Jeff's 2023 Healthcare and Pharma Marketing Predictions

Happy new year! It's been 365 days since my?2022 predictions dropped — some of which weren’t far off (TikTok under scrutiny, consumer health NFTs, new drug pricing legislation) and some of which were kind of silly (work-from-home physicians?). This year I’m taking a different tack; less prediction and more conviction. Below are 6 Key Marketing Trends that have been emerging ever since I joined Eversana Intouch, which pharma and device and diagnostic brands cannot ignore in 2023. The “future” is already here. Yes, it’s uncomfortable to confront change and easy to sweep it aside, though if leaders never embraced emerging customer and market truths, you wouldn’t be reading this on your IPhone while enjoying a Starbucks in your new Tesla.?

We need a new vision for pharmaceutical ads that avoids the usual tropes and communicates something unique. Pharma advertising has gotten so predictable, Planet Fitness launched a fake phama ad to combat the made-up condition “Low e.” (For a delightful couple of seconds, you can’t even tell it’s fake.) On screen, we cut to a Well-Dressed Spokesman who explains Planet Fitness "replaces Low e with Big E, which keeps you energized and glowing all day.” I’m sure this MOA makes about as much sense to consumers as half the pharma ads buzzing their TVs. Now, fortunately some healthcare brands are taking creative risks, especially in more consumer-oriented categories like migraine and women’s health — shout outs to Nurtec and Phexxi — but there are human insights in every?category we can mine to create unique stories about the brands we serve. If we don’t … the robots will be coming to create better ads for us this year.???

The robots are coming and they badly need intelligent, experienced operators to partner with them.?The creepily accurate design work from DALL-E 2 and StableDiffusion was 2022’s?AI revelation. Clients are already starting to put two and two together; if we’re pressed for time and our resources are scarce, why not use AI? The use cases for AI writing are everywhere (InstaCopy, Rytr, Jasper — in fact, ChatGPT is simply a more startling demo of machine learning’s current vanguard) ... yet, the ability of computers to build imaginative imagery based on typed prompts changes the game. Fast Company notes?while content creators are pushing back on AI, brands like Heinz are mining DALL-E for its buzz potential and big tech is?developing tools?to make uncanny AI video ads (the underwater elephant is fantastic). Where will the agency fit in? If raw production skills are eventually outsourced to machines, a new cadre of AI managers will likely emerge to harness them. These new workers will need to be highly curious and culturally connected, in ways computers aren’t. They will be deeply experienced in editing, creative direction, or software development, so they can correct for AI’s limitations. In other words — they’ll look?like current ad agency employees.

“Traditional” NPP may be at its breaking point and we need to invent creative solutions.?This was the prevailing theme at Digital Pharma East 2022 in Philadelphia, where Andy Kennemer of GSK summarized eloquently:?"If there’s too much spray and pray, people are going to opt out." This rings true especially for physician marketing, where I’ve seen digitally sophisticated manufacturers build armies of experts in digital targeting and optimization ... only to have their brands fire out suboptimal "blasts" last minute.?According to every physician survey, HCPs are overwhelmed and it's getting harder to influence them digitally. What’s clear in 2023 is healthcare brands need to court individual physicians with useful and interesting content and resources, personalized to their preferences. And we need to solicit their permission to send them even more useful stuff, creating digital relationships that support the sales force and drive brand growth.

High prices will haunt our industry unless we address them proactively.?If you want to annoy physicians without?spamming their inboxes, just ask what they think about pharmaceutical pricing. They might use words like “outrageous” or “troubling” and note that "financial toxicity” poses an increasingly large burden on their patients. In 2022, thanks in part to the AMA's lobbying,?watershed legislation passed the US Congress allowing Medicare to negotiate (ie, pay less) for the most expensive, branded drugs. Meanwhile quasi-celeb Mark Cuban opened his heralded generic pharmacy that is doing better than many insiders predicted. Yet the pharma industry has mostly sat on its hands, content to quietly produce its copay cards and launch its assistance programs, even as journalists annually slam drug price hikes?and Twitter rages. Pharma’s tired narrative about needing price hikes to fuel innovation has lost credibility, and with the halo from COVID vaccines in the rear-view mirror, the industry needs to change its playbook — stat.?

Regulated or not, healthcare brands have to solve for creative agility.?And, as a corollary, so will their agencies and media partners. This has been a long time coming; there is no digital “slow lane” that patients and physicians use. Audiences across industries are experiencing the same evolution, because we ALL use social media, mobile phones, apps, et al. And, like biological evolution, this one seems to favor the quick and the prolific. Witness TikTok, whose legacy at the moment is the deep popularity of 15-to-60-second videos, all over the web. Or the arms race of social media ads, borne from a radical commitment by test-and-learn advocates to stand out in crowded social feeds. (The more competitive the category, the more ads. At press time, Progressive Insurance is running 25+ different creatives on Instagram, which have all launched in the past 30 days.) In 2023, it’s no longer effective for even medium-sized pharma or device brands to budget for “5-7 social creatives” or “2-3 patient videos, approx. ten minutes in length” ... which are neither quick nor prolific.

One last thought about the medical metaverse?…?which my colleagues and I have been tracking via the Medical Metaverse Digest since last summer. What’s become clear is healthcare players across the globe (especially Asia, South America, Europe) and even at blood donation centers here in the US are experimenting with metaverse-based technologies. I am very comfortable buying up the metaverse Kool-Aid in a down market, and here’s why: I was a young marketer back in the '90s, when Bill Gates reportedly saw “little commercial potential for the Internet for the next 10 years.” In 2007, Steve Ballmer — Gates's heir at Microsoft — told USA Today there’s “no chance the iPhone is going to get any significant market share.” Fast-forward to October 2022. Jeff Teper, President of Collaborative Platforms, announced Microsoft’s new partnership with Meta: “We believe that in the not-so-distant future, the metaverse will play a key role in providing new ways of connecting.” They finally figured it out up in Redmond. What are you waiting for?

About Jeff

Company: Eversana Intouch | View open Intouch positions here

Role: SVP, Strategic Planning

Keywords: Marketing, Strategic Planning, Multichannel/Digital Strategy, Healthcare. Inspiring Change and Innovation.

Book: Speaking on the Side

Teams: Mets, Devils, Rutgers Scarlet Knights

Place: Jersey Shore

Views in this article are my own.