Half Day Meeting - Electronic Marketing: Are you being left behind?

Top row - Paul Hartigan, Steve Curtis, Kieran Walsh, Charlie Grieve Bottom row - Nina Felton, Kay Wesley and Teresa Roberts

Internet usage has grown enormously over the past 5 years with many people now seeking disease information online as well as medical treatment and prescription information. Electronic marketing is therefore more relevant now to those of us working in the pharmaceutical industry that it has ever been, but are we aware of all the tools available to us?

To help bring us up-to-date with the latest developments in eMarketing, the PM Society brought together a panel of innovators in eLearning, eCommunities and eResearch to share their expertise with delegates at this year's Half Day Conference.

Meeting chair Kay Wesley, Global Director of eMarketing at AstraZeneca, pointed out that doctors across Europe spend 8 times longer online than they do with sales representatives. The pharmaceutical industry has historically been sales-led but doctors now turn to the internet to look for information on new therapies and drugs, seeking out Key Opinion Leaders and user opinions. The internet is a powerful tool that facilitates 'Word of Mouth' so we need to adjust the traditional reps versus internet balance. Whereas sales reps are a 'push' channel the internet is a 'pull' channel, sales reps are promotional and the internet is credible. 98% of doctors say that the internet is an essential everyday tool and 33% of consumers now look online to self-diagnose before going to see their GP.

This data further underlines the need for pharma to embrace the internet however it is not enough to simply publish the reps detail aids online, said Kay: "We need to use the strengths of this new channel to actually interact with doctors."

This conference was designed to make us aware of all the eMarketing channels available to us and demonstrate, through case studies, how they can be employed.

Session I - eCommunities
The power of online communities: leveraging the consumer revolution

Paul Hartigan, Managing Director, Pharmiweb Solutions, set out to show delegates what's available in the way of eCommunities, how it will affect pharma and what to do next.

The original web model ('Web 1.0') was linear, allowing one way communication only, from the giver (TV, printed media, doctor) to the receiver (patient, consumer, reader), and was difficult to use by the individual as a publishing tool unless you understood HTML or Javascript. However, in recent years the arrival of 'Web 2.0'means that it is no longer necessary to be skilled in web technology to publish content online and for users to share content and comment on it.

Paul demonstrated the increasing popularity of the blog, set up by individuals - including patients, doctors and consumers - about anything and everything, , and used by companies to update their customers on latest developments. Blogs are read by 57 million in the US and their popularity is now spreading in the UK, and they are a great way for pharma to communicate with their customers and patients. Online discussion forums allow consumers to do their own research. They can access information and drive the agenda without the intervention of doctors or pharma companies. In the US 8 out of 10 now go online for health information everyday, usually starting at a search engine and generally being pleased by what they find. Content is pushed to the patient creating awareness that leads the patient to pull for more information.

"A corporate blog allows low-cost and rapid engagement with your target audience, and is a great way of disseminating information". On the downside it is not possible to control the content, which is probably why pharma companies tend to shy away from them, but Paul stressed that the audience usually have the intelligence to realise when something is biased or inappropriate. As dialogue is happening online anyway, surely it makes sense for pharma to get involved and provide expertise?

It is therefore important that pharma companies recognise what is happening and take stock of their own eMarketing strategy at various levels: corporate, product, HCP audience, consumer/patient/carer, press/media and other stakeholders. It is essential to look for opportunities and gaps in the market, to research the market and iterate a strategy.

Kay agreed with Paul that it is vital that pharma provide its target audience with appropriate content and quality information and that new web technologies mean this can now be done quickly and easily.



'Control pain - live life' - an eCommunity case study

Teresa Roberts, Communication Manager, Napp Pharmaceuticals, explained how the Communication team created the 'Control Pain - Live Life' website. This is a patient focused website aimed at people who live with chronic pain.

