MG 2013 Think Tank
Jen Mormile
SVP, Strategic Partnerships, Everyday Health
What mobile health trends have you seen over the past year? Where are the pharma dollars going?
The trend continues to be multi-channel marketing as the most effective way to continue a dialogue with both patients and physicians. Pharma marketing budgets are increasing in the mobile landscape. However, we hear that there are still some challenges in the market at large; once the industry overcomes a few obstacles and increases mobile-optimized sites and inadequate ISI real estate in the smaller, non-standard ad sizes, the ad revenue will increase dramatically.
Is the industry continuing to evolve in its understanding, focus and use of mobile? Where are you seeing innovation and what are the big challenges?
Patients are moving towards personalized condition management. They are engaging in tracking tools and demonstrate a deeper level of content consumption for disease state management on the go and on their smart phones. The most exciting innovation, I find, is the ability to have a synchronized message to consumers and the physicians who treat them. Physicians are relying heavily on their mobile device for quick, reliable medical news and information during the workday.
What will the next 12 months of mobile look like, as it pertains to your organization?
With the implementation of the Affordable Care Act, the physician’s already strained workday will be pushed to the limits. Therefore they will need quick, reliable information to help make immediate treatment decisions. Patients have the ability to manage their conditions through mobile tracking tools and a breadth of searchable, encyclopedic information. Everyday Health will continue to take this approach to the next level by adding elements of personalization and feedback, and helping the patient comply and meet their health goals.
Next: Michele Perras, Klick Health
Michele Perras
VP Strategy, Klick
What mobile health trends have you seen over the past year? Where are the pharma dollars going?
The past year has seen an incredible increase in adoption of iPad-driven sales platforms (such as Veeva’s iRep) and the next generation of interactive sales aids. We’ve also witnessed investment in ensuring mobile-optimized or responsive experiences. Meanwhile, there has been some exciting innovation in mobile media, including geo-targeted media units. And finally, mobile CRM has moved from an add-on component to an effective, integrated channel for engaging with both consumers and HCPs.
Is the industry continuing to evolve in its understanding, focus and use of mobile? Where are you seeing innovation and what are the big challenges?
The industry is continuing to evolve. Mobile experiences are now more focused on delivering value and experiences that meet a user’s expectations outside of pharma. In addition, technology advances have resulted in greater cost efficiencies. The biggest challenges can stem from a perception that mobile can safely be marginalized. Ignoring users on the screens that they use daily can result in a siloed or crippled channel that doesn’t bring value to users or your business.
What will the next 12 months of mobile look like, as it pertains to your organization?
2013 is an exciting year for us. We’ve been invited into Google’s Glass Explorer Program, which will give us the opportunity to beta test Glass and to build apps that will enrich the patient and HCP experience. Our in-house innovation centre, Klick Labs, is experimenting with new mobile products that incorporate peripherals, NFC and other technologies to create exciting and valuable offerings to the industry.
Next: Laurent Savelli, Cegedim Relationship Management
Laurent Savelli
Senior Director, Mobility Solutions, Cegedim Relationship Management
What mobile health trends have you seen over the past year? Where are the pharma dollars going?
Life sciences companies continue to look forward in regard to mobile strategies. The trend is to provide a tablet as a single device to their mobile collaborators. Therefore, we are seeing traction towards new capabilities provided, for instance, by Windows 8 tablets, which natively support all mobile apps, all legacy apps companies may have, and the Office Suite. Also, life sciences companies are investing more money on mobile apps aimed at better engaging with the patient.
Is the industry continuing to evolve in its understanding, focus and use of mobile? Where are you seeing innovation and what are the big challenges?
Life sciences companies are definitely focusing more and more on the use of mobile. At the same time, they are investing heavily in developing their multi-channel marketing strategies, and mobile plays an essential role within this ecosystem. Pushing the right (social) data to the mobile collaborators, making it actionable and enabling communication across new channels will definitely serve to better execute the overall strategy.
What will the next 12 months of mobile look like, as it pertains to your organization?
Cegedim will keep providing innovative solutions for mobile devices to help life sciences companies achieve optimal commercial performance. Leveraging all the capabilities provided by mobile technology is definitely the enabler to efficiently execute a multi-channel marketing strategy. Mobile technology keeps evolving every day. Making the most of it in a timely manner is key for our customers.
Next: Jess Seilheimer, Havas Life NY
Jess Seilheimer
SVP Digital Strategy & Planning, Havas Life NY
What mobile health trends have you seen over the past year? Where are the pharma dollars going?
Universal Mobility. Consumers have adopted “on-demand in your hand” behaviors, with a content strategy that spans across three screens. Future pharma dollars will be spent creating cross-platform service and solutions bundled with the Rx/OTC product. The best strategies will align with target attitudes, behaviors and usage. These efforts will drive adoption of product coupled with wellness/activity tracking and personalized data to drive compliance and behavioral change.
Is the industry continuing to evolve in its understanding, focus and use of mobile? Where are you seeing innovation and what are the big challenges?
In 2009, pharma spent a lot of time creating shiny tools, to “be in mobile,” irrespective of what they knew about end users. Now industry is focusing on customer insights to drive strategies; this includes consumers, HCPs and reps. We’re seeing innovation in mobile sensor-based technologies driven by the quantified-self trend of tracking personal wellness. Wearable technologies like Nike Fuelband and Fitbit have set the stage. We still see challenges with harnessing big data.
What will the next 12 months of mobile look like, as it pertains to your organization?
New mobile technologies are introduced almost daily—the ability for pharma to scale its internal talent acquisition and capabilities to accommodate these shifts has proven difficult. We’re addressing these needs by creating progressive design, transmedia experiences and narratives that traverse screens over the course of the healthy journey. Activating these efforts doesn’t require recreating the technology wheel when the technology already exists. Instead, we are focusing on collaborating with clients and tech partners.
Todd Zander
VP of Mobile and Emerging Media, WebMD
What mobile health trends have you seen over the past year? Where are the pharma dollars going?We are seeing an increase in mobile web usage as consumers search for answers to health questions on their smartphones on nights and weekends. Pharma dollars tend to follow users and most consumers today are using the mobile web.
Is the industry continuing to evolve in its understanding, focus and use of mobile? Where are you seeing innovation and what are the big challenges?
Mobile health innovation will come from personalized health experiences that encourage consumers to actively manage their health from health or wellness apps. Pharma has the opportunity to tailor the brand message in the context of this behavior.
What will the next 12 months of mobile look like, as it pertains to your organization?
We will continue to extend native mobile ad integrations and improve advertising opportunities on our mobile website. For the consumer, we will be updating our flagship WebMD App later this year. The new changes will allow users to further personalize their experience by providing engaging, multimedia healthy living information and more useful health tools for active health management.
From the June 02, 2013 Issue of MM+M - Medical Marketing and Media
