Category: Blog

by Felicia Gentile, Senior Creative Project Manager

Clients are asking a fair question right now: if AI can help create, edit and generate creative work faster, what does that mean for the creative process?

The honest answer is AI can change how creative teams work, but it does not change what makes design effective.

Speed Is Not the Strategy
AI may be changing the creative process, but it does not replace the judgement, empathy, strategy or storytelling that makes design remarkable. Today’s creative teams are under even more pressure to produce content across more channels, with shorter timelines and higher expectations. Generative AI is indeed helping organizations move faster, Adobe’s 2026 AI and Digital Trends report found that 76% of organizations are seeing improvements in content ideation and production speed from AI. But speed alone is not a win. The win and value come knowing what to do with that speed.

AI Helps Break the Blank Canvas
At the start of any project, AI works best as a catalyst. Think of it as a creative ideation partner —brAInstorming. When creative momentum slows, AI can quickly generate rough concepts and visual directions. The key isn’t to treat these outputs as finished work, but as material to respond to. A skilled designer can scan a range of early ideas and immediately recognize which ones have real potential.

Efficiency Creates More Room for the Art of Design
As projects move into execution, AI can also help with repetitive production tasks like background removal, resizing assets and layout variations. When designers spend less mental energy on mechanical tasks, it can be reinvested in hierarchy, typography, narrative, and refinement, making more headspace for creative magic which ultimately separates good design from forgettable design.

In branding and style exploration, AI can support consistency and analysis. It can help evaluate color systems, component variations, or visual alignment, but it can’t assess emotional resonance or cultural relevance. That responsibility remains firmly with the designer. AI informs; creative humans decide.

The same holds true for layout and adaptation. By generating rough templates and layout options, you shift the designer’s role from manual construction to critical evaluation and refinement. Instead of spending time rebuilding similar designs, designers spend time choosing what works best, shaping the creative direction and refining the work with intention.

The Bottom Line
By accelerating early exploration, production tasks and versioning, AI gives designers more room to focus on the strategic decisions that make creative stronger.  AI can make parts of the design process faster, but speed isn’t the point. The bigger opportunity is helping every stage of the creative process work with more focus and value, ultimately producing design that feels resonant and built to connect.

If you’re looking to integrate AI into your creative process without sacrificing quality or strategic thinking, Green Room can help. Get in touch to see how we approach creative projects — efficiently, thoughtfully, and built for impact.

Rapid shifts in healthcare policy can cause angst and uncertainty across markets and among corporate executives and key stakeholders. This anxiety is particularly acute when policy shifts can have implications for access, affordability, and care delivery for millions of Americans. In such a climate, clear, credible communication becomes a matter of strategy and responsibility. The growing decline in public trust across various aspects of healthcare underscores how quickly credibility can be lost when uncertainty is met with silence or mixed signals.

Be Transparent
Insurers, pharmaceutical companies, healthcare providers, advocacy organizations or government agencies must communicate what is known with precision while simultaneously acknowledging what remains unresolved. This transparency is particularly critical when timelines, regulatory pathways or funding decisions are in flux. Stakeholders do not expect omniscience; they expect honesty. Acknowledging uncertainty while outlining a process for future updates shifts communication from one-way information delivery to a partnership grounded in trust.

A recent example of transparency helping to preserve trust is Amneal’s 2025 nationwide recall of select lots of ropivacaine hydrochloride injection after identifying the potential presence of particulate matter linked to an IV bag component. Rather than letting uncertainty and concern spread among stakeholders, the company and regulators publicly specified what was impacted at the lot level, explained the nature of the risk in plain terms and outlined clear next steps for customers. By moving quickly, naming specifics, and giving providers a clear playbook before any adverse events were reported, Amneal helped to keep the response orderly and contained, reinforcing confidence that patient safety was driving the decision.

Bring Clarity
According to The Milken Institute, nearly 9 out of 10 adult Americans lack proficient health literacy. Healthcare information and specifics related to health policy are notoriously complicated and aimed at different audiences all at once: executives making investment decisions, physicians adjusting practice guidelines, patients seeking assurance about treatment access and communities monitoring public health. A communications framework with plain language, pre-approved materials, expert spokespeople and validation checkpoints helps ensure that every update is understandable, accurate, and timely. This is particularly important at a time when misinformation and partial narratives can spread faster than verified updates.

