News and Insights
FINN Heads to Global Wellness Summit in Singapore
October 10, 2019
Hailing from offices in Hong Kong, Singapore and New York, Finn Partners leaders with a keen interest in health and wellness will join hundreds of other business executives next week at the Global Wellness Summit in Singapore. My FINN colleague, Catherine Feliciano-Chon, founder and managing director of Hong-Kong headquartered CatchOn, is conference co-chair. It will be an exciting week with scores of fascinating sessions.
Among the topics to be covered will be trends taking shape in communications. As communicators, we are eager to hear, learn and share about consumers’ pursuit of wellness. For years, health has been directed toward sick-care – recovery. Now, there is a new movement taking hold, referred to as “self-care.”
The World Health Organization’s (WHO) working definition of self-care is “the ability of individuals, families and communities to promote health, prevent disease, maintain health, and to cope with illness and disability with or without the support of a health-care provider.”
Stated eloquently by our client, Ian Marks, vice president, R&D Innovation, GSK, it’s “the ability to enhance your own health through a series of ongoing personalized and real-time suggestions for mental, emotional and physical well-being.”
What’s undisputable is that communication is the connection between the wellness goals we set and the choices we make in aspiring towards them. We are impatient to learn more about how consumers search for information, what social channels they’re on, who they’re listening to and how FINN clients can play a productive role to help them effectively as part of their wellness experience.
Here are some topics we’re watching for next week:
- Mental Wellness: As today is World Mental Health Day, we’re seeing plenty of discussion of the mental health trends taking shape in the wellness category, particularly as related to wellbeing, happiness and long-term brain performance and meditation.
- Wellness shouldn’t be a battle of the sexes (but it is). While it’s been frequently discussed that men are not quick to embrace the idea of wellness, the good news is that brands are seizing the opportunity to appeal to men with creative solutions. There’s evidence this is working.
- Influencer authenticity: The practice of brands paying social media influencers to drive product uptake is now well-established. However, are influencers actually passionate about brands? We expect to see renewed conversation around authenticity in the use of influencers.
Stay tuned! I’m on a panel entitled “Wellness in the Media: Facts, Fads and the Future” and will be sharing from the conference via Twitter and LinkedIn. Follow me at @TomCalvinJones and @FinnPartners.