DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION SERIES - Simplifying pharma marketing

I recently hosted a LinkedIn Live and chatted with Amish Patel. Although we weren't joined by Steven Bartlett, we did have an excellent conversation.

I host the Digital Transformation Series every month because I want everyone who works in the field to feel good about themselves and believe they can achieve amazing results. It's all about the human element of digital transformation and enabling people to deliver value.

I was delighted to welcome Amish Patel, a marketing consultant who aims to simplify Pharma marketing in today’s noisy world of shiny things. He is the founder of APC, a marketing consultancy that helps Pharma companies create and execute effective engagement strategies while building in-house marketing capability.

The first time I saw Amish was on LinkedIn in 2022; his Christmas jumper video for the PM Society stood out to me. We officially met in an online meeting for the PM Society. Then we both attended the NEXT Pharma Summit in Dubrovnik and formed the NEXT Pharma Legends group at breakfast one morning.

What drew you to the Pharma industry?

I kinda fell into the industry in a unique role. I needed a job and was working in sales in other industries. I fell into a contract role in 2011, booking appointments for remote reps. So, I was speaking to gatekeepers to get appointments. Then, contract role to contract role led me to a job at GSK. Then, there was a pivotal moment where I almost went into a different industry, but another role opened up at GSK, and I managed to grab that last minute. I continued my career in sales roles, digital teams, local and global roles.

What inspired you to go out on your own?

I was getting really interested in the digital and marketing side of things and was becoming a specialist in it. I had hit a ceiling and wanted to progress, but I needed to find a different way to do this. On the side, I was activating social media campaigns for my personal trainer at the time. I was having fun activating campaigns for small businesses. It gave me the confidence that I could do this; there's work out there. During the first wave of Covid in September 2020, I left my last role. That's where it all began.

Are companies deferring too much to agencies for marketing strategy and tactical delivery?

There is a reliance on agencies doing a lot, but one of the cool things I try to do is build internal capabilities so that they are learning as they go. They can then do things themselves, whether that's creating strategy, turning that strategy into action, or executing best practice across channels. I want them to apply those skills. For the industry to thrive going forward and for people to continue showing best practices in customer engagement, that talent needs to remain in-house, and agencies should be used to add extra expertise, whether that's production or creative, but they shouldn't be doing all of the work and essentially driving the strategy.

Why do companies bring someone in to do the strategy and the work? Has it always been like that?

There's a lot to do these days. People are being asked to do too much. You're spending all day in meetings, and by the time you can get to the to-do list of actions, the role of prioritisation becomes very difficult. This leads to outsourcing.

What industries outside of Pharma should we look to for inspiration/innovation in the face of regulation/legal?

Many industries have legal constraints. I've looked at different companies and brands and studied what they're doing well. We can apply that. This is where agencies come into play, as they can spend time researching this. Then, consider the regulations, work within them, and apply them. It's about studying what's working well across industries.

You talk about being an expert in simplifying marketing. How do you get teams to ignore the shiny things and focus on what's important?

Shiny things do play a big part, and I don’t think we should avoid them. They have their place because they give us a future of what could come down the line. For me, it's about being realistic about the here and now. Steer people away from putting too much investment and focus into shiny things when there are foundational level things that could be optimised first, paving the way for the shiny things.

You've got to think about who are your customers. Really clarify what you're trying to implement and roll out. What's the objective? What's the clear measure of success?

The other thing is knowing who the stakeholders are and how you can get them involved as early as possible. Put yourself in their shoes. Have the mindset of channeling all the different customers you have, being in their shoes completely, and then taking it step by step. Still having the eye for what is that big thing in the future that is coming down the line, but also what is important now and what's going to move the needle today that I can control.

Do you think marketing teams consider the field teams as customers?

It varies, to be honest, and I'd say no one is doing it perfectly. The sales force is an important lever in the business, and the biggest successes I've seen is when marketing takes the field force on the journey with them. I saw a great example recently: a massive campaign where the head office laid it out, took them on the entire journey, and shared the results with them. Omnichannel is all about people and how you are communicating and working together.

After Covid-19, remote communication is decreasing, as stated in a Veeva report. Do you have any suggestions to build sustainable remote communication with HCPs?

For me, sustainable remote communication's biggest thing is around the data, and this varies in terms of the customers. Anything I really do is based on the insights we have about the customer. How do they want to communicate with us? Some want face-to-face, and some prefer a hybrid approach. Remote communication happens in multiple ways as well. There are lots of different touchpoints to build the story and follow up. Remote communication, to me, is about all channels.

When you coach marketing teams, how do you help them make their HCP content inspiring and relevant?

This is a big thing in the industry. Like you mentioned, some content gets created and never sees the light of day, and the content that does isn’t always inspiring.