Collaborate
Even the clearest communication is only as strong as the insight behind it. In fast-moving political and policy environments, siloed expertise creates blind spots that can undermine credibility. Multidisciplinary collaboration is a resilience imperative. Government affairs and policy teams provide legislative context, regulatory experts anticipate compliance risk, analytics translate data into actionable insight, and legal counsel ensures language and intent withstand scrutiny. When these disciplines collaborate, information becomes informed guidance, carrying greater weight when speculation moves faster than facts.

Prioritize Empathy
Above all, effective communication must be empathetic. Volatility across politics and policy affects real lives, real budgets, and real patient outcomes. Recognizing stakeholder concerns, acknowledging stress, and demonstrating a commitment reinforces confidence even when answers are incomplete or unknown. Compassion does not dilute authority; it humanizes it.

An excellent healthcare example is how UnitedHealth Group responded after the 2024 Change Healthcare ransomware attack disrupted claims processing nationwide. In a Senate testimony, CEO Andrew Witty apologized and directly acknowledged the real-world fallout for providers and patients. The company also pointed people toward support resources, including credit monitoring and identity protections for those impacted, while working to restore services and keep payments and care logistics moving.

In a healthcare landscape where political and policy direction can shift overnight, clear and credible communication can be a stabilizing force. When organizations speak transparently, consistently, collaboratively and with empathy, they’re not simply managing risk. These organizations are safeguarding trust, empowering decision-making, and helping to ensure that the people at the center of healthcare are never lost in the uncertainty, even as situations evolve.

Mark Wolfe is Principal at Wolfgang Consulting, LLC, specializing in communications counsel and strategic planning for clients in the global corporate healthcare space.  

Why experienced stewardship matters more than ever

Lean teams, bigger expectations 

Today’s pharma and life science communications teams sit at the center of more decisions than ever. Their work touches strategy, reputation, and audiences including clinicians, patients, investors, policymakers, and employees. 

At the same time, many teams operate with leaner headcounts, tighter budgets, and rising expectations. 

Forward-looking organizations are responding by augmenting teams with experienced partners, not simply to add capacity, but to add flexible bench strength that enables peak performance. 

Speed without judgment creates risk 
AI can generate drafts, summarize research, and surface themes in seconds. It can’t read a room, interpret nuance, or provide the human touch that helps teams focus on what matters most. 

After navigating countless clinical and regulatory milestones, acquisitions, issues, and organizational changes, you learn to see around corners. This accumulated experience helps me recognize risks, anticipate challenges, triage priorities when workloads spike, and support teams in reaching goals while preserving credibility and trust with stakeholders. 

Flexible leadership when teams need it
My industry tenure on both corporate and agency sides has also given me breadth and depth of expertise, a service mindset, and a true understanding of the pressures, expectations, and complexities my clients face daily. 

This helps me integrate quickly and effectively regardless of need. 

Sometimes that shows up as interim leadership, setting direction while a role is vacant or a colleague is on leave. 

Other times it means working within teams to expand capacity, leading an important initiative so the core team can stay focused on day-to-day priorities. 

Strengthening teams during critical periods, and beyond
For communications, HR, and procurement leaders managing constrained resources, the value of a senior consultant goes beyond deliverables. It provides continuity, steadier teams, and trusted stewardship during critical periods, and often beyond. 

In today’s evolving healthcare communications environment, organizations don’t simply need more capacity, they need the perspective and judgment to help teams perform at their full potential. 

Sometimes, unlocking that potential can start with bringing in the right partner at the right moment. 

Have you ever been talking with someone about the same news event and were surprised to discover you walked away with completely different interpretations? From major moments on the global stage to niche scientific updates that only a handful of experts closely follow, the same set of facts can spark dramatically different interpretations depending on where – and from whom – we hear them. 

The interpretation gap is defined as the widening space between information and how it is understood once it reaches the public after being filtered through editorial framing, headline optimization, audience bias, and even social commentary. This isn’t happening because journalists and audiences are inherently lazy. It’s the product of a media ecosystem that distributes and frames information in increasingly varied ways – largely by algorithms.  