Napp's largest area of expertise lies in analgesics, particularly for cancer, neuralgia and osteoarthritis pain. Chronic pain is a common problem and is under-treated. Thirteen percent of people in the UK suffer chronic pain, 70% of these suffer constant pain and only 2% report ever having seen a pain specialist. One reason for the under-treatment of chronic pain is that pain relief is not given much time within the medical curriculum, so one way to address the issue is to provide additional training in this area. The Communication team was tasked with providing online information to healthcare professionals.

Research commissioned by the company's Market Research team in 2004 showed that, whilst 91% of the 100 doctors surveyed use the internet to search for disease treatment and management, 47% had never visited a pharmaceutical website. The Communication team commissioned a second survey to check the situation in 2006. The research revealed that only 9% of the 226 GPs surveyed would visit a pharmaceutical website first when looking for information about chronic pain, and 66% believe company websites to be biased. A survey amongst nurses showed similar results.

Taking these findings into account, the Communication team, in conjunction with the Napp web board, took the decision to further develop the patient area of the Napp website. They felt that developing the patient area was an alternative avenue to address the under-treatment of pain by educating patients so that they knew the right questions to ask when in a consultation with a healthcare professional, and they also had information to help them manage their own pain more effectively.

Napp's website already contained a dedicated patient section, but this was aimed at the expert patient. In order to develop this area of the site for the benefit of all those with chronic pain, the Communication team worked with Pharmiweb and people with chronic pain to create Control Pain - Live Life, an easy to navigate website that gives patients information they can relate to. The re-worked site includes information describing practical ways of living with pain as well as background information relating to pain and the conditions that can cause it.

The site was marketed through leaflets placed in GP surgeries and via the sales team. It was launched in October 2006 and has received 79,000 hits so far as well as positive feedback from users.


The involvement of patients in the development of the 'Control Pain - Live Life' website was fundamental to its success and Napp will continue to work closely with patient groups to add new content and aim to improve the site's ranking on internet search engines.



Session II - eResearch
Extracting knowledge from online research communities

Charlie Grieve, Managing Director, Medicast Media, began the session on eResearch with an overview of online research which continues to be driven by new technology. He summarized that it can be conducted in several ways, via email surveys, live discussions and online polling and e-questionnaires. This type of research is fast, accurate and cost effective. As we heard from Paul earlier, 'Web 2.0' provides social networking tools that have enabled online focus groups, research communities and blogs to exist.

Online research can be used for a broad range of qualitative and quantitative market research studies, to test marketing materials, to track competitor activity, assess KOL reaction to emerging evidence, to listen to medical professionals and to hear the opinions of patient groups.

The beauty of online research is that it allows research teams rapid access to quantitative and qualitative data. Online research centres are a good way of getting close to key influencers and engaging with them. They give people a sense of belonging and help build relationships through open dialogue and allow you to introduce, moderate and influence the messages. They also enable research teams to communicate with each other discreetly within these communities in real time and to extract knowledge in real time. They allow anonymity, produce results in weeks instead of months and save the costs involved with traditional focus groups.

Potential applications for online research include:

• KOL research portals which encourage regular communication and therefore build loyalty and a sense of ownership.
• Congress research centres which could contain pre-event discussion areas, video blogs ie virtual seminars for medical professionals and multiple international conversations
• Patient/consumer opinions - to allow patients to share their experiences, create a dialogue with each other and other medical professionals and carer groups, and to become a collective patient voice. It is important for pharma brands to be part of this conversation.

New techniques are happening right now and evolving rapidly. The pharma industry is not yet up to speed with other industries but is a particularly suitable area for online research - just beware not to exert too much brand pressure.

"GPs, KOLs and patients are on the web and using it. There is so much online activity, you have to use it and start learning from it. Putting your head in the sand is not an option".




Industry eResearch case study

Steve Curtis, Market Research Manager, Janssen-Cilag, discussed his experience of online research at Janssen-Cilag where online research activities include a website for both the product and the disease area, e-detailing hosted by doctors.net.uk and by Janssen-Cilag and Pod-casting.

