ASCO Spotlight: The Power of the Celebrity and Influencer Patient

As someone whose career has focused on spotlighting celebrities, Maria Menounos is more familiar than most on the impact celebrities can have in raising awareness and driving people to take action on important issues.

Menounos recently told People Magazine and the TODAY show that she was diagnosed with Stage 2 pancreatic cancer in January. Now recovered, she is about to welcome her first child with husband Keven Undergaro via surrogate this summer. This wasn’t the first health scare for the former host of Extra and E! News, who was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes in June 2022 and was treated for a benign brain tumor in 2017.

“My mission is to help people listen to their bodies and learn how to listen to their bodies…I want to sound the alarms to everybody that you have to be the CEO of your health…I’m grateful that I’m in this position,” Menounos said in the recent interview with TODAY.

The power of celebrity is well understood, but the role of celebrities and influencers as patient spokespeople is a growing phenomenon that continues to have a major impact in healthcare — ultimately helping raise awareness of information that can lead to potential life-saving diagnoses and treatments.

ASCO President Eric P. Winer, M.D., declared that a major theme of the 2023 ASCO Annual Meeting is the importance of partnering with patients and examining how interactions between patients and clinicians have changed over time. Collaborating closely with those impacted by health conditions is a key step toward improving the lives of patients around the world — through their insights and voices they can share compelling stories that can urge others to take action to improve their health.

As the bridge between Hollywood and Healthcare, starpower and Real Chemistry work at the speed of culture to create innovative and unique Celebrity Talent, Lifestyle, Patient and HCP Influencer partnerships backed by data-driven strategies for pharmaceutical, biotech and consumer companies. 

We leverage Pop Culture to reach and improve the lives of patients and their caregivers — to help positively impact health experiences that span diagnosis to adherence. While engaging authentic and influential voices in healthcare has vast potential, it’s important to keep the following in mind:

1. Celebrity and influencer partnerships can be leveraged to achieve many different objectives within the overall commercialization process. The type of celebrity or influencer you will want to target can vary depending on the specific objectives and the general nature of the campaign, such as raising awareness of a specific disease or promoting a specific brand or medicine.

2. To ensure content resonates with the audience, it’s important to identify celebrities and influencers who have credibility, cultural relevance and an authentic connection to the topic. Always confirm whether they have any conflicting partnerships with competitors and ensure they have the same values as the brand.

3. Because celebrities can help reduce stigmas and spark conversations between patients and healthcare professionals that can lead to a life-changing health diagnosis or treatment discussion on a massive scale, make sure all celebrity content has a strong call to action so the audience has a clear next step to “be the CEO of their health.”

4. Whenever possible, leverage celebrities and influencers across multiple aspects of the marketing mix — including paid media, earned media, social media and owned media. At starpower, we view celebrities as a media platform — a philosophy that allows us to help maximize the partnership by tapping into all the unique touchpoints that a celebrity has, including their own business ventures, channels and platforms.

5. Long-term partnerships often can provide more value and increased recognition than one-off collaborations and are often the preferred approach for the celebrity.

If you are interested in learning more about celebrity and influencer opportunities, please email michael@starpowerllc.com to set up a time to discuss with our starpower/Culture & Influence team.