[00:02]
We need to create content that is interesting, intriguing, and that people actually want to watch a 60, 90, 10-minute video of. We are partnering with our clients to help them reach the audiences that otherwise they may not be able to through the power of social media and other channels and platforms as well. Even if we are not a creative agency, we have a plethora of data on audiences.

[00:27]
That data, those insights can be provided to our creative partners to actually create content and creative that is interesting and will be engaged with on those types of platforms.

[00:46]
Medical marketers often like to underscore how their clients should prioritize patient centricity in their advertising efforts. But what does that actually mean in practice? Today we’re joined by a pair of executives from CMI Media Group, Justin Freid, Chief Media and Innovation Officer officer and Melissa Giordano, chief client officer, who explore the healthcare industry’s need for patient centricity, positioning the agency’s capabilities to emphasize consumer shifting strategies and global reach.

[01:10]
They’ll discuss critical industry trends and emerging opportunities, providing insights into the forces shaping the future of media and marketing to reach healthcare audiences. I’m Jack O’Brien, managing editor of MM+M, and this is the MM+M Agency 100 Strategies for Success podcast with CMI Media Group and Compass. Justin, it’s wonderful to have you on the show and I want to start off with you first and then we’ll bring Melissa into the conversation. But the title highlights consumer-centric innovation.

[01:39]
I’m sure there are people in our audience who have an idea of what that means when they hear it. But can you elaborate on specific innovations the agency is developing or implementing to better understand and engage with today’s evolving consumer? Yeah, absolutely. And I think that’s been the key point that you just said, the evolving consumer, what we’re starting to see is the way people are managing their health care is drastically changing. That first interaction with a physician may not always be the PCP anymore.

[02:06]
So we’ve done a lot in terms of being able to deliver precision through our omnichannel platform AMO. We recently launched our consumer version of that that allows us to understand each patient, where they are in their healthcare journey, and then using artificial intelligence to deliver that next best action on the channel they’re likely to respond in with creative that they are likely to respond to. So that’s been one of the biggest areas that we’ve been focusing on.

[02:36]
I also would like to highlight some work we’ve been doing in analyzing data as well as social listening to understand the patient. So again, we we’ve already mentioned AI once, but what we’re actually doing is getting insights faster to our planners, to our bit of a managers, so they can make optimizations to the media plans in a more impactful way.

[02:59]
And And how we’re doing that is if you can imagine, I mean, when you are spending, hundreds of thousands of dollars, millions of dollars, tens of millions of dollars, and in some cases, many pharma companies are spending hundreds of millions of dollars, there’s a lot of data and performance data that comes from that. Being able to sort through that, to find those nuggets, to find those insights can be time-consuming process.

[03:21]
So we’ve been using AI to analyze that data, to get those nuggets, to get those rare opportunities to optimize against the live media campaigns. And those are just two great examples of of using technology to kind of make our campaigns perform better. I appreciate that. I want I want to focus on another aspect of something you brought up, which is this idea of the global landscape and you like so many agencies have presences with international markets and you’re trying to appeal to all these different audiences.

[03:50]
Can you talk about tailoring your strategies to make sure that they resonate with a diverse target audience across different regions? And what are some of the key considerations for brands looking to expand their global footprint. It’s been a very interesting experience. So we’ve been operating in the global healthcare media space for about eight years. Over the last four years, we’ve actually built our team pretty aggressively based out of our WPP headquarters in London.

[04:16]
And it’s been a really interesting learning experience for me coming from somebody who grew up focused on the US. But as we’ve hired folks across the globe, we’ve wanted to make sure that that talent had experience, first of all, and understood the unique specifications of each local market. So, a great example is Germany. Germany’s one.

[04:40]
When we’re looking at it’s one of the higher spenders in the EU in terms of pharmaceutical media advertising, but they’re actually a little bit more focused on some of the old tried and true methods of communicating where print is still an extremely important aspect of media plans for many German where if you look into some other countries, where we’re looking in the UK, we’re looking in Asia pack, definitely shifts more towards digital, more towards what we’re doing here in the US.

[05:11]
So understanding the different cult aspects of each reason has been a key component to what we do in the upfront of our planning process. So we’ve actually invested a significant amount of of time, hours and dollars creating a global version of our Media Vitals research study. And that has been absolutely awesome to have in the hands of our planners.

[05:36]
So they understand the nuances of each one of those countries or each one of those regions and what HCPs and our consumers when we’re talking about unbranded advertising are likely to first off log in, read, and ultimately respond to. I appreciate you bringing up the Vitalys reports.

[05:53]
I always find that very useful as a journalist being able to understand what’s on the minds of different folks in the industry and I kind of wanted to bring that to your attention too is what sort of emerging trends are you watching and what’s influencing your approach to identifying and then capitalizing on those trends. Yeah, so my favorite one that I’ve been like super excited about recently is is kind of what’s going on in the social space.

[06:15]
So if we’re looking at how people are interacting with content in the social space, it is no longer about who you’re connected with, right? When you log into Facebook, when you log on to TikTok, when you log on to X, formerly Twitter, you are hit with some type of for you page.

