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The Four Hidden Risks of “Data-Driven” DTC Audiences: Solving the Data Lag Dilemma in DTC Audience Segmentation

March 25, 2025 0

Data is at the heart of pharma marketing—and the key to unlocking “right time, right place, right patient” strategies. In today’s highly competitive consumer landscape, it’s not enough to rely on broad demographics, lookalikes, cookies, or other generalized audience approaches. That’s why pharma brands and their agency partners look to real-world medical claims and other available data to build their audience lists for DTC campaigns based on brand eligibility criteria, past prescriptions, and more.

But many marketers overlook (or have come to accept) a key limitation: the inherent data lag in many common sources. For example, real-world claims data can take up to three months to become available. That means your audience segmentations and priorities may not reflect a true picture of the patient landscape at campaign kickoff. This opens the door to four hidden risks that could derail your campaign success.

Risk 1: Patient Journey Misalignment 

Pharma companies often design their marketing strategies to reach patients during specific stages of their healthcare journey—whether it's raising awareness at the onset of symptoms, targeting those who are newly diagnosed, or providing options as patients seek new treatments for chronic conditions. When audience data is stale, marketing efforts are most likely directed toward the wrong audience at the wrong time, reducing impact and conversion.

Risk 2: Missed Eligibility Windows 

In fast-moving therapeutic areas like oncology, cardiology, or rare diseases, delayed outreach leads to missed opportunities to engage with patients when they are actively seeking or are receptive to treatment options. Patients who could benefit from earlier intervention may have already moved on to other therapies or, worse, the communication may come too late—when they may no longer be eligible for a potentially life-changing treatment.

Risk 3: Competitive Loss 

With multiple pharma brands often vying for the same pool of patients, failing to find and reach qualified patients in a timely way can cost brands the chance to convert patients in immediate need of treatment, and opens the door for competitors to step in.

Risk 4: Reduced Commercial Impact 

Mistimed or misdirected marketing doesn’t just lower NRx rates, but also can result in fewer prescriptions attributed to marketing activity. While outside perception is that pharma marketing budgets are unlimited, the reality is that media spending continues to be heavily scrutinized, and less-than-efficient marketing can threaten future budget allocations.

And these risks aren’t just to your marketing metrics. Failing to connect with your eligible patients, when they have the opportunity to convert to your brand, means marketers miss the chance to educate and empower patients as they navigate an increasingly complex healthcare landscape. And it bears repeating, it also means that patients may miss out on potentially life-changing therapies. But thanks to a combination of human ingenuity, a passion for better health, and yes, AI, there’s a safe and better way to target DTC programs. It’s called an adaptive audience.

What Are Adaptive Audiences?

Adaptive DTC audiences are audiences that automatically prioritize consumer segments throughout a campaign, based on the current volumes of brand-eligible patients. That means they stay fresh in a way that conventional approaches can’t. Instead of “dated” data, adaptive audiences use artificial intelligence, predictive analytics, and human guidance to anticipate when patients are approaching brand eligibility and upcoming care visits.

As a result, media is always optimized to reach the segments with the greatest opportunity for brand conversion. It’s a dynamic approach that reflects patients’ evolving care needs. Here’s how adaptive audiences work:

  • Defining the Ideal Patient Profile: Like standard audience approaches, the first step in an adaptive audience is defining the target population— their conditions and comorbidities, current line of therapy, recent tests and lab values, their treating care team/specialties, and other clinical factors. But alongside standard features like specific ICD10 and NDC codes, it’s also critical to expand your viewpoint to include often-overlooked socioeconomic, behavioral, and media consumption data. After all, despite a common diagnosis, medication history, or clinical profile, every patient is an individual, shaped by their unique experiences.
  • Building a Predictive AI Model: Most conventional audiences stop after the first step – using their patient profile to “find” qualified individuals at campaign start, then prioritizing the segments with the greatest number of patients. Adaptive audiences take a different approach, turning the patient profile into a predictive model. By drawing on many of the same data resources, today’s AI-driven models can accurately predict patients’ future care milestones and upcoming HCP visits.
  • Linking Brand Signals to Hyper-Local Geographies: Once the predictive model is live, it constantly looks for brand eligibility signals, and links those signals to hyper-local geographies comprised of the 35M+ available zip-9s. Based on the desired refresh cadence, marketers can then prioritize the zip-9s with the greatest concentration of signals throughout the course of the campaign. This means media is always focused on the populations with the greatest opportunity for brand conversion—and the greatest treatment need. Because all data is de-identified, and the technology provides just the right amount of strategic “noise” in and around the zip-9, it’s a privacy-safe, compliant approach that doesn’t compromise precision.
  • Personalizing the Media Mix: Every consumer has their own media consumption habits. Rather than relying on demographic generalizations, adaptive audiences look at the preferred channel mix within each “activated” zip-9, then automatically select the most effective tactics from the available options. Again, AI plays a key role—allowing for channel selection to be optimized at scale, while personalized for consumer habits.
  • Ongoing Optimization: Because adaptive audiences are built with embedded AI and machine learning technology, they automatically grow “smarter” over time: refining the predictive model, signal identification, and media deployment based on the data generated from the campaign.

How Does 6x Script Lift Sound?

Taking an adaptive approach offers DTC marketers significant benefits, including increased media efficiency, greater audience penetration, and reduced impression waste. One under-diagnosed neurology brand saw a 75% boost in the number of qualified patients reached and a 92% jump in patient engagement.

But marketing impact is measured in new prescriptions (NRx), and it’s here that the difference is clear. Adaptive audiences drive an average of six times higher script lift than conventional, fixed audience segmentations. By automatically optimizing every media touchpoint for brand conversion, adaptive audiences help brands and consumers thrive in the ever-evolving treatment landscape. More patients receive care-relevant information aligned with their treatment needs, and pharma marketers can demonstrate greater commercial and revenue impact. That’s what we call a win-win, and the right way to be data-driven.

