The No Normal Show by BPD – Details, episodes & analysis

Barbie’s showing love to future doctors. People are crowdfunding their hospital bills. And ChatGPT just dropped an image update so powerful, it might make your designer sweat. On this episode of The No Normal Show, Desirée, Stephanie, and Chris unpack the game-changing upgrade from OpenAI that makes photorealistic image generation feel real. From Bill Gates suggesting humans could be irrelevant within a decade, to the new frontier of visual storytelling and the copyright chaos of Studio Ghibli-style AI fan art, we explore what this all means for marketers, healthcare brands, and creatives. The AI race is speeding up—are you even on the track? Tune in now.

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From highlight reels to headlines, culture is shifting—and healthcare marketing needs to keep up. In this episode we get into why the moment is overtaking the message. We unpack the Meta tell-all Careless People, dissect the rapid-fire chaos of tech and policy updates (hello, Policy ICU), and explore how fan fiction, fantasy leagues, and even SNL are reshaping engagement in real time. Plus, we break down what it all means for brands trying to show up authentically in the age of short attention spans and hot takes. Ready to rethink your media mix? Tune in now.

Subscribe to The No Normal Rewind, our newsletter featuring a mashup of the boldest ideas, sharpest takes, and most rewind-worthy moments from our podcast — right here.

The No Normal Rewind is now on LinkedIn! Follow BPD for more updates!

We had an amazing time at last month's Joe Public Retreat digging into healthcare marketing's most pressing issues with CMOs across the nation. We're bringing you all the hot takes, right here! In this episode, Chris Bevolo returns to the show as a permanent host and chats with Stephanie about the three-day event in Charleston, SC. We explore the pressures CMOs face and the urgent need for a shift in their roles to address market dynamics and stakeholder engagement. From Paul Keckley’s insights on economic pressures to Dr. Marcus Collins’ bold vision for branding as community-building, and Paul Roetzer’s groundbreaking takes on AI in healthcare marketing—we’re covering it all. Tune in!

• Joe Public 2030 LinkedIn Group
• Joe Public 2030 Book

• Joe Public 2030 LinkedIn Group
• Joe Public 2030 Book

• Joe Public 2030 LinkedIn Group
• The Copernican Consumer
• Joe Public 2030

Obligatory Super Bowl commercial commentary

• Joanne's favorite advertisements were Amazon's "Mind reader" ads for Alexa. She found it funny, albeit slightly alarming, as many already feel like Alexa can read their minds.
• Stephanie liked Coinbase's advertisement because it was a rare instance of a TV ad directly driving conversions. The ad was so successful that it resulted in millions of landing page hits in the first minute. Unfortunately, the app crashed momentarily due to a sudden influx of users. You can read about the campaign from the perspective of Coinbase CMO Kate Rouch in this blog.
• Chase liked how Toyota's "Keeping up with the Jones" spoke to multiple generations by starring famous "Jones" personalities from different decades.
• Chris' least favorite ad was "Old friends, new fun" by Meta because he felt like the narrative painted a depressing depiction of the future through the lens of Oculus headsets.

Why Joe Public 2030

• Joe Public 2030 is officially available for shipping on Amazon. If you'd like a copy of the book or would like to learn more about the book, check it out here.
• If you have thoughts on Joe Public 2030 or would like to discuss the predictions in-depth with fellow industry experts, the Joe Public 2030 LinkedIn group is a great starting point. Bring your ideas to the table, put ours on the chopping block, and dig into shaping what's next.
• Joe Public 2030's five predictions are based on insights from 250+ resource citations and interviews with 20+ industry experts. These projections do not work in perfect harmony with each other – and that's intentional. We wanted to paint an unbiased picture of the future that isn't anchored by a singular prediction or trend.
• It's important to think about the future even if it seems daunting because it plants seeds of thought that grow into action and equip us to navigate the future. Right now, hospitals and health systems are moving full steam ahead, trying to manage the pressures of today, a fact that can't be ignored when discussing ways health systems may need to future-proof their organizations.
• Joanne shared a quote from Jim Collins' book, "Good to Great" to demonstrate the urgency of healthcare's transformation for health systems: "You must never confuse faith that you will prevail in the end, which you can never afford to lose, with discipline to confront the most brutal cracks of your current reality."

How do Joe Public 2030's predictions fit together?

Copernican Consumer + Disparity Dystopia

• In the Copernican Consumer, the book predicts that AI, blockchain, and sensors will enable consumers to make their own decisions regarding their health. How will these new technologies impact health disparities in the U.S.? The "haves" will gain access to new technologies to improve their health, while the "have-nots" will continue to struggle to meet basic health needs.
• Disparity Dystopia predicts that unless a "moonshot" initiative happens in the U.S., health inequities will worsen over the next decade.
• The technologies that enable precision medicine like personal health monitors and genome-testing are incredibly costly, potentially exacerbating health inequities.

