How can machine learning and predictive modeling help pharma companies better reach their audiences? And is this still possible in a cookieless, privacy-centric landscape?
According to Bradley Deutsch, Vice President of Health Innovations at AdTheorent Health, machine learning and modeling means both physicians and patients can be equally educated and informed through a variety of touchpoints—in other words, on every screen with which a patient interacts. But patient behavior isn’t the only thing that’s constantly evolving; how companies collect data—and how they’re able to collect it—is changing, too. So, what about privacy?
In this digital interview, Deutsch sits with Aime Gutzler, senior conference director at Fierce Pharma, to explain not only why it’s important to keep patients informed and engaged, but also how to do it with AdlTheorent’s privacy-forward programmatic advertising solutions.
Aimee Gutzler:
Hi there. I'm Aimee Gutzler, senior conference director at Fierce Pharma. I'm here today with Bradley Deutsch, Vice President Health Innovations at AdTheorent Health. Bradley, thanks so much for being here.
Bradley Deutsch:
Thanks for having me.
Aimee Gutzler:
Of course. Before we start, can you tell me a little bit about yourself and AdTheorent?
Bradley Deutsch:
Yeah, AdTheorent is a health focus demand side platform. We specialize in leveraging predictive modeling and machine learning to help our partners better reach their audiences in a more relevant environment. Most recently, we started developing our own patient audiences that allow us to, in a more privacy friendly way, help our brands reach their patients and on top of the way that we have historically helped them to activate them.
Aimee Gutzler:
That's fantastic. Well, great. Let's get started. How have customer and patient expectations evolved in the current healthcare marketplace?
Bradley Deutsch:
We're in a very interesting time coming out of COVID where patients have access and appetite for information and to learn more about treatment options. And so what we're seeing now is the desire and the need really to educate and inform patients just as much as we inform the physicians on these options. And that's really creating a new dynamic for brands to communicate with their patients and the various different pieces of content that they want to push out on top of the avenues in which they push that content out, from social to search to on their webpages, and then to digital display, connected TV. There's a lot of different touch points, and it's making it a very immersive conversation now, much more by need and desire of the patient.
Aimee Gutzler:
Absolutely. So true. How are digital experiences and solutions changing how pharma companies can better meet consumer needs?
Bradley Deutsch:
This really ties into that to first question, where we know now that patients have that interest to learn more. And so what that really requires of the brands is to ensure that they have an understanding of how they can put different pieces of content on different channels. We're not going to just take a linear TV spot and put it in connected TV because they both live on a similar device. We know that connected TV can be a little bit more engaging. We're going to create now specific mobile content because we know that our patients are spending a significant amount of time engaging with brands in mobile environments. We're going to look to essentially tie in all of these different channels, which is really what the theme of a lot of the conversations we're having now around omnichannel is, and how do we tie it all together so that we can make the most cohesive conversation with patients and physicians.
Aimee Gutzler:
That's fantastic. Now, with the increased focus on privacy in the future cookieless world, how will that impact audience creation in the healthcare industry?
Bradley Deutsch:
Yeah, there's a lot of concern around the lack of control we have over the cookie situation. This is directed by iOS and by Google. And as they say, cookies come or go, it's really however we have to react to that. And so you're seeing a lot of the partners come into the space with different innovative ways to try and get around the cookie. But a lot of the solutions that are being developed right now are still ID based and still what I would call a rebranded cookie. It's not actually getting to the root of the problem, which is we want as a community to be more privacy focused. And so one of the things that AdTheorent actually is exploring is the way in which we can develop patient audiences without the need for names, without the need for IDs. And by doing that, we can then ultimately provide our brands the comfort and the security that one, they're going to be the most privacy forward solution, and two, they don't need to worry about the impact that they will suffer if the cookie goes away.
Aimee Gutzler:
Very true. Well, that's about all the time we have. Thank you so much for being here, Bradley, and thanks for the conversation.
Bradley Deutsch: