonToast**, tagging the **Kentucky Bourbon Trail®** <a href="https://www.facebook.com/kybourbontrail" target="_blank" rel="noopener">
 Facebook</a>, <a href="https://www.instagram.com/kentuckybourbontrail/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">
 Instagram</a>, and <a href="https://www.youtube.com/@KentuckyBourbonTrail" target="_blank" rel="noopener">
 YouTube</a> accounts. Tune into the livestream and celebrate alongside thousands of Bourbon lovers from all over the world. Together, we’re about to make Bourbon history—again. Get all the details at <a href="https://www.WorldBourbonToast.com" target="_blank" rel="noopener">
 WorldBourbonToast.com</a>.

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The World Bourbon Toast™ Is Back—and Bigger Than Ever 

In a world where insights are currency, marketing leaders are being asked to do more with less. Less time. Less budget. Less margin for error.

The truth? You’re increasingly under pressure to get results from consumer research quickly. You might not have the budget to re-interview 500 people. And if you’re being honest, you’re still not sure how Gen Z feels about your new brand platform.

**Enter synthetic research.** Not as a replacement for tried and true research methods, but as a tool that helps marketing leaders move faster, with confidence.

And that matters, especially now.

What Exactly Is Synthetic Research in Marketing?

Synthetic research is the practice of using AI to simulate feedback using what we already know about consumer behavior, often layered with existing survey results, sales data, and media trends to improve the quality of the model. Once the model is hydrated (taught) to act as our audience, we can use it to test how target audiences might respond to real-life scenarios, such as testing creative direction, validating messaging, and exploring white space. And here’s the added benefit: We can do this to get timely, directional insights to help evaluate next steps — whether that is investing in full-scale traditional research or going back to tweak concepts before retesting. 

Below are key differences between traditional and synthetic consumer research.

When to Use Synthetic Data in Market Research (And When Not To)

Use it for direction, not for depth—to better understand category perceptions and receptivity to new brand messages, not brand perceptions.

Synthetic research won’t replace live qualitative or large-scale quantitative studies, because the existing data sources it draws from often don’t capture meaningful brand perception for most brands. Without enough high-quality, brand-specific data in the public domain, synthetic methods can’t provide the same depth of insight as direct audience research — but it’s an ideal option when speed, feasibility, or iteration is key.

**Use it to:** 
<ul>
 <li>Fill sample gaps with hard-to-reach audiences</li>
 <li>Pressure test early-stage messaging</li>
 <li>De-risk new campaigns with directional input</li>
 <li>Explore sensitive or privacy-sensitive topics</li>
</ul>

**Don’t use it for:** 
<ul>
 <li>Brand awareness or perception audits</li>
 <li>Emotionally layered, high-context insights</li>
 <li>Regulatory or market-sizing studies</li>
</ul>

Before you add synthetic research to your insight stack, ask: 
<ul>
 <li>What decisions will this inform?</li>
 <li>Is this a directional need or a precision need?</li>
 <li>How will outputs be validated?</li>
 <li>How are data privacy and ethics handled?</li>
 <li>How can we use primary research, first-party data or publicly available data to train the model for multiple use-cases?</li>
</ul>

These questions separate shiny tech from strategic value.

Not all synthetic tools are created equal. Ask your partner: 
<ul>
 <li>Where does the training data come from?</li>
 <li>Can we securely add de-identified first-party data and primary research, with assurance it will only be used for our study?</li>
 <li>How do you avoid bias amplification?</li>
 <li>Can I validate your panel design or prompts?</li>
 <li>What’s your plan to maintain model accuracy over time?</li>
</ul>

_If they can’t answer clearly, walk away._

At Lewis, we’re actively reviewing partners to explore message testing with synthetic panels and sample boosting for small or segmented quant studies. We are also strong advocates of using synthetic feedback to sharpen creative or campaign strategy. To put it simply, we’re not replacing our toolkit—we’re expanding it.

Synthetic research isn’t perfect. It’s a tool that is actively evolving and improving, but great strategy still depends on human instinct. On asking the right questions. On seeing the nuance that synthetic models can’t.