Creating content is a bit of a chore. It's another thing on a long to-do list, and it's a pain with approval. I enjoy creating content now. When it's a chore, it carries into the output. Content that is inspiring needs to make people feel something. Staying in the middle doesn't drive change.

I try to be clear on each bit of content. What is the purpose? What is the customer need? What is the pain point? Am I just adding to the noise? Am I going to delight them, entertain them, make them smile, make them feel something?

The language needs to be human. Really show the customer what you can do. What is the impact that they create? Show them the impact of what they're doing daily affects the lives of their patients.

How can we make it realistic, relevant, and make them feel something? How can you make it concise and really bring them on a journey?

When I first start working with a company, all we chat about is the customer. Then we talk about the messaging, then we talk about formats, then channels. Breaking it down into those pieces and tying it back to those needs. From a practical point of view, that's what I do. The more concise the content is, the easier it will be to get it reviewed and approved.

How do you think AI will drive the industry forward? How best do you think the industry can apply AI? And have you come across any examples where AI is being considered, and what do you think will be the biggest challenge for Pharma companies?

AI is definitely here, and it's being used in a variety of ways. I'll stick to the commercial areas I play in. I think the biggest thing, and where I've seen it being used, is content creation using GenAI to create images and copy. I think that's great, and people have been playing around with it instead of it being a serious thing.

Going back to the earlier conversation we had about shiny things and keeping it simple and practical, I guess there are two buckets of areas where I'm seeing it being used.

Where can we scale things we are already doing based on our goals? And on the flip side of that, where can we improve areas where we're trying to do things but fundamentally failing?

For example, maybe pulling together data? How can we use AI to pull all our data together and create insights? Using that data, how can we use AI to create audiences based on the data we've ingested to create a safe place to experiment and test our content to see how they'd react? You could potentially skip the approval, as you're not going out to the public. That's an interesting one.

Another thing for me is copy approval; if we can solve copy approval with AI, that's a big thing.

You started a really fun podcast, Final Form. What made you start it, and how's it going?

For me, I guess it's a combination of things. I felt it myself, and speaking to a lot of people over the years, there's no space for Pharma marketers to go to learn about Pharma marketing. You kinda get thrown into it as you rise up through sales roles to more technical roles, then to strategic roles. There's no space to learn from peers sometimes, even within your own company. For me, these thoughts were stemming around. I don't see enough of the people who are doing great things as they maybe aren't online as much. I wanted to create a platform to give in-house professionals a stage, bringing new faces to the online world and asking key questions.

I like to find out what they think the purpose of their role/their job title is. Their take on the future of the industry. How they work on their self-development and tips for other Pharma marketers. I would have loved to have something like this, and I continue learning from it. I wish I could do more of it; I'm enjoying it, and it feeds my passion to create.

What would you want your legacy/lasting impact on the industry to be?

This is useful to think about and will shape what I do going forward. One of the legacies I'd want to leave is a generation of teams/leaders in Pharma organisations to have a higher balance of marketing/content specialists to retain those in-house skills.

What does that practically mean? People that are demanding visibility to find out what they need to find out. People demanding of themselves and their agency partners, with success being measured on the impact of what they're doing. Focussing on impact instead of deliverables. Finding fun in content creation and marketing activities.

If more in-house people have these skills we can use agencies/consultants in a different capacity. We will drive retention of people and better solutions and will give better information to HCPs to help their patients live better lives.

Can you predict the industry in five years?

It's a tricky one! The rate of change is exponentially growing at a pace like no other, but Pharma hasn't changed as much as other industries in the past ten years. Realistically, I think in five years if we can see that scale, that data-driven automation of journeys with efficient ways of working.

Even now, they’re one-off things and it requires a lot of work, so people don't want to do it. But can we drive end-to-end customer journeys through our automation tools? We don't even need new tools, so realistically, I think we could do that!

Teams and budgets structured around, not brands, but around the customer. The budget currently sits with the brand team. Can we see an evolution within that space?

Everyone's leaning into AI. I think AI will be integrated into more aspects.

I think these are all realistic things that could happen in the next five years and maybe sooner.

Conclusion

Amish was an absolute treasure to talk to! Amish was actually one of three people who I shared the transcript of my book, The Omni Advantage, with ahead of publication. He was a great source of support, and I really valued his feedback.

He was also the first person to post a selfie with the book, and it was his idea to do the selfie challenge on LinkedIn.

He's loved the personal stories and people focus. The book helped him walk in the shoes of the field force. He found it practical and simple steps that will be easy to put into action. Everyone's talking about omnichannel, but what we really want is meaningful engagement!

If you enjoyed this blog, please go and check out Amish's podcast, Final Form.

If you would like to purchase a copy of The Omni Advantage, it is available as a paperback or audiobook.