Insights & Trends

The Global Guide to Pharma Marketing Codes Vol.4.2 Book 1 is available for download.

Make sure to download the full Global Guide here.

 

What do running water, electricity, and medical innovation all have in common?

They are all things we’ve been conditioned in the United States to expect, and as such, all things that we often take for granted.

It’s not news that the pharmaceutical industry has a messaging problem. At the ExL Pharma conference last week, a presenter shared survey results indicating that when asked about the industry’s last major medical breakthrough, many people cited the development of the polio vaccine. In case you don’t remember, the polio vaccine was developed more than 60 years ago!

The message is clear: people don’t recognize all the life-changing innovation that takes place in the pharmaceutical industry every day.

In my lifetime I have seen HIV/AIDS go from an incurable death sentence to a chronic, manageable condition. New biologic treatments like monoclonal antibodies and immunotherapies have had a massive impact on the way we treat everything from psoriasis to cancer. Companion diagnostics have helped us identify genetic mutations that predict responses to care across a range of oncologic conditions leading to better outcomes and reduced costs. Statins and anti-hypertensives have helped to significantly reduce the risk of cardiovascular events, contributing to increased life expectancies. Drugs like Sovaldi can cure Hepatitis C. Not treat, not manage – cure.

For better or worse, we have come to expect miracle treatments. The pharmaceutical industry has been so good at developing drugs for so long, that it is no longer surprising when incredible new medicines come to market. Instead of celebrating innovation we expect it. Rather than rejoicing at revolutionary new treatments we bemoan the prices and villainize those whose work led to these breakthroughs.

This brings us back to the messaging problem. How do we get the public to recognize and appreciate the innovative treatments the pharmaceutical industry develops?

People understand and appreciate in the abstract the benefits of electricity and running water and I think they probably understand the benefits and value of new drugs. But for many, the conversations around pharmaceutical products remain abstract. That’s a problem.

We need to stop speaking solely in numbers and dollars and start shaping conversations that are personal. We need to demonstrate just how much we all depend on the advancements that have been made, and the ones that will be introduced in the years to come. We need to focus on the people, not the “patients,” whose lives are forever changed by the therapies our industry introduces and we need to celebrate the scientists who dedicate their lives to pushing the boundaries of medicine to save, extend and improve the lives of others.

Connecting those dots, taking it from the abstract to the personal, humanizing the innovation that’s changing lives each and every day, is how we’ll start getting people to think about medical innovation in the here and now and to appreciate the value that innovation brings.

I’d love to hear your thoughts on major medical advancements that have moved you in the past 60 years – do you think the pharmaceutical industry has had major breakthroughs since the polio vaccine? I do!

While traditional holding companies may have once reigned supreme, the rise of independent agencies suggests that things are shaking up in the realm of multi market healthcare communications.

A major decision facing mid-sized agency owners is whether to sell their company or to maintain their independence, a decision that UK based GLOBALHealthPR partner, Aurora, recently made.

The advantage of an independent agency is the ability to deliver the best possible services to clients without also reporting to a parent company and shareholders. According to Aurora’s CEO and co-owner, Neil Crump, the decision to retain your company’s independence does not reflect a loss of business vigor but rather shows resolve to build and innovate on the solid foundation laid down by the owners themselves. Maybe then, there is no right answer to the ‘Sell, Not Sell’ question, but rather the questions to ask are: what are you building for, and what is right for you? Read more at: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/sell-dont-ask-yourself-question-fellow-agency-owner-neil-crump

Every year GLOBALHealthPR agencies come together for our Annual General Meeting, AGM for short, and it’s a celebrated event! Months in advance partners start circling the dates on calendars, eagerly anticipating the opportunity to learn, share and connect.

This past January we welcomed James Yi as the Executive Director for GHPR’s APAC regional office. Not only has James brought a wealth of experience in regional healthcare communications, but he’s also provided invaluable perspective on the network itself – and what he sees as our value to clients. James took a turn at the mic during the AGM, sharing his reflections from his first 100 days, and one of the first things he talked about was the strength of the network, commenting:

“A network is only as strong as its weakest agency.”

