New decade, new momentum? The pharma digital landscape in 2011
For several years now, Across Health has been running a unique digital landscape survey among pharma leaders in sales, marketing, medical, digital and CRM. Through 2010, this landscape looked quite bleak and quiet...despite the fact that the satisfaction with ebusiness activities and the in-house expertise in digital opportunities for pharma score below 50%.
Indeed, pharma seems to be hesitant to rigorously apply the unequivocal customer insights into its marketing mix. Our tried and tested rep equivalent model time and again shows that digital channels have a similar or even higher impact than reps, and other research demonstrates that physicians spend well over 10x more time online for professional purposes than with the salesforce...And then we are not even considering patients/caregivers, nurses and pharmacists, who often flock even more passionately to web resources. The digital first picture becomes even more compelling, if you consider the consumer megatrends (see for instance The New Normal, authored by my business partner Peter Hinssen, keynote speaker at the upcoming Eyeforpharma emarketing event (www.neonormal.be).
The Bermuda triangle
And yet, despite all this evidence, pharma spent less than 5% of its marketing budget on digital in 2010 (vs 20% in leading industries). If we look at the total marketing AND sales spend, the figure shrinks to a paltry 1-2%. And even with this limited innovation budget, the spend pattern is quite traditional: also in 2010, the focus continued to be on the classic triangle product-disease-company site. As most of the budgets disappears in this trio without any sign of impact, I would call it the Bermuda triangle of digital pharma marketing...
As opposed to leading industries and pharma in the US, spend on online marketing tactics like SEA, SEO, email marketing and even bannering is quite low in Europe (the budget having been spent on the Bermuda triangle??), let alone a decent share of the budget on innovative channels like social and mobile...In addition, most of this budget is spent on the customer group pharma is targeting already very heavily already, ie, specialists. Leveraging the internet to create transformational innovation towards other stakeholders like nurses, patients, pharmacists and payors or creating value-added (social & mobile) connectivity between these target groups is hardly ever on strategic table. Novel digital-heavy approaches to cover GPs are on the increase, however (fortunately!).
2011, a new e-space odyssey?
According to our survey respondents (2010 data), no clear leader has risen from the fold, with only 20% saying they are ahead of the competition (and 48% feels behind). Is this to say that there is no innovation in pharma at all? That is clearly not the case, but it continues to be led by individuals, like our new UK managing director, Gary Monk, who has just been awarded the prestigious Digital Pioneer award for his innovative social media projects. This brand-level variability is also borne out by the interesting 2010 US study Digital IQ in pharma (http://www.slideshare.net/blueeyepathrec/digital-iq-pharma).
So, what stops digital pharma from moving beyond its dependency on individuals, and growing digital into a companywide initiative? Next to the regulatory barriers (the ususal suspect), the key obstacles to getting more traction in digital are lack of strategy and proving ROI....both of which can be easily tackled given the right corporate focus (ie, strategic priority, budgets and resources)...
Want to know more? Participate in our 2011 digital marketing survey
So, will 2011 be the turning point for pharma? If you want to find out, please participate in our 3d digital marketing survey for life sciences and have a chance of winning 1 of 2 ipads. In addition, all participants will get the full report.
You can find the survey here:
http://www.a-cross.com/eBiz/2011_eBiz-survey.html
May the e-Force be with you in 2011!
Fonny Schenck
CEO, Across Health
PS if you would like the 2010 survey results, please email me at fonny.schenck@a-cross.com