Pharmaceutical industry: HCP engagement. The what, where, when and how of reaching your audience in the digital age.

Transcription

1 Pharmaceutical industry: HCP engagement The what, where, when and how of reaching your audience in the digital age.

2 Contents Contents Introduction 04 Methodology 06 Executive Summary 07 Channels for Industry delivery and HCP access of medical content In general, what value do you attribute to the following sources of medical information? What value do you think HCPs attribute to the following channels? Types of medical content 18 How frequently do you access the following types of information online? 18 Within your area of responsibility, do you provide healthcare professionals with the following types of content in 2015? 19 Do you think you need better access to the following sources of medical content? 10 What prevents you from accessing the following more frequently? 11 To what extent do the following channels play a part in your delivery of information to HCPs in 2015? 12 Does your organisation work with pharmaceutical clients to support HCPs via the following channels? 13 How important are the following channels in notifying you about new medical content and resources? 14 Sources of online medical content 15 How frequently do you access the following sources of online medical content? 15 In general, what level of credibility and trust do you associate with the following sources of medical content? 15 Do you have experience of partnering with independent medical websites to provide content for HCPs? 16 What types of content have you supported via third party websites? 16 How would you describe the performance of the content you have supported or supplied via third party websites for HCPs? 17 Does your organisation work with pharma clients to provide healthcare professionals with the following types of content in 2015? 20 Do you think you need more or better access to the following types of medical content? 21 Format and features of medical content 22 How important do you consider the following possible features of medical websites and online resources? 22 In your experience, what proportion of online medical resources currently offer the following features? 23 Within your area of responsibility, do you provide or fund online resources that offer HCPs the following features? 24 Devices used to access medical content 25 On average, approximately how much time do you spend accessing online medical content via the following devices each day? 25 How do you think your usage of the following devices for work purposes has changed over the last 12 months? 26 What proportion of your online content for HCPs is mobile-optimised? 27 Do you expect that all of your online content for HCPs will be mobile-optimised by 2016? 27 How would you describe your overall experience of working with third party websites? 17 02

3 Contents Contents Industry provision factors affecting delivery of medical content for HCPs How successful do you believe your/your clients organisation is currently at achieving multichannel integration? What are the main sources of digital/ multichannel expertise within your area of responsibility? How well resourced do you think your organisation is currently for supporting multichannel/digital activities to support HCPs? About the HCP respondents 41 To what extent do you think that the following present a challenge to your/your clients HCP-focused digital activities during 2015? Please complete the following sentence: The key to effectively reaching and engaging healthcare professionals online is Please select your core medical specialty and any other areas of interest In which decade were you born? What is your gender? Where are you located? HCPs factors affecting consumption of medical content How frequently do you seek medical information online under the following circumstances? How much influence do the following factors have over your decision to access an online resource? To what extent do you think the following factors influence HCPs decisions to access online resources? Are you willing to supply providers of medical content with additional information about yourself if it helps them to supply content tailored to your specific needs? In general, how would you describe the following in relation to the medical content that you find online? In general, what level of credibility and trust do you associate with the following sources of medical content? What is your greatest frustration with accessing the information you need online? About the Industry respondents 43 What type of organisation do you work for? 43 Where are you located? 43 What is your geographical area of responsibility? 43 What type of role do you personally perform? 44 In which decade were you born? 44 What is your gender? 44 Conclusions 45 About EPG Health Media 48 03

4 Introduction Background The majority of today s healthcare professionals (HCPs) are digital natives. This means that most qualified since the Internet went mainstream. In the meantime, digital platforms, tools, features and opportunities have grown, and continue to grow, exponentially. This revolution brings with it expectations for better, quicker, cheaper and more personalised access to content, crucial to easing the funding and time constraints experienced by modern day doctors. 15% Only 15% of current pharma marketing activity is digital. Today, to effectively reach and engage with their HCP audiences, pharmaceutical companies (pharma) need to plan communications with the digital native in mind, providing the tools they can choose to help them support their patients. Failure to do this not only increases the risk of poor engagement and marketing effectiveness, but also the potential to alienate and lose credibility and trust. Digital currently accounts for approximately only 15% of pharma marketing activity. Pharma is notoriously slow to adapt to the digital world that its customers live and work in and has been accused of adopting a wait and watch approach. Is that the case, or actually, due to the numerous industry-specific challenges that pharma has to contend with, is pharma genuinely attempting but struggling to understand and adopt the right approaches? Digital is often viewed in isolation from the rest of the marketing mix but the key to good multichannel engagement is to integrate digital channels with offline channels such as conferences, print and sales force. To what extent is pharma currently doing this? Do the channel mixes that pharma is currently selecting correlate with those that HCPs are choosing to access? Everyone is confident that they should be aiming for customer-centricity but few seem confident about what it really means or how to deliver it. Significant focus is placed on achieving audience reach and selecting the right channels to use. However, to ensure good engagement, pharma needs to focus not just on where their customers are but also when, how and why their customers want to engage and what with. To deliver true customer-centricity, pharma marketers need to understand and deliver on each of these points. Together with marketing objectives, all questions in combination should form the basis of good pharma HCP engagement strategies, especially since unclear strategy is believed to be the greatest challenge for pharma right now (source: The Digital Futures 2014 survey). The purpose of this study is to shed light on the current content needs and engagement behaviour of HCPs, and to identify gaps between these and the supply of content by pharma. 04

