The Omnichallenge of Omnichannel Engagement: Reaching HCPs Outside of a Professional Context

For pharma marketers, agency strategy leads, and healthcare media owners, the concept of omnichannel engagement is not just a buzzword but a strategic North Star. It’s about creating a seamless journey for a customer, enabling the brand to interact, inform, and educate, all with the ultimate goal of boosting brand affinity and driving sales.
Unless you’re a US-based human reading this article, engaging with HCPs has been restricted (due to compliance regulations) to engagements in a ‘professional context’, where platforms have restricted access to HCPs only or are professional/clinical contexts, leaving significant gaps in the digital strategy.

The Digital Journey of HCPs

Research from M3 demonstrated that HCPs in the UK spend about 50% of their digital lives in a professional context. But what about that other 50%? Outside the US, white space starts to emerge for pharma marketers and their customers. This research alludes to the daily digital journey of an HCP and the importance of being present in both contexts, given the time split between professional and non-professional contexts.

Social Media has helped fill the gap, but regulations are strict. Pharma companies can’t communicate about brands with an HCP in a ‘public’ forum, especially with the capability to ‘like’, comment, and share/repost content, inadvertently expanding its reach beyond a clearly defined intended audience.

Programmatic Advertising in Europe

European Healthcare programmatic advertising has, until...