E-detailing is six times cheaper per contact than contact through the traditional route of the sales representative which therefore has a positive impact on ROI. To make it effective the initial invitation must arouse interest and highlight the benefits to the customer. It should be short and to the point, without trivialising the message, getting key messages in early. Segmentation of the audience is essential to maximise impact and ensure that the relevant messages are getting directly to the right people - if the topic is boring and irrelevant the audience will not engage. Steve demonstrated how impact was lost with figures showing a substantial drop off after the first couple of messages, emphasising the importance of positioning key messages up front and keeping them short and punchy.

It is also important to assess the promotional return on investment in order to justify future plans and the best way to do this is by measuring the incremental growth against a control group. It is necessary to look at the non-responders, the drop-outs and the full interactors to get a true picture of what does and doesn't work.




Session III - eLearning
eLearning - what it can do for health professionals, patients and you

Dr Kieran Walsh, Clinical Editor, BMJ Learning, looked at the benefits of online learning for the health professionals, patients and pharma companies. He illustrated how traditional forms of learning for doctors, such as CPD accredited lectures, are not always accurate, are expensive, require passive rather than participative action and necessitate time 'off the job'. On the other hand eLearning consists of learning modules that can be taken at your convenience. It assesses your learning needs, covers a broad range of topics, is based on evidence and is up to date. Assessment cuts out the need for paperwork automatically recording learning needs discovered by needs assessment, recording completed modules and learning that you have put into action.

Learning online can be carried out in small, easily digestible chunks, something that is not possible in face to face learning but is very important as most of us can only concentrate and absorb information for about 15-20 minutes.

Online tests are relevant and valid and the assessment process is reliable, showing how much you have learned by taking the difference in scores between pre- and post-testing. Furthermore information is retained and used - after 8 weeks an email is sent asking whether you have put your learning into practice, 70-80% say the have and over 80% say that they will.

In summary e-learning assesses your knowledge, is regularly updated, can be taken at your own pace, anytime, any place and can be blended with other methods of learning and you can prove what you have learnt. It also saves costs associated with traditional lecture-based learning by cutting out the need for travel, accommodation, equipment, classrooms and off the job time.





Maximising ROI from eMarketing

Nina Felton, Country Principal, Consulting and Services, IMS, began by saying that as with any marketing campaign is it important to assess and maximise the ROI from eMarketing activities, but this can be difficult to measure in isolation. It is therefore necessary to look at the relative impact eMarketing has on your ROI.

Key issues to remember include: understanding the objectives of a campaign at the outset ie are you trying to increase the amount of product customers use or increase the amount of people who use it; deciding how you are going to measure the ROI and what it is going to cost; and understanding what does and doesn't work and who it works on.

To identify the impact of eMarketing versus other media you need to look at the data and methodology. eMarketing is usually additional to sales force activity so you must
measure the impact and relative contribution of the eMarketing activity over time. It is vital to have valid test and control groups and compare like with like a group with whom you have interacted against a group with no interaction.

"Econometric time series analysis provides a time based cause/effect approach that will measure multiple media in combination and also help generate a response curve based investment."

Content matters and how you interact with your customers matter. Once you understand what works for whom you can flex the marketing mix to optimise ROI.

The golden rules are to take a disciplined and focused approach and get the right message to the right customer at the right frequency.

Kay agreed that ROI needs to be measured and to understand why we do what we do across all channels.



Chairman's summary

Kay summed up this highly informative meeting by reiterating that "Content is king". Pharma has a responsibility to provide customers with informed medical information, to form a relationship with the customer and not just try to achieve sales.

Pharma has not yet embraced eMarketing wholeheartedly. It needs to take risks and understand that you don't need to have proof before trying something. By flexing the marketing mix you can help create a successful brand. At the moment all pharma companies stick to a similar mix and they need to be braver, think harder and make organisational changes.

Ivor Eisenstadt closed this year's Half Day Conference and suggested that next year the PM Society "Do it online!"

Held on: 23/11/2006