Dice Quarterly 2

Issue. 02

ALEA (Al-ee-ah)

A quarterly perspective on pharma June 2021

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Carefully curated by

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A quarterly perspective on pharma

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CONTRIBUTORS SANDRA LAIRD Director – Medical Education & Market Access ROB WILSON Creative Director SARAH BROOKS Manager – Data Analytics LOUISE KNAPP Client Services Director JEN JAMES Senior Medical Writer MITS MISTRY Designer and Developer MATTHEW DICKINSON Managing Director WINNIE McFADZEAN Senior Medical Writer MATTHEW BAKER Senior Account Executive JAMES PAUL Art Director PAV VILKHU Account Manager

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EDITOR’S LETTER................................................................................................ 4 An intro from Matthew Dickinson.

WHAT’S HAPPENING AT DICE?......................................................................... 6

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Meet the new graduates who have joined our team.

DEMENTIA - TIME TO MATCH FACTS WITH FUNDING................................ 10 Why we must close the funding gap for dementia.

TOWARDS BETTER HCP ENGAGEMENT.......................................................... 15 An email masterclass for pharma brands.

SUCCESS HAS MANY FATHERS......................................................................... 19 How do we explain the vilification of pharma?

THERE’S COMFORT IN CONSISTENCY............................................................. 22 Thinking about a brand refresh? Think again.

WORD OF THE QUARTER................................................................................... 24 What is a ‘variant of concern’?

WHY TESTING SHOULDN’T BE CONFINED TO THE LAB.............................. 25 The power of experimentation in marketing.

THE POWER OF IMAGERY.................................................................................. 30 Photos that define the past quarter.

THE RIPPLES & THE TSUNAMI.......................................................................... 36 What does the long-term impact of Covid look like?

CONVERSION CLINIC......................................................................................... 39 How to get your landing pages performing.

THE ALEA INTERVIEW........................................................................................ 42 With Pav Vilkhu, Account Manager at Dice.

COULD I HAVE A WORD PLEASE?.................................................................... 46 A copy change can make all the difference.

WHAT DO WE REALLY VALUE AS A SOCIETY?................................................ 50

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How attitudes are shaping healthcare priorities.

A PLATFORM FOR CHANGE.............................................................................. 54 Are pharma brands making the most of social media?

THE LAST WORD................................................................................................. 58 Shining a light on another vaccination success story.

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ISSUE 02 – CONTENTS

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EDITOR’S LETTER

Welcome to Alea – a quarterly take on pharma and marketing from the Dice team.

At Dice Medical Communications, we’re passionate believers in the pharma industry and the work every one of our clients is doing to improve the lives of people living with an unmet medical need. We play our small part by helping brands realise the ambitions of the scientists and engineers that created them – and the idea behind Alea is to offer some independent and thought-provoking opinion to help us all go about our work with renewed enthusiasm and perhaps greater skill.

This is the second edition, and for those that enjoyed the first, we hope this answers some of your requests, particularly around marketing lessons from outside pharma and how they can be applied. We launched Alea this year in a printed format on the insight that we’re all over-burdened by screen time. That said, all of the content here is available online and you can share content with colleagues or reach out to the authors directly. We welcome discussion.

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This quarter we focus on some lessons from outside of pharma, particularly in digital channels; opinion pieces on where the industry is headed and how to maximise our effectiveness; discussions on the power of creativity and copy; and some more insights into the Dice team behind all of our work. As always, the goal is to provide some intellectual stimulation and debate is always embraced with open arms. If, in the smallest possible way, we can positively inspire those within our industry, challenge existing thinking and push our sector forwards, then Alea will be a success.

And I reiterate from the last edition: this is not designed as a news feed of pharma. We all receive those emails on a daily basis. We’d love to have your input, recommendations for articles, or just simply to chat through your challenges and how we can help.

Alea – a game of chance/dice. Enjoy.

Matthew Dickinson Managing Director matthew@dice-comms.co.uk

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What’s Happening

AT DICE? Here at Dice, we love giving graduates an opportunity to carve out careers within the medcomms industry. We have recently hired three new grads, all of whom bring their own unique talent to the team. Let’s meet them...

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GEORGIE CORNISH – JUNIOR DESIGNER Georgie joins Dice having graduated with a degree in Graphic Design from the University of Arts in 2020. With her creative and altruistic spirit, it’s safe to say she’s fitted right in. “I have always been drawn to creative roles and being able to help people in some way,” she says. “That’s why I was drawn to this job in particular, as it merges the two quite well.”

As Georgie explains, this passion for creativity developed at an early age. “I was the child who did the drawings that go on the fridge”, she adds. “If there were any courses I could take when I was younger, I’d jump at the opportunity.”

Meanwhile, her interest in pharma was sparked during university. “One of my lecturers did an exhibition at the Wellcome Collection in London entitled ‘Can Graphic Design Save Your

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Life?’”, says Georgie. “It was all about the role of graphic design in medical communications. I dug deeper and discovered there are companies (like Dice) that design for pharma brands.”

Now three months into life at Dice, Georgie is thriving alongside her fellow team members. “Working with the studio team has been amazing – I’ve already learned so much,” she says. “The culture is better than I could have hoped for, especially during a pandemic. It’s great to be back in the office now; everyone is very supportive and just as nice as they were on video!”

So, what does Georgie’s life look like outside of Dice? “I really got into breadbaking during lockdown, like everyone,” she says. “I can make a great focaccia loaf now.” Hopefully the team will have a chance to sample it soon...

I have always been drawn to creative roles and being able to help people in some way.