Learn more about OptimizeRx’s adaptive DTC audiences, powered by our Dynamic Audience Activation Platform and Micro-Neighborhood® Targeting technology.

 

 

 

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From Products to People: Transforming Pharma with Customer-Centricity

March 17, 2025 0

Pharmaceutical companies stand at the crossroads of a transformative era. Traditional product-centric approaches, once the cornerstone of most of pharma’s commercial strategies, are rapidly becoming obsolete. With the imminent patent cliff threatening revenues (The Healthcare Technology Report), fewer blockbusters projected to hit the market (MM&M Online)​, and intensified competition (Fierce Pharma)​, companies recognize the need to put customers front and center. Delivering a superior customer experience can significantly differentiate market leaders from laggards. This transformation isn’t merely a trend but a strategic imperative and a profound opportunity to create more value for all stakeholders. Here’s how we can seize this moment and redefine customer experience across the entire pharma value chain.

It Starts with Defining the Customer

In pharma, the definition of “customer” is multifaceted. Unlike other industries where the customer is the end consumer, pharma faces a unique challenge in identifying its primary customer. Is it healthcare providers, patients, regulators, payers, other stakeholders, or perhaps all of them? The primary customer definition varies significantly depending on the context. Companies must navigate this complex web of stakeholders, each with unique needs, expectations, and roles in the ecosystem. Therefore, a successful transition from product-centric to customer-centric strategies demands a new approach to customer engagement—one focused on enhancing the customer experience by intimately understanding the customer and addressing their nuanced needs.

Core Tenets of Superior Customer Experience

Once we’ve clearly identified our customer, connecting with them authentically to optimize their experience with the company is crucial. This requires embracing the core tenets of customer experience to craft unique engagement journeys for each customer.

  1. Shift in Mindset: Customer experience is not new to pharma; however, with the traditional brand/product silos, customer experience still remains confined within the same product/brand silos. To create a genuinely differentiating experience, we need to break down the silos and elevate experience to the enterprise level. An enterprise is a sum of its portfolio brands. While there may be brand-specific strategies, from the customer’s perspective, in addition to the brand, they’re also interacting with the enterprise as a whole. Therefore, it’s imperative to think of customer experience holistically across all brands. Enterprise-level focus can organically leverage the halo from one brand to another and create a consistent and superior experience. This decoupling and shift in mindset is particularly relevant for multiproduct companies that engage with the same customer across different brands.
  2. Understanding the Customer: A product-centric approach typically aims to ramp up engagement by simply adding more touchpoints across channels rather than optimizing the experience. In contrast, a customer-centric approach aiming to enhance experience focuses on customer journeys rather than disparate touchpoints to deeply understand customers. Companies must adopt an “outside-in” approach to truly grasp what matters. For example, in the case of an HCP, this involves putting the HCP’s needs and experiences at the forefront rather than focusing solely on the brand plan. The objective is to gain a deep understanding of the pivotal moments in the HCP’s journey that influence their overall experience, positive or negative. If the experience was poor, understanding the root cause will help develop an action plan.
    In a recent client engagement, we found that some of the top prescribers in the category weren’t prescribing the client’s drug. The company had categorized them as “skeptics,” averse to prescribing the drug class in general. However, upon probing with a series of “why” questions through personal and digital channels, the root cause was found to be lack of accessible, patient-friendly educational material about the drug and patients’ previous negative experiences with drug switches. With this information uncovered, immediate steps were taken to develop patient-friendly materials, conduct educational webinars, offer targeted patient support and counseling, and connect patients to other patients that had switched. Within months, these prescribers were welcoming reps, requesting samples, and prescribing the drug, as the client had displayed an intent to address a genuine pain point in their practices. Therefore, by identifying and addressing these pivotal moments, we can create authentically meaningful solutions for each physician and enhance their experience with the company and the brand.
  3. Create an Engagement Ecosystem: An authentic customer focus is built on an engagement ecosystem of personal and non-personal channels, with clear understanding of the relative impact of each channel on customer experience. The emphasis should be on creating an “ecosystem” where each channel works in concert with others along with seamless information feedback loops to deliver enhanced customer experience. An engagement ecosystem should decentralize customer ownership where reps are no longer expected to be the ultimate owner of customer relationships. Headquarter roles managing other channels in the ecosystem can own parts of the customer journey. This approach redefines the role of the most expensive channel, i.e., sales reps, so that reps focus on activities that they can uniquely add value to—building trust and relationships by effectively managing customer journeys. Currently, reps handle many low-value tasks that other channels can absorb. Tasks such as basic product information, samples/brochures/promotional materials management, routine HCP enquiries, educational updates, administrative and routine follow-ups, etc., can be handled by lower-cost personnel or non-personal promotion. Thus, leveraging omnichannel strategically to manage customer journeys with reps as key “experience orchestrators” signals customer centricity. Additionally, a lot of contextual client intelligence lies with reps. Tech solutions should be leveraged to capture the invaluable, unstructured intelligence residing with reps and integrate it with intelligence gathered across other channels to create holistic customer views and journeys.
  4. Harmonization Trumps Optimization: The success of any engagement ecosystem depends on carefully crafted omnichannel strategies. While we inevitably lean towards omnichannel today, far too many commercial teams are stuck optimizing touchpoints and customer experiences within a channel. Harmonization suggests that we pay more attention to an individual’s behavioral evolution occurring throughout the engagement ecosystem rather than being fixated on the acute performance of a specific channel. Harmonization cultivates the sustained and cumulative effect of an omnichannel experience, whereas optimization subjugates the experience to the iterative and incremental retooling of a channel. This isn’t to say optimization isn’t important—rather it is simply overweighted relative to harmonization, which runs the risk of creating high-performance touchpoints within a dull, disconnected, ineffective experience.
  5. Create Customer-Centric Metrics: Finally, for any customer-centric strategy to succeed, success KPIs must shift from product metrics such as sales, product volumes, product adoption, etc., to more customer-centric metrics such as customer experience, customer satisfaction, and patient outcomes. While product metrics should remain within the performance calculus, they should be assessed in the context of customer metrics and the larger customer journey.

