Praful Akali, Managing Director, Medulla Communications India, was recently part of a panel discussion during the Veeva APAC 2022 Summit. He gave his views on – ‘Marketing in the Digital Age – Barriers, Opportunities & Capabilities.’ Alongside prominent names in the pharma industry Anirban Dutta Chowdhury, Director & Lead – Global Content Operations, MSD, and Arpita Bhawal, Director, RR Donnelley.
The focus was mainly on how Marketing has evolved in the Digital Age and what lies ahead for us. They spoke about:
- The increase of digital channels and the need for multiple narratives for brand content across channels
- What does content innovation mean for brand managers?
- Post covid, HCP communication content has moved from sharing journey-driven content to decision-driven content
- HCPs today are more digital native – and we have multiple pieces of literature stating that they prefer to engage in a Hybrid mode.
- Between the hybrid of a classic field force representative & the digital representative – what happens with the content now?
Praful Akali ended with a prolific statement for pharma marketing audiences – “For years now, I have heard pharma marketing professionals lament that the focus on marketing is moving away from the industry; or that regulatory, commercial, IT, medical and other teams play such a large role that I struggle to pull it together for a marketing plan. Interestingly, for omnichannel content, the focus is squarely on customer journeys, which is the marketing team’s responsibility. While this adds responsibility to marketing teams, it is also a chance to prove ourselves and help our brands reach their potential more efficiently than ever before.”