It’s an intuitive statement, but the context surrounding it is important – especially in the healthcare space. Most global holding companies lack true health expertise in many, if not the majority, of markets they operate in. This means you have non-specialist communicators implementing in a highly specialised and regulated area, leading to huge variance in the levels of success achieved locally.

At GLOBALHealthPR, health communications is all we do. Every agency that is part of our network is a true expert in both health and communications in their respective markets. Supported by a strong client-first infrastructure, our agencies work together seamlessly to deliver around the globe.

We are often approached by agencies from all over world that are interested in joining the network. Within each market we only have one partner agency, and their focus must be on healthcare. For these reasons we are highly selective about those choices – our partner relationships are built to last, and becoming a partner isn’t easy.

Every year when I come back from the AGM I think about how lucky I am to be working with a network of partners—and friends—who share my passion for healthcare and communications.  We’re bound by a common vision of building the best healthcare communications network in the world. Rome wasn’t built in a day (fun fact, Ancient Rome took somewhere in the range of 760 years to reach its peak population, or over 200,000 days); we’re only 16 years into our mission and continuing to add strength each year.

Our network is built such that it doesn’t have a weakest agency. And that’s a big piece of how we are able to deliver exceptional communications globally, regionally and locally for our clients.

This post comes to us from Renato Póvoas, Founder and Managing Partner of GLOBALHealthPR Portugal partner, Guess What.

Despite being somewhat averse to speculation, Guess What‘s editorial board asked me to write about trends for 2017. I leave here my 12 guesses. At the end of the year, we will take stock of what has actually materialized.

1. Predictive analysis: Use of data, statistical algorithms and machine learning techniques to anticipate consumer behavior.

2. Customer-Centric Culture: Put customers ahead of the direct interests of your brand. Surprise and provide an unforgettable experience to your client that he or she will defend your agency owing to fantastic results.

3. Geo-location: Massive spread of the use of consumer data via geolocation. With the ever-increasing use smartphones, there is great potential for collecting and processing this information, being a precious tool for brand marketing.

4. Native advertising: With the proliferation of ad blockers, it will become increasingly common to use native advertising in various media and formats. This type of advertising has the advantage of not being interrupted by the intrusive banners and pop-ups that disturb us daily.

5. Multi-touch Attribution (MTA): A system that lets you know which clicks are the most important in converting customers online and how they relate. An extremely important topic for communications agency wants to make money providing digital services. Coming in the very near future.

6. Data-driven marketing: Base decisions and actions on marketing through concrete data. Get to know people and customers to the smallest detail. This implies looking at the marketing, communication and commercial areas from an integrated, 360º perspective.

7. Targeted Creativity: Develop creative and relevant content for your customers. From the digital point of view there are numerous tools that allow you to adapt and segment content so that your campaigns are increasingly effective.

8. Cross-device: It’s already coming out of 2016 and will continue to be a reality this year. The mix is ​​getting bigger and bigger. The challenge is to integrate the contents with coherence and in an appropriate way to the support.

9. Live video: Explosion in the volume and level of interaction of this type of video. YouTube, Facebook and Instagram have recently incorporated more and more features in this field, thus contributing to the popularization of these videos, namely at the level of public events. It will not take long for brands to seize this opportunity.

10. Content marketing: It has been said and recognized for some time now that “content is king”. Therefore, I believe that the content evolution that we will see in 2017 will be with regard to the level of sophistication, creativity and format.

11. AR / VR (Augmented Reality and Virtual Reality): With some experiences in this area – Pokemon Go is perhaps the most universal example, there is still a long way and a lot to do in this specific field. Technology is important, but content and creativity are equally critical.

12. AI (Artificial Intelligence): This will be the year in which more and more companies and brands will advance in this area. Personal assistants, chat bots and other instant messaging programs promise to give birth to a new generation of digital services.

What do you think will be the top communications trends in 2017? Leave a comment to let us know!

A version of this post originally appeared on the Guess What blog.