Strategic Execution

Many companies falter when it comes to the execution of a customer-centric strategy. The transition from strategy to implementation requires a holistic approach:

  1. Break Down Silos: Cross-functional collaboration is essential. Sales, marketing, medical, and account teams must work together with a singular focus on creating a cohesive and unified customer experience.​​
  2. Cultural and Structural Transformation: Adopting a customer-centric mindset requires changes at all levels of the organization. This shift includes upskilling employees, fostering cross-functional collaboration, and realigning incentives to focus on customer outcomes rather than sales metrics​​. A cultural movement towards customer-centricity must be championed at all levels of the organization.​​
  3. Invest in Technology and Analytics: Advanced analytics and AI are table stakes for understanding customer journeys at scale and harmonizing omnichannel to deliver on the customer experience promise. Investing in technology, advanced data integration and management platforms, robust CRM systems, marketing automation tools, etc., is crucial for implementing these capabilities at scale.
  4. Co-Creation with Customers: Engaging customers in developing solutions ensures that their needs are met more accurately. Throughout the process, customers can be involved in participatory design sessions, pilot-testing prototypes, and iterative feedback loops to refine offerings​​.

Putting customers first isn’t just a theoretical idea, it’s a practical necessity. By fostering a customer-first mindset and prioritizing customer experience and satisfaction, pharma companies can drive sustainable growth and catalyze better outcomes for patients, HCPs, and other stakeholders.

Vipul Shrivastava

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A Matter of Trust-Health Information in the Age of Social Media: Who Do Consumers Turn to—and Trust?

March 7, 2025 0

A Shifting Landscape

This morning, you woke up with a mysterious rash. You inspect it, assess your symptoms, ponder it, and then, if you’re like the vast majority of Americans … you Google it. With the internet at your fingertips, information comes at you fast and furious. And with the rise of user-created content on social media platforms served up in bite-sized portions, that information is more accessible—and influential—than ever.

But despite this wellspring of wellness content, many consumers remain wary of misinformation from social influencers. And doctors agree that it’s wise to think twice before you like and subscribe: For example, a 2024 study in Otolaryngology—Head and Neck Surgery found that “most nonmedical influencer-posted TikTok videos about sinusitis are inaccurate, despite being portrayed as medical advice/educational.”

WebMD and The Harris Poll engaged 2,005 U.S. adults in an online survey in April 2024 to learn more about their attitudes toward the health information they get online and via social media platforms. This data can guide best practices for marketers seeking to understand the key question: Who do consumers gravitate toward and hold in high regard for medical advice?

The bottom line: Reliability, transparency, privacy, and trust guide consumers’ clicks when it comes to health content.

1 in 4 Adults Say They Trust Health Information Less Over the Past Year

Searched the Internet for Health-Related Information in the Past 12 Months

88% Total Adults

96% *Pharma Info Seekers

Mean: 11 Times

*Consumers who have sought information on over-the-counter medication, prescription medication, disease symptoms, or immunizations/vaccines on a website.

Trust Trends

Poll data shows that compared to last year, more pharma info seekers frequently rely on health information from health-related and news sites than social media platforms. Overall trust in online health information has dropped, primarily driven by misinformation on social. What specifically is eroding pharma info seekers’ trust?

35% say anyone can post content and claim to be a professional, even if they aren’t.

33% say they don’t know if people are telling the truth or being paid to promote things.

30% say it’s hard to determine what’s true and what’s false.

Privacy concerns are also paramount. As new state privacy regulations continue to take
effect, consumers have increasingly questioned influencers’ and social media platforms’
ability to protect their personal information. For many, opening the door to targeted ads
that concentrate on their chronic condition, for example, is a turnoff.

Privacy Concerns Also Aligned With ​Perceptions Around Ad Targeting

Attitude Among Pharma Info Seekers Toward Health-Related Advertisements​

Top 2 Box % Somewhat/Strongly Agree

75% “When I’m on social media, I don’t want to see ads reminding me of my health conditions.”

68% “I would prefer a random ad not based on my personal or demographic data.”​

Under the Influence

Despite the deluge of health and wellness content, pharma info seekers are much more likely
to follow food, exercise, lifestyle, gaming, and travel accounts than those with a medical focus.
Only 15% of pharma info seekers follow medical professionals, while only 12% follow accounts for special health conditions.

The creators they trust enough to follow attract them with three characteristics:

  • They’re a medical professional.
  • They’re a real expert in the field.
  • They include references and citations.

Clickers are picky for a reason:

68% of pharma info seekers say they often encounter claims that appear to lack medical or scientific review or are from someone with no true credentials.

Most Say Influencers And Creators Are Unreliable Sources of Health-Related Information

Attitude Among Pharma Info Seekers Toward Health-Related Advertisements​

Top 2 Box % Somewhat/Strongly Agree​

85% “Social media influencers/creators are not reliable sources of health-related information.”​

76% “I am skeptical of a brand or product if a social media influencer/creator is endorsing it.”​

Embrace Evolution + Keep Facts at the Forefront

Where We Are:

Social media platforms aren’t going anywhere. Neither are consumers’ desires to seek out advice and education about their chronic conditions. And people want trustworthy, discreet, sound information from experts as they scroll. Despite the rise of health information circulated in social media platforms and from influencers, pharma info seekers are relying more on health websites as a trusted source of health information, with a trust level 3 times higher than social media platforms or influencers. Context is critical for pharma messaging. Pharma info seekers don’t like to be reminded about their conditions when on social media platforms and are averse to being targeted by brands using their personal data.

