In its 4th edition Jacob Fleming’s annual flagship event on Achieving Pharma Marketing Excellence gathered worldwide marketing experts in Catalonia’s main city of Barcelona. The Mediterranean coastline was shining in mild January weather on 15th and 16th January 2008 as professionals from leading pharmaceutical companies exchanged their knowledge and viewpoints on the latest trends for maximizing product value through an innovative marketing mix and best strategies. The proactive delegates engaged in interesting discussions during sessions that provided a true learning experience for each and everyone. Many networking opportunities contributed to the enriching learning atmosphere.
Day 1 divided into two Streams was moderated by two excellent chairpersons - Amit Makwana of Astellas UK leading through Stream 1 focusing on best practices in "Targeting and Engaging with customer groups to bolster Marketing ROI" while Fabienne Vanderpoel of Merck-Serono Germany chaired Stream 2 discussing "product life cycle and branding optimizations".
The day started off with a keynote presentation by Ian Talmage, Senior Vice President Global Strategic Marketing at Bayer Schering. He successfully set the scene for the conference by giving an overview on how strategies of maximizing the lifetime value of global healthcare brands evolved over past decades and how they are most performing in the current times. Amit Makwana of Astellas then gave an interesting insight on marketing strategies that generate a robust sales performance. After networking coffee break the audience split in two groups. Fred Schaebsdau, Director for Global Strategic Marketing at Abbott started off in Stream 1 by providing an expert understanding of how to best target and segment Key Customer Groups. His speech was followed by Janssen-Cilag’s Executive Director of CRM Bart Vannieuwenhuyse presenting a Case Study on an integrated Closed Loop Marketing approach leveraging marketing and sales performance.
Meanwhile Stream 2 saw Fabienne Vanderpoel, Head of the Global Marketing Office at Merck-Serono, proficiently describing the key factors for successful product launches. Verena Jaschke, European Head of Marketing at Bayer Schering provided an interactive case study on a product from her portfolio in the company’s Women Healthcare Business.
The afternoon session in Stream 1 started off with a presentation by Ramon Guitart of Novartis on Marketing ROI followed by two speeches focusing on the Patients, the ultimate customers of healthcare businesses. Stephen McMahon from the Irish Patients Association and Board Member of the IAPO provided the perspective from a Patient Advocacy Group and thus described the patients’ expectations and needs regarding pharma companies’ communication and information. Keith Allan, Global Head of Advocacy at Novartis Headquarters, further explained how his company excels in creating mutual value through partnerships with Patient Groups.
The afternoon in Stream 2 focused on product life cycle management, the mature stage of brands faced by patent expiries as well as e-marketing tools accompanying a product through its life span. Michael Thiel, Vice President for Strategic Marketing and Business development illustrated how in his company Daiichi Sankyo product life cycles are optimized through cross-functional life cycle teams. Nicolas Nemery, Senior Vice President of Commercial Operations at the dynamic Lundbeck spin-off LifeCycle Pharma, depicted how brand equity can be maximized by extensions when facing patent expiry. Last but not least Stream 2 saw an insightful presentation by Veronica Johow, Head of e-marketing operations in AstraZeneca Italy, on how a brand is adeptly reinforced by effective e-marketing activities throughout its life cycle.
At the close of the official program the reassembled audience had the chance to engage with all speakers of the day in an interactive Q&A session before listening to the presentation by the Spanish Branding consultancy agency Emote.
At the evening cocktail reception speakers and delegates re-captured the day in a casual atmosphere followed by a delicious dinner in the Hotel restaurant where the networking continued until the late hours.
Day 2 opened with a keynote presentation by the renowned Pharma Marketing Professor Reinhard Angelmar of INSEAD France. From an academic standpoint he revealed to the industry professionals how to effectively prevent and react to a Product Safety Crisis in order to avoid a major corporate crisis.
The last conference block focused on innovative new media marketing channels that go beyond classic e-Detailing. Craig DeLarge, Associate Director of e-Marketing at NovoNordisk US captivated the audience with his case study on the opportunities and risks for the Web 2.0 era for pharma marketing. Erik van der Zijden Co-Founder and Creative Partner of the new media company DigiRedo was delivering an insightful and entertaining presentation on how his company engages the audience with new media tools. As a last speaker Eli Lilly’s Marketing and Sales Innovation Manager Nicolas Weber proficiently demonstrated how to counter the 3 best ways to fail in e-Detailing.
At the close of the conference an expert panel consisting of e-Marketing experts from NovoNordisk, AstraZeneca, Novartis, Eli Lilly, and DigiRedo stated their opinions on the do’s & don’ts when getting started in Web 2.0 and engaging in new media channels - especially so as the audience had many questions regarding the collaborative nature of these new tools and the potential of regulatory risks when including them in the marketing mix of the future. This discussion will certainly continue over new media tools and will be picked up latest at next year’s event.
And as in the opinion of one participant “some presentations truly pushed boundaries” we hope that all participants returned home with a lot of useful ideas on how to optimize their marketing mix and strategy in their office.
We are preparing our 5th Annual Achieving Pharma Marketing Excellence for early 2009. Do not miss the opportunity to join us there!
Samuel Leisner
International Project Leader - Life Sciences
Jacob Fleming Group