5 Introduction? Study objectives The objectives of this study are to provide insight into: Channels (where?) Where do HCPs want to access medical content? Where is Industry placing its content for HCPs?! Types of content (what?) What content types are HCPs accessing? What content types is Industry supplying for HCPs? Potential outcomes Format & features (how?) How do HCPs want content presented to them? How is Industry presenting its content to HCPs? This study is important to the pharmaceutical industry because it may support decisions related to: Supply versus demand Identify where gaps or imbalances exist between HCP demand and Industry provision of medical content (based on types, channels, features and format). Identify obstacles to Industry supply and HCP access of medical content. Uncover Industry awareness of HCP demands and preferences. Types of content to support or provide for HCP audiences Channels through which to deliver content to HCPs Formats in which to make content available and the features it should contain Multichannel strategy approaches Analyzing the strengths and weaknesses of a content strategy Understanding opportunities for better HCP reach and engagement Challenging or supporting decisions around planning, funding and delivery of content Organisational change management related to capabilities, processes and technologies. 05

6 Methodology Methodology This report is based on an independent study designed and conducted by EPG Health Media (Europe) Ltd. Every effort has been taken to ensure that the study is transparent, comprehensive and reliable. The study is based on surveys conducted with two target respondent groups: healthcare professionals ( HCPs ) and pharmaceutical industry professionals ( pharma and service providers, together referred to as Industry ). The findings from each respondent group are presented independently and also compared in this report. Note: results are reliable to within +/- 6% at the 95% confidence level for HCP survey data and to within +/- 7.5% for pharmaceutical industry survey data. Sample groups Healthcare professionals Target respondents Respondent source Medically qualified healthcare professionals (validated through registration and a qualifying question) epgonline.org database of healthcare professionals Sample size 216 Location Survey language Global English Survey period July August 2015 Survey method Sampling ed link to an online (web based) survey Random, voluntary (no honoraria), no control group Pharmaceutical industry professionals Target respondents Respondent Source Sample size Location Survey language Pharmaceutical companies and their service providers (agencies) (validated through registration and a qualifying question) EPG Health Media database, Pharmaphorum database, social media (verified using a qualifying question) 137 (66 pharmaceutical, 71 service provider) Global English Survey period July August 2015 Survey method Sampling ed link to an online survey Random, voluntary (no honoraria), no control group Report response key Healthcare professionals Service providers Pharmaceutical Industry 06

7 Executive Summary Executive Summary Pharma views Channels for delivery of medical content (where) HCPs are accessing medical content via many channels and to varying extents, each with associated benefits and challenges, including cost, convenience and trust. Pharma organisations are utilising these same channels but not necessarily to optimal benefit for themselves or their customers. In part this is due to a lack of awareness of the level of value that HCPs associate with each channel, and in part a decision to pursue their own objectives. The study highlights opportunities to address the balance to benefit both parties. Types of medical content (what) HCPs are accessing credible, unbranded educational content frequently, and branded promotional material less so. There is a lack of correlation between HCP demand and industry supply of medical content. Industry is under-supporting the types of content that HCPs access and trust most and oversupplying the types of content that they access and trust least. The study sheds light on what these are and the potential they have to impact HCPs and Industry. HCP views Insights from the study indicate some significant gaps or imbalances between HCP consumption and Industry provision of medical content. Format and features for medical content (how) A gap exists between how doctors want to view online content and how pharma is currently presenting it. Industry needs to put significantly more emphasis on the format of the online medical content that it provides. Medical content that provides a valuable and convenient user experience for HCPs will help them in practice and attract better engagement and trust. The message is clear: Make it easy to access, digest and save and this report provides insight into how this can be achieved. This highlights areas where pharma companies can adapt or refine the ways in which they choose to reach, engage and support their customers. 07

8 Channels for Industry delivery and HCP access of medical content In general, what value do you attribute to the following sources of medical information? Healthcare professionals (Fig. 1) No value Limited value Moderate value Significant value General social platforms (e.g. Twitter, Facebook) Wikipedia Meetings with pharmaceutical company representatives Video channels Pharmaceutical brand websites Medical apps Webcasts and webinars Pharmaceutical educational websites Exhibition halls at conferences 15% 38% 13% 40% 14% 29% 11% 31% 9% 35% 9% 27% 48% 30% 20% 39% 29% 22% 31% 38% 49% 45% 47% 39% 47% 18% 42% 3% 12% 9% 5% 8% 12% 11% 9% 15% announcements and newsletters 5% 29% 51% 15% Professional social networks and forums (for healthcare professionals) 6% 27% 48% Independent medical websites 4% 16% 54% 26% Print materials (e.g. journals, books, leaflets) 2% 18% 47% 34% Live events (conferences and meetings) 3% 16% 40% 41% Government, university, hospital or other institutional websites 0% 7% 41% 52% Medical society or association websites 1% 6% 37% 55% 0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100% What value do you think HCPs attribute to the following channels? Pharmaceutical (Fig. 2) No value Limited value Moderate value Significant value General social platforms (e.g. Twitter, Facebook) 59% 4% Meetings with pharmaceutical company representatives 7% 17% 52% 24% Video channels 11% 41% 43% 6% Pharmaceutical brand websites 11% 57% 28% 4% Medical apps 2% 28% 52% Webcasts and webinars 2% 22% 63% 13% Pharmaceutical educational websites 6% 28% 48% Exhibition halls at conferences 9% 24% 46% 20% announcements and newsletters Professional social networks and forums (for healthcare professionals) Independent medical websites 9% 50% 35% 0% 15% 50% 0% 6% 43% 6% 35% 52% Print materials (e.g. journals, books, leaflets) 0% 30% 50% 20% Live events (conferences and meetings) 0% 6% 44% 50% Government, university, hospital or other institutional websites Medical society or association websites 4% 11% 31% 2% 6% 24% 54% 69% 0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100% 08