What’s new, and what’s next, in DTC
Med Ad News asked agency leaders what clients are asking for today that they were not asking for a year ago – and what they might be asking for a year from now that they are not asking for today. Here are their responses.
Nick Capanear, executive VP, executive creative director, GSW:
Many clients are seeking out new and different ways to engage with audiences for lead generation/acquisition. We are seeing a turn to third party “trusted” vendors and associations as the platform for enrollment vs. Brand.com. There are some clients dabbling in the social media space to engage KOLs and bloggers as advocates and “content sharers.” This trend may pick up momentum, but it requires advertisers to think differently. The third party groups that could help brands the most in the social media space are seeking out unique unbranded content on a regular basis. The investment in non-promotional outreach is difficult for many advertisers to justify in their ROI models.
Amy Yan, strategic planning director, engagement, Area 23:
We’ve been seeing a greater appetite for pharma to engage on social media, including some of the most serious, historically HCP-driven conditions like oncology. For instance, one of our clients is Bayer, and their Men Who Speak Up prostate cancer education program launched Facebook and YouTube efforts over the past year. This is partly because social platforms, including Facebook, Instagram and YouTube, are consuming ever more of consumers’ time. Brands that speak to older Americans are no exception to this trend. This is also due to the rise in understanding of the benefits that social can offer. With the proliferation of paid social advertising products, there’s increased recognition of the ability of these offerings to drive awareness and traffic, even to brands for which organizing a social media profile and community are not top goals.
I expect more clients asking to build deeper, more data-driven understanding of their customers and leveraging that understanding for highly personalized CRM programs that respond to patients’ activities across channels, devices, and properties. We’re already seeing clients who are building some of this infrastructure that enables collection and analysis of this data. The next step is to utilize the data for more personalized communications and relationship building.
Rich Levy, executive VP, chief creative officer, FCB Health:
What we are seeing is a shift from the technological shiny object to a philosophical attempt to understand what personalized medicine can actually mean for the patient and the provider. While there is still a lot of ‘we need to build an app because that’s what you do’ conversations there are more and more questions being asked about what is actually meant to be accomplished with these initiatives.
These questions lead to a very different kind of dialogue and solution set moving pharma ever more into a truly consumer centric media and content strategy that provides a more relevant presence in the consumers’ lives. Social has become almost the norm but it goes beyond that with beginning to devise strategies that understand how to leverage the empowered patient, their health tracking behaviors, independent research motivations, and the rise of “Dr. Google” to steer the conversations that patients are having with each other and with their doctors.
In a year we will see fewer questions about how to do this and more about what is the best way to do this – Apple HealthKit, Google Health, Fitbit, Withings, etc. will all have increasingly leverageable platforms in terms of messaging as well as data collection and targeting. Additionally there will be less asking about the importance of a mobile first media strategy and more of a simple acceptance of it. I do wonder how much print will suffer with this: as it becomes increasingly relevant for ISI alone some clients are already looking to de-prioritize that for TVC and mobile video and other digital experiences.
Joan Wildermuth, executive VP, global creative director, managing director, JUICE Pharma Worldwide:
Point-of-Care technologies have become hotties, with interactive wall posters, in-office tablets, waiting room videos – from wall to brochure sized – and the ability to deliver office-by-office personalized mobile messaging. Marketers have recognized that P.O.C. offers the advantages of reaching a captive audience at a time when they are laser focused on their health.
Chatbot Chatbot Chatbot! That’s all you’ll hear about in a year. People want questions answered the moment they think of them, on the platforms they are already on. And, overwhelmingly, those platforms are messaging apps. We need to be there. And we need to be prepared for a worthwhile exchange and to answer the types of questions people are really asking. Those who do it well will win people’s trust and loyalty.
