The media planning landscape in the pharmaceutical industry has significantly changed over the last few decades, especially since the pandemic. Pharmaceutical companies are faced with the ongoing challenge of maximizing efficiency and ROI while maintaining a strong focus on quality research and development. Although marketers have many options to manage their media planning and buying, the right model and mix are key for the ongoing success of brand marketing. Among the options are:
- Full-service ad agency with media department
- Full-service media company with analytics
- Internal media communications within the marketing business unit of a pharmaceutical company.
- Media liaison: an employee or consultant hired by a pharmaceutical company
What are the benefits or disadvantages of having the media internal within the marketing business unit, or outsourcing to a full-service advertising agency or media company? Let’s explore.
Considerations for Internal Functions
When pharmaceutical companies have internal media teams, it gives them direct control over their marketing strategies, creative messaging, and tailoring of the creative. These teams have a strong understanding of the marketing objectives, which is an advantage for the organization. The internal unit also ensures seamless coordination with other business departments such as Regulatory, Sales, Marketing, and Strategic Sourcing, facilitating enhanced alignment across the organization. The decision to use an internal team versus an agency often depends on the size of the company and their specific needs. More emphasis has been focused on optimizations, ROI, achieving key performance indicators (KPIs), and validation of the analytics with Sales.
However, internal media teams also include several challenges, starting with a need for significant investments to hire and train individuals on the corporate infrastructure. They must also keep pace with the rapid changes in the digital media landscape—including programmatic, social media management, endemic display, paid search, connected TV (CTV), and other data-driven analytics—to constantly validate the media budgets being executed. They must remain current on numerous technologies while also being compliant with the regulatory guidelines for each specific product.
Outsourcing to an Advertising Agency or Media Company
Outsourcing to a specialized media team offers many benefits. These experts often have strong pharmaceutical industry knowledge, are current on the latest trends, and are well-informed about the media channels and can adjust tactics based on market conditions and creative messaging.
A media agency can bring a fresh and innovative perspective so the brand team can tap into a broader network of media contacts, influencers, and other solutions, expanding the reach and impact of marketing campaigns. This can be cost-effective as well, based on the media team and the platforms utilized to promote the brands. This flexibility allows the media team to scale up and down based on budgets, business needs, and market dynamics.
Media Expertise Is a Necessity
Regardless of whether a pharmaceutical company has an agency, internal team, or hybrid approach (in which a dedicated internal person works with the agency and brand team), the marketing objectives must be achieved effectively and efficiently.
Now more than ever campaigns have to be more targeted and relevant to the audience. Having access to analytics is key so that flexible decisions can be made quickly. The metrics need to be tracked, analyzed, and adjusted for the campaign to be optimized. The research data can be costly and usually the license remains with the pharmaceutical company, so it is imperative that Marketing understands the data and works closely with Media to incorporate the information into the targeting, creative executions, and implementation of the media strategy.
A pharmaceutical company should not set up an internal team unless they can secure the expertise in media and marketing from a strategic and analytic standpoint. I have seen so many organizations that have “placeholder full-time equivalents (FTEs)” running these decisions, which becomes very ineffective for the company and their agency. Creativity, innovation, and strategic media expertise is key for this to be successful and for campaigns that achieve the ROI and KPIs set forth by management.
Agencies can benefit from this collaboration and help to maximize communication efficiently. However, the agency also must employ a knowledgeable and experienced talent to implement the marketing initiatives. The same criteria used when evaluating Subject Matter Experts (SMEs) in other areas should be in place when hiring a media expert.
Meanwhile, developing an internal expertise within Marketing can be a smart move to streamline marketing efforts and ensure compliance with industry regulations if everyone understands their roles. Pharmaceutical companies must also continuously evaluate the agency’s reputation, experience, quality of work, and track record. The alignment of strategies and maintaining brand consistency, while safeguarding sensitive and proprietary information is key to the success of the entire media plan.
