Ogilvy and IBM co-host a three-day hackathon with leading UK brands, to tackle some of the country’s most pressing health and wellness challenges.

 

Ogilvy and IBM are hosting a three-day hackathon at Sea Containers, which will harness a cutting edge combination of creative and tech talent to help consumers around the universal theme of health and wellness. In 2017 alone, healthcare spending in the UK is budgeted at over £140 billion with the global market for connected healthcare set to reach £37 billion in 2020.

Ogilvy and IBM have been strategic partners for over two decades, forging a relationship of shared inspiration and growth for brands throughout the world. The hack is the first time a creative agency and cutting-edge technology such as IBM Watson are being combined to provide creative solutions to clients’ challenges in this space.

The event brings together inventors, developers, UX, designers, behaviour strategists, planners and account people to find new ways to ‘create’ products capable of positively impacting brands’ presence in the marketspace. These individuals come from different disciplines and countries around the Ogilvy network to collaborate with IBM and seek fresh, creative perspectives and data-driven solutions to citizens’ health concerns.

The hack teams will use the innovative IBM Watson tool to address briefs put to the teams from Boots, Nestlé and Beacon Medical Group, covering a broad range of specific challenges at the forefront of each brands’ business.

Leading pharmacy led health and beauty retail, Boots UK was invited to put a brief forward for the Hack. Dave Robinson, Head of Loyalty, Personalisation and Partnership Marketing at Boots UK comments;

“We know that the rise in digital health care solutions means people are more interested in self-care than ever before and people are turning to digital channels in a bid to feel more in control of their health. We were delighted to be given the opportunity to put this insight forward as a brief for the Ogilvy hackathon and as a member of the judges panel, I am personally very excited to see and hear first-hand what cutting edge innovation comes out of the two days and exploring further how we can bring this to life…”

The hackathon will comprise of eight teams, each with six participants. These consist of a Watson developer, Ogilvy developer, a UX/UI designer, change architect and two additional participants chosen from the Ogilvy network. During the first two days, all teams will go through an ideation and build phase that will see them work around the clock to bring to life their ideas.

On the final day, the teams will present their final ideas to the clients and a judging panel. The presentations will be judged based on several criteria, including delivery, cost-efficiency, creativity, technical skill and design thinking.