Health websites have a trust level 3 times higher than social media platforms or influencers.

Where We Go From Here:

Leverage the platforms in use in the language of the user without compromising sound science, says WebMD Chief Medical Officer John Whyte, MD, MPH.

“Less is more. Too often, content providers overwhelm patients with too much information. Instead, they need to focus on nuggets of information. The most successful influencers often create content that is brief in nature, given the attention span of users in those platforms. They then build a following, where people come back to learn more.”

The research was conducted online in the U.S. by The Harris Poll on behalf of WebMD Corporation among 2,005 adults ages 18 and over who reside in the U.S. The survey was conducted April 11–22, 2024.

Data are weighted where necessary by age by gender, race/ethnicity, region, education, marital status, household size, employment, household income, and political party affiliation to bring them in line with their actual proportions in the population. Respondents for this survey were selected from among those who have agreed to participate in our surveys. The sampling precision of Harris online polls is measured by using a Bayesian credible interval. For this study, the sample data is accurate to within ± 2.6 percentage points using a 95% confidence level. This credible interval will be wider among subsets of the surveyed population of interest.

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Why Growth with Nimble is Built on Retention

January 31, 2025 0

In the ever-evolving healthcare landscape, Nimble has emerged as a pivotal solution for pharmacies and Life Science companies aiming to achieve sustained growth through enhanced retention.

With its integrated technology platform, Nimble not only streamlines pharmacy operations but also unlocks significant revenue opportunities for Life Science companies by reaching millions of high-intent patients.

How Nimble Streamlines the Pharmacy Experience

At its core, Nimble simplifies the pharmacy experience for both pharmacies and their patients. By integrating directly with pharmacy systems, Nimble ensures optimized efficiency, convenience, and conversion for every transaction. This seamless integration leads to improved patient health outcomes and enables pharmacies to operate more effectively.

Beyond enhancing pharmacy workflows, Nimble’s approach opens new avenues for Life Science companies. By addressing challenges such as patient adherence, awareness, and abandonment, Nimble provides access to millions of patients actively managing their health, offering a unique opportunity to generate new revenue streams.

The Challenge: Lack of Access to High-Intent Audiences

Current industry solutions often fail to connect with high-intent audiences, resulting in poor engagement, lack of retention, and negative health outcomes. The financial implications of this gap are staggering, with $77 billion lost annually in pharmaceutical revenue.

Beyond stagnating engagement, adherence is also a key struggle for today’s Life Science companies. 50% of new prescriptions are never filled, and 25% of medications are not taken as prescribed. This non-adherence contributes to chronic disease treatment failures, unnecessary hospitalizations, and billions in lost revenue for the pharmaceutical industry.

Nimble’s Three-Pronged Solution: Adherence, Abandonment, and Awareness

Adherence: Keeping Patients on Track

Adherence is a cornerstone of Nimble’s solution. By identifying potential drop-off points in real time, Nimble offers timely interventions to improve adherence rates, leading to better health outcomes and increased revenue.

By processing the entire transaction, we pinpoint exact drop-off points, enabling timely interventions that keep patients on track, resulting in better health outcomes and increased revenue.

  • Subscription Offerings: Patients are offered options to subscribe to automated refills several times throughout their journey, with optimized time between refills
  • Enhanced Refill Reminders: Patients who do not select a subscription are offered enhanced refill reminders to improve adherence
  • Patient Education: Customized patient education materials can be co-created to drive engagement and adherence

The Nimble Adherence Advantage

Unlike traditional adherence campaigns, Nimble’s full transaction visibility enables precise identification of drop-off points, ensuring timely interventions and driving improved adherence.

In fact, by month 12 in a NimbleRx Adherence Program, refills typically increase by a ~2-3x baseline.

Abandonment: Reducing Abandonment with Precision Targeting

Increase first-fill conversion with custom, integrated programs that leverage full transaction data and first-party data to ensure messages are delivered at the right moment to impact first-fill conversion.

  • Increased Messaging: Omnichannel messaging to reach patients in the right place at the right time.
  • Custom Emails: Using our deep integration with pharmacy systems we craft custom emails tailored to each patient's unique journey.
  • In-App Ads: Precisely targeted in-app ads that are seamlessly integrated into the patient experience.

The Nimble Abandonment Advantage

Today’s patients often face confusion about their medications, leading to abandonment. With Nimble, personalized, real-time content delivery ensures higher engagement, improved adherence, and reduced healthcare costs.

Combined, Nimble’s abandonment programs can lead to increases of 3-5% in New to Brand Prescriptions

Awareness: Elevating Patient Education

Nimble’s awareness solutions can help your brand become a performance marketing powerhouse. Our data-driven approach reduces wasted ad spend and increases marketing effectiveness by ensuring better-informed patients, leading to higher engagement and more effective treatment adherence.

  • Checkout Ads: Checkout ads are strategically placed at the point of purchase, ensuring your brand captures patient attention when they're most engaged.
  • Custom Emails: Using our deep integration with pharmacy systems we craft custom emails tailored to each patient's unique journey.
  • In-App Ads: Precisely targeted in-app ads that are seamlessly integrated into the patient experience.
  • Enhanced Targeting: By analyzing patient behavior, preferences, and health needs, we deliver personalized content and ads that resonate with each individual.

The Nimble Awareness Advantage

Broad targeting in pharmaceutical ads often results in missed opportunities and wasted ad spend. Conversely with Nimble, data-driven, real-time education reduces wasted ad spend, increases marketing effectiveness, and ensures better-informed patients, enhancing engagement and adherence.

