Havas Media’s Sarah Karges: AI’s ‘Search Answers Sooner’ is Having a Dramatic Impact on Healthcare Marketing
Artificial intelligence empowers patients with faster access to health information and earlier decision-making capabilities, but healthcare marketers must adapt strategies to intersect these accelerated search behaviors with relevant, timely messaging.
“AI is really part of the entire patient journey and it’s really about being able to, patients can go search for answers sooner. They are more empowered, they’re more knowledgeable,” Sarah Karges, svp, performance investment at Havas Media, told Beet.TV editorial director Lisa Granatstein. “There’s more opportunity for us to get this relevant information out there to patients.”
This shift requires precision marketing that focuses on patient journey signals rather than individual identities to deliver helpful information during key search moments.
CTV storytelling plus digital precision
Connected TV brings television’s storytelling capabilities and reach together with digital targeting accuracy, addressing healthcare decisions that typically involve multiple household members including caregivers and support systems.
“CTV really brings together the storytelling and scale of TV with the precision of digital. When we’re thinking about health decisions, rarely are those decisions made alone with one individual,” Karges said. “Being able to really intersect that household moment with that precision of digital and audiences, it really helps us have a more impactful messaging.”
Havas’s approach to marketplaces relies direct publisher connections that provide control and transparency over message serving environments.
Signal-based targeting replaces identity focus
Precision healthcare marketing prioritizes patient journey signals including weather conditions affecting condition flare-ups and over-the-counter product purchases rather than individual patient identification.
“It really means putting the patient, caregiver, and provider at the core of every decision that we’re making and really thinking less about platform channel silos, but more about the entire health journey,” Karges said. “The way that we do this is not really by understanding the actual individual identities of that patient, but more so the signals that inform their patient journey.”
This approach enables relevant, timely messaging that addresses specific health needs and outcomes through comprehensive signal integration.
Privacy responsibility drives partner selection
Managing compliance covering privacy protections represents foundational operational principle rather than new constraint, informing activation partner selection within Havas’s converged AI operating system through rigorous OneTrust verification processes.
“For us, privacy responsibility is not new. It’s foundational to how we operate,” Karges said. “All of our partners are OneTrustVerified before we go to market, for example.”
Personalization focuses on journey signal understanding rather than individual identity recognition to ensure responsible data utilization.
Health equity drives outcomes
Real health outcome impact emerges through media exposure connections to doctor visits and new prescriptions, exemplified by Havas’s health equity marketplace targeting underserved communities distant from pharmacies or healthcare providers.
“We’re really understanding and trying to reach patients that are in underserved communities, whether that be a far distance from pharmacies or a healthcare provider,” Karges said. “How can we use those signals and tie them together with health signals to get access to relevant information for these communities, drive an actual health outcome, and ultimately help serve these underserved populations.”
The initiative demonstrates signal integration capabilities that connect geographic and health data for meaningful community impact and measurable healthcare outcomes.
“We can use these signals to help inform what is going to be most relevant to provide this information so that can be using signals to be proactive instead of reactive, pre-diagnosis, pre-treatment, intersecting those key moments where a patient might be searching about their condition,” Karges said.
You’re watching “From Data to Decisions: Precision Marketing for More Meaningful Health Connections”, a Beet.TV Leadership Series at POSSIBLE 2026, presented by DeepIntent. For more videos from this summit, please visit this page.
Artificial intelligence empowers patients with faster access to health information and earlier decision-making capabilities, but healthcare marketers must adapt strategies to intersect these accelerated search behaviors with relevant, timely messaging.
“AI is really part of the entire patient journey and it’s really about being able to, patients can go search for answers sooner. They are more empowered, they’re more knowledgeable,” Sarah Karges, svp, performance investment at Havas Media, told Beet.TV editorial director Lisa Granatstein. “There’s more opportunity for us to get this relevant information out there to patients.”
This shift requires precision marketing that focuses on patient journey signals rather than individual identities to deliver helpful information during key search moments.
CTV storytelling plus digital precision
Connected TV brings television’s storytelling capabilities and reach together with digital targeting accuracy, addressing healthcare decisions that typically involve multiple household members including caregivers and support systems.
“CTV really brings together the storytelling and scale of TV with the precision of digital. When we’re thinking about health decisions, rarely are those decisions made alone with one individual,” Karges said. “Being able to really intersect that household moment with that precision of digital and audiences, it really helps us have a more impactful messaging.”
Havas’s approach to marketplaces relies direct publisher connections that provide control and transparency over message serving environments.
Signal-based targeting replaces identity focus
Precision healthcare marketing prioritizes patient journey signals including weather conditions affecting condition flare-ups and over-the-counter product purchases rather than individual patient identification.
“It really means putting the patient, caregiver, and provider at the core of every decision that we’re making and really thinking less about platform channel silos, but more about the entire health journey,” Karges said. “The way that we do this is not really by understanding the actual individual identities of that patient, but more so the signals that inform their patient journey.”
This approach enables relevant, timely messaging that addresses specific health needs and outcomes through comprehensive signal integration.
Privacy responsibility drives partner selection
Managing compliance covering privacy protections represents foundational operational principle rather than new constraint, informing activation partner selection within Havas’s converged AI operating system through rigorous OneTrust verification processes.
“For us, privacy responsibility is not new. It’s foundational to how we operate,” Karges said. “All of our partners are OneTrustVerified before we go to market, for example.”
Personalization focuses on journey signal understanding rather than individual identity recognition to ensure responsible data utilization.
Health equity drives outcomes
Real health outcome impact emerges through media exposure connections to doctor visits and new prescriptions, exemplified by Havas’s health equity marketplace targeting underserved communities distant from pharmacies or healthcare providers.
“We’re really understanding and trying to reach patients that are in underserved communities, whether that be a far distance from pharmacies or a healthcare provider,” Karges said. “How can we use those signals and tie them together with health signals to get access to relevant information for these communities, drive an actual health outcome, and ultimately help serve these underserved populations.”
The initiative demonstrates signal integration capabilities that connect geographic and health data for meaningful community impact and measurable healthcare outcomes.
“We can use these signals to help inform what is going to be most relevant to provide this information so that can be using signals to be proactive instead of reactive, pre-diagnosis, pre-treatment, intersecting those key moments where a patient might be searching about their condition,” Karges said.
You’re watching “From Data to Decisions: Precision Marketing for More Meaningful Health Connections”, a Beet.TV Leadership Series at POSSIBLE 2026, presented by DeepIntent. For more videos from this summit, please visit this page.
Series Videos
