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Healthy Skepticism Library item: 19744

Warning: This library includes all items relevant to health product marketing that we are aware of regardless of quality. Often we do not agree with all or part of the contents.

 

Publication type: news

Jones J
Medical Publishing: Part 3
PMLive.com 2002


Full text:

Sponsored publications

Whatever your product and audience, the greatest influence on a product’s brand image is published material. As with other effective medical education materials, sponsored publications have a crucial role to play in the marketing of pharmaceutical products. They provide an effective means of communicating messages to healthcare professionals and can be the perfect partner to other brand activities.

The beauty of sponsored publications is that they can be far more readily embraced by the target audience than other forms of promotion while allowing you to maintain a high level of control. Control, however, does not equate with effectiveness and to achieve maximum impact, the sponsored journal should score highly in two areas – simplicity and subtlety.

Sponsored publications are designed to transmit educational messages not to promote products and the best way to get such messages over to healthcare professionals is through healthcare professionals. For customers to read a sponsored journal, it must be credible and that means an independent and authoritative editorial board.

There are two reasons for communicating messages via healthcare professionals are twofold. Firstly there are scientists with a genuine interest in developments in medicine and who want to examine the data for themselves. No matter how much a publicity a product may have generated, clinicians are interested in the science behind it and its relevance to the practice of medicine.

Secondly, doctors respect the word of their peers. They are trained to believe that the publication of articles is an important facet to medical life and perhaps the most genuine communication of clinical messages. This does not always mean that published papers are greeted with enthusiasm time after time, but they are treated with respect and read.

Pros and Cons of long-term sponsored publications
Advantages
Control
Integration with other activites
Involvement with KOLs
Effective customer focus
Consistency of message

Disadvantages
Credibility compared to review journal
Major investment
Strategic rather than tactical
Long-term commitment required
Timings fixed and inflexible

What’s out there?
While established journals published by large independent publishing companies exist, many only thrive if they can attract a good number of subscriptions, attract advertising (again linked to circulation) or are underwritten by sponsoring companies. This results in gaps in the publishing market, providing a smart pharma company with excellent opportunities to reach key customers with targeted messages.

Sponsored publications vary widely but can be divided into two categories based on their frequency: long-term publications and one-off publications. The choice of which to get involved with depends on the extent of the messages to convey and your budget!

Clinician editors believe that long-term sponsored publications are particularly effective for the management of chronic diseases where the company is seen as a ‘care company’ with commitments to support both healthcare professionals and patients on a long-term basis.

One clinician editor believes that in disease areas with many ‘me-too’ products, the company which supports medical education, such as a sponsored publication, will have a higher profile with its target audience. When faced with such a prescribing decision, customers often select the product of the manufacturer they most trust.

How does it work?
The most important element to decide is who the target audience is and what is the most effective means of reaching them. Strong partnerships with leading clinicians are essential and it is vital that the agency delivering the message understand their audience, and provide the information they require in the most appropriate manner.

Don’t forget that sponsored publications also provide space for direct advertising, so promoting both products and meeting information to target audiences. It can also be extremely useful to sales reps in gaining access to healthcare professionals.

The editorial content, the design, the medium, frequency and distribution are all led by what the publication is meant to do. This sounds obvious but is often forgotten.

The next step is to set up the objectives. A sponsored publication will be part of a marketing campaign and the objectives should integrate with the other mix of activities. Specific obectives depend on market, product, competition, key messages, target audience, time frame and budget.

A major advantage of a sponsored title is the control over the target audience and distribution. Knowing who is going to read the publication and how they are going to receive it makes life easier when it comes to measuring success against objectives.

Work closely with your med-ed agency to develop these objectives as they will be responsible for making them happen. Setting objectives for the publication is one thing but there must be an identified need for the information among your audience. Thorough market research is vital.

The publication may contain the most recent and relevant data available but if it clashes with a conference, competitor publication or is targeted to the wrong audience then it is a waste of time and money.

