In the January 2010 edition of Healthcare Engagement Strategy, we’ll be naming the world’s most effective campaigns, organisations and individuals in the field of healthcare engagement.

Real engagement in healthcare

We’re looking for engagement strategies that have achieved real outcomes in any area of health. Strategies that are advancing medical research, health education or health literacy, or improving the delivery of healthcare through technology, medicines, or services.

And we’re looking for the people behind these engagement strategies. Those pioneers working in highly regulated environments, brave enough to try new ideas and demonstrate theior effectiveness. Those who are making a real difference, inspiring change in others around them.

We’re talking about real engagement – that means two-way communication or interaction, that produces results. In today’s digital world, much of the best engagement we’re seeing takes place online, but just being online does not make it engaging! We’re looking for the best outcomes of engagement, delivered through any channel.

Nominate strategies, campaigns, people and organisations

You can help us to identify the most effective engagement in healthcare in 2009. Simply tweet @EngagementStrat, include hashtag #hesawards in your tweet, and tell us what or who we should be watching.

We’ll announce the winners in our January 2010 edition of Healthcare Engagement Strategy, the e-journal for leaders and communicators in healthcare. Make sure you don’t miss your free copy – subscribe now at http://engagementstrategy.com.

Since the rise of the Internet as a commercial tool in the 1990s, the United States has often been recognised as leading the way in the successful use of the Internet by business. This has placed innovative UK and European businesses in an exciting position where they could learn from the successes (and mistakes) of their US counterparts, and reap the benefits in their own strategies.

In the pharmaceutical industry, this has also been the case for a long time. Back in 2002, Creation Interactive worked with Pfizer to launch its first ever UK content-managed corporate website at www.pfizer.co.uk. Within days, the pharmaceutical company’s UK website was a living, breathing, regularly-updated corporate communications platform. This website was also the first UK website to accurately reflect Pfizer’s brand position in the UK, finally catching up with Pfizer’s the US-based corporate website at www.pfizer.com.

At the time, this pattern was typical across most of the pharmaceutical world: US pharma led the way in succeeding through technical and digital innovation; European pharma cautiously followed. This pattern was not always the choice of European pharma – in some cases it has simply been that international pharmaceutical companies have chosen to lead digital innovation from the US.

Europe takes the initiative

Things are changing, and this year has seen digital initiatives in European healthcare that are groundbreaking at an international level.

Earlier this year, we reported that a pilot Internet-based system to aid the management of diabetes in the UK had identified the unique strength of social media for patients.

Then we reported on powerful stakeholder digital engagement demonstrated in French pharmaceutical company sanofi-aventis.tv.

Earlier in the year, Pfizer UK launched a patient safety campaign aimed at UK consumers, that shocked CNBC in the US although 67% of cnbc.com users polled say they think the campaign is effective.

What is ‘Leading the Way’?

Of course in the real world of healthcare – whether in pharmaceutical companies, healthcare providers and professionals, or patient groups – being first with an idea is not what really counts; leading the way means achieving results.

With so much already written elsewhere about measures like followers and friend counts, without considering meaningful engagement measures, it would be easy for healthcare communicators to fall into the trap of thinking that the objective of social media is simply to connect.

True leadership in social media, however, will be achieved through meaningful engagement that achieves measurable results. If you are planning or implementing a social media healthcare campaign, here are some questions to ask yourself:

• Who do I want to engage? (e.g. patient groups, patients, carers, healthcare professionals, legislators, payers)
• What are the results I really want to achieve?
• How will I measure those results?

Answering these questions will take you a step closer to accurately measuring the effectiveness, and ultimately return on investment, of your campaign.

Identifying and engaging stakeholders online

Any channel, including digital, can only be effective if those you want to engage – such as patient groups, healthcare professionals, payers – are with you in that channel. You must be where they are. That’s why social media strategies that embrace existing networks on platforms such as Facebook or Twitter can be effective, if you connect with the right people there.

Now, how do you know where the groups and individuals you want to engage are? You have to start by listening. This is where the team at Creation Interactive can help you to discover who the key influencers are in your therapeutic areas and to learn what they are saying, to whom, where they say it, and how you can join in their conversations. Do email me if you would like to learn more about how Creation Interactive could help.

A platform for dialogue

I asked Stéphane and Géraldine about the vision behind the site. They explained that the website was launched in response to sanofi-aventis’ strategy to become a global and diversified healthcare company, and to provide a platform for dialogue:

“Our main objectives were to open a dynamic and innovative platform for dialog with all our audiences: patients, healthcare professionals, journalists, shareholders, investors, employees worldwide and so on.