But it’s perfectly suited to meet the needs of marketing teams — fast, interactive, and insight-led.

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Synthetic Research Isn’t the Future—It’s the Shortcut

Brand marketing and performance marketing used to live in separate lanes—one built long-term affinity, the other drove short-term action. But more often than not, marketers no longer have that luxury. Time, budget—and perhaps most importantly—audiences don’t experience brands in silos, and our marketing shouldn’t either. **We have to win the day every day**.

At Lewis, we believe in brand-level work. We believe in setting the stage for action long before action takes place. We love big brand ideas—bold, beautiful campaigns that stop you in your tracks and stay with you long after. There’s absolutely still a place for those epic impressions. But in today’s world, they can’t be the only ones doing the heavy lifting.

That’s why we embrace a **brandformance** mindset—where brand marketing and performance marketing are no longer separate disciplines, but parts of a unified, modern approach to growth.

Scalable systems are required for brands to be on every day and be everywhere, driving market share and revenue growth at every point throughout the customer journey. Every impression—whether a social post, a pre-roll ad, an email, a search-sponsored ad, or a banner—is a brand impression. And fleeting as they are, those touchpoints can be just as powerful at building memory and shaping perception as the once-a-year, beautifully crafted anthem video.

Marketers can’t afford to divide efforts. **In an attention-scarce world, everything we put out has to work harder, do more, and deliver both impact and results**.

We’ve created a proprietary, scalable system that fuses the power of performance with the soul of brand. Because we believe growth isn’t just a metric—it’s a mindset. And when brand and performance work together, growth isn’t just possible. It’s beautiful.

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Brand. Performance. Both!

Brand. Performance. Both.

**MOBILE, Ala. (April 23, 2025)** — Lewis, an independent, integrated creative and media agency founded in Mobile in 1951, is proud to announce its relocation from its 37-year home on Government Street to a beautifully renovated building in the heart of Mobile’s business district.

“Lewis has grown into an internationally-acclaimed company with three offices across the South thanks to our beginnings in Mobile,” said Ellen Faulkner, Lewis’ CEO.

“We wanted to be sure our presence in our hometown is as innovative and vibrant as our company is today. Our goal was to create an environment for putting fresh thinking into action; a space for the biggest ideas Alabama has ever seen.”

“By planting our roots downtown, we’re investing in the future of Mobile. We want to be where innovation happens, where stories are shared and where community thrives. Downtown gives us that energy and opportunity.”

The move to 500 St. Louis Street marks a new chapter of growth for Lewis and the company’s commitment to economic development of the city. From purchase, to demolition, to renovation, Lewis has invested $7 million to bring their new office to life and has set an example for how other businesses can invest in Mobile’s economic future.

“When Lewis started the search years ago we knew that we wanted to be in the downtown Mobile area, and we particularly liked the vibe and excitement that was just beginning on St. Louis Street,” said Lewis Chairman Larry Norris. “We are delighted to be in the historic Automobile Alley District and are excited for the infrastructure upgrades and other investments and improvements coming here.”

The new office is designed to foster creativity and cross-functional teamwork and features open workspaces, stadium seating, a gym and a rooftop patio. It’s a complete overhaul of the former space, which Lewis first toured in 2018.

“In spite of the dark, dated interior with not a single window, we loved the potential — tall wooden ceilings with skylights, beams and the original (but covered-over) clerestory windows. And, secure, onsite parking for all our staff members,” said Norris, who previously oversaw renovations of Lewis’ offices in Birmingham (2015) and Nashville (2019).

Lewis worked with Jared Fulton of Chambless King Architects to design and restore the St. Louis Street property and OEC Workplace Solutions to furnish it.

The Mobile Chamber of Commerce celebrated the new office with a public Ribbon Cutting at the building on April 23, 2025. A private Open House is set for May.

**About Lewis:** Lewis is an award-winning, full-service marketing agency that delivers business growth at pivotal moments for companies. With over 70 years of experience and offices in Mobile, Birmingham, and Nashville, Lewis develops internationally acclaimed branding and creative advertising campaigns, based on our own business intelligence and data science, to deliver provable results with measurable ROI.

