Customer relationship management (CRM) has seen great advances in recent years, as have the technologies and measurement tools that make it all an essential component of a marketing strategy. We are living in an age of ‘data'. Not only do we each individually have access to… Continue reading→

Large commercial brands throughout the world are acknowledging the role of social media amongst the ever-growing population of consumers that use the Internet for their information, work or pure entertainment. Many progressive companies are setting up dedicated teams assigned to the 'social media project', because… Continue reading→

The short answer is: "Nothing happened to good old viral marketing". It is still alive and well, albeit a little tattered from some failed attempts by major brands. It may not be in the spotlight quite so much, and is perhaps overshadowed by more 'trendy'… Continue reading→

Some years ago the importance of website accessibility came to the forefront when the Target corporation of the United States of America was sued by the US National Federation for the Blind (NFB). The issue was not that the website failed accessible standards, but that… Continue reading→

The United Kingdom's politicians have missed many opportunities created by new Internet phenomena such as social networking, according to various research papers in recent times. In spite of this, could it now be time for Members of Parliament and electoral candidates to harness the capabilities… Continue reading→

If you were to commission a new government office or commercial headquarters, you would not simply find the best construction company and then ask them to erect a building for you. Indeed even if the construction company was reputable and had a good track record of… Continue reading→

A lot of modern activity around online marketing and communications has become far too experimental - with no particular reason applied. Although in itself experimenting is not at all a bad thing, unless you have an appropriate methodology to accurately interpret the final data output… Continue reading→

This phrase is just one of those human communication oddities: normally a rhetorical question, perhaps thrown out idly in a dead conversation or even as a greeting. It's quite a strange thing to ask really, as more often than not, the answer is more complex… Continue reading→

Many leaders are bombarded with new buzz-words and ideas, as the popular media and the masses start to embrace the opportunities provided by the 'information age'. As each new trend finds a fan-base, pressure can start to mount externally and internally for these leaders to… Continue reading→

Picture the scene: An enthusiastic communications executive presents a report to the organisation's leadership team, and in a particularly favourable light explains how successful this new initiative has been. A few eyebrows are raised around the table, and various questions put forward about the impact… Continue reading→

Here is a simple truth. A pharmaceutical company needs to sell its products so that it can continue to operate profitably and fund activities such as ongoing research and development. As with any commercial organisation, customers are usually initially introduced to products via word of mouth,… Continue reading→

Marketing and communications departments, external agencies, senior management and the IT department within pharmaceutical companies, have somehow found some common language around which they can communicate. 'Hits', 'Visitors', 'Bounces', and 'Repeats' have been some of the so-called measures of an online success or failure. Yet… Continue reading→

Some marketing is sporadic and disjointed, with one activity seemingly completely disconnected from another - so much so, that for an interconnected world there is confusion about what the message and value proposition actually is. The 'net' effect (pun intended), is noise. Then there are those… Continue reading→

The 'current' pharmaceutical online

While it may seem that adverse event (AE) reporting is an obstacle to the take-up of social media by pharmaceuticals, it seems that in reality, there is very little cause for concern. Download this free whitelabel slideshow to use or customise for your internal presentations.… Continue reading→

Many leaders are bombarded with new buzz-words and ideas, as the popular media and the masses start to embrace the opportunities provided by the 'information age'. As each new trend finds a fan-base, pressure can start to mount externally and internally for these leaders to… Continue reading→

As healthcare and pharmaceutical communication rapidly adapts to changes in regulations and best practices, it is increasingly important to keep abreast of the latest news and events, along with general information sources - as soon as they are published on the Internet. You may already… Continue reading→

It could be a person at a party, or a taxi driver making casual conversation, or a friend of a friend. In any case, there is an opening question that we are all familiar with. “So what do you do for a living?”, I am… Continue reading→

At Healthcare Engagement Strategy 2010 in London, you will discover new insights about the winners of the Healthcare Engagement Strategy Awards 2010 and learn from the winning strategies. The Awards are the first of their kind, recognising the strategies, campaigns and people who have achieved real… Continue reading→

‘Engagement’ was a hot topic at the ePharma Summit, then again a few days later in New York where I presented the [intlink id="hes2010-winners" type="post"]award winning engagement strategies from the HES Awards[/intlink] at the Hilton Times Square. [Note: For our readers in Europe, we have an

The many self-professing ‘Social Media Gurus’ remind me of the heady days when I first began teaching students how to be a ‘WebMaster’ in the mid to late nineties. Back then, a salary of $150,000 for a WebMaster was a good possibility, even for a

During the 2010 ePharma Summit in Philadelphia, I used my time in between sessions to speak with a variety of pharmaceutical companies and pharmaceutical marketing consultants to interview them using a pocket Flip Ultra video camera (which I picked up at the airport as an… Continue reading→