“We are willing to provide a new window on our company, to explain its activities, commitments, strategy transparently and to become closer to our audiences.

“With a lot of precaution and modesty, we could say that we hope the image of the pharmaceutical industry will be evolved and of course that sanofi-aventis.tv will become a reference site and therefore company in this area.”

Stéphane says that social networks play an important part in this dialogue:

“For all these reasons we are also present on social networks (Twitter, Facebook, Digg…) with the hope of successfully considering the uses of social media services (interactivity, dialog, transparency, speed) and adapting our communication to them.”

An ambitious plan

I commented that sanofi-aventis.TV is regularly updated with video content, from all around the world and I asked Stéphane and Géraldine how they are achieving this. They said that the project has built on sanofi-aventis’ long history with its international affiliates:

“Yes, it is an ambitious plan to update the Web TV once a week with two videos but sanofi-aventis affiliates have a long history, a lot of unknown expertise and finally a lot to show and to say internally or externally. So, we took advantage of the previous videos made by the affiliates during the past years and day by day we work on finding new content.”

International stakeholders

Stéphane said that the most interesting part of the job is working with the international affiliates and stakeholders:

“That is maybe the most interesting part of our job, because it is a creative and a collaborative one: we are in relationship with all the communication managers worldwide and if we don’t come to them, they come to us.

“We discuss the subjects together and prepare the shooting. A lot of employees, patients or healthcare professionals have and keep making suggestions via the [website's contact] form and we consider all of them carefully.”

Measuring success

The site is aimed at a diverse range of stakeholders, and to meet each of their needs the content is allocated to one of six channels. Stéphane and Géraldine say that success amongst the target audiences is measured qualitatively and quantitatively:

“For the qualitative side, articles [written about the site], the feedback made by any visitors on the webmaster mail box, blogs and comments on social networks give us a global idea of what they expect from us, what they want to be changed or to be focused, and above all what they think about us. They are a very good indicator of satisfaction.”

Stéphane says that the team also analyses website statistics including the number of visits, pages per view, and geographical distribution to learn about the effectiveness of the project.

Stéphane originally joined Sanofi-Aventis in 2005, taking responsibility for the company’s corporate internet website at sanofi-aventis.com and intranet content management, and became Corporate Intranet Group Webmaster in 2006 before he moved to the New Media Department in 2009.

Stéphane’s role means being proactive about understanding new technologies and services such as mobile phone applications, video tools, and social media servcies, and communicating to colleagues how they might be used. He says that sanofi-aventis.TV uses social networking to make rich media relevant:

“Social networking services are a relevant way to share and exchange dialogue around rich media content like webTV. It’s now a reality in all big companies.”

Do you have a colleague who is leading the way in digital engagement? Why not tell us about them and we might feature them in the next issue of our Engagement Strategy e-journal.

Last year we wrote about Johnson & Johnson’s corporate blog JNJBTW and Marc Monseau, a director of communications with Johnson & Johnson, shared how important he felt it was to continue to develop relationships with those you engage online.

Active engagement?

It’s no surprise then to find that Marc is now well ahead of many other communicators in the world of pharmaceuticals when it comes to developing new digital channels. His Twitter profile, @JNJComm, is followed by over 2,000 people.

But it’s not just follower numbers that indicate the level of engagement on Twitter (most of the major pharmaceuticals that are on Twitter have a similar number of followers). What’s different (for pharma) about Marc’s Twitter profile is his active engagement with other Twitter users. Marc’s tweets (the short bursts of conversation amongst Twitter users) are seasoned with ‘@’ (messages sent publicly to another person on Twitter) and ‘RT’ (’re-tweeting’ or sharing another Twitter user’s comments).

Now, if you are a business leader or communicator in a pharmaceutical company you might be unnerved by what are clearly public, two-way conversations between pharma and stakeholders anywhere in the world, online.

In the highly-regulated world of pharmaceutical communications, how does Marc Monseau sleep at night? Does he worry about adverse event reporting? I recently had a conversation with Marc and he told me why Twitter has not changed the way Johnson & Johnson communicates.

The human face of Johnson & Johnson

One of the unique aspects about Marc’s Twitter profile is that he openly represents Johnson & Johnson without losing his personal identity. This might not sound particularly groundbreaking; yet most pharmaceutical corporate Twitter profiles are stripped of personal identity, whilst most pharmaceutical communicators use Twitter for personal, non-corporate communication only and are cautious about mentioning their pharmaceutical employer.

