Opella's Regional Lead on the Future of Health Marketing
In a rapidly fragmenting media landscape, the measure of marketing success is no longer how loudly a brand can shout, but how useful and credible it can be when consumers need answers—especially in healthcare. That is the core argument from Simona Mănăloiu, Brand Lead for Central and Eastern Europe at Opella, the consumer health business of Sanofi.
Speaking with Forbes Romania, Mănăloiu stated that in the next two years, marketing excellence will be defined less by visibility and more by utility and trust, driven by the rise of AI assistants and a fundamental shift in consumer expectations. She pointed out that as people increasingly turn to tools like ChatGPT or Gemini for health advice, becoming the trusted answer in an AI-generated result will be as critical as dominating traditional search engine rankings or social media feeds.
Mănăloiu underscored that this is especially pressing in healthcare, where four out of five people do not feel confident making decisions about their own well-being, often leading them to ignore treatable conditions. For brands like those under Opella, this creates an urgent need to pivot from mere promotion to establishing scientific credibility, consistent education, and genuine support that guides informed decisions.
In response to Romania's current cost-of-living pressures, she noted that even budget-conscious consumers are not simply chasing the lowest price—they are justifying purchases by seeking products with proven efficacy and trust. Consequently, Opella has adjusted its messaging to explicitly answer the consumer's core question: "Why is this product worth my money?" and is optimizing channels for relevance rather than just reach. Looking ahead, Mănăloiu believes the biggest change in marketing will come from the intersection of technology, strategy, and consumer behavior, with the consumer firmly in the driver’s seat.
Why Utility and Trust Are Outpacing Visibility in Brand Strategy
AI as the New Gatekeeper of Brand Credibility
Mănăloiu's assertion that visibility in AI responses will rival traditional SEO highlights a structural change in how trust is built. AI assistants tend to prioritize content backed by medical expertise and evidence, meaning brands without a strong, verifiable authority risk becoming invisible in the very channels where consumers are now starting their health journeys. This shifts the marketing battlefield from keywords to expertise, and from paid placement to building a digital reputation that algorithms recognize as a trustworthy source.
From Price Wars to Value Justification in Austerity Times
Her observation about Romanian consumers seeking the most “justifiable” purchase rather than the cheapest one challenges the common assumption that economic compression automatically leads to a race to the bottom. In health, where missteps carry real risks, the brand that communicates proven efficacy, quality control, and long-term care can maintain pricing power. This suggests that in categories where trust is a genuine component of value, cost-cutting competitors may not easily win market share simply by undercutting.
The Strategic Imperative for Agency Partners
Mănăloiu’s raised expectations of agency partners signal a broader industry shift. The days of excelling on a single channel in isolation are over. Companies now require agencies capable of operating across an entire data-driven ecosystem—integrating search, retail media, and health-specific content platforms—with the agility to optimize constantly. This puts pressure on marketing services firms to build AI fluency and cross-platform strategic thinking into their DNA, or lose relevance with key health and consumer accounts.
A Consumer-Led Demand for Real Help
Underpinning every point is the forecast that consumers will increasingly demand real help, not merely messages. For health brands, this means that campaigns must be judged on their educational and supportive impact, not just impressions or clicks. The brands that succeed will be those that can simplify care, combat misinformation with clarity, and prove their usefulness in everyday life. This is a long-term play that may temporarily depress some short-term performance metrics but builds the kind of deep trust that traditional advertising rarely achieves.
What Marketing Leaders Can Learn from Opella's Approach
- Build content that earns, not buys, authority. Because AI assistants prioritize expert-backed information, invest in original, scientifically substantiated content and ensure your digital ecosystem clearly signals expertise—this is not a quick win but a foundational shift in search strategy.
- Convert value messaging from feature lists to trust stories. With consumers seeking to justify every purchase under financial pressure, articulate why a product’s proven efficacy and quality control make it a better long-term decision than cheaper alternatives, exactly as Opella is doing by answering “Why is this worth my money?”
- Reassess agency partnerships for ecosystem thinking. Move beyond specialists who only excel in one channel. Demand partners who can integrate data, retail media, and AI tools to optimize performance in real time—Mănăloiu’s emphasis on agility and cross-platform fluency is the new baseline.
- Design marketing to genuinely reduce consumer anxiety. Given that 80% of people feel unconfident in health decisions, every touchpoint should lower the cognitive load. Prioritize educational formats that directly answer real questions, rather than promotional messages that add noise.
- Monitor AI-platform credibility criteria. As AI-driven discovery grows, understand what each major assistant (Google Gemini, ChatGPT, etc.) considers a trustworthy source in your sector, and ensure your brand’s digital footprint aligns with those signals before competitors lock in that position.
Risk & Opportunity Assessment
| Commercial Risk | Medium | If health brands fail to adapt their messaging to justify value under consumer price sensitivity, as Mănăloiu warns, they risk losing sales even when their products are objectively superior, because the 'why this is worth my money' case remains unmade. |
| Competitive Risk | High | As AI visibility becomes the new battleground, brands that do not build authoritative, evidence-backed digital content could be entirely excluded from the conversational search results where consumers increasingly seek health guidance, ceding the first point of contact to competitors. |
| Regulatory Risk | Low | While healthcare marketing is heavily regulated, Mănăloiu's strategy focuses on education and credibility, which aligns with regulatory expectations rather than clashing with them, although future AI-content labeling rules could introduce compliance nuances. |
| Reputation Risk | Medium | In an environment where misinformation is rife, any perceived lack of scientific rigor or transparency—whether in an AI response or in educational content—could rapidly erode the trust that Mănăloiu identifies as the cornerstone of future marketing success. |
| Technology Disruption | Transformational | Mănăloiu positions AI not as a mere tool but as a fundamental reordering of the consumer discovery process. If AI assistants become the primary access point for health information, the entire model of marketing spend on traditional search and social may need to be re-architected around gaining algorithmically conferred authority. |
| Commercial Opportunity | High | There is a substantial window of opportunity for brands that successfully become the 'trusted answer' in AI ecosystems early. As Mănăloiu suggests, an aging population that is proactive about health but overwhelmed by choices will reward those that make informed, justifiable decisions easier, potentially locking in long-term loyalty. |
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