It’s 2024 and the Pharma marketing landscape has changed. The customer has evolved. People (yes, doctors are people) expect more from brands these days. They want to know what a brand believes in, how it can add value, how it behaves in the world, and what problems it can help solve for them. Which means that, as marketers, we too need to evolve beyond the typical communications we’re familiar with.
What’s your ideal Mix?
To focus our approach and get the most out of your agency team, view the examples below keeping these key questions in mind:
- In thinking beyond Communications, where can you play to win?
- What proportion of the mix do you want to achieve?
Communications have historically made up over 90% of our tactical plans, including all our old favorites like ads, videos, detail aids, booth graphics etc.
These are PUSH communications that typically require more resources to get them in front of the customer. Don’t want to get caught in a media spending war? Dial up the creativity. Bold creative gets you disproportionate share of voice.
- Print Ads
- Banner Ads/Paid Social
- TV & OLV Ads
- Messaging
- Detail Materials
- Product/DSA Website
- Standard Congress Communications
- Design Led Communications
These are nontraditional tactics that pull the audience in to experience your message, as opposed to tactics that push your message to them. Experiences can often drive a higher return on a lower spend because the audience actually wants to engage with them, and even share them with their peers.
- Immersive Website Experiences
- Virtual Reality Experiences
- WebAR Experiences
- Social Experiments
- Customer Storytelling Campaigns
- Surprising Congress Engagements
- Stunts
- Lead Generation Campaigns
- Patient Journey Helpers
- Live Events
Ready to go beyond the molecule? Let’s create solutions that can solve real problems for customers, or even just brighten their day. These are great for brands that are not hugely differentiated and need something else to stand out, and are also great for differentiated brands that want to demonstrate their leadership in the category.
- Utility Tools
- Accessibility Improvements
- Product Frustrations
- Disease Management Tools
- Clinical Interaction Enablers
- Life-changing Innovations
- Clinical Tools
We aren’t limited to talking to people about our brand—we can get them talking to each other about our brand. We can even get them talking back to our brand. By making these conversations happen, even if they are sometimes out of our control, we deepen engagement and build a different level of curiosity and loyalty.
- Partnerships
- PR
- User-generated Content
- Peer-to-peer
- HCP-Patient Communication Programs
The world has changed. Content is king, and brands are doubling down on creating entertaining content that customers want to watch. And make no mistake, Pharma has already landed in this space. Quick rule of thumb: if the brand has a leading role in the content, that is not entertainment — it’s brand communications. If you need something heavily branded, entertainment is not for you.
- Short-form Film
- Interactive Film
- Long-form Film
- Short-form Documentary
- Podcast
- Music
- Book Design