Canadian Pharma Marketers that do move past the detail aid and dose card and into online brand promotion sometimes forget about the all-important aspect of integrating their tactics.
Its simple really. Whatever is out in the field, be it a journal ad, direct mail campaign, leave behinds, etc., all should point back to the brand site. Its pretty simple brand touch-point stuff, where each touch point should point the target to another (the website) and from there, perhaps to requesting a rep visit, yet another touch-point.
To make it even more compelling, the URL on your print material should be accompanied by some kind of indication of the added value to be found on the site: cool new patient materials, or free PDA download for example. (Free works well with Docs, doesn’t it?) Or it could be an invitation to deeper information on a topic, special studies, etc. Its a customer-centric approach, and lets brand managers put the right content in the right channel.
Ah, but if only it were so simple. The reality is that PAAB won’t let a piece be approved without approving the site at the URL that’s included. And often the detail aid and journal ad move first as the key pieces, upon which many of the other materials are based. And that dose card can move pretty quickly through the process as well, often ahead of the website that is getting some video shot or the PDA tool produced. So all too often the URL gets stripped out of these pieces and they lose their integrated force.
So what’s a marketer to do? Well, the first thing is to understand the value of integrating all your tactics and then to plan to ensure that your integration efforts can happen. The detail aid and the website should ideally move together through the agency simultaneously (thus the benefit of a fully integrated agency) so that the site approval does not delay that of others.
The other option is to look at opportunities to sticker existing printed pieces, or replace the art files at the journals with updates ads that contain the brand URL. Paying for film is no longer an issue, so the costs are minimal.
So an integrated promotional campaign can happen if you make it a priority. You can plan for it, especially if you work with an agency that can deliver all of your material, interactive included. It means understanding that your digital media may represent the critical path of your time lines, and starting earlier on it.
Simple? Well, its not really rocket science. Just a little different than what you might be used to. But the benefits of these consumer-world standard best practices can’t be ignored.