Handling Adverse Events in Twitter

I suggested to Marc that his personal approach to Johnson & Johnson’s Twitter profile could make him the recipient of adverse event reporting, and I wondered whether he worries about that. His response was refreshingly simple, pointing out that that the way adverse events would be handled via Twitter is no different to any other communications channel.

“If you were to reply to me or tweet me with an adverse event, or something similar, I would treat it in the same way as if you called me, or sent me a letter, or email. I would report it in the same way as we have always done.

“At Johnson & Johnson we have had a website allowing people to respond, and we collect those responses and plug them in to our adverse event reporting system.

“What I do do as well, if I’m tracking or watching Twitter and I come across something that could be perceived to be an adverse event with one of our products, just like if I was reading the newspaper I would funnel that to people in our organisation who handle adverse event reporting.

“It’s something we’re trying to come to grips with overall but where I sit we’re treating this just like any other medium.”

A public conversation

This sounds simple enough. But I still wondered whether Marc felt nervous about the fact that thanks to Twitter, all this could happen in public? When I commented that with Twitter, there’s a public conversation happening, Marc explained how he would handle adverse event reporting in Twitter. Interestingly, he also pointed out that he has not yet received a direct adverse event report by tweet:

“I have to tell you that that’s not happened to me yet, where someone tweeted me with an adverse event. If that did, I would either DM them [a private Direct Message sent to another Twitter user], or openly tweet them and refer them back to our reporting system.”

A duty to be where people are communicating

If this sounds like a simple approach, it is. Marc doesn’t see Twitter as something that has changed the rules of communication:

“We’ve just tried to apply some of the same standards and practices we’ve always had in place.”

But Marc does feel that tools like Twitter have to change the way those rules are applied – that Johnson & Johnson have a duty to evolve their channels:

“There’s a wider net that’s been cast; there’s a public conversation. We have an obligation to be in a place where people are communicating.”

Lessons from outside of pharma?

Marc pointed out to me that whilst many people see Johnson & Johnson as a pharmaceutical company, pharmaceuticals is just one piece of the whole business. He said that along with other areas such as their consumer business and medical devices business, there is an interesting mix in the company as a whole. I asked him if this has helped Johnson & Johnson to see things in a different way to pure pharmaceutical companies. I’ll leave the last words to Marc:

“Well our focus has always been on the consumer,
perhaps that’s why.”

However, with so many new tools and techniques emerging everyday, its always good to see if you can pick up anything new. I’m totally immersed in this world, and yet just the other day I discovered a fantastic new tool which makes it even easier to know what people are ‘asking’ about the pharmaceutical brands that I am watching.

Sometimes it is the not so significant day-to-day changes and lessons being observed and learned through social media, which can be a trigger for implementing new creative and effective communications initiatives in your own organisation.

Isn’t this ’social media’ considered dangerous territory for Pharmaceutical companies?

While it is true that the rules of two-way social media engagement are not fully specified for pharmaceutical communications teams online, there is of course no regulation to prevent the use of these tools for understanding customer sentiment.

More importantly, it is now possible to be a leader within your field if you have taken a small amount of time to seek out and configure your sources so that you are the one continuously known for having your ‘finger on the pulse’, thanks to your real-time streams of information.

Have you heard of RSS? I know, it is one of those ‘geeky’ technology terms which in themselves can be enough to prevent the uptake of useful services, just because they sound complicated. The good news is, for all the ‘tech-talk’, this is remarkably simple to get into.

You see, the power of the Internet is in the sheer quantity of resources and information that are available. Unfortunately it is this same vastness of information which can make a simple search in your favourite search engine seem overwhelming, especially when there are so many results which don’t have the exact focus you are looking for.

So rather than ‘searching’ for information, I personally let the information come to me.

This simple paradigm shift is essentially what RSS and social media can do for you too.

OK, I’m interested, so how do I set up my information sources?

There are a number of tools which are free to use, and may already be available through a profile or account that you are using.

For example, Google Reader is a simple tool for collecting and sorting the breaking stories from multiple sources. If you have a Google Mail account already, you can simply visit the reader website and log-in to start using the service. If not, you may wish to create a log-in username and password.

You could also use your browser, or one of many other tools that can understand RSS. It is worth mentioning that you may come across more ‘geek-talk’, about ATOM, XML, and so on, but you really don’t need to worry about understanding all that. Just choose one and you are ready to start.

