Just about everyone’s taking, or at least watching, the current online Ice Bucket Challenge—from ordinary people to Alaskan ex-Governor Sarah Palin. That’s the great thing about social media. When it’s interesting, engaging, fun—and has a great cause, like ALS, behind it—everybody wants in on it.
How can pharma marketers get in on this type of action? This issue of PM360 contains a wealth of social media information—how to get it cooking, make it work, create greater brand recognition and more meaningful customer engagement—despite all of the medical, legal, regulatory and privacy constraints.
Malcolm Bohm, author of our cover story, Social Media Is the New DTC—If You Do It Right, tells us why it’s so important for pharma to take social media efforts to new heights. Bohm observes:
“Consumers of all generations have swarmed to social networks and, to some extent, abandoned traditional [marketing] channels…A new era of patient-centric digital marketing is underway and social media is at the core of it.”
Click here to find who is doing social right and how you can, too. Also, check out this month’s columns. Many are rich with the information you need to be successful in this burgeoning social era.
PM360 is preparing to go social too, in another sense, by honoring the many marketing innovators, thought leaders, brand managers and creatives who have produced outstanding campaigns and initiatives at our annual two-day Trailblazer extravaganza, an exciting celebration of innovation, creativity and good old-fashioned hard work. This year, our awards categories broadened to welcome many new initiative winners—from Point of Care, EMR Programs and Corporate Campaigns to Pharmacy, Payer Access and Multi-cultural Campaigns and Programs, and more—into our fold.
Look for coverage in our October issue, featuring our Lifetime Achievement Award Recipient, Ron Pantello, Founder of Lally, McFarland & Pantello and former CEO of Euro RSCG Life Worldwide, and Keynote Speaker, Montel Williams—to name just two of the luminaries to be lauded at NYC’s incomparable Gotham Hall.
