Havas Life Medicom and ARK lead at 2021 PM Society Digital Awards

AstraZeneca (AZ), klarify and Novartis Gene Therapies topped the pharma/healthcare organisation leaderboard at the virtual 2021 PM Society Digital Awards.

The event took place online for the second time on an interactive events platform on 16 September, with over 700 e-tickets issued for the event.

Across the 19 categories, 44 agencies and 46 client companies – including pharmaceutical and other healthcare organisations – had projects in the shortlists, the widest range of finalists in Digital Awards history.

On the client side, the top three companies – all taking home two Golds each – were AstraZeneca, klarify and Novartis Gene Therapies.

Other gold winning pharma companies and healthcare organisations included Biotest AG, Edwards Life Sciences, Frontline.Live, Huntleigh, Galderma, GlaxoSmithKline, Janssen Pharmaceutica NV, Norgine, Santen and Takeda UK.

On the agency side, Havas Life Medicom took the lead with three Gold award wins, plus ‘Agency Digital Team’, three Silver awards and two Bronze awards.

Coming in second place was ARK agency with two Golds and one Silver while Pharmadoctor took third place with two Gold awards.

“I’m particularly pleased with the breadth of finalist companies represented this year. To see work from 44 agencies and 46 client companies is remarkable and I hope it gives inspiration to those smaller, newer companies that haven’t entered before. I’d like to highlight our 58 judges, who put in so many hours of work,” said Rachel Farrow, chair of the Digital Awards.

“One consequence of the pandemic is that the second round ‘face to face’ judging was so much easier online. Agencies can take just 30 minutes out of their day to present to the panels on Zoom, compared to giving up at least a half day when we held our second round judging in person. This is something which we plan to keep going forward,” she added.

Gold Awards at the 2021 PM Society Digital Awards:

Brand promotion

Virtual lunch meetings by Mole digital/JCN for Huntleigh

HCP education & support

Peer to peer programme by Wave for Janssen

Healthcare charities

Supporting HCP PPE needs by CREATION.co for Frontline.Live

Patient programmes

LiverSync® by earthware for Norgine

Meetings & events

GlaucomaFest by Wordbird, Touch, Lucid, Ruder Finn for Santen

Multichannel campaign

Break over-reliance by Real Chemistry for AZ

Market Access

Allergy Test n Treat Service by Pharmadoctor for klarify

Long-term campaigns

Keeping pace (T2D) by Takeda UK

Building digital communities

Rosacea: beyond the visible by Havas Life Medicom for Galderma

Film

Behind the scenes by Area 23, an IPG company for GSK

Animation

SMA: Race against time by Havas Life Medicom for Novartis Gene Therapies

Innovation: Craft

SID Ninja by ARK for Biotest AG

Innovation: Effectiveness

Allergy Test n Treat eTool by Pharmadoctor for klarify

Internal Comms

It’s personal by ARK for AZ

Corporate/External Comms

Pharma’s best kept secret by MJL

Behavioural Science (NEW)

SMA: Race against time by Havas Life Medicom for Novartis Gene Therapies

Digital Account Manager

Marta Zima (TVF Communications)

Agency Digital Team

Havas Life Medicom

Pharma Digital Partner

Spyros Zervas (Edwards LifeSciences)