Integration - beyond the buzzword

We are now in a super-connected, multichannel world that demands authenticity and transparency. Patients connect with brands through multiple channels and directions, necessitating coordinated and linked approaches to engaging with them through relevant and resonant content.

Within biopharma, companies are evolving their business structures in order to better collaborate and coordinate across functions to drive innovation where it is needed, and to overcome consumer engagement challenges in today’s environment. Naturally, there is still a functional focus because there is a need for topic expertise and, importantly, compliance considerations.

Companies are increasingly demanding better connected, more integrated and efficient solutions from their partners. They are being asked to think and work in a more integrated way, and they are looking to partners who can do the same, providing truly integrated services.

What does an integrated service offering look like in practice in 2017? It starts with collaboration and a shift towards a more collective and connected mindset (thinking, challenging and working together), uniting functions where necessary and developing and using shared tools to address challenges. Ultimately, it facilitates effective communication with multiple stakeholders in an informed, targeted, coordinated and cohesive way.

Unity: Define shared values, break up work space barriers and discard incentives only serving individual Business Unit P&Ls to remove internal competition. When motivations align, teams are galvanised and invested to do what is truly in the best interest.

Connectivity: Plug into specialist teams and networks in offices and across geographies, aligning from the outset.

Immersion: Integration leaders already embedded in day-to-day business with deep understanding and strong relationships, operating with passion, curiosity and integrity.

Shared tools: Produce meaningful insights from data to optimise solutions across channels that resonate with audiences. Use shared tools across the integrated team to target activities predicted to yield the highest impact and value.

In collaboration with clients, some agencies are pioneering evolved integration to optimise and deliver efficient solutions with measurable returns, which are informed by insights derived from wide-ranging data sets, enabling deeper understanding of who to target, where and how, with relevance and resonance.

This is best informed by a ‘lab-to-life’ perspective, which offers a unique approach beyond integrated marketing services. By combining clinical and commercial services,
a broad offering of integrated solutions allows better understanding and connections to patient challenges. This creates better, smarter, faster ways to help biopharma bring its innovations to patients.

Sophie Asker and Fiona Tavner are both senior healthcare communication consultants at Inventiv Health Communications