Agency partnerships deliver deeper engagement

As pharma companies seek to optimise their sales and marketing activities, what role can independent, online professional doctor networks play, in generating data and insights for creative agencies and media planners and buyers?

Many pharma companies market their brands and portfolios across multiple channels and territories with strategic support from media planning and buying experts, and creative communications providers including digital agencies.

However, adapting materials and messages so that they support the lifecycle of a brand and comply with the regulations, culture and needs of doctors in different countries can be time consuming and costly to implement. 

Networks in Health – the unique international alliance of online physician networks with 1.6 million member physicians across the globe – is already working in partnership with leading communications agencies to simplify the problem and help them maximise engagement across different channels and territories. 

With the ability to research as well as communicate with and engage medical experts across multiple countries, Networks in Health has unique insights into how physicians' thinking and behaviour both online and offline varies according to their nationality, seniority and specialty. It can help communications agencies tactically plan and implement different types of programmes for brands at different product lifecycle stages, integrate them with other channel activities, and replicate them across multiple territories via a single, coordinated point of access, delivering real consistency and return on investment. 

This activity is founded on the extensive measurement and evaluation capability of Networks in Health, which can be used to provide data on everything from doctors' levels of awareness of a disease or therapy area through to changes in their prescribing intentions and behaviour. These detailed insights, which are unique to professional online networks, provide invaluable information at the planning stage and help communications agencies ensure their campaigns meet physicians' ongoing needs, as well as the brand objectives. 

So, is collaboration between communications agencies and online professional networks the way forward for pharma companies seeking to maximise ROI on sales and marketing activities? Our experience certainly suggests that the extensive data and insights offered by independent online professional networks can play a valuable role in informing, implementing and measuring the success of multi-channel/multi-territory campaigns developed by communications agencies.

For more information on Doctors.net.uk, please call Simon Grime on +44 (0)1235 828400, or email Simon.Grime@mess.doctors.org.uk. You can also follow Doctors.net.uk on twitter: doctors_net_uk

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