An investment in Nimble’s Ad campaigns consistently outperforms other options. Our clients see strong open and click-through rates, ~2x industry averages.

Nimble’s platform provides real-time, scalable insights into patient behavior and engagement, enabling precise and timely interventions. With the ability to scale as needed, Nimble delivers immediate, impactful results for both pharmacies and Life Science companies.

If you’d like to learn more about our offerings and how to partner with us, contact bd@nimblerx.com or call 201.349.4102 to book a meeting.

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5 Ways COVID-19 Affects Community-Based Organizations

November 16, 2020 0

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About 29 million people in the United States rely on community-based organizations (CBOs), which provide care to low-income and uninsured patients, often living with infectious disease including HIV/AIDS and Hepatitis C [9].  Since the onset of the HIV epidemic, community-based organizations have proved vital to the United States’ HIV prevention efforts, delivering the most effective HIV prevention strategies to those who need them the most and are at the greatest risk of infection [1].  As the U.S. continues to battle COVID-19, community-based organizations are facing unprecedented demands to combat COVID-19 while continuing to deliver essential HIV prevention and treatment services [2]. 

According to Kelsey Louie, GMHC, CEO:

“COVID-19 created unprecedented challenges for GMHC in ensuring that we could sustain our services for our clients during the pandemic.  We pivoted many of our programs to remote delivery using video conferencing and implemented at-home HIV testing so these vital services could continue to be accessible to our communities.  The new technologies that we have embraced during COVID-19 including telehealth and Mesmerize’s patient education platform, will continue to be vital parts of our programming well after the pandemic ends.”  

Many CBOs shared case studies demonstrating the impact of COVID-19 on their organizations at the 2020 United States Conference on HIV/AIDS (USCHA).  Here are 5 ways COVID-19 affects community-based organizations and their efforts to end the country’s HIV epidemic:

1. Testing is the only way to know if you have HIV.  If everyone knew their status, we could protect ourselves and each other, bringing us closer to ending the epidemic.  As a result of COVID-19, however, community-based organizations were forced to think outside of the box to maintain client access to essential HIV prevention and care services including HIV, Hepatitis C (HCV) and STI testing.

Community-based organizations that have been providing long-standing and proven-effective HIV, HCV and STI testing to communities at risk have had to change their standard testing procedures to continue providing these vital services while also addressing COVID-19 [6].  As a result of COVID-19, most CBOs were forced to change their traditional methods of care to continue in-person appointments while prioritizing the safety of their staff and clients and preventing the transmission of COVID-19.  Changes to care included pre-screening prior to scheduling appointments, integrating HIV screening services into existing workflows, designating exam rooms to patients who are known to be at risk of COVID-19, and disinfecting all exams rooms after each appointment [5].  While there are options for at-home HIV testing, STI testing requiring bloodwork must be done by a practitioner on-site.  CBO staff are working hard to ensure that newly diagnosed patients are immediately linked to treatment and existing patients are adhering to their medications, while simultaneously working to prevent an already vulnerable population from getting COVID-19.

2. Community-based organizations are working to address and integrate COVID-19 with their existing HIV, Hepatitis, and STI care and prevention programs.  Their deep community roots and relationships make them uniquely equipped to handle the transition from protecting vulnerable populations from infectious disease to include COVID-19 as well.

CBO staff have reported adding COVID-19 work to their scope of usual services and are calling for additional resources to address emerging COVID-19 related needs among their clients [6]. Most organizations reported some level of involvement in COVID-19 related activities, including educating clients about COVID-19 risks and protective measures, conducting COVID-19 testing and contact tracing, and providing counseling and care for clients with COVID-19 [7].  Compared to the traditional doctor’s office, community-based organizations have deep community roots as well as strong expertise in addressing social supports such as mental and personal care within the communities they serve [10].  This makes CBOs uniquely positioned to transition their staff’s expertise from sexual health to general health and makes them well equipped to incorporate questions pertaining to COVID-19 concerns including mental health and wellness, social isolation and current events, into previously routine testing appointments [8].  Some organizations still reported the need for additional staff training and educational materials on COVID-19 to distribute to clients, which Mesmerize continues to provide to these organizations in conjunction with the Center for Disease Control (CDC) [7].

3. Community-based organizations have adopted and executed new measures and strategies to address COVID-19 related needs among their clients.

Many community-based organizations have adopted new strategies to continue providing quality service to the communities they serve.  New strategies include digitizing client forms and medical records, as well as utilizing virtual care as an additional means for providing health education and counseling [6].  While the pace at which these organizations were able to execute such new strategies is remarkable, many reported needing additional resources to properly implement these strategies, including technical assistance to integrate COVID-19 within HIV, HCV and STI services, technology training, and structured clinical support for staff [7].  Additionally, while technology has been able to solve for some of the problems facing CBOs, there are many services these organizations provide to the community that must be addressed in-person, including STI testing, affordable housing, and meal services.  In an effort to continue providing these essential in-person services, CBOs have had to purchase additional PPE for their staff, as well as hand sanitizer and masks for community distribution, requiring significant investment from these organizations [7].

4. CBOs have a history of facing financial challenges, with many organizations having few or no financial reserves, running persistent operating deficits, and having a lack of access to capital for investment in resources and technology [8].  Community based organizations have incurred immediate expenses connected to the COVID-19 epidemic [7].