In health and science communications, the gap gets expensive fast. FDA data can be misread, early results get inflated, and nuance evaporates the moment a quote is clipped into a headline or a social post. Furthermore, broader sentiment toward mass media is deeply negative with net confidence sitting at -42% over the past year, according to a recent analysis conducted by Green Room. More than a third of adults in the US say they have no trust in newspapers, television or radio and many feel worn out by the amount of news there is to consume these days whether it is credible or not.  

Media relations can shrink that gap but only if it’s built for the way meaning travels now. Not media relations as a visibility sprint: a press release, a quote, an interview. Media relations as meaning stewardship: protecting nuance, context, and credibility as information moves from an investor forum to an influencer video to a social forum board.  

In today’s environment, that means: 

Auditing your own language for hidden hype. Swap out hype-driven language with more precise wording to help preserve meaning as it travels. Whether it’s a quote in a press release or a reactive statement, craft language as if it will be read in isolation (i.e. a headline, social post, or sound bite). Instead of: “This is a breakthrough for early-stage data,” try “These results are encouraging, but it’s still early and will need confirmation in larger studies.” 

Measuring context framing and not just coverage volume. We’re all familiar with coverage reports that capture the number of eyeballs on your story. Green Room takes it one step further by analyzing how your story is reframed in places beyond the original publication like in influencer commentary or even investor notes. Use it as feedback to tighten your narrative. 

Practicing strategic candor with journalists. The idea of “building reporter relationships” has been beaten into the ground; closing the interpretation gap requires a little more fire power beyond quick replies and coffee meetings. There are times when sharing relevant competitor coverage or openly discussing the nuances of your data before they are raised can inspire a reporter while also increasing likelihood of accurate positioning, which can impact what audiences understand. 

If protecting nuance and measuring credibility is mission-critical, Green Room’s earned media team is ready to help. 

It’s 8:15am on a Monday. Somewhere, at a global company with offices across three time zones, a calendar invite pops up: “Org Update – Mandatory Attendance.” Ten minutes later there’s a reorg and a new reporting line delivered as a standard leadership transition email. The words in the memo make sense but half the room is still left thinking, “What does this mean for me?”

Across the country, a different organization is rolling out a new member benefits announcement. The text message technically explains everything, but people still skim, decide they’ll deal with it later until “later” turns into an unexpected bill or an ER visit that could have been prevented.

In another healthcare company, a policy change is about to go live with a new tool everyone is required to adopt but there’s only an attached set of training slides. Still, the same question echoes, “What do I do now?”

That’s the hidden truth of organizational transformation.
The job of communications is not to broadcast harder but to make action feel possible, and action only becomes possible when people encounter the same simple story in more than one place, more than one way, more than one time. That means coordinated touchpoints that reinforce each other: a poster they’ll notice at work, a conversation that puts it in context, or a single webpage they can easily pull up on their phones.

And the stakes are rising, too.
Industry-wide consolidation, workforce strain, burnout. 2025 presented more change than I have seen in our industry in over 20 years, which is exactly why, now in 2026, internal communications are shifting away from one polished message at the top, toward manager and community-led message cascades that protect trust in unstable times. Multichannel communication is the force multiplier here. It gives leaders and organizations the tools to show up consistently, makes it easier to translate important changes into “here’s what this means for you,” and creates enough repetition across environments that people don’t have to hunt for clarity when they’re already stretched thin.

Here are a few things I am keeping in mind while everything else seems to be changing: 

Be human. That means listening more than talking and this applies to leaders at all levels. It also means being present and accessible, intentionally checking in with teams and creating a safe space for people to ask questions.

Be accessible. Most people won’t read the fine print but they’ll search when it matters. Design information and use accessible technology so people can find what they need fast, especially in high-stress moments.

Be consistent. Explain the “why” in plain language so employees can understand the bigger picture and repeat it across formats. A message reinforced is a message heard.

Be transparent. “I don’t know” is a complete sentence and an honest response. Being a visible and authentic leader is a great way to demonstrate that you are in this with your teams and you are willing to bring them along on the journey.

Be engaged. Create opportunities to acknowledge and celebrate the work your teams are doing. This will not only create opportunities for high performers to lead and engage in new ways but will empower them to feel ready and confident about what is coming next.