Have We Really Evolved or Are We Doing the Same Thing in Different Ways?
For those who have been in the industry long enough, you will recognize we have come full circle and are repeating history. We believe that the latest approach is new and innovative, when in reality, we are combining multiple prior best practices, and performing the same roles like we did years ago, but calling it “innovative and different.” However, our approach has evolved in the sophistication of planning, buying, negotiating, and targeting. We have more data now than ever before to enable the experts to make quantifiable decisions, but we must always remember the “qualitative” factors, since these are what differentiate one brand’s success from another.
Many pharmaceutical companies continue to hire the media agency—the creative agency—but then give product managers the media responsibility to execute the final plan. This is not a formula for success.
Product managers need to ensure tactical reviews and understand how the results will be affected. However, they are too busy with the field force and rely on the Media department/team to implement each program. That is why regardless of how Media is structured, a collaborative effort is required to implement the plan once the groundwork has been established. If media is not properly planned, evaluated, and executed the objectives will not be achieved.
For this to work, the pharmaceutical company’s media expert, whether they are internal or external (such as an agency’s Media Director), must be the liaison between the Marketing unit and the agency. This person or team’s role also requires them to be knowledgeable about the brand, the media, the analytics, the regulatory process, and how to work with Procurement. Companies rely on their media experts to select and understand media channels. They also must be accountable for the delivery of the plan and achieving optimal ROI. The milestones that are achieved should be compared to the campaign’s objectives, and the media experts must be able to justify, enhance, and modify the brand’s schedule if adjustments need to be made when something is not working. Accountability is a must every time!
Budgets will always shift and new media channels will keep entering the industry, so it is up to the media expert and marketer to work in collaboration with the brand group to determine the campaign is always tailored to the right audience at the appropriate time with the right message. How to best communicate this is ultimately why a pharmaceutical company must work with the right professionals, internally or externally. Change is inevitable, and no plan will ever be complete. Media revisions are an art and require the knowledge of not only the detailed tactics and channels but the synergy of integration to the brand plan.
So, Which Is Better—Internal or External?
The decision to handle media functions internally or outsource them to an agency is a critical one for pharmaceutical companies. While internal functions offer control, deep brand knowledge, and seamless coordination, they may struggle to remain current on the rapidly evolving media and analytics landscape and lack the specialized expertise that the agencies may offer—assuming one selects the “right” agency. When selection is done very carefully, agencies can offer innovation, scalability, and cost effectiveness. But ultimately, it is not the agency but the people who make a successful media team. Experience is necessary to differentiate a good plan from an unproductive plan.
So, there really is no correct decision whether to outsource media to an agency or to maintain the function internally. One big mistake many companies make—considering Procurement as a business unit to make media decisions, when Media should be cohesively working with Sourcing in order to make these recommendations and decisions. In the end, Media and Marketing should make these decisions, not Procurement. Lower costs for media is not the right answer—it is making sure we have the most targeted, effective media programs, with the right delivery method at the most cost-efficient price.
That is why I stress over and over about the significance of SMEs, regardless of whether they are internal or external. Ultimately, their knowledge in all areas of media is the key to success. Media is not the way it was perceived decades ago. Today, media is an instrumental component of a successful marketing plan with millions of dollars being invested annually reaching HCPs and patients.
Recommendation
My recommendation is a hybrid approach where everyone benefits, especially the brand. This model allows pharmaceutical companies to leverage their in-house expertise and control while collaborating with the specialized media agency for specific areas of digital media, digital marketing management, social media, and data analytics. Such collaboration will foster innovation, knowledge sharing, optimal resource allocation, and regulatory compliance. By having a shared approach, the brand team and pharmaceutical company will maintain greater control over the media selection and creative messaging, and can be flexible and react to market conditions, ensuring a successful program.
Ultimately, having the right balance for every product will be guided by the specific needs of the organization, and having the right internal expertise and hiring the right agency specialists will effectively drive the marketing and media results to achieve the objectives.