Perhaps you noticed some of the confusion about return on investment (ROI) for social media and online initiatives in the past year. Certainly there has been a lot of conversation online and offline about what this actually is. In fact ROI is not at all… Continue reading→

There is no doubt that the pharmaceutical and healthcare industry is embracing and also seeking to understand the meaning of healthcare engagement in a digital world. On the 15th April 2010, communicators from a number of Europe-based organisations came together at the London Hilton to… Continue reading→

A little less than a year ago, I was collating a few ad-hoc statistics about the way that the Internet was being used to share private health information. At that time I particularly examined diabetes, a condition which when I was growing up was very… Continue reading→

In the past few years we have seen some societal and technological changes in the Western world that are enabling consumers to manage their own personal health records. Google Health and Microsoft’s HealthVault are some of the emerging platforms creating interesting new options for early… Continue reading→

There has been considerable discussion in recent times about ‘local’ versus ‘global’ engagement strategy, or whether there is some kind of mystical balance of the two. Earlier this year Creation Healthcare was pleased to facilitate seminars in New York and London with leading global pharmaceutical… Continue reading→

When thalidomide was launched as a sedative in the middle of last century, it was lauded as a “wonder drug” for insomnia, coughs, colds and headaches. Not only that, but it was discovered to be an effective antiemetic which had an inhibitory effect on morning sickness.… Continue reading→

Amongst the many stimulating sessions at the mHealth Conference and Expo in Dubai this month, Creation Healthcare took our usual approach of catching key thought leaders with the FlipHD camera. Whilst our own Daniel Ghinn prepared a [intlink id="mhealthdubai" type="post"]comprehensive report on the mHealth conference… Continue reading→

Regular readers of the Healthcare Engagement Strategy e-Journal may already be aware that Creation Healthcare was a participant in the recent mHealth Conference and Expo during September this year. In his article on the impact of [intlink id="mhealthdubai" type="post"]mHealth for pharmaceutical companies[/intlink], Daniel Ghinn explores the… Continue reading→

Creation Healthcare presented new insights into adverse drug reactions mentioned on the world wide web at the DigiPharm Europe 2010 Conference during September .

FULL Research and Insights Report NOW AVAILABLE...

Every once in a while I gain the slightest 'glimpse of the horizon' of emerging channels and technology platforms for healthcare and the pharmaceutical industry. It can be quite hard to really know what the future holds, and which of the many innovations will make… Continue reading→

In early March 2011, at a pharmaceutical marketing conference in Munich, Heather Simmonds of the PMCPA gave very much the same perspective on UK and European regulatory guidelines that she has for the past few years. There were some murmurings amongst the crowd from those… Continue reading→

It was ironically only a couple of weeks ago that Creation Healthcare published a piece about “Healthcare engagement in the absence of regulatory guidance”. In that article, I made the point that “specific social media guidance cannot keep pace with change”, and more importantly that… Continue reading→

Creation Healthcare’s Elite Global Forum was conceived to be a no-nonsense, no-limits, global think tank. Since that time, several informal discussions have been taking place around the globe in which professionals from pharmaceutical, hospital, government and not-for-profit organizations challenge each other, share ideas, and look to… Continue reading→

If you have heard a lot of talk about 'social media' that is because it is a niche type of platform mostly used by the 'technologically savvy' but which is making its way into the mainstream and impacting on big brands and government. Indeed it can… Continue reading→

Once upon a time a little website known as 'Friends Reunited' swept the world with the promise of hooking up with old flames, or finding those lost school friends and having a reunion. Then came a gamut of others including 'MySpace', 'FaceBook', 'Bebo', 'Orkut', and 'LinkedIn'… Continue reading→

There are so many emerging social networking tools for the integrated citizen of the future that it is easy to succumb to the natural response of 'future shock' and simply disregard them as fads that will pass away. Surprisingly some of these tools are also establishing… Continue reading→

In the second video instalment from the Elite Global Forum series, we hear about the nature of two-way engagement and some of the expectations of so-called 'e-Patients' (empowered patients). Whilst there is still some debate about the appropriate use of social media for communications, particularly by pharmaceutical… Continue reading→

No one wants to be wrong; ever. As much as there are trendy business mantras such as ‘Fail Fast’ which apparently encourage failure (as long as you learn quickly), it somehow just doesn’t translate to the world of a pharmaceutical company. In fact, ‘fail-fast’ is really… Continue reading→

Few could have predicted the way in which the Internet has changed the dynamic of relationships amongst healthcare stakeholders. For the pharmaceutical industry, it seems there is an opportunity to also play a role in the many online relationships which are made possible by the… Continue reading→

During August 2011, the European Medicines Agency (EMA) made an announcement that they intend to open to the public the information that is currently held in their EudraVigilance and EudraVigilance Veterinary databases. Since launching in 2001, EudraVigilance has provided a mechanism for a variety of stakeholders to report… Continue reading→