Open-concept meeting space with stadium seating and modern kitchen

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Lewis Creative Agency Relocates to St. Louis Street

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is both an emerging innovation of the future and an effective tool of the here and now. Already, this technology is making a measurable difference on how work is done in almost every industry. For our creative professionals here at Lewis, it’s a new frontier.

While there’s much to be learned, we’re [using AI and its relevant platforms](https://lewis-corp-nextjs-frontend.onrender.com/post/ai-is-already-a-part-of-the-marketing-industry-but-how-exactly-are-agencies-like-lewis-using-it) to heighten control of creative outcomes and improve our workflows, speed, vision and possibilities. To that end, Lewis recently hosted an AI workshop. The hands-on training event, _Hacking Visual Content Creation with AI_, was led by AI expert Rory Flynn and included creative teams from our three offices in Nashville, Tenn., Mobile, Ala., and Birmingham, Ala., where the event was hosted.

Flynn, founder of Systematiq AI, is a leading figure in AI training for creative teams. He’s known for his work in helping companies operationalize AI tools and improve creative quality and output. Considered a leading voice in AI-powered content creation, his expertise lies in injecting AI into workflows to amplify productivity.

“Having someone like Rory who is literally building his business around AI tools like Midjourney and Runway gives our team the opportunity to see how this technology is being leveraged,” said Robert Froedge, Executive Vice President at Lewis. “Our team was able to focus on practical skills for integrating generative AI into daily workflows and expand what’s possible for our clients.”

Hands-On Learning: An Investment in Our Team

Throughout the workshop, our creative team engaged in lengthy Q&As and interactive exercises. The sessions helped bridge the gap between traditional design processes and AI-driven innovations.

“The workshop helped give me a better background on how the AI platforms actually work,” said Jason Headrick, Associate Creative Director in Lewis’ Birmingham office. “This, along with building prompt structures and thinking through the workflow process, will help generate better results.”

Headrick said he expects these AI tools to aid his work in various ways throughout the creative process. In the early stages of a project, AI can quickly provide better keyframes for storyboards or comp images for layouts that create the tone and look he’s working to convey.

Topics covered included:

- **AI-Powered Image Generation** – Exploring tools like Midjourney, Runway and Krea to create striking visuals from well-crafted and expansive text prompts.
- **Enhancing Workflow Efficiency** – Utilizing AI tools to accelerate ideation, automate repetitive design tasks and streamline production timelines.
- **Personalizing Content at Scale** – Examining how AI can help tailor visual content for diverse audiences while maintaining brand consistency.
- **Ethical Considerations and Best Practices** – Discussing the responsible use of AI in creative industries and ensuring that human creativity remains at the center of storytelling.

“We use a lot of AI tools out there, and much of it is now built into our production software,” said Lee Little, a Lewis Senior Graphic Artist in Birmingham. “Our advanced users have made a focused effort into these new platforms and technologies, and to hear their questions during the workshop brought a great deal of insight. Dialogue with Rory also helped demystify the art of writing an AI prompt to efficiently get the search results we’re looking for.”

One of the biggest takeaways from Hacking Visual Content Creation with AI was seeing how AI can be used in relatable, day-to-day workplace situations. By seeing how AI solves common problems in the creative process, you begin to understand what’s possible.

“Everybody is talking about AI,” said Pablo Riquelme, UX/UI Designer in our Nashville office. “So, OK, I want to use it. But it’s an entirely new way of approaching your work and workflow. Then, we do this workshop and it’s like, ‘Oh yeah, I can see what’s possible and how to harness it.’”

AI as a Creative Partner

When it comes to integrating AI into our work, we’re aiming for balance and a useful mix of emerging technologies and human creativity. For instance, AI-generated images can serve as a springboard for designers, automating the base level work and providing inspiration that can be refined and personalized by creative minds. While AI-driven automation can handle mundane tasks, our creative teams are freed to focus on high-level conceptual thinking.

