Digital Pharma East 2024: Day 1

Digital Pharma East was back in Philadelphia this week kicking off fall’s conference calendar and signaling the trends that are top of mind for pharma marketers for 2025.?

Panels on Day One investigated ways of working at the intersection of established practices and transformational disruption.?

On panel “Innovate to Elevate: Transforming Pharma Marketing Through Disruption,” pioneering pharma leaders discussed creative methods leveraged by their organizations to innovate without losing the trust and reliability associated with time-tested approaches.? Moderator Eric McCulley , Head of Portfolio Innovation; US Immunology, 优时比 , posited that “there are consistencies as it relates to culture and how organizations take on the risk [of innovation]” before exploring different models and functions organizations deploy.?

Kimberly Coleman Clotman , Senior Director, Marketing Effectiveness Lead, 辉瑞 , nodded to the role of culture on an organization’s aptitude for innovation, citing one of Pfizer’s Actionable Attitudes – progress over perfection – as a contributor to the organization’s ongoing pursuit of the next best approach.

Another panel, “Restructuring Again? Redefine Skills, Capabilities, and Operating Models to Build a Sustainable, Successful Marketing Framework for the Future” explored the role of organizational change to drive innovation, with a real-time audience poll indicating that nearly 70% of the audience had experienced organizational transformation in the last year alone. Many panelists spoke to the shift from linear to more collaborative, cross-stakeholder structures yielding greater agility, with Kate Greengrove , Head US Commercial Strategic Operations & Capabilities, 荷商葛蘭素史克藥廠 , expounding, “agile is about the people, individual interactions, not just processes and tools” while extoling the value of standardization to increase flexibility in high significance efforts saying, “standardization is our friend in terms of moving fast. That just frees up more time for creativity in other places.”?

As leading organizations forecast future opportunities and headwinds, panel “Putting the Customer First: Innovative and Concrete Strategies that Create Value in Light of Changing Customer Expectations” addressed the shifting healthcare dynamics and customer expectations impacting marketing strategies, with moderator Stephanie Jen Business Unit Head, US Anti-Infectives and Respiratory, 荷商葛蘭素史克藥廠 , sharing a personal anecdote to kick off the session, concluding “a few short years ago, the thing that delighted me as a consumer now I come to expect. Even more than that, I expect more.” Blake Schiller , AVP, Business Unit Director, Organon , considered whether amplified expectations from consumers are in part due to the advancements in other retail environments asking “How do we borrow from the outside in… from the brands that dominate our patients’ lives?” Harkening to lessons from other industries, Michael Rowbotham Commercial Innovation HCP Product Lead, 辉瑞 , pointed to speed as a means to meet customer expectations while “truly looking at the customer journey from their perspective. When that doctor wakes up in the morning what are they doing? When they walk into the office, what are they struggling with?”

While engaging customer needs effectively, this hyperpersonalization was a hallmark of the day’s discussions, amplified with a willingness to throw out (parts of) the rule book in order to deliver in a rapidly evolving landscape.