This month, several passionate digital strategists convened on Brighton – in spite of the looming and blustering tail of Hurricane Irene blowing in hard from the south of England. My colleague Marie-Claire Wilson has commented on the day itself, however a highlight for me was my… Continue reading→

With some interest, I have been following the Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry (ABPI) innovation project looking at ‘Real World Data’. Just this month the ABPI launched its ‘Vision for Real World data’. One of the key drivers for the ABPIs project team overseeing this project… Continue reading→

There is no question that free and easy access to information has transformed the world of the patient, and of the healthcare professional. Even so, there exists a health divide for those who do not have English as a second language. In a DIA Clinical Forum meeting of… Continue reading→

For many years, and in various presentations by others, I have heard reference to Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs. It is a reasonably sound, but certainly high-level descriptor of the underlying drivers which may influence human decisions and behaviour at any given point in time. In… Continue reading→

Whilst the on-going battle of opinion has continued for some time with arguments for and against ‘specific’ guidance on social media in the pharmaceutical industry, some communicators have used this as an excuse to stay away from new and emerging channels altogether. I personally keep… Continue reading→

Those that have been subscribers of the Healthcare Engagement Strategy e-Journal for some time will know that Creation Healthcare has a particular interest in staying abreast of the latest developments in monitoring and analysis of online conversations. Back in November 2010, we were horizon scanning… Continue reading→

A lot of modern activity around online marketing and communications has become far too experimental - with no particular reason applied. Although in itself experimenting is not at all a bad thing, unless you have an appropriate methodology to accurately interpret the final data output… Continue reading→

This phrase is just one of those human communication oddities: normally a rhetorical question, perhaps thrown out idly in a dead conversation or even as a greeting. It's quite a strange thing to ask really, as more often than not, the answer is more complex… Continue reading→

Many leaders are bombarded with new buzz-words and ideas, as the popular media and the masses start to embrace the opportunities provided by the 'information age'. As each new trend finds a fan-base, pressure can start to mount externally and internally for these leaders to… Continue reading→

Picture the scene: An enthusiastic communications executive presents a report to the organisation's leadership team, and in a particularly favourable light explains how successful this new initiative has been. A few eyebrows are raised around the table, and various questions put forward about the impact… Continue reading→

Here is a simple truth. A pharmaceutical company needs to sell its products so that it can continue to operate profitably and fund activities such as ongoing research and development. As with any commercial organisation, customers are usually initially introduced to products via word of mouth,… Continue reading→

Marketing and communications departments, external agencies, senior management and the IT department within pharmaceutical companies, have somehow found some common language around which they can communicate. 'Hits', 'Visitors', 'Bounces', and 'Repeats' have been some of the so-called measures of an online success or failure. Yet… Continue reading→

Some marketing is sporadic and disjointed, with one activity seemingly completely disconnected from another - so much so, that for an interconnected world there is confusion about what the message and value proposition actually is. The 'net' effect (pun intended), is noise. Then there are those… Continue reading→

The 'current' pharmaceutical online

While it may seem that adverse event (AE) reporting is an obstacle to the take-up of social media by pharmaceuticals, it seems that in reality, there is very little cause for concern. Download this free whitelabel slideshow to use or customise for your internal presentations.… Continue reading→

As healthcare and pharmaceutical communication rapidly adapts to changes in regulations and best practices, it is increasingly important to keep abreast of the latest news and events, along with general information sources - as soon as they are published on the Internet. You may already… Continue reading→

It could be a person at a party, or a taxi driver making casual conversation, or a friend of a friend. In any case, there is an opening question that we are all familiar with. “So what do you do for a living?”, I am… Continue reading→

For quite a long time, the majority of people have used websites blissfully unaware of the level to which their online habits could be used to develop a profile by advertisers, companies and governments; information which might be the basis of targeting with customised messages… Continue reading→

‘Engagement’ was a hot topic at the ePharma Summit, then again a few days later in New York where I presented the [intlink id="hes2010-winners" type="post"]award winning engagement strategies from the HES Awards[/intlink] at the Hilton Times Square. [Note: For our readers in Europe, we have an

The many self-professing ‘Social Media Gurus’ remind me of the heady days when I first began teaching students how to be a ‘WebMaster’ in the mid to late nineties. Back then, a salary of $150,000 for a WebMaster was a good possibility, even for a

During the 2010 ePharma Summit in Philadelphia, I used my time in between sessions to speak with a variety of pharmaceutical companies and pharmaceutical marketing consultants to interview them using a pocket Flip Ultra video camera (which I picked up at the airport as an… Continue reading→

At Healthcare Engagement Strategy 2010 in London, you will discover new insights about the winners of the Healthcare Engagement Strategy Awards 2010 and learn from the winning strategies. The Awards are the first of their kind, recognising the strategies, campaigns and people who have achieved real… Continue reading→