Copernican Consumer + The Rise of Health Sects + Constricted Consumerism

• The Rise of Health Sects predicts that mistrust of experts and political tribalism in the U.S. could result in multiple health sects that coalesce around political/worldviews and depend on "alternative facts."
• If consumers are increasingly enabled by technology rooted in mainstream medicine, how might health sects and their alternative medicine continue to exist? This question shines a light on the contradictory nature of some of our predictions.
• Similarly, the Rise of Health Sects may result in factors that contradict Constricted Consumerism because more health sects would offer consumers more worldview-specific options for their healthcare.

Copernican Consumer + Constricted Consumerism

• While Copernican Consumer promises a future of personalized medicine and personal health management, Constricted Consumerism posits that consumer choice in healthcare may actually be in jeopardy as payors become more selective in the services they choose to reimburse – specifically in costly higher-acuity settings.
• This sort of payor "choosiness" has long been in motion. Before the pandemic, payors selectively reimbursed virtual care. This stinginess gave way to needs brought on by the pandemic.
• Many payors still do not reimburse mental healthcare even though society is in a mental health crisis.
• With more healthcare industry entrants vying for lower-acuity services, the top of the funnel is becoming more accessible and less cost-prohibitive.
• The splintering of health ideologies already exists but may worsen over time, making it difficult for hospitals and health systems to provide clinically sound care to fragmented communities.
• The danger is that we're being lulled into believing these changes aren't happening or are happening incrementally. The pace of change propelled by technology will usher in a new reality that could make or break health systems' ability to survive.

Peloton spinning out

• After a blowout year, many (including The No Normal Show team) had high hopes for Peloton. Unfortunately, the exercise equipment and media company has hit several bumps in the road over the past few months that have the world questioning if the pandemic darling will survive.
• Rumors are swirling around that Amazon, Apple, or Nike may purchase Peloton, but as of the recording of this show, no official bid has come through.
• Peloton's yearly earnings are actually very strong. The problem resides on the expenses side of the balance sheet. From a per-employee standpoint, Peloton has less revenue per employee than comparable companies.
• While heavy investments in product, operations, and brand have produced a world-renowned customer experience for Peloton, these investments may not be sustainable for the fitness giant.
• In an era of unknowns and rapid change during the pandemic, the stock market spiked for many digitally-based companies. Some posit that these spikes were unnatural, and falling stocks are merely a sign of a stabilizing market.

What are retail media networks, and why should marketers care?

• The Google Chrome web browser will fully block tracking cookies by late 2023, pushing marketers to rethink how they target users. This announcement, alongside other announcements of tightening privacy in big tech, has marketers looking for other opportunities to leverage consumer data. Retail media networks could be the opportunity marketers are looking for.
• Retail media networks are advertising platforms set up on retailers' websites, apps, or other digital platforms within their network. These networks are a digital version of in-store advertising.
• Now, some retailers are acting more like pure-play media agencies, securing and selling ad inventory outside of their own properties.
• According to eMarketer, retail media will be one of the top five media trends in 2022. The report states that "By 2023, retail media will surpass $50 billion and represent nearly 1 in 5 digital ad dollars."
• Now every 1-2 months a new retail media network is born. Around 81% of consumer package brands plan to grow their investment in retail media networks in the next 12 months.

Using retail media networks to advance healthcare marketing

• Health systems should consider these networks as another platform to use in reaching and influencing health consumer behavior.
• Target has been using first-party purchasing data to target potential customers for years. A 16-year-old girl received a personalized flyer in the mail from target promoting baby products. The parents were at first outraged until their daughter confirmed that she was indeed pregnant.
• Health systems should be able to model first-party data to learn about patient behaviors prior to admission similarly to how Target did in the example above. For example, pregnancy test purchasing data could help systems predict when to send patients advertisements for maternity services.
• Programmatic advertising media buys are already placed based on rich data like psychographics, browsing behavior, and contextual data. Tapping into retail media networks would mean adding consumer purchasing data to this already rich pool of data.

Time to dream a little 

• What would it look like if there were more health media networks? HIPAA and health policies could prohibit this sort of data sharing, but perhaps there's an opportunity for health and wellness companies like Peloton to take on this media network model.
• Taken a step further, what might health media networks look like if Joe Public 2030's first prediction, Copernican Consumer, comes true, and all health data points are controlled by the consumer and interconnected using blockchain?
• Amazon Care recently expanded its virtual care services to encompass the entire United States. The company also announced that it would be opening brick-and-mortar clinics in 20 major cities. These moves show Amazon's intentions to deliver a convenient, connected healthcare experience for consumers.
• Will convenience, a known pillar of consumer preference, be enough for health consumers to hop on board the Amazon train? Will Amazon's media network capabilities be part of its healthcare play? To be determined.