Twitter, Publicis Health Media, and Medscape Partner on New Conference Conversations Offering

Medical conferences can be an important place for healthcare professionals (HCPs) to gather to learn about the latest breakthroughs in science, discuss the practice of medicine with their peers, and become inspired by what others in the field are doing. But as a result of COVID-19, the way people attend these conferences and how they are conducted is changing, with the hybrid model becoming an alternative to going in person.

Furthermore, whether they are at the actual conference or following along at home, many HCPs turn to social media to discuss the conference outside of the four walls where the conference is being held. In fact, according to Lisa Bookwalter, Director of Twitter Client Solutions, Health, 40% of all the conversation around the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) Annual Meeting doesn’t happen at ASCO. It is happening all around on social platforms, such as Twitter.

“This has reframed the entire value proposition around conferences,” Bookwalter told PM360. “It’s similar to DTC marketing, where marketers want to follow the consumer where they are, which is on social. The same logic applies to HCPs where 155 million tweets every year on Twitter are for HCPs. So, in a lot of ways, medical conferences are happening all the time on Twitter. And when these conferences are actually going on that conversation explodes.”

For that reason, Twitter, Publicis Health Media (PHM), and Medscape are introducing “Conference Conversations,” an offering that is now available on Twitter Amplify exclusively to PHM’s roster of clients. “Conference Conversations” is a video series from Medscape that will include content on the more than 300 conferences a year around the globe that Medscape covers, including ASCO, the American Academy of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology (AAAAI) Annual Meeting, the American Psychological Association (APA) Convention, and the American Society of Hematology (ASH) Annual Meeting.

As part of the series, Medscape will develop videos on four areas around each conference, which include pre-conference videos focused on what to expect; key takeaways in which physicians discuss what they are learning at the conference; an end of the conference video in which physicians discuss key ways the patients will be impacted by the information coming out of the conference; and finally a post-conference recap or summary.

“We know that physicians who use Medscape as an editorial platform are beyond looking at the breaking news from a conference, they’re looking at ways to apply what came out of a conference to their patients that they consult with,” Vincent Muehter, Group General Manager/SVP, Medscape, told PM360. “In general, all of these videos are going to be short, around two to three minutes.”

The opportunity that will be available to PHM clients is the ability to run pre-roll video against the “Conference Conversations” series on Twitter Amplify. While companies who do not work with PHM can also tap into other opportunities to reach healthcare audiences on Twitter Amplify, including through Twitter’s broader partnership with WebMD or the many other publishers Twitter works with, PHM clients will be the only ones who can specifically advertise against content created for “Conference Conversations.”

“When you think about other platforms, advertisers have very little control about where their pre-roll video plays, but this is a unique opportunity available on Twitter where we know we will have content adjacency,” Patty Ryan, GVP, Paid Social Media at PHM, told PM360. “With this offering we can control where our clients’ pre-roll videos play against health content and endemic content that people associate closely with their healthcare. In the past, we’ve seen with Twitter’s WebMD pre-roll Amplify product a very large increase in engagement from consumers. We’re anticipating seeing the same with the Medscape content for HCPs.”

Through this offering, advertisers can leverage Twitter’s native targeting to reach HCPs via the conference hashtag or conversations happening about the conference; specific handles in which the person has identified themselves as a doctor or specialist such as an oncologist or dermatologist; or through a list provided by the advertiser of specific HCPs.

“This provides an opportunity to talk about conferences all year round as part of an ongoing evergreen HCP strategy,” Ryan adds. “To not only supplement conference coverage with these Medscape videos, but also make sure we’re maximizing the opportunity those months during the year that relate to increased conference conversation, plus any new data releases and breaking news that is important to our HCP communities.”

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