Leanne Smith, VP insights and analytics, CMI/Compas

The key to executing non-personal promotion, especially when there is limited or no rep access, is understanding each physician’s media consumption, demographics, and writing habits. With that information, a specific strategy can be executed across a wide variety of targeted media channels to reach the appropriate audience. In order to measure the success of a multichannel NPP program, the ideal scenario is to create a well-stratified control group that does not receive any of the targeted messages and is also not regularly called upon. The control that is created should be designed to ensure that their attributes mirror those of the test group based on specialty, geographic region, market segmentation, and product prescribing behavior in a six- to 12-month period prior to the NPP campaign. An independent party is not needed as long as the pharmaceutical company and all associated parties agree upon the methodology of analysis, control group, and timing of analysis prior to executing the plan. In order to conduct the study, HCP-level reach and engagement data should be collected and analyzed across all tactics. A cross-channel analysis can be conducted by any involved party; however, it should not be conducted by publishers, who will only have a view into their own media. Those analyzing the results should understand the context of the media, which is the proper way to measure reach and engagement along with the associated messaging cadence executed to ensure proper, actionable learnings.

 

Keri Hettel, SVP, analytics and strategy, Razorfish Health

NPP can more easily be personalized through the use of data. It is a great way to ensure that messages to physicians are targeted, relevant, and timely. This means that we need to ensure that ROI ties back to a specific campaign goal. That goal could be to drive awareness with “no-see” physicians, to get a new product message to your most loyal physicians, or to deliver personalized content to a physician based on the messages they’ve previously interacted with. Demonstrating ROI requires a smart, cross-channel measurement approach that looks at impact on Rx and market share, as well as on brand interactions, key messaging content, and engagement with CRM programs. Only by doing so can marketers truly understand where their campaigns have moved the needle.

 

Raffi Siyahian principal, president of healthcare, Scout Marketing

In today’s digital world, opportunities for NPP are seemingly endless. How marketers measure success is critical to optimizing these efforts, however. Our expansive access to detailed analytics can be overwhelming and, therefore, must be looked at carefully. The key for marketers is not to get caught in the trap of looking to analytics, or trying to dissect ROI, to uncover a single silver-bullet tactic. If marketers have done their homework up front to ensure they have the right brand strategy, today’s analytics can provide insight into whether the NPP efforts are reaching the intended audiences and leveraging the brand strategy. What that means is that marketers shouldn’t get mired in the details and lose sight of the overall brand strategy when reviewing NPP analytics. To use an automotive metaphor, if you focus on tire pressure but don’t have enough torque, you won’t get very far.

 

David Reim, chief product officer, DMD marketing

The primary method of NPP to HCPs is email. Considering the rigor that pharma applies to issues of privacy and authentication in the website channel, we are shocked that these same standards are not applied to outbound email. Almost no company demands that its email lists are authenticated or audited. So the first step in demonstrating ROI is to ensure that outbound emails reach the intended physician targets. Without that, a brand’s NPP efforts are just a waste of money — not to mention a privacy violation in the making. We also believe that independent verification of results is key. The print channel has used this approach for decades (see the BPA) and it is way overdue in the digital channel. As President Reagan once said, “Trust, but verify.” Many, many millions of media dollars are spent at the large medical websites and on email that drives physician traffic, without any third-party verification. Madness! NPP ROI starts with independent physician verification.