[06:33]
And that content is no longer, you know, a picture of your your best friend’s kids or your old bosses or your old colleagues trip or vacation It’s actually an algorithm that is feeding you content on what you are likely to interact with or what you are interested in. Um and so this interest graph is kind of the primary way these social platforms are keeping people on the platform. I mean, Doom scrolling on TikTok for hours at a time, right?

[07:01]
So that’s something we’re taking into account and understanding how content and creative are becoming more important for pharma brands. Historically, we’ve taken some, you know, pretty boring. Hey, we’re we’re we’re now available or hey, here’s this uh fancy new drug and kind of putting that out um over and over again. Where the algorithms will not reward pharma brands for that type of content.

[07:30]
And we need to create content that is interesting, intriguing, and that people actually want to watch a 60, 90, you know, 10-minute video of. And I think that’s been a really unique trend and innovation in the space and something we’re helping our clients do more of.

[07:46]
Even if we are not a creative agency, we have a plethora of data on audiences and whether that’s our the consumer patient audience or healthcare professional audience, that data, those insights can be provided to our creative partners to actually create content and creative that is interesting and will be engaged with on those types of platforms. I appreciate you outlining that. Melissa, is there anything you want to add on that front term any trends you’re keeping an eye on? I’ll say it’s a trend in a different angle though.

[08:16]
More so about what’s just happening in external factors within the environment and how that could potentially impact our clients, whether that’s impacting manufacturing, where that happens, any supply issues, other external factors that could impact how they are spending, where they are spending, and the kinds of content that they are engaging with, similar to Justin’s point all around feeding the algorithm where we really are keeping our focus is in ensuring that we are partnering with our clients to help them reach the audiences that otherwise they may not be able to through the power of social media and other channels and platforms as well.

[08:56]
It makes a lot of sense. And I want to ask you a follow-up question in terms of how the agency is using tech to advance and enhance day-to-day work and make recommendations and optimizations more turnkey, especially in this era where we’re seeing AI become so institutionalized across the medical marketing landscape. Yeah. I think, I mean, Justin mentioned some of it earlier too around analyzing the creative and helping find some insights. In addition to that, we are using AI to help from an ad trafficking perspective as an example.

[09:25]
So it’s increasing our speed to market for how quickly we can get ads placed live. It’s reducing human error in that perspective.

[09:33]
We’re also seeing it of where we’ve identified some redundancies in tasks that we are creating automation from how we RFP and engage in in certain tasks like even file sharing and saving information for some of the back and forth that may happen with our supplier partners to streamline that type of work so that we can have more time for the proactive strategic thoughtful conversations and recommendations that we’re engaging with our clients on. Excellent.

[10:03]
I’ve really appreciate you both being on the show here and I’d want to give you one last crack at a final answer here. In terms of the go-forward, what’s going to be the next big thing in the headlines affecting the medical market? Well, that’s a tough one. Put me on the spot there. So I think what’s going to be in the headlines? I think we are on the cusp of the end of linear TV for Pharma. If If you look at any type of commercial that comes on TV, there’s pretty much three industries that are supporting it.

[10:32]
It’s the election time frame, it’s auto sales, and it’s pharmaceuticals. And there are still brands that are spending hundreds of millions of dollars in the linear TV space. Now video is still going to be extremely important. It is just the behavior change of the average consumer. Even older generations have begun to shift and change how they you know, access content. And all of them have moved over to access content on demand.

[11:01]
So that linear audience is is waning on a day-by-day basis. So I really think you know a a full holistic strategy is something every single brand should be you know focusing on now. But you can’t knock the benefits of being able to deliver a better level of targeting, a better level of analytics and tracking that is delivered through CTV and online video.

[11:24]
And I think it’s just a matter of time before those hundreds of millions of dollars, tens of millions of dollars are heavily shifted towards a, I’ll say, online video CT video first versus linear first type of approach. Yeah, it’s in line with what I’ve heard from leaders across the industry. I know you and I have talked about that on a separate conversation. Melissa, is there anything that you’re looking at in terms of the next big headline grabbing trend? Yes, I would say what I’m most excited about is to finally see personalization come to fruition.

[11:54]
So So, with the help of AI, helping marketers and creative agencies to have additional iterations of creative content, so we can truly bring Omni-Channel to life. When Justin’s talking about some of the shifts that we’re seeing in channels and in this even the real time bidding where we can be able to understand which message is going to resonate with which demographic, which audience, what are they looking for next in their journey from symptoms to treatment.

[12:25]
and every step in between. I think that’s the part of where AI will really help us now to be able to have a lot of content that we can create the different messaging journeys for all of our campaigns. Awesome. Well, I really appreciate you both being on the show here and being able to give our listeners some insights into how your agency is approaching what is obviously a time of dynamic change in the industry and and how you guys vaulted into the A100 here. So thanks again for coming on. Thank you, Jack. Thanks for having us.