Healthcare marketing and physician engagement are at a critical moment. Consumer demand for privacy is changing how data is handled and it’s no longer enough to reach the right audience. Today, pharma marketers must reach the right customer with the right message at the right time after obtaining consent.

In a recent MM+M sponsored podcast, digital editor Jack O’Brien sat down with Bob Whiting, Head of Digital Media Partnerships at IQVIA, to discuss the importance of privacy consent and data consistency in HCP marketing, and how both present opportunities to drive healthcare forward.

A look at identity data

Whiting kicked off the conversation by noting that HCP identity is at the forefront of the greater conversation on healthcare professional audiences. “Because there are so many people touching both offline and online data and bringing data to campaigns,” he said, “we have this tremendous responsibility in the digital advertising ecosystem to make sure that the data is accurate and consistent.

“Consent needs to be added onto identity in order to meet and exceed all the privacy rules and regulations,” Whiting added. “You need full consent to deliver an ad in the healthcare professional space.”

While determining accurate identity may create some “obstacles and stumbling blocks,” Whiting also pointed out it presents many opportunities. For example, with many pharma organizations taking more digital services, data, business intelligence and analytics capabilities in-house, greater opportunity exists to establish consistency with identity data. Whiting pointed out there is additional opportunity to ensure the work everybody is doing is successful across multiple channels, social, connected TV, programmatic, email and in-person activities, alongside measurement and analytics.  

The importance of data consent 

Whiting noted that marketers have a responsibility to deliver relevant communications to healthcare professionals that help their business in order to establish mutual trust. “If we are successful in consistently delivering relevant communications, HCPs will consent to the delivery of that information, whether through an email, a digital ad, programmatic ad or an ad on a social platform,” he said.

“People should not take consent for granted,” Whiting added. “IQVIA has a Privacy Office to monitor all of the privacy acts in the U.S. and make sure we are meeting and exceeding privacy policies at the state levels and within our partner ecosystem.”

When partnering with agencies, advertisers need to include privacy and consent in all conversations. “Discuss your consent framework,” he advised. “Where is it coming from? Is it single sourced? Can you prove that the audiences selected for our campaigns are fully consented?”

Consistent identity data across channels

To work with meaningful identity data, it’s important to understand what consistency means. Whiting said, “There are seven or eight steps where you need consistent identity data.”

“First is the planning stage when marketers use first- and third-party data within their business, whether for in-person engagement or across digital channels. From the very beginning, consistent identity data is necessary. For audience creation, when the audience is shared with an agency, for analyzing or enhancing and creating advanced audiences, using certain behaviors,” he explained. Consistent identity data continues to be important when that data is then shared with other vendors, such as email providers directly with an endemic property, DSP, social platform such as Facebook or LinkedIn, or an identity provider.

The problem is if, anywhere along the way, there’s interaction between multiple datasets. “There is an opportunity for inaccurate data matching or data leakage. That can put your brand at risk,” Whiting said, “because you may not actually be delivering ads to the  healthcare professional you intended.” Which in turn will impact reporting back to pharma marketers about the engagement on that healthcare professional and measurement overall.

Strategies for moving digital media in-house

For companies looking to bring their digital advertising in-house, Whiting recommended taking a look at assets already available. Those assets include not only data but talent as well.  “Ask: What do you have that you don’t have to outsource and how can you maximize what you already have in place,” he suggested.

Social platforms such as LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook offer “a low point of entry” for pharma marketers, he added. “You can power your own campaign using your own first-party data with fairly easy do-it-yourself solutions.”

When considering channels: “Do not overlook the power of email,” Whiting cautioned. Determine your email strategy and if you have internal expertise or can leverage external expertise. “Make sure that you’re in that email game in an intelligent way,” he said. “Then, investigate the programmatic buying world, which can be managed without substantial upfront licensing.”

Most importantly: “Set aside money — 10% to 15% of your annual digital budget – to test new and emerging things,” Whiting concluded. “That way you can always be innovating, testing, monitoring, and researching new opportunities to connect with your target audience regardless of who that audience is.”