I personally choose Google Reader to manage my interests in work related ‘blogs’, news sources, updates on events, and to occasionally discover other people that are interested in the same things as me, or to have conversation about topics.

Make it personal, for my interests are not your interests

Given that you are interested in healthcare, you can browse to find what are called ‘feeds’ (which just means ‘information streams’) that you may want to read or ‘digest’ every day, or every week, or whenever you have time to take a look.

When you find a ‘stream’ or ‘feed’ that looks like it has regularly interesting content, you may wish to ‘subscribe’ or ‘follow’ that information source. Perhaps you would also like to give the stream a ‘tag’ or organise it into a folder for convenience.

Say you type in ‘pharmaceutical marketing’. You will see a list of websites that have ‘RSS feeds’. All that means is that the content from the website can also be read away from the website through syndicated ‘readers’. My preference is to choose the ones that have a lot of people subscribing, and are regularly updated. I like to have a trial period, and if I find that the content is not relevant most of the time, or too frequent, or in any way not what I want to be reading – I simply unsubscribe.

Too much information, I’m being bombarded here

It doesn’t take long to find lots of good content, so much so that you can wonder how to read it all. I find that sorting the various streams into folders helps me to prioritise content.

For example, I am generally interested in quite a few things that are not related to my work. I therefore have a folder for ‘Innovation and invention’, another for ‘electric vehicles’, another for ‘environmental economics’, and so on. I might only take a look at these non-essential folders once per week, however my Government and Healthcare feeds are read nearly everyday.

How else can I find information?

As you surf the ‘Net, you may come to a website or an article that you find very compelling – and you see that the website has a variety of other pieces that you would have been interested to know about – when they were first published.

So you can look for the RSS icon, which could be in a number of places. It is usually an orange coloured icon, with a series of waves coming from a dot. The most standard version looks like this;

However, don’t be surprised if some websites have a more creative interpretation of the RSS icon. Look at some of these:

It may instead be up next to the website address, such as in the following example (note that this one is blue – but still follows the same design idea;

By clicking this icon, you will be asked how you want to subscribe to the feed.

Because I use Google Reader, I would usually add the feed to my Google Reader account.

You might already be publishing your own information feed

Did you know that you yourself may also be providing a feed to others? If you use Twitter or any other type of social media tool, there is a good chance that behind the scenes there is a RSS feed associated with it.

Just visit your page and you may notice that there is a ‘RSS icon’.

How else can I keep up to date with the latest healthcare information

Twitter and Friendfeed

Many people are starting to realise that Twitter is useful for business as well as pleasure. It is certainly one of the most concise and immediate ways of communicating with a lot of people. If you are not sure how it works, or haven’t yet had a go, please read our no-nonsense guide to using Twitter. You may find that there are a lot of useful sources on Twitter who are providing relevant information, even if you aren’t ready to engage in Twitter conversations.

Alerts

Another useful tool (again by Google) is the alert function. When I am working with a brand I immediately set up alerts so that I can monitor any search results that may be picked up by search engines. It is somewhat primitive, and could result in a lot of emails that you can’t always stay on top of – but if you create a couple of rules, they can be sorted and kept away from your day-to-day and more urgent/essential communication.
http://www.google.co.uk/alerts

Social Mention

It is somewhat similar to Google Alerts, however this has a particular focus on ‘mentions’ in conversations using social media. Try doing a search for one of your brands. After a short period, you will find some interesting results… and wow, there is an RSS feed icon if you would like to subscribe to the results.

http://www.socialmention.com/

Commercial tools

For the most serious and robust approach, there are commercial tools which enable real-time tracking of the influences and issues happening online. No one tool does everything well, so generally your digital strategists will have access to a suite of tools which enable them to keep an eye on the world wide web, from various perspectives.

In any case, if you would like to talk with a digital strategist you can contact us to find out more about these tools and services.

People use Twitter for all sorts of reasons, privately, commercially, to serve others, to learn, to meet new people or communicate with people they already know. For now, I’m going to assume you really don’t know yet why you might use twitter. You just want to try it out personally, to see what all the fuss is about.

If you’re already on Twitter, this guide is not for you – but you might want to read one of our other articles about Twitter strategies.

Five steps to get started

1. Start at twitter.com

Why not start by seeing what’s being said about something you’re interested in. Go to http://twitter.com, type a word or phrase in the white search box and click ‘Search’. Whatever you entered, there are bound to be people talking about it right now, somewhere.

