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In pharmaceutical marketing circles, we hear sporadic boasts of a successful social campaign, award-winning content marketing, or insights drawn from a patient community platform. The ambitious brand manager takes these case studies back to the conference room, ready to formulate a new playbook, only to be overwhelmed by the complexities of operating in our highly regulated industry.
Progressive brand strategies shouldn’t be devised to win awards or dominate the marketing trades, but if done well, they certainly deserve accolades. More importantly, meeting your patients wherever they are while offering them interactive content, and adapting your message to service their needs, paves the road to better patient outcomes and higher return-on-investment.
Merck’s VERSED campaign is a great example of activating the system described above, to raise awareness around HPV vaccination. VERSED combines content marketing (versedhpv.com), with short form social posts, interactive questions, and community guidelines for adverse event reporting.
While the campaign clearly put patients first, Merck and Klick Health also won the industry recognition they deserved.
Pharmaceutical campaigns that try to combine cutting-edge marketing technologies are often derailed by the breadth of stakeholders involved in the process. To limit disruption in creativity and execution, marketers should seek out cross-discipline solution providers, who can fast track the process. In its broader framework, The Tylt has been recognized as a pioneer in this space and the applications for healthcare are inspiring.
The Tylt is the fastest growing social polling and opinion platform on the web helping marketers create conversation, understand sentiment, and activate on vote-based data. Using patented technology, The Tylt collects opinions and relative influence data from our site and social channels in real-time. In partnership with brands, The Tylt can help achieve awareness and engagement goals by creating new content or reformatting current content for maximum interaction. Informed by voting behavior, marketers can extend the impact of a Tylt campaign by messaging audiences based on the vote they made.
For healthcare campaigns, the process begins with locating the right patient and encouraging them to share their opinion on a personally meaningful health topic. Patient advocacy becomes democratized when declared sentiments, informed by supporting evidence, are shared socially. By bringing structure to health conversations as they trend across social, patient insights can be identified and addressed in the next wave of interactive content, positioning the brand as a partner in the journey to better health.
For example, a multiple sclerosis brand may want to initiate patient interactions with a simple question: “To combat cognitive fatigue, what game do you prefer to play to keep your mind active?”
Answering that question in hashtag form (#SudokuForMS or #CrosswordForMS) creates a unique campaign identifier that allows for insights collection, as votes are shared across social media. The original question reaches an MS population with standard targeting models, whether they receive the poll on social media, as a display ad, or as a polling widget on brand.com or our partnered sites. While the brand itself may display sponsorship logos or embed assets throughout the campaign, the campaign value multiplies over time, by engaging patients after they’ve provided self-reported data.
The pharmaceutical marketing industry’s reliance on traditional media has reached the point of stagnation. With TV, print, or digital display, the highest spender wins share-of-voice, and if the product is effective, it gains market share. The only way to disrupt this model is to stay focused on innovations that add value through personalization, platform agnosticism, and a relentless focus on patient interaction.
To learn more about activating The Tylt in your next pharmaceutical marketing campaign, contact Jason Lotkowictz (JasonL@Advance360.com).
In “The Ups and Downs Campaign,” upon entering the elevator and pressing the button to her floor, all of the button lights begin to flicker rapidly. The elevator plummets down, with the doors then opening to show her crying on the edge of her bed, before surging back up high, where the doors open on a scene of her arguing with a man. The elevator screen then shows the arrows pointing in both directions, as the doors open to reveal her clothes shopping in a panicked state. After taking VRAYLAR, the elevator ride steadies before stopping in her current life moment where she cleans up the mess in her bedroom, and then takes a smooth elevator ride to meet her date in the lobby.
Three new member companies have joined the Point of Care Communication Council (PoC3), as announced this month: CoverWrap Communications, Rx EDGE Media Network, and Targeted Media Health (a division of Meredith Corporation). In addition to “[helping] influence and amplify the future of POC marketing. In the near term, they plan to immerse into the PoC3 Verification & Validation Guidance effort and the establishment of measurement best practices.”
The custom campaign, In These Rooms, launched this month to help transform the point of care space to a more empathetic “moments of care” image. Created by Outcome Health, a 
To provide a well-rounded representation of potential patient and caregiver experiences with their healthcare professionals, the creative includes: “a waiting room, a pediatrician visit for an asthma check-up, an OB-GYN ultrasound room to hear a baby’s first heartbeat, a standard exam room for a long-overdue physical, and a doctor’s office to learn about treatment results.”
Let’s start by understanding where pharma marketing is on the analytics adoption curve.
The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) filed a notice of appeal on August 21st in response to the July ruling that blocked price disclosure in TV drug advertising. Handed down by Judge Amit Mehta of the US District Court, he ruled against the measure, stating: “HHS lacks the statutory authority under the Social Security Act to adopt the WAC [wholesale acquisition cost] Disclosure Rule.” At the time of his decision, HHS seemed to hint that they were going to file an appeal, saying they would “work with the Department of Justice on next steps related to the litigation.”
Ogilvy Health, a part of Ogilvy, has promoted seven creative team members in the agency's New Jersey and New York offices. Expressing her excitement for the department's growth was Ogilvy Health North America's Chief Creative Officer, Samantha Dolin: “I couldn’t be more thrilled to see this group acknowledged for their respective talents and collective leadership. Their brilliant contributions every day help to elevate the entire Ogilvy Health team and the new roles they are taking on will allow their impact to be felt more broadly across so many of our key accounts. As they continue to drive meaningful results and delight our clients, I am looking forward to building our next creative chapter with this group of tremendously talented individuals.”
HCB Health announced the hiring of ten new team members under its BioPharma division and an additional four to support the agency across all groups. Of the new hires, three will take on roles in senior management: Gabriel Cangiano, Mark Davis, and Travis Waggoner.
The US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has awarded nearly $42 million in funding to 49 Health Center Controlled Networks (HCCNs). HCCNs work together to improve access to and quality of care, as well as leverage health information technology to cut costs and improve care coordination. The funding came through the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) as the HCCNs expand their usage of health information technology to empower patients and promote data sharing.