Digital Pharma East 2024: Day 2 and 3

The pharma marketing community reconvened on Day Two and Day Three of panels at Digital Pharma East.?

Wednesday morning’s sessions investigated precision marketing and rapid advancements in personalization. On panel “AI-Driven Omnichannel Marketing: Harnessing Machine Learning for Precision and Performance in Pharma,” panelists got tactical, exploring how to implement AI-informed practices across matrixed organizations. Nicole Benedetto , Director, Customer Experience and Commercial Acceleration at Organon spoke to operational models for aligning AI efforts across a global organization, “AI can touch so many different parts of the business, it’s hard to carve it out as an individual tactic,” and to consider any “AI capability is an enterprise capability” that requires specific use-case identification, adding “we’ve worked across functions to gather use cases and prioritize them by impact vs effort.” While launching synchronized and integrated efforts can require additional investment, she suggested the process is the same for any innovation practice, recommending “Test. Iterate. Then scale things more broadly."?

Also charting a future was panel “The Path to Personal: How to Create Personalized HCP Outreach and Drive Impact” which explored Novartis’s identity initiative which enables personalized experiences for audiences in an omnichannel environment.? Katie Ford , Head of US Media, Novartis discussed the journey for the organization, where “everything we do begins with the insights,” to shift away from the cookie over the last few years. Despite the significance of that transition, Katie shared they “haven’t seen an impact on performance. We’re steadfast in our approach forward…we’ll stay agile if things change [but] knowing there is not going to be this disruptive impact gives us great confidence to stay the course.” PHM CEO Andrea Palmer echoed the importance of this work adding, “identity-based solutions are really important – understanding how to connect activity and unique data sets. And the vertical is actually more advanced than other verticals, because regulations have prepared us for this.”

Pointing to the future of sequenced messaging, Katie shared “More is not better. More refined, and more precise is better,” with Andrea affirming the future’s promise of great “speed to decisioning.”?

Advanced content delivery was a hot topic across the conference and in “Build Your Marketshare by Synchronizing DTC/HCP Efforts”, Kristin Patton , Executive Director, Customer Experience, Novartis spoke to how behavioral science principals can help marketers bridge the gap between patient and physician expectations. Responding to research presented by Sharecare , Kristin remarked, “Our ability to intercept at those moments has gotten better and better and better.? But what we put there is another piece of the puzzle. We have to resist our own desires to bombard HCP and patients with our entire value proposition” to knowing laughter from the audience. Kiersten Britton , SVP, Client Lead, N2, Publicis Groupe shared a belief that disconnect is not only solvable, but marketing has the potential to do so, “We understand there is somewhat of a gap in priorities, but the opportunity exists to connect them. That’s our job from a media and marketing standpoint as we are often the last touch before they (the patient) go into the doctor’s office.” Both leaders echoed an increasing sophistication in “understanding who our patients are, what is important to them” as a means of refining both DTC and HCP marketing efforts.?

Refining that patient persona was a topic in several sessions with “Mastering the Mix: Balance Linear TV, CTV, and Digital Plans in DTC Marketing to Adapt to a Rapidly Shifting Landscape” addressing optimized spend across digital channels, but Sarah Dooley Durant , Associate Director, Consumer Marketing LYBALVI, Alkermes pointed to nuance in the process, “It’s all about the story.? Data is a bunch of numbers…there are a lot of things that can impact those numbers and looking at it from a holistic perspective with concrete goals in mind helps me build a (brand) story,” which requires “really trying to understand the patients. Hearing directly from patients, you gain so much information and understanding and empathy.”? This was reiterated in one of the final panels of the conference, “Right Patient, Right Message, More Moments: Connecting Along the Healthcare Journey as the Digital Landscape Shifts,” where Courtney Cruz , Senior Director, Integrated Media Strategy, Pfizer committed to patients, “our responsibility to understand what works for them is huge” and while “what everyone here endeavors to do is deliver appropriate content at the right time,” there are “some obvious places where patients are actively raising their hands looking for information and we shouldn’t overlook those.”??

Similarly, Peter Mertz , Director, HCP Marketing - Specialty Franchise, Biogen spoke to the need to transform information issuance into an exchange. In panel “Breaking Down the Silos Between Medical, Sales and Marketing to Enhance HCP Engagement”, Peter spoke about the relationship between sales and marketing wherein he speaks with every rep once monthly to hear about their needs and experiences, effectively shifting “one-way comms into a two-way dialogue.”?

As marketers across the conference sought new means to connect with audiences, some panels focused on developing familiar terrain; in “Unbreak the Internet for Pharma Marketers”, Adam Kruse , Director, Media, Strategic Partnerships & Programmatic, Novartis “argue(d) the entire video marketplace is getting more fragmented. But programmatic becomes exciting as inventory or supply becomes available.” Adam pointed to new paths to incrementality, “you need to think about where you are seeing viewership growth – and that’s sports. This has been an area that has been hard to access without significant investments. Sports is an area that is very interesting from the inventory [perspective].” When it comes ensuring that quality inventory, Jordan Galbraith , Senior Vice President, Programmatic, Publicis Health Media was clear: “Supply Path Curation is the back bone, or the ultimate best practice of your programmatic team.”?

One of the most quoted presentations, “Marketing Questions to Ponder” by Jim DeLash , Marketing Director, Direct & Long-Tail Customer Acquisition, GSK cited American investor Charlie Munger who famously said “mimicking the herd invites regression to the mean.” The presentations at this year’s DPE fought the very notion – seeking new approaches and innovative tactics to seed change and improve outcomes. While familiar colleagues and old friends reunited, it was in pursuit of what comes next for health as a collective.