“At one point, Rory spoke of the excess of time spent by art directors and designers looking for existing stock to match an idea you have in your head and how significant editing may still have to be done to somewhat match your original vision,” said Audrey Mecke, a designer in Lewis’ Mobile office. “I’m excited to use AI to curate that vision from scratch.”

The Hacking Visual Content Creation with AI workshop was just the beginning. As we continue to explore AI’s potential, we’ll seek out new tools, refine our processes and identify opportunities to integrate AI-driven solutions into our client work.

Final Thoughts: Team Chemistry

While investing in our creative teams and their continued education was key, there was also the secondary goal of bringing coworkers together across offices. Teams from Mobile, Birmingham and Nashville were able to share lunch and dinner together, before an evening out at Topgolf.

“I loved that we all blended together to make cross-office Topgolf teams,” said Mecke.

In team sports, it’s not uncommon for players and coaches to tout the intangible benefits of team chemistry and rapport among team members. These traits are equally important in professional offices like ours, impacting job satisfaction and, as a result, performance.

“It’s great when you have a chance to spend time with coworkers outside of the office,” said Riquelme. “You get to know the people you work with. And, honestly, it’s awesome. We all have a lot in common because of the shared work we do, and the shared interests that brought us into this type of work in the first place.”

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Lewis Creative Teams Attend AI Workshop on Visual Content Creation and Innovation

Being a challenger isn’t about the size of your budget. It’s about the size of your ambition and the cleverness of your strategies.

The Challenger Brand Ethos

Challenger brands lack the advantage of vast resources or market dominance – they’re the underdogs of the industry. But what they lack in strength, they make up for in agility and innovation. These brands compete by challenging the status quo, disrupting their markets, and looking for angles to outsmart rather than outspend their competitors.

Brand Evaluation Metrics: Quality, Selectability, Resources, and Differentiation

To navigate this challenge, it’s crucial to step back and evaluate your brand from multiple angles. This isn’t just about how your brand is perceived, but also understanding your capabilities.
<ul><li dir="ltr">How does your product or service quality measure up against competitors?</li><li dir="ltr">Are you easy for customers to select?</li><li dir="ltr">Do you have sufficient resources to meet marketing goals?</li><li dir="ltr">How distinctive is your brand positioning?</li></ul>

<a data-download-url="https://lewis-communications-2025.b-cdn.net//2025/10/Lewis_High_Level_Brand_Evaluation_Scoring_834c0640d9.pdf" data-download-title="Lewis-High-Level-Brand-Evaluation-Scoring">Download this simple worksheet</a> we developed to perform a high-level evaluation to start conversations with your team about where to focus your marketing efforts.

Approaches for Common Brand Challenges

Depending on where your gaps are, here are strategic pointers for each scenario:



If your product feels like it’s blending into the background, it’s time to spice things up. Advocate for enhancing the quality of your organization’s products or services. This might mean investing in better materials, technology, staff, or highlighting the unique aspects of a product or service that are not well-associated with your brand today.

Make it easier for customers to choose your brand by enhancing your visibility. Improve your online presence, optimize your SEO strategies, and ensure your unique selling propositions (USPs) are front and center where your potential customers are looking.
If selectability varies across your organization, take the lead in developing collaborations across your organization to gather data that points to areas that already have access and those that aren’t ready to convert leads.

If you’re operating with a lean team or low budget, focus your efforts on high-impact marketing activities. Re-prioritize and automate tools to handle repetitive tasks where possible, so your team can focus on the efforts that have the biggest impact on reaching your organization’s goals.