Many community-based organizations have limited or no financial reserves, making them extremely vulnerable to fluctuations in expected revenue and cost levels [8].  COVID-19 has resulted in immediate expenses for CBOs, including the implementation of safety measures, infrastructure enhancement, and changes to their standard provision of services [7].  While many organizations were able to quickly and creatively implement new methods to continue providing quality HIV, HCV and STI care throughout the COVID-19 epidemic, these rapid enhancements require significant investment from CBOs, including investments in Electronic Health Records (EHR), computers, and hotspots [7].  Many organizations are tapping into their funds amidst the cancelling of fundraising events [7].  Even those with unrestricted funds are concerned about the long-term sustainability of implementing safety and procedural measures to address COVID-19 while continuing to provide foundational HIV and Hepatitis prevention and care services [6].  CBOs present at USCHA also expressed concern over their ability to strategically separate funds so that money reserved for HIV and Hepatitis prevention and care is not spent fighting COVID-19 [7].  Organizations are hopeful that the next round of government funding will provide valuable support for CBOs to continue providing these valuable services, while also offsetting some of the losses they’ve incurred fighting COVID-19, and better preparing them for the future.

5. While adopting new methods and strategies to simultaneously fight both the AIDS and COVID-19 epidemics has been costly, many CBOs believe these new practices are for the better of the organization and will be adopted long-term with lasting impact.

Many CBOs invested in technology upgrades, provision of virtual services, and HIV/HVC/STI program adaptation to continue providing essential services to their clients while simultaneously navigating new measures in place to address COVID-19.  While COVID-19 has created unprecedented and numerous challenges to community-based organizations, The Stronger Together Partnership (comprised of The Black AIDS Institute, San Francisco Community Health Center and Latino Commission on AIDS) applauds these organizations for their ability to “take on the challenges by implementing team approaches to problem solving, embracing technological upgrades, and fostering innovation.  Many leadership staff have identified lessons learned from this pandemic and are doing their best to see this as an opportunity to develop new strategies and expand their service portfolio” [6].  Many organizations also reported that the new strategies and measures put in place to respond to COVID-19 will prepare them for emergency responses in the future, allowing them to better serve their community and be prepared for whatever may impact them next.

Sources

[1] CDC NCHHSTP. “CDC Awards $216 Million to Community-Based Organizations to Deliver the Most-Effective HIV Prevention Strategies to Those in Greatest Need.” HIV.gov, 1 July 2015, www.hiv.gov/blog/cdc-awards-216-million-to-community-based-organizations-to-deliver-the-most-effective-hiv-prevention-strategies-to-those-in-greatest-need.

[2] “COVID-19 and HIV.” Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 10 Aug. 2020, www.cdc.gov/hiv/covid-19/index.html.

[3] “The COVID-19 Pandemic's Impact of HIV and Hepatitis Programs.” NASTAD, NASTAD, 12 Aug. 2020, www.nastad.org/sites/default/files/resources/docs/covid19-impact-hiv-hepatitis-programs.pdf.

[4] Dreyfus, Susan, and Tracy Wareing Evans. “The Importance of Community-Based Organizations in Human Services.” Independent Sector, Independent Sector, 23 Jan. 2018, independentsector.org/news-post/the-importance-of-community-based-organizations-in-human-services/.

[5] Hadayia, Jennifer. “US Conference on HIV/AIDS.” Legacy Community Health, Expansion/Integration: HIV Testing & PrEP During a Pandemic, 19 Oct. 2020, vevents.virtualtradeshowhosting.com/event/USConferenceonHIVAIDS/en-us#!/Workshops/n820161. .

[6] Hucks-Ortiz, Christopher, et al. “COVID-19 National Rapid Assessment Preliminary Report: The Institutional Impact of COVID-19 on Organizations of Color Providing HIV/STI/HCV Services to People of Color across the U.S., Puerto Rico, U.S. Virgin Island, and Affiliated Pacific Island Jurisdictions.” Institute for Latinx Health Equity, 2020, ilhe.org/stronger-together-partnership-c19-national-rapid-assessment-preliminary-report/.

[7] Hucks-Ortiz, Christopher, et al. “US Conference on HIV/AIDS.” Stronger Together Partnership (STP), Impact of COVID-19 on Organizations of Color Providing HIV/STI/HCV Services, 19 Oct. 2020, vevents.virtualtradeshowhosting.com/event/USConferenceonHIVAIDS/en-us#!/Workshops/n820161.

[8] Shaw, John, et al. “US Conference on HIV/AIDS.” The Project of Primary Healthcare, A New Normal: HIV/HCV/STI Testing during Covid-19, 20 Oct. 2020, vevents.virtualtradeshowhosting.com/event/USConferenceonHIVAIDS/en-us#!/Workshops/n820161.

[9] Stone, Will. “Under Financial Strain, Community Health Centers Ramp Up For Coronavirus Response.” NPR, NPR, 24 Mar. 2020, www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2020/03/24/821027067/under-financial-strain-community-health-centers-ramp-up-for-coronavirus-response.

[10] Super, Nora Mary Kaschak Elizabeth, et al. “Health Care And Community-Based Organizations Have Finally Begun Partnering To Integrate Health And Long-Term Care: Health Affairs Blog.” Health Affairs, 2 Feb. 2018, www.healthaffairs.org/do/10.1377/hblog20180130.620899/full/.

Samantha Brown

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Impacting the Opioid Epidemic at the Point of Care

September 25, 2019 0

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I know the pain of losing a loved one to opioid addiction. My family continues to grieve the loss of an incredible young man who, after an awful car accident, began a decade-long battle against addiction to his prescribed painkillers. Three years ago, he lost that battle.

Countless other families have experienced similar losses due to our nationwide opioid crisis. According to the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), more than 130 people die from opioid overdoses every day. It’s a devastating epidemic that impacts people of any age and from all walks of life.

To help combat opioid addiction, PatientPoint® collaborated with Shatterproof – a nonprofit organization focused on ending the stigma of addiction and improving addiction treatment – to create a powerful opioid education program at the point of care. It launched nationwide in October 2017 across the digital PatientPoint engagement platform, reaching an estimated 15 million patients and caregivers each month in waiting rooms, exam rooms, and in the physician back office. The content is designed to increase the awareness of opioid addiction and encourage doctor-patient discussions about other treatment options.

