Some Early Nuggets from ePharma Summit

Sad to say I missed the first few presentations due to a client call. But all in all it was a good day, and I left the conference having met some interesting people, learned some new things, and reinforced many others! Key takeaways:

• An a-ha moment of the conference: There is not a single pharma VP, nor a single Med/Reg/Legal representative, present at this conference. Indeed, everyone here is already an eMarketing evangelist. Suggestion came up that perhaps the conference should offer marketers a two-for-one special if they bring along a "med/reg" friend next time! (Rob Nauman, Bio Pharma Advisors)
• Don't approach social media from a tactical perspective. Start with the basics, and tie it into your overall strategic campaign (Amen. It's the only way social media for pharma will ever make headway)
• Get patients emotionally involved in their health, and that is when change will happen. And, BTW, this CAN happen on a web site. (Dr. John Roizin, "You on a Diet" series)
• The most valuable health seekers define themselves precisely. By age/situation, stage, and camaraderie. The sense of “my people are there” is the #1 predictor of success/compliance. Which speaks to the importance of a focused message, personalization, and customization. No more shotgun approach. Size for size’s sake will become irrelevant. Scale matters – but a qualified scale wins. (HealthCentral)
• Great insights from J&J's Marc Monseau re: how J&J initially involved in social media, and how they developed the internal guidelines and policies to do so. Kudos to their organization for continuing to set the bar for the rest of pharma.
• More from Marc: One conversation that’s not taking place is the elephant in the room – the type of commitment required to open up to a relationship with consumers. What’s it going to take? What’s the long-term commitment? It’s not a one-off campaign (he’s completely right) What’s the 3-year, 5-year strategy? Be prepared that it can be very big, and a very big line item on your budget (bold statement that won’t help some brand managers sell in the idea of social media. But let's face it ... if we're talking open dialogue, back-and-forth, transparency ... it's true). And if you start and then pull the plug, the backlash will be bigger than the initial benefit.
• Allow the product message to take a backseat. We need to get over ourselves. If the message is featured as secondary to more helpful information for which the consumer was seeking, it's even more valuable.
• Speaking of that, there's a lot of talk lately about the shift back toward a patient-centric marketing approach. But pharma has also lost the physician-centric marketing approach.

Tomorrow promises to be another day full of mental stimulation and learnings. All of which I promise to share here, so check back soon!

Great job, ePharma Summit, on using all the various social media tools (LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, blogs, etc.) to bring this eMarketing conference to life and practice what you preach. Now if next time you can only help ensure there are enough plugs and extension cords ... :-)