Now, to set up your own Twitter account. It’s free and it’s easy. Click the green ‘Sign up now’ button.

Enter your name, and choose a username. Your name will be displayed on your Twitter profile, and your username will also form web address for your profile.

Enter a password and your email address. Your email address will not be displayed on your profile but Twitter will use it to tell you about things like people following you.

Type the words that are displayed in the graphic box (to prove you’re a real human, not a machine).

Now, before you click ‘Create my account’, read the Terms of Service by clicking on the link at the bottom of the page. It’s worth reading these – they provide some helpful guidance on using Twitter.

We’re almost there. Now click ‘Create my account’ and you’re ready to start using Twitter!

You’ll receive a welcome email from Twitter, with a link to your profile and information about how to set up Twitter for your mobile phone, should you wish to (you don’t need to, but doing so will allow you to post messages on the move via SMS).

2. Your profile

Before you connect with friends, or say something on Twitter, you might want to decide how your profile appears to others on Twitter. Click on the ‘Settings’ link at the top of the screen at twitter.com (assuming you are still logged in), and you will be able to set a few options.

Here are three quick and easy things to do with your profile.

• Let people know something about you. Select your time zone, say something brief about yourself in the ‘one line bio’ box, enter your location, and if you have a website you would like to share, enter this in the ‘More info URL’ box. Then click ‘Save’ to save these details.
• Upload a profile photo or image, to give your profile some personality. You can do this on the ‘Picture’ tab.
• Choose your profile design by selecting a design or uploading an image on the ‘Design’ tab.

3. Connect with friends

Now, you’re no doubt eager to start saying something (’tweeting’) on Twitter but there’s no point in saying something to nobody in particular, is there? So, find some people you know.

There are many ways of finding and connecting with people on Twitter, but here’s the simplest:

Click the ‘Find People’ link at the top of the page. Now type the name of the person you want to find, click search, and then select any of the results that come back (to check they really are who you think they are). Found a friend? Just click the ‘Follow’ button.

Of course you can make new ‘friends’ on Twitter too! Try following people who tweet about things you are interested in. For example, if you’re interested in digital strategies in healthcare and government, you could try following me as that’s mostly what my tweets are about: twitter.com/EngagementStrat.

4. Say something (or ‘Tweet’)

Now, Twitter’s home page asks ‘What are you doing?’. Answer that, click update, and hey presto! Your first tweet.

5. Enjoy!

Enjoy being part of the Twitter community! Now you can explore the possibilities of Twitter and the more you use it, the more ideas you will have about how to use it.

Here are a few tips for engaging with other Twitter users:

• To mention, or send a public message to a Twitter user, use ‘@’ followed by their name in your tweet.
• If you prefer, you can send a direct message to a user who is following you. Use ‘D ‘ followed by their @name and the message, or go to their profile page and click the ‘message’ link in twitter.com.
• If you see a comment or link you like, ‘re-tweet’ it. Use ‘RT’ followed by the Twitter user’s @name, and their tweet.

Twitter tools for beginners

There are many tools that help you use Twitter efficiently, but you don’t have to use any of them at all to enjoy Twitter. I recently asked friends on Twitter what tools they would recommend to new users, and these are the top three recommended tools:

TweetDeck lets you organise all the tweets and Twitter friends you’re following.

Twellow is one of several helpful Twitter directories. Use it to find people with a common interest who you might want to follow.

Bit.ly is not just a tool for Twitter but it lets you shorten a web address to something that will fit in a tweet. You can also use it to track how many people click the link.

Where next?

Finally, of course there’s so much more! I’ve tried hard to keep this guide very short and focused because with so much having been written already about Twitter, it would be easy to be overwhelmed. But it really is simple to get started.

Once you’re up an running, you might want to explore some of our articles about digital engagement in healthcare and government to learn about how others are using Twitter in your industry, or register to receive a copy of Engagement Strategy, our free e-journal for communicators and leaders in healthcare and you’ll be kept up to date on digital engagement in healthcare.

If you have any questions at all about Twitter, now or in the future, just ask me openly by tweeting your question and including @EngagementStrat in the tweet. If I don’t have the answer immediately, I probably know somebody who does. Go on, try it.

Telling these stories with passion and emotion can be a real challenge for pharmaceutical communicators operating within the limits of worldwide corporate brands and complex regulatory environments. Yet those who succeed have the opportunity to build new levels of trust amongst consumers and professionals.