And the best news is, it is working and we are making a difference. An independent analysis by Symphony Health revealed that each of the 20,793 physicians who had the education program in their practices distributed 142 fewer opioid prescriptions over the eight-month study period than closely matched, non-participating physicians. That adds up to nearly 3 million fewer pills prescribed. If that doesn’t prove the effectiveness of messaging to physicians and patients at the point of care, I don’t know what will.

I often talk about the power of messaging at the point of care, but the results of PatientPoint-Shatterproof campaign really drive it home. I encourage you to read the case study for more details about this fantastic campaign and its impact on the fight against opioid addiction. You can find here.

Linda Ruschau

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Are DTC Marketers Committed to Patient Interaction?

September 25, 2019 0

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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).

Jason Lotkowictz

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How Rx, OTC, & CPG Brands Can Play It Safe in the Digital Era

May 14, 2019 0

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The last decade has witnessed the astounding growth and scale of Facebook and Google. Together these two power players command the majority of digital ad spend, and Amazon is increasingly making gains. While compelling targeting and efficiency benefits have led to a collective surge in brand spend with these major digital and social players, publishers repeatedly demonstrate that they can’t fully control where brand campaigns appear across their platforms.

Brands are routinely finding themselves appearing adjacent to content violating taste and tone guidelines or worse, on blacklisted sites. And despite publishers putting thousands of employees and AI support safeguards in place to weed out so-called “problem adjacencies,” this keeps happening.

The latest example of this unsafe brand environment was just weeks ago, when an active shooter in New Zealand took to Facebook Live to broadcast his 17-minute shooting spree. Footage remained on Facebook for an hour, with Facebook citing a failure of their AI capabilities leading to the accidental airing of the gruesome footage.

It’s no mystery that these publishers are playing catch-up and can’t guarantee brand-safe environments, and the same issue has been on the table for years.

And it’s becoming increasingly clear that brands have had enough. 

Earlier this month, P&G Chief Brand Officer Marc Pritchard blasted the digital media industry for lack of transparency, fraud, privacy breaches, and a proliferation of violent and harmful content placed next to ads.

“We’ve been tolerant for too long,” Pritchard said in remarks to the Association of National Advertisers’ annual media conference. “It’s not acceptable to have brands showing up where opioids are being offered, where illegal drugs are promoted, where abhorrent behavior is present, or where violence is seen. The apologies are heartfelt and appreciated, but that’s not good enough.”

Prichard’s comments beg the question: With brand equity and corporate reputation at risk, are these platforms worthy of the major investments they enjoy?

How valuable is a media buy that promises hyper targeting, yet carries a tremendous risk of deviations from brand advertiser content guidelines and subsequent public relations efforts to correct and repair a maligned reputation?

At the end of the day, every dollar spent in the digital and social sector represents a dollar that isn’t going to “traditional” media. And yet traditional media channels such as TV, print, and point of care (POC) guarantee brand-safe ad placement and have a solid track record of delivering on agreed-to adjacencies.

POC media in particular allows brands to enjoy the halo effect of an implied endorsement of a healthcare professional. Offering custom, curated content alongside prestigious medical and patient advocacy organizations and award-winning education also presents an important opportunity.

Simply put, POC media plans can be targeted without the risk.

Time is running out for digital and social publishers to make amends, and advertisers are beginning to put their money where their mouth is. In 2017, P&G ceased all YouTube ad spending until the publisher could guarantee safe adjacency for P&G brands. Perhaps this time marketers will join to pull back their marketing spends to demand safe adjacencies.

In the meantime, “traditional” media such as POC will continue to deliver the right adjacency at the right time with definable results. Shifting the media channel allocation mix to include POC for health brand marketing spend is an easy case to make.

See the value that POC can bring to your channel mix in our new whitepaper.

Traver Hutchins

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Build Your Bottom Line through Effective Listening, Tapping Emotion, & Strong Engagement

April 30, 2019 0

Health and wellness, pharmaceutical, and medical-device providers must navigate an ever-evolving and consistently complicated healthcare landscape. Agencies (and corporate marketers) serve a key role in helping their clients problem solve, understand their challenges, and identify critical success factors.

How is this best accomplished? Through the power of thorough, intuitive and intentional listening, and strong engagement – with both the client and consumer.

It’s critical to tap into that certain something that bridges the gap between what agencies (and corporate marketers) think they know and what a client (or brand manager) needs to understand. The reverse is equally true. What does the client (or brand manager) and consumer know and what do we as agencies need to understand? It can only be arrived at through intentional, deep listening. And from that, valuable insights result. Answers rise to the top. Incredible ideas and campaigns are born. If you're an in-house marketer, this means listening to your team and to your end consumers.

I’d argue that much of the best creative work and constituent engagement is accomplished by listening to, understanding, addressing, and integrating human emotion. You need to know what consumers feel to know how to reach them. It’s critical in today’s competitive marketing landscape, a chilly land of technology and data.

Listening Builds Communication

Communication builds patient, caregiver, and healthcare professional engagement. Engagement is the new currency for building sustainable brands.

Good communication, brought by attuned engagement, is a giant step away from frequently asked questions and data-driven answers. It is not time-consuming, but rather a deal closer. It is what sets you apart from the competition and, ultimately, what builds the bottom line.

Listening Builds Trust

Trust is as important as price for today’s patients. When we understand that today’s patient is motivated by trust and that it is just as important as price, we see a level playing field. We understand that, when all things are equal, the deal breaker could be due to a lack of trust resulting from our own inability to effectively tune in.