When people feel oriented, they act earlier and avoid unnecessary friction. Trust, comprehension and follow-through all travel together.

Seven in ten people believe CEOs, journalists, and public officials are purposely misleading them yet 80% still want business leaders to address societal issues. That’s the paradox every executive walks into the moment they hit “post.” 

LinkedIn has become the new power suit. And a suit and a C-suite profile share the same rule: they make a strong impression if tailored well. 

Technology now lets companies show rather than tell what happens behind the scenes: how products are made, who the people are, what values the company stands for. Consumers and employees expect this transparency as part of the trust equation. 

Why Executive Presence Matters
Executives face more pressure now than ever before to positively represent their companies and its values in all public areas of their lives, whether it’s their private Facebook profile or attending a Coldplay concert (read our take on that reputation rehab gambit).  

That’s why LinkedIn is critical. Four in five members drive business decisions, meaning an executive’s audience often includes decision-makers, media, and future hires.  

The Elements of a Power Profile
Every LinkedIn profile, like a good suit, needs a few things to be successful: 

• The cut matters. A tailored suit says who you are before you speak. Likewise, a leader shouldn’t post generic company messaging. It’s got to be tailored to ensure that the leader’s voice is coming through loud and clear. 

• The color counts. Safe choices don’t turn heads. Leaders have stories, opinions, and perspectives that add vibrancy to the feed and sharing them can make the conversation richer. 

• Timing is everything. You wouldn’t wear a linen suit to an outdoor winter wedding. Similarly, posting should only happen when what’s being said resonates with teams, peers or the market. 

When leaders get the cut, color, and timing right, they do more than look sharp online. They reinforce trust at a moment when audiences are looking for it. 

The Wrinkle Factor
Sometimes it’s the imperfections that land best. Bristol Myers Squibb’s CEO once posted about how few of his own plans didn’t go as expected. It drew 50+ reposts, 60+ comments, and 1.7K+ engagements because audiences want leaders who are real, transparent, and resilient.  

So, who’s dressing your company?
In a world where trust in leadership is low but expectations remain high, the question isn’t whether executives should show up on LinkedIn. It’s whether they’re showing up in a suit that fits. Green Room knows a few exceptional tailors.

Remember mixtapes? I remember listening to Rick Dee’s Weekly Top 40 and waiting to hit record at precisely the right moment, patching together playlists of songs of different genres with abrupt track changes. Air Supply, Motley Crue, Elton John – all on the same mixtape. 

Fortunately, today we have a new option. Carefully curated Spotify playlists allow us to select songs, each placed with a purpose, to create a soundtrack that is cohesive and intentional.  Both are stitched together, but only one can set a tone, elevate a mood, or tell a story. 

Mixtape Messaging vs. Tapestry Thinking
We see a lot of mixtape-style communications in early-stage biotech. A press release here, a data poster there and a website with just enough to say, “we exist.” Yes, these moments in time are important to communication. But why? What’s the purpose of these communications? What’s the story we are looking to tell? And as my mother once told me, you only have one chance to make a first impression. Done well, your narrative provides a bridge to all audiences: investors, partners, patients, and the media. 

Many companies fall into a seemingly productive rhythm, churning out nonstop press releases. It’s all in the name of generating buzz with investors. Cadence does matter. However, in today’s world of information overflow, if your news cycle becomes noisy, you’re not creating real value. Putting a press release over the wire and relying on syndicated pickup doesn’t allow the media – or your audiences – to have a chance to get to really know you.  Like a mixtape without a track list, fragmented messaging from early-stage biotechs can leave audiences lost until strategy ties it all together in a cohesive narrative. 

Start Talking Before the Science
As Tara pointed out in Don’t Wait for Data, telling the science story alone is just a piece of the pie; it doesn’t build credibility and reputation. This is where strategic communications play a critical role in reaching multiple audiences and making the story relevant to each one.  

A strategic narrative doesn’t pontificate about what you don’t have. It builds on what you do: your leadership’s vision, your founding story, your unique approach to addressing an unmet need. It’s not premature to speak before your trial data reads out. Without a product on the market, investors need a reason to believe, that means knowing the track records of your leadership, the skills and experience of new hires and the small steps you’re taking to build a strong foundation both internally and externally. This is the momentum the media and your other key stakeholders need to remember your name. 