Research must be accounted for in the project’s budget and should be done before, during (depending on the frequency of the publication) and after the activity. If a medical education company is being used they should work closely with the sponsor to ensure this is done. The golden rule of market research is to react to what it reveals. Plans must be flexible.

Why publish?
Dissemination of key data
Market shaping for pipeline drug
Consolidation of position of brand
Sales aid for medical reps
Association with patient groups/NGOs
Support for conferences or exhibitions
Developing relationships with KOLs
Raising the profile of key personnel

Creating your publication
Who actually writes the publication depends on its purpose and its objectives. If it is a quick report from a conference, then it should be medical journalists who can guarantee the message is on brief, on time and on budget. If it is a long-term journal, an editorial board should be set up of key opinion leaders chosen for their influence and respect by peers. Here, an editorial resource becomes invaluable.

Inevitably, there is a balance to be had between the control over the content and the perceived quality of the information. An important aspect of publishing is getting your key messages to your target audience on time. Here are some basic rules:

  • Realistic timelines must be set with key stages of production well in advance
  • Late article delivery or problems with contributors should be planned for
  • The company internal approval policy and availability of approvers established
  • Circulation should be defined in advance including advance copies
  • Policy on dealing with late arrivals or articles of poor quality should be set out
  • Budget expectations, limitations and exclusions must be defined. your target audience

Having spent time and money planning a publication that matches the needs of an audience with your marketing plan, it is easy to spoil it with distribution. There are several routes to the readers and all have their advantages and disadvantages.

  • Direct mailing from own database or third party mailing house.
  • Distribution via field force
  • At shows, meetings conferences
  • Through association or charity
  • Via established journal
  • Via the web

The aim of all publishing should be to develop a dialogue with the customer, to let them know they are being listened to and care about and this is where the power of sponsored publishing comes into its own. Often, investing in customers focus will result in spin-off projects, better circulation, new business opportunities and, above all increase the likelihood of hitting marketing objectives.

With sponsored long-term journals, a big slice of budget is often spent on setting up an editorial board or advisory panel. If true customer focus is important to the project, budget should be set aside for the recruitment and management of a readers’ forum.

Managed feedback from interested readers serves to keep the journal on message and relevant and can also provide the sponsor’s marketing or sales team with a valuable face-to-face meeting with an influential group. Although a established journal enjoys a greater level of reader interaction, there is no reason why a supplement or conference report should not encourage feedback via publication or website.

Research is essential
Before publication:

  • What other publications are available to the target audience?
  • What are the strengths and weaknesses of the competition?
  • Is there a need for this information?
  • Which KOLs are respected in this area?
  • What format would readers prefer?
  • Will the audience receive via the web?
  • What do the KOLs believe is needed?

During the publication:

  • Is the publication reaching/being read by the right people?
  • Is the information being understood?
  • Would changes benefit the reader?
  • Is the publication on target?

After the publication:

  • Did the publication hit set objectives?
  • Was the format the right one?
  • Is follow-up information needed?
  • Are there opportunities for more projects in this area?

Has it worked?
If SMART objectives were established at the outset, the measurements will speak for themselves. Naturally, the indicators depend on what the objectives were and over what time period the project was run. Below are a selection of the most commonly used indicators:

  • Requests for registration/subscription
  • Reader feedback via questionnaires
  • Reader feedback via field force
  • References made to the publication
  • Links to the publication website
  • Traffic on publication website
  • Discussion forums entered and used
  • Recruitment of reader forums
  • Readership surveys
  • Requests of re-prints for conferences

These are only indicators and the correct processes will have to be in place to measure them against the set objectives. If the power of a sponsored publication is harnessed correctly it can have a disproportional effect on the success of your marketing campaign.

Get the balance of control and perception wrong and the sponsor will have a tough time repairing the damage. Get it right and the sponsor will enjoy a valuable dialogue with its customer and earn the respect of the key opinion leaders of today and of tomorrow.

 

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