“The Art and Value of Good Listening” – an article published in Psychology Today – declares that listening is an art, but that good listening also depends on gauging the mood (and mindset) of your audience. Is the patient / caregiver upset? Are they fearful? If tapping into human emotion requires listening, it also requires compassion and understanding.

Beyond Listening: Emotional Branding

Effectively listening to our audiences on an emotional level involves knowing what to listen to. We need to identify the aspect of the consumer's life that requires a solution. Then we need to understand the emotion behind this and link the product or service in a way that is emotionally relatable.

Emotional branding insists on forging an emotional connection between products or services and the consumer. Those connections can create brand loyalty among consumers. The emotional connection has to be positive and it always has to be relevant. It is either identifiable to consumers or represents something they believe in.

  • “This medication helps migraines,” for example, is not as emotionally connected as, “This medication will help your migraine, so you will be able to spend more time doing the things you love.”
  • UPS does not simply deliver packages. They deliver happiness and dependability.
  • Nike insists that we aspire to greatness – that we just do it. We may not always see greatness in ourselves, but it is something most of us would like to aspire to. Therefore, we identify. With health and wellness, pharmaceuticals, and medical devices, we are inviting people to regain health, to take back their livelihood, and to feel better.

A medical device may keep a patient out of the hospital, which falls in line with the new, value-based care initiatives and the merit-based incentive payment system. And a physician or medical office manager may have an emotional response to this type of marketing – better patient care and adhering to government regulations in a single move.

Branding: What Science Says About Engaging People

According to research and information gathered by The New York Times and Content Marketing Institute, 92% of consumers respond to advertising that feels like a story. Additionally, the human brain can process images or graphics 60 times faster than words. Taken together, this information suggests that a story with disruptive images is our best bet when marketing to potential customers. If we can tap into human emotion using these two mechanisms, we have an excellent starting point.

We gain trust by listening and good communication. We learn where consumers are on their respective journeys, and we deliver what they have asked for or what they need to go forward.

We learn to bring consumers in by allowing our brand to tap into human emotion.

Businesses that effectively engage also do so through value creation, rather than revenue extraction. They provide their audience with something meaningful beyond a sales pitch – an emotional appeal, a smart end-to-end experience, great content that is relatable on an emotional or real-time support level.

Six Strategies to Help Build Trust & Engagement

Relating to your audience begins with understanding them and how they differ from each other. Take the time to see the differences in your audiences, segment them, consider what drives each of them to “raise their hand,” customize your message, and take action. Then engage with them. Our marketing must be organic and customizable to reflect a personalized approach.

Remember, we no longer live in a business-to-consumer world. Given today’s digital landscape, it is a consumers’ market, and they hold all the power through engagement.

Here are six basic strategies to help you improve engagement:

  1. Understand your audience through segmentation and persona development to gauge where they are in their journey. Customization is key. We cannot merely market a package. We have to market customized solutions. Further, we need to make it obvious to the patient, caregiver, or healthcare provider that we are tuned in to their specific requests. We understand that their goals or needs are unique and deserving of our laser-focused attention. Remember, no broad strokes! Segmentation is probably as broad as we can go. In other words, optimal marketing strategies must categorize patients, influencers, or clinicians by demographics and behaviors.
  2. Create educational value as defined by each audience; there is no such thing as a successful “one-size-fits-all” approach. Education means it is our turn to speak. We have heard what the patient, caregiver, or healthcare provider has to say. We understand the need. We are not merely providing a customized solution. We are educating on how this solution will work and how it will propel them forward and closer to their goal(s). Clients and product managers – AND CONSUMERS – want solutions. They also want to understand how things work. They demand one-on-one connection, and each connection will be customized to run parallel with their need.
  3. Become trusted advisers by looking out for our audience’s needs. When we accurately and consistently address our audience’s needs, not just the product or service's attributes, we do a better job of reaching consumers. Take the time to draw strong connections between a patient's or healthcare provider's needs and desires and your product's or service's offerings. Act in their best interests by providing quality information. Your communications will resonate better and be more appreciated.
  4. Develop content that anticipates questions and be in many places. Develop branded and unbranded communication, including non-personal promotions through an omnichannel approach. This affords audiences multiple opportunities to connect and communicate with your brand and the people behind it. We are easy to find. We are everywhere. Try to make sure your solutions fall before the consumer's eyes. Analyzing your segmentation demographics is an excellent way to anticipate potential inquiries and put forth the information before it is asked for.
  5. Identify, engage, and connect with consumers via social media. Do not be afraid to reach out. Do not be afraid to study a patient’s or healthcare provider’s journey from the beginning and meet them where they are (both in their lifecycle and online) with real solutions. At the same time, we must make our presence known and our solutions easy to find. Stand out by standing everywhere – including on social.
  6. Keep asking what consumers need, including how you can improve. We should be on a continual journey to better understand what consumers want and how to improve the solutions we offer. We can never improve if we do not engage and ask our respective audience how we're doing.

Through surveys and tuning in, we may discover that a service or product is confusing or that our campaign's messaging is lost. When we are very close to an idea – from the drawing board on – we may think that our understanding is translating well to the audience when it is not. By asking, learning, and adjusting our communications, we also improve our consumer relationships.

The Bottom Line

Everything comes back to listening, understanding, and effective communications. To discover what consumers need most, you must fire up your listening skills and pay attention to their requests and concerns. Understand where they are on their journey and what is preventing them from reaching the next level.

Through attuned engagement and understanding, we can address consumers’ needs in more effective ways and bring our brands greater success. By carefully listening, we can tap into human emotion and imbue our marketing solutions with a greater chance of penetrating.

It is incumbent on us as marketers to help each healthcare practitioner, patient, or caregiver feel like we are speaking directly to them. Through smart segmentation and marketing customization, we can improve our ability to establish emotional connections and drive engagement.

Kim Carpenter

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