How We Walk the Talk
We worked with an early-stage specialty biotech that had a competitor that appeared seemingly stronger based on media visibility. When we started working with our client, the communications were solely based on data milestones, here and there, with no cohesive story. In other words, a “mixtape” approach. Our team started digging in, looking further into the science, the unmet need, and the company leadership. Feedback from KOLs showed that our client had a scientific advantage. So why were they not seen as the leaders? The difference: they were not telling their story. They relied only on data readouts and medical congresses to tell their story, which led to disjointed storytelling and no cohesive thread pulling everything together. Journalists are not mind readers and they don’t want to do commercials for companies. In this case, the media simply were not aware of our client’s story.  

In this particular instance, we built a leadership platform that showcased the executives’ proven track records to bring clinical assets to market. We created messages that spoke to long term value, not just the next product milestone. Developing that corporate narrative that goes above brand delivers a different strategic approach, creating a backbone that allows other messages to flow from.  

The Takeaway
This isn’t about having more data. It’s a communications strategy told consistently across paid, earned, shared, and owned channels. 

It’s tempting to delay storytelling until you have more to say. And, it’s not so much refreshing your story or narrative every quarter, it’s about reinforcing your strategic core through cohesive storytelling while adapting the way you tell it. That’s what builds credibility and creates resonance. 

Because when your company’s reputation is still forming, every touchpoint matters.  

So, ask yourself: are you handing your audiences a mixtape or playing them a masterpiece?  

Let’s be honest. If your CEO gets caught on video cozied up to HR at a Coldplay concert, no one’s thinking “let’s bring in Gwyneth Paltrow.” And yet, here we are. Data startup Astronomer, facing internal upheaval and a digital whisper network that’s now screaming across every corner of the internet, just named Paltrow its “temporary” spokesperson, days after placing their CEO Andy Byron on leave.

It’s certainly a move that has everyone talking. But it wasn’t strategic crisis management any more so than it was a slick pivot by Astronomer into branded content wrapped in a celebrity stunt. Because here’s the twist, Paltrow’s “takeover” was orchestrated through Ryan Reynolds’ advertising agency, Maximum Effort. Astronomer, a relatively small and lesser-known player in the data space, used this moment to go full meta marketing and in doing so, they missed a major opportunity to tell their broader leadership story.

Let’s break it down into some key crisis comms takeaways.

Don’t hide. Transparency wins.
Most companies in crisis default to silence, spin, or sudden leadership exits. Astronomer opted for none of the above. Instead, they handed the mic to an Oscar winner known for detox hacks, marital transparency, and yes, her own ties to Coldplay’s lead singer, Chris Martin. And for that, we give them credit. The board clearly said, “Don’t hide. Do something.”

Not all bold moves are strategic ones.
In Paltrow’s takeover, there was no mention of Astronomer’s core values, no clarity on leadership and no roadmap for rebuilding trust. Just vague mentions of “unifying data workflow automations” and a call-to-action to join the company at their upcoming analytics conference. She certainly helped recast the tone, but she also pulled focus away entirely.

Don’t underestimate the power of comic relief in the right setting.
When I first saw the video of Gwyneth, I immediately started my fact checking because it was so surprising I had to ensure it was actually legitimate. The distraction worked. However, the effort was not fully realized. Astronomer had the opportunity to educate the world about what it does, how it’s different and why the company should be trusted. Instead, it was just witty and only partially impactful.

It’s never a one and done.
Even with Gwyneth as the temporary company spokesperson, it’s not back to business as usual. Astronomer needs to continue to rebuild trust with customers and employees. That means thoughtful internal messaging, coordinated external leadership, and a clear stance on ethics, culture, and what’s next.

Our take?
At Green Room, we love a bold creative swing especially when companies don’t default to corporate retreat. But in this case, Astronomer missed a crucial opportunity. This could have been the start of a broader, more thoughtful narrative rebuild. While not featured in the Paltrow spot, Astronomer did announce a new CEO and a leadership transition plan—circulating quietly on LinkedIn. We’re not saying the ad needed to carry it all but tying the humor back to substance would have helped connect the dots.

