Re:Imagine Pharma Marketing: How Pharma Marketing is Evolving in 2020
Brought to you by Momentum Events
On November 9-11, 2020, Re:Imagine Pharma Marketing, virtual conference discussed the roadmap for embedding long term commercial evolution in marketing. The focus of the event was on the many different changes that are happening in pharma marketing due to COVID as well as, what the industry’s future may look like. These changes include marketing processes, customer engagement, tools and tactics.
“While we should celebrate the small wins and pivots that have been made as a result of COVID forced change, it is vital to understand which of these changes are transitory and which are true, long lasting transformations and innovation to be built on, and embedded in future processes and planning.” – Re:Imagine Pharma Marketing
During the conference, many sessions touched on important topics including how to analyze content consumption habits and behaviors of HCPs, digital strategies to reach your target audience, and how to build a successful performance measurement framework to better understand your goals within analytics.
Here are three key sessions that presented during Re:Imagine Pharma Marketing conference:
1. Reaching HCP’s When Your Sales Force Can’t
Chief Executive Officer of Arteric, Hans Kaspersetz presented how AI can help develop your competitive edge. The presentation shared findings from a case study using Lexical Analytics, revealing how big data and AI drive commercial success.
Arteric’s Lexical analysis involved an Arteric proprietary machine learning application called the Word Embedding Engine (WEE) that rapidly and efficiently analyzed 3,000 web pages to uncover rich competitive insights about competitors’ brand and content strategies. After one year of testing, results showed that highly targeted content increased engagement. The increase in an average session duration increased by 42% while the bounce rate decreased by 50%.
“When you create richer content and more engaging content that is more reflective of what your HCP audience is searching, you see dramatic increases in traffic.” – Hans Kaspersetz
2. Pharma Marketing 2020: The Enduring Impact
Former Head, Patient Strategy and Engagement of Intercept Pharmaceuticals, Fred Bennett discussed the different ways COVID-19 is impacting the pharma industry. These impacts include the expansion of virtual and digital engagements, shifting patient attitudes toward care, and internal company dynamics.
Due to COVID-19, in-person doctor visits have declined, and telehealth is becoming the more popular alternative. Some of the many reasons people currently prefer telehealth over in-person doctor visits include convenience, flexibility, less wait time, safety, and easier routine follow-ups.
Though telehealth has many pros as with anything, there are cons as well. Some patient and HCP concerns with telehealth visits included the visits not being hands on, patients felt that HCPs seem distracted, appointments are constantly being changed, and some HCPs felt that telehealth is less suitable for first-time visits.
It is important to not only focus on one direction in the pharma industry, but to continue growing and adapting in all of the directions.
“Businesses and customers are constantly changing so we need to be robust and resilient. Having a mixture of abilities to engage with our customers is going to place us in a better situation overall and provide better outcomes to our customers, patients, and HCPs.” – Fred Bennett
3. The Now and the Next in Pharma Marketing: Research and Insights to Innovate in a New Normal
Co-founder, Managing Partner of The DHC Group, Mark Bard and EVP, Marketing & Communications of Intouch Group, Wendy Blackburn shared what they have learned over the past few months, from each other, other industries, patients, and providers.
Mark and Wendy touched on different topics including new research and insights that convey the needs of HCPs and patients today, the ways pharma is meeting those needs, and the opportunities for marketers to rethink their approach to stay ahead of the curve.
With everyone going digital, competition is increasing, with many fighting for the same digital attention span. Companies are experimenting with different digital tools trying to find the best strategy for reaching their target audience.
After conducting a survey on 250 US physicians, the results showed that the most effective ways to reach HCPs in 2020 were through video detail with reps, email from reps, video with MSL, and online medical events and conferences.
Results also showed that the most effective ways for pharma executives to reach patients in 2020 included social media, digital advertising, and email from brands to patients.
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The Re-Imagine Pharma Marketing conference demonstrated how our industry is evolving and what our future may look like. Key takeaways include how COVID-19 is impacting our industry, HCP research and insights, and how to track your target audience online more efficiently.
With the shift to a fully-digital environment, the competition for engagement from your target audience is increasing, pushing companies to become more innovative in how they reach and track their targets.
After months of adjusting to the new now and learning new strategies, pharma marketers are prepared to take on these new challenges in 2021.