We often hear marketing leaders struggle to identify the value of investing in branding. 
<ul><li dir="ltr">Use large data analysis that spans industries to point to the value of investing in brand-building:<ul><li dir="ltr"><a href="https://indd.adobe.com/view/b6033624-f784-4869-a0eb-6b6e14fcb43c" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Kantar’s analysis</a> of 170,000 consumers across 17 years of corporate financial and quantitative research has found strong brands not only have higher market shares but they also recover from market fluctuations more quickly. </li><li dir="ltr"><a href="https://www.nielsen.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/2024-Nielsen-Annual-Marketing-Report.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Neilsen analysis</a> found that a 1-point gain in brand metrics, such as awareness and consideration, drives a 1% increase in sales. In contrast, a brand loses an average of 2% of future revenue for every quarter it stops advertising.</li><li dir="ltr">Peter Field and Les Binet’s analysis published in The Long and Short of It reviewed more than 700 brands in more than 100 profit and non-profit categories and found brand campaigns support market share growth more strongly over the short and long term than direct response campaigns.</li></ul></li><li dir="ltr">Forge relationships with your finance, sales, and operations teams to identify key performance indicators (KPIs) to evaluate together, such as:<ul><li dir="ltr">Immediate impact KPIs<ul><li dir="ltr">Brand interest</li><li dir="ltr">Lead volume</li><li dir="ltr">Quality of leads</li></ul></li><li dir="ltr">Long-term impact KPIs<ul><li dir="ltr">Perception of brand </li><li dir="ltr">Perception rank</li><li dir="ltr">Willingness to use</li><li dir="ltr">Key business metrics, such as sales and market share growth</li></ul></li></ul></li></ul>

A brand that’s distinctive drives recall when someone is ready to look for your products or services. Distinction is best achieved by both aligning with your target audience’s values and presenting your brand in a way that’s not easily confused for your competitors. 
Many brands struggle not only with how to present their brand, but also what to say. We have found staff and customer interviews, as well as focus group research, to be an effective way to inform how to distinctly speak about your organization to your target audiences.
But it’s not only important to select what to say. It’s incredibly important how you say it. High-quality creative can be a powerful element to set your brand apart from competitors.
<a href="https://indd.adobe.com/view/b6033624-f784-4869-a0eb-6b6e14fcb43c" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Kantar analysis</a> found brand distinction was the biggest factor common among the world’s leading brands.

WRAP UP

Embracing your status as a challenger means adopting a mindset where challenges are reframed as opportunities. Focus on what will move the needle for your brand, say no to everything else, and prepare to disrupt the status quo. 
If you have questions or need guidance in navigating your market, Lewis would be happy to assist. Reach out to <a href="mailto:hello@lewiscommunications.com">hello@lewiscommunications.com</a> to set up a free initial consultation call.

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Navigating the Waters as a Challenger Brand: A Marketing Specialist’s Guide

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is not just a buzzword in healthcare anymore; it's a tool that’s rapidly reshaping the industry's landscape. From content creation to personalized patient experiences, AI technology is creating new opportunities for healthcare marketers and practitioners alike. So what does that mean for your organization?

The Lewis team recently attended the Healthcare Marketing and Physician Strategies Summit hosted by the Forum for Healthcare Strategists—an event where industry leaders gathered to discuss the power and potential of AI. Here are a few of our key takeaways:

AI Applications in Healthcare Marketing:

According to a survey of attendees, most healthcare marketers currently use AI for content creation (referred to widely as Generative AI). However, everyone agrees that the tool’s potential extends far beyond that, encompassing customer segmentation, predictive analytics, and much more.

Despite its widespread adoption, AI governance remains very much a mixed bag. As Carlton Wood, Lewis EVP and Partner, points out: “Some organizations employ detailed plans and staff, while others still lack a structured approach. We’re still in a relatively new phase of this era.”

Generative AI: open vs. closed networks

Currently, healthcare networks are using either open or closed networks for their Generative AI purposes—and there are benefits and drawbacks to both.

Closed networks allow information to be put into the system from multiple sources, but put up a firewall to keep the information from going back out to the open web. These networks make it easier to maintain data security and compliance, but they also negatively impact transparency and innovation.

Open AI networks, on the other hand, enable data to flow between and among multiple networks, platforms and geographical locations. And while these networks allow for higher transparency and data growth, they also present serious security and quality challenges.

Jennifer Carter, VP Channel Engagement at Lewis, has a word of caution about the latter. “The main challenge with open generative AI is that a company’s intellectual property is at stake. Are you willing to share that information with everyone?”

The Lewis team recommendation is that most healthcare networks are better off using closed networks and stay compliant with regulations.

AI in Healthcare Operations:

In the operations arena, AI offers a huge capacity to automate, assist, and augment human work. Many healthcare systems use the tool to optimize data analysis, consumer experience and even live agent assistance. Everyone agrees, however, on the importance of partnering with reputable vendors and data security.

A few conference speakers championed a more cautious approach to AI adoption, with some blocking platforms like ChatGPT to safeguard proprietary information and others even developing their own encrypted chatbot for internal use.

The New Era of Search

AI is also transforming search experiences, with conversational chatbot searches gaining traction over traditional Google searches. Content strategies need to adapt to embrace long-tail keywords, address local voice queries, and optimize for featured snippets.

Our Thoughts

There’s no doubt AI is revolutionizing healthcare marketing and operations, offering unprecedented opportunities for efficiency, personalization, and innovation. However, navigating the AI landscape requires careful consideration of ethical, privacy, and security concerns alongside strategic implementation and collaboration across all levels of healthcare organizations. As the industry continues to evolve, embracing AI will be essential for staying competitive and delivering exceptional care to patients worldwide.

Read on to see [how we’ve begun leveraging AI at Lewis.](https://lewis-corp-nextjs-frontend.onrender.com/blog/ai-is-already-a-part-of-the-marketing-industry-but-how-exactly-are-agencies-like-lewis-using-it)

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Navigating the AI Landscape in Healthcare Marketing: Key Insights from HMPS 2024

Bring up AI in a casual conversation and you will likely trigger a passionate discussion or even a heated argument. (And that’s _before_ the subject of machines taking over the world even comes up). Let’s face it: good, bad or ugly—everyone has an opinion on AI these days and the subject is only about to get more complicated as time marches on.

This is especially true of the marketing industry. With the use of AI technology increasing with each passing day, many of our business partners are beginning to ask some important questions. How is AI being used at your agency? Which departments are most frequently using it? More importantly, exactly how effective is it?

A growing partnership

True to our innovative spirit, the Lewis team has been exploring the possibilities of AI technology since it first became widely available. In fact, many of our team members are already using AI tools such as ChatGPT, Jasper, and MidJourney on a regular basis. From marketing research and copywriting to image creation and even basic coding, our associates increasingly tap into the ever-evolving AI resources to help them solve some of their daily challenges.

There’s a “but”…

Of course, the extent to which they use it, and the results they get, can vary widely from case to case—and a lot of it has to do with AI’s relative newness. As is the case with any nascent technology, there are many limitations to what AI can currently accomplish. So no: there is no magic button you can press that will generate the work for you—at least not as of today. But we’re happy to report that AI does come in handy in a number of different ways.

How AI works for us

Most of our team members view AI as a useful thought-starter tool or a broad idea generator—and it’s a notion that holds true across multiple different departments.

“AI might provide that initial spark or impulse when you’re feeling stuck on a project,” says Tom Johnson, VP Integrated Creative Director. “It could even help you look at something from a slightly different angle.”

Struggling with Javascript? ChatGPT can help you generate some code—though it might need a few passes for the results to become usable. Need some new ideas for a product name? Jasper might come up with one or two off-kilter choices you might not be inclined to think of. Not sure about the syntax in the email you’re writing? Grammarly’s integrated AI feature can assist you with that.


Just don’t ask for too much

The key is knowing how to work around the technology’s current limitations. For example, while many members of the Lewis creative department use various AI programs to help them create images for storyboards, the results are often erratic and lacking in crucial details. And when one of our copywriters recently asked ChatGPT to create some TV scripts for him… well, let’s just say the results were unusable—not to mention unintentionally comical.

Not going anywhere anytime soon

One way or another, AI is here to stay. But using it to its fullest potential still requires human creative input and supervision, at least for the foreseeable future.

Looking forward, another intriguing question presents itself, quite similar to the one the marketing industry faced when computers began popping up on our desks: now that everyone has access to a potent new tool, how do you use it to take your work to a new level of creativity—and do so in a way that makes you stand out among your competitors?

Curious about how Lewis can help your business navigate challenges in the age of AI? Drop us a line at [hello@lewiscommunications.com](mailto:hello@lewiscommunications.com).