Because more than borrowed star power, real crisis management demands internal reflection, structural change, and a re-anchoring of values.

Product communications aren’t one-size-fits-all. Whether you’re launching a hospital-based treatment for a rare condition or a patient activated therapy with high name recognition, understanding when and how to communicate directly with patients versus providers is critical. 

We recently sat down with Tara DiFlumeri, Head, Early Stage and Specialty Pharmaceuticals and Natalia Forsyth, Head, Digital Strategy to unpack how they approach product communications through a lens looking at products from B2B (business-to-business) vs. B2C (business-to-consumer) and where the line between the two often blurs.

1. What’s the distinction between B2B and B2C in a healthcare setting?

Tara: “B2B is typically when a pharma or biotech company is targeting healthcare providers or institutions directly, especially for complex or rare conditions, or when the drug is administered in a hospital setting. These are scenarios where specialty physicians drive decision making, and trusted, peer-to-peer education is key. In these cases, patients don’t always ask for products by name; they receive them based on clinical judgment. B2C, on the other hand, is anything designed to reach patients or caregivers directly, usually for products where consumer choice plays a larger role.” 

Natalia: “We’ve worked on several true B2B examples, like medications primarily accessed in a public health or clinic setting.  It’s about meeting HCPs or institutions, where they are not trying to drive patient demand.”

2. How does this change your strategy in practice? Are there examples of campaigns that evolved over time?

Tara: “It absolutely changes our strategy. One good example is an established product we work on used across multiple autoimmune conditions, for which we recently helped launch a self-injection device. This meant educating physicians on safety and convenience, while also preparing direct-to-patient education for people with dexterity issues due to multiple sclerosis or rheumatoid arthritis. So, we ran a parallel track of provider trust and patient empowerment, both necessary to drive adoption.” 

Natalia: “I once worked on a low libido treatment for women. We initially focused only on provider outreach, especially sexual health specialists, but faced major skepticism. When we switched to a bold, patient-first direct-to-consumer campaign encouraging women to advocate for what they deserved, it finally resonated.”

3. When do you want patients to know your product by name? How does that work in a regulated environment like healthcare?

Natalia: “Consumer driven spaces like GLP-1s, contraception, migraines, or hormone therapy—you absolutely want patients walking into offices asking for the product by name. Millennials especially are now both patients and caregivers, and they expect to be part of the conversation. They’re digital natives, and the way they access healthcare is changing fast.” 

Tara: “But for some medications, particularly in acute care and hospital settings, patients might never even hear the name, let alone remember it. In those cases, all communications energy should go toward educating HCPs and institutions, not patient awareness.”

4. How do you bring digital and the patient voice into your strategy and when?

Natalia: “The gold standard is to involve patients and advocacy groups early, co-creating campaigns that feel true to lived experience. It’s not always possible, but when it is, the difference in sentiment and uptake is clear. And even later on, we use social listening and AI to surface real-world feedback often preferring organic, user generated content over polished testimonial videos.” 

Tara: “It can get tricky with consumer facing digital. Clients might want to use influencers or push the envelope creatively, but healthcare comms comes with serious regulatory considerations. We have to build review and monitoring systems that account for those risks, especially when real people are talking about real products in real time.”

5. Where do teams go wrong in mapping out B2B and B2C strategies?

Tara: “Sometimes people use ‘B2B’ to mean any healthcare provider communication, when it could also mean institution-to-institution, or pharma-to-pharma, depending on your objectives. Green Room looks at ‘B2B’ as anything that touches audiences who are not patient-facing. I find it more helpful to think in terms of your actual audiences: HCPs, advocacy groups, patients, caregivers. Not just which bucket they fall into.” 

Natalia: “And sometimes teams chase name recognition even when it doesn’t matter. If your product is hospital based or only prescribed in rare situations, patients don’t need to know the brand. The right play is to educate the right gatekeepers and stop trying to make every drug a household name.” 

The TL;DR?
Product communications in healthcare can’t be treated as plug-and-play. Every therapy has its own context, timeline, and audience whether you’re educating a specialist, informing a caregiver or empowering a patient to speak up at their next appointment. At Green Room, we start with the same question every time: Who needs to hear this first?