Pharma companies ‘using more in-house digital teams’
pharmafile | August 7, 2015 | News story | Medical Communications | Med Comms, advertising, agencies, branding, communications, medical communications, social media
Fewer pharma companies are moving away from using external agencies for their digital marketing, a US survey has found.
A study from the US-based Society of Digital Agencies found that “the percentage of clients taking full responsibility for digital efforts at their companies grew significantly” year on year.
Their study found that 27% of marketers said their brands – including pharma companies and others – don’t work with outside agencies for digital marketing, whereas 13% said they used in-house teams in 2014. Some 28% said they now do all digital marketing in-house, with 14% planning to decrease marketing spending with digital agencies this year.
In a separate article published in the Harvard Business Review, marketing consultant and author Mark Schaefer asked companies, including several pharma firms, about their marketing and communication strategies.
His interviews revealed several common themes behind the growing shift from communications agencies to in-house teams:
- Agencies are slow to compete in the lightning-fast digital space
- Agencies have been too slow to adjust to fast-changing industry needs
- Continuity has become more important than campaigns
- Companies no longer want to outsource relationships with their customers
- Companies want to own the data from customer insights
- Question marks over whether agencies attracting the best digital marketing talent.
Commenting on the findings, Schaefer says the change in attitude is “a matter of value, customer responsiveness, and a general inability of agencies to break through decades of organisational history to respond to fast-changing needs.”
He pointed to companies’ increasing use of social media channels is also helping to drive the shift away from agencies, although the pharma is still far behind the progress made in others industries.
“By far the biggest reason pharma is generally behind on social [media] is due to regulatory concerns. However, this is starting to change,” he says. “Companies are recognising that for many people, social channels are a primary source of information and they are finding ways to connect in small but important ways.
“I don’t think there is any doubt that this rate of change simply must accelerate. The FDA has not been too helpful in this space, so the companies have to figure this out on their own and apply the resources necessary to join the rest of the world. I believe the companies that step out and establish a competency in this space will flourish, especially now when brand-building and trust is so important for business success.”
Lilian Anekwe
Related Content
Twitter launches new initiative to direct users towards credible information on vaccines
Twitter will now present users with a pinned tweet directing them towards reliable information on …
FDA issued the fewest warnings over pharma advertising this year since 1997
Throughout 2017, it has emerged that the FDA has issued a record low number of …
