Lyka Turns ‘Poo Glorious Poo’ Into a Musical, Australia Launches $792.9m Menopause Campaign, and GEO Tops Health IT’s 2026 Priorities – Week of 26 May 2026

Welcome to this week’s Digital Health Observer. The thread running through this edition is how Australian health brands are rethinking the proof points, channels and priorities that drive growth. Lyka has taken its ‘Poo Glorious Poo’ campaign to the streets with 72andSunny to reframe stool quality as the visible signal of a healthy diet, the federal government has launched Australia’s first national menopause awareness campaign with $792.9 million behind it, and a FINN Partners survey at Swaay.Health LIVE 26 has named Generative Engine Optimisation alongside lead generation and brand awareness as the top three health IT marketing priorities for 2026. Plus Ipsos Iris data showing cost-of-living concerns lifting comparison site Canstar’s audience 40.6% and ShopBack 41.9% year-on-year, Bayer, Lilly and Novo routing patients into cash-pay direct-to-consumer channels through BlinkRx and Mark Cuban’s Cost Plus Drug Company, and Griffith University releasing two new scales for measuring surgical and non-surgical cosmetic procedure attitudes. Here is what caught our attention.

Lyka Turns ‘Poo Glorious Poo’ Into a Musical to Reframe Pet Health Proof Points

Australian fresh dog food brand Lyka has launched a ‘Poo Glorious Poo’ campaign with 72andSunny, parodying the Oliver! musical to reframe stool quality as the visible proof of a healthy diet. The work follows a $67 million funding round and a peer-reviewed Sydney University study showing improved gut markers within two weeks. Read more →

Australia Launches First National Menopause Awareness Campaign With $792.9m Backing

Australia’s first national menopause and perimenopause awareness campaign rolls out across television, cinema, digital, social, out-of-home and regional press, running through December as part of a $792.9 million women’s health package. Nearly 105,000 women have already accessed Medicare-covered menopause assessments since July 2025. Read more →

Health IT Survey Puts Lead Gen, Brand and GEO at the Top of 2026 Priorities

A FINN Partners survey of 50 health IT marketing leaders at Swaay.Health LIVE 26 named lead generation, brand awareness and Generative Engine Optimisation as the top three priorities for the year. Marketers said winning visibility now means being cited in AI-generated answers, not just ranked in search. Read more →

Cost-of-Living Shifts Australians’ Online Attention as Comparison and Rewards Sites Surge

Ipsos Iris data for April 2026 shows comparison site Canstar’s audience grew 40.6% year-on-year to 1.85 million, ShopBack lifted 41.9% to 6.3 million and Budget Direct rose 33.3% month-on-month. Sixty-three per cent of Australians now name cost-of-living as their top concern. Read more →

Bayer, Lilly and Novo Are Routing Patients Into Cash-Pay Direct-to-Consumer Channels

Bayer is routing menopause drug Lynkuet and diabetes drug Kerendia through BlinkRx and Mark Cuban’s Cost Plus Drug Company, while Eversana and Waltz Health help Novo Nordisk and Eli Lilly sell weight-loss medication direct to employers. The cash-pay ‘third channel’ is set to expand into migraine, biosimilars and hypertension. Read more →

Griffith University Releases Two New Scales for Surgical and Non-Surgical Cosmetic Attitudes

Griffith University researchers have built two new 16-item scales, CPAS-S for surgical and CPAS-NS for non-surgical cosmetic procedures, after surveying more than 700 women aged 18 to 35. The split reflects different perceptions of risk, reversibility and social normalisation across treatment types. Read more →