Some have taken steps to communicate beyond the polished, ‘glossy brochure’ and somewhat clinical corporate exterior that has been the norm in the healthcare industry for years. Last year we reported on Johnson & Johnson’s blog, JNJBTW and pointed out how pharmaceutical companies like J&J and GlaxoSmithKline were using blogs to get closer to customers.

Now sanofi-aventis has taken a fresh approach to injecting life into pharmaceutical corporate communications with the launch of sanofi-aventis.TV. Described by sanofi-aventis as “A window on our company” the format is certainly likely to engage a much broader range of stakeholders than traditional pharmaceutical communications and press releases.

Sanofi-aventis’ Chief Executive Officer, Christopher A. Viebacher, says that the new website will be both interactive and continually updated:

“As part of the company’s overall goal to increase transparency and understanding of its operations inside and outside its walls, sanofi-aventis TV will be a continually updated source of interactive information.”

Content on the website, launched in May 2009, is divided amongst six video channels covering topics including research, business strategies, and public health issues such as counterfeiting. For me, the most powerful aspect of the website is the insight into the real lives of sanofi-aventis’ people.

Take for example the story of 31-year-old Ayanda, who works in customer services for sanofi-aventis in South Africa, which currently features on the website’s home page. It is a great example of something that could not have been achieved without sanofi-aventis.TV. It’s not news; you would not expect to see a press release about the everyday experience of the company’s workforce. But it communicates powerful messages about sanofi-aventis’ values. Words like ‘make a difference’,  ‘the lives of others’, ‘listener’, ‘communicate’, ‘respect’, ‘dignity’, ‘ethical’, ‘responsibilities’, are all captured in Ayanda’s words.

Or take the interview with Christoph Lengauer, Sanofi Aventis’ Global Head of Oncology Drug Discovery, in which he describes sanofi-aventis’ work in cancer discovery research. This personal insight into the working life of a scientist captures the hope that his work brings to patients. Christoph talks about his excitement about what he calls ‘the moment of discovery’, quoting Austrian Nobel Prize winner Max Perutz: “Discovery is like falling in love, and climbing to the top of a mountain after a hard climb“. Again, passionate language you would not find on a press release.

The website has been described by sanofi-aventis as “6 themed channels for a new dialog between sanofi-aventis and our various audiences”. In reality, however, there is little sign of two-way dialogue. Users can rate videos, and can send comments to sanofi-aventis through a contact form. But in 2009 it does not feel very much like an interactive platform.

Daniel Ghinn is Director of Digital Engagement, Healthcare, at Creation Interactive.

If you are a pharmaceutical communicator seeking to increase the level of engagement with stakeholders online, speak with Creation Interactive today about a digital engagement strategy.

The research, carried out amongst a representative sample of the US population in March 2009 and published in June, focuses on the direct-to-consumer (DTC) environment but includes insights that non-DTC pharmaceutical marketers can apply.

As the report points out, the constantly-changing environment for advertising means that opportunities to interact continually increase:

“With the constant development of new technologies, advertising is reaching interactive dimensions marketers would have never considered even five years ago.”

And in the midst of this evolution, consumers want increasing amounts of information and expect to find it online. As the report states, “consumers’ desire to stay informed motivates them to search for information at multiple levels and to use any available and accessible sources.”

Much of the innovation seen amongst pharmaceutical marketers takes place in the US. To observers in non-DTC pharmaceutical marketing environments (that’s anywhere outside the US and New Zealand), it might appear that US-based marketers have it easy. Merck’s Gardasil Facebook page, for example, could not exist for a European audience.

And it’s true that ORC Guideline’s research found that nearly half of participants felt that exposure to an advertisement enhanced their discussions with their doctors and helped them become more involved in the decision-making process. The most important insight for non-DTC pharmaceutical marketers, however, is that the majority of consumers would rather be exposed to condition-specific messages (as opposed to product-specific).

The implication, then, is that regulatory compliance and successful marketing are not mutually exclusive – even in the UK and Europe. Pharmaceutical marketers who feel that they have had to settle for health-related digital marketing rather than advertising products directly, can now enjoy the insight that what they are already doing is likely to have been the most effective approach.

Of course there are many factors that will affect the success of your pharmaceutical marketing and communications. Whatever approach you take, it is essential to measure the Internet user behaviour resulting from your marketing. To do this, speak with an independent digital engagement strategy consultant.

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