GEORGIE CORNISH

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The role at Dice just fell into my lap and fitted perfectly.

EDDIE AYEH

EDDIE AYEH – ACCOUNT EXECUTIVE With a degree in Cognitive Neuroscience and Psychology under his belt, it’s easy to see why Eddie was drawn to a career in medical communications. “After university, I was looking for something that linked my chosen field with the market research and communication skills I’d developed during my final year,” says Eddie. “The role at Dice just fell into my lap and fitted perfectly.”

Eddie’s interest in neuroscience and psychology stemmed from a desire to “understand, at a base level, why we act in the way we do, why we have a moral compass to help people, and how a lot of our actions can be manipulated by our environment, genetics and other factors.”

His own moral compass (along with that degree) also pointed him in our direction. “In medcomms, you’re not only helping clients bring their vision to life, but you’re also indirectly helping people

as multiple sclerosis (MS) and spinal muscular atrophy (SMA), as well as talking to people from different backgrounds.

Prior to joining Dice, I had to speak to people about their experiences of Covid and how it affected them.”

As an Account Executive, Eddie is using every ounce of his attention to detail, analytical and personal skills to dissect client needs and communicate them clearly to the relevant team within Dice.

He enjoys the responsibility that comes with the role, as well as the comfort of having people to lean on every day.

“Everyone is happy to help you fit in, which gives you confidence to be independent,” he says. “There is a really tight-knit team here.”

Sport dominates Eddie’s life beyond Dice. He has played county rugby for Middlesex, but is also into basketball and football, supporting the Milwaukee Bucks

with an unmet medical need,” he says.

“I am quite familiar with conditions such

and Arsenal respectively.

WHAT’S HAPPENING AT DICE?

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SIMRAN KAUR – ASSOCIATE MEDICAL WRITER

Each day, I can be looking at a different disease area that I didn’t know anything about. That’s a lot of fun.

SIMRAN KAUR

Science has always been Simran’s calling, or more specifically a search for meaning. “There is always an answer, a cause, a solution,” she says. “When I was younger I always had a book in my hand – a colouring book, reading book, anything.”

When it came to higher education, she leant towards biomedicine, completing an undergraduate degree at the University of Kent. “I liked biology and chemistry but preferred biology, so didn’t want to do biochem,” she explains. From there, it was a master’s in Medical Biotechnology and Business Management at the University of Warwick.

Simran discovered medical writing when researching career opportunities.

With no inclination to be a scientist in the traditional sense, she jumped at the opportunity. “I was very adamant I didn’t want a lab job, so this felt like the perfect job for me,” she says. “I wanted to carry on in science and learn more about new treatments and therapies.”

Rare diseases is a particular area of

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WHAT’S HAPPENING AT DICE?

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interest for Simran – as it is for Dice.

“There isn’t much awareness of rare diseases, so it’s really interesting being part of the process to help raise that awareness.” The sheer number of rare diseases lends itself to a varied workload, something that Simran relishes. “Each day, I can be looking at a different disease area that I didn’t know anything about.

That’s a lot of fun.”

Over the past four months, she has truly embraced the culture at Dice. “It’s so welcoming and supportive,” she says.

“People pull questions out of me even if I don’t have any. I love it!”

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Looking to pursue a career in medcomms?

We’re always open to expanding our team, so please send a CV to matthew@dice-comms.co.uk and we’ll be in touch if the right opportunity comes along.

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Meditrends Insights

DEMENTIA – TIME TO MATCH FACTS WITH FUNDING Written by SARAH BROOKS Manager – Data Analytics

The latest stats around dementia show why it’s essential to level the funding playing field.

The NHS defines dementia as “a syndrome (a group of related symptoms) associated with an ongoing decline of brain function”.

Alzheimer’s Research UK provides further clarity, as follows: “Alzheimer’s and dementia are two words often used interchangeably, but in fact they are not the same thing.

“Dementia is not a disease in itself, but a word used to describe a group of symptoms that occur when brain cells stop working properly, notably memory loss and problems with communication and orientation.

“The symptoms a person with dementia experiences are caused by the disease that is affecting their brain. You can describe dementia as a ‘condition’ but not as a ‘disease’.”

WHICH DISEASES CAUSE DEMENTIA? Alzheimer’s disease is the most common disease that causes dementia. Other diseases that cause dementia include: Vascular dementia Dementia with Lewy Bodies (DLB) Frontotemporal dementia (FTD) DEMENTIA INSIGHTS FROM MEDITRENDS Meditrends is Dice’s business intelligence platform, which provides valuable insights from aggregated and anonymised Hospital Episode Statistics (HES) data.

We can see from the inpatient data presented in Meditrends that year on year, more people are being admitted to hospital with dementia in the primary*, secondary** and any*** diagnosis position, although the global Covid-19 pandemic has impacted hospital activity in 2020.

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1ST ADMISSIONS

The NHS states that one in 14 people over the age of 65 have dementia, and the condition affects one in six people over 80.

meditrends Admissions

Patients

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Elective Admissions

Day Care Admissions

Non-Elective Admissions

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HOSPITAL ADMISSIONS The graph on the right looks at primary admissions for dementia and shows us that in 2019 there were 48,350 primary dementia admissions. 2020 saw 39,650 primary admissions.

The majority of dementia admissions are non-elective (unplanned/emergency admissions), and this applies when dementia is in primary, secondary or any diagnosis position:

Thousands

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30

20

10

0

Oct-17

Oct-16

For patients with a primary diagnosis of dementia there were:

Admissions

Patients with dementia are generating a very high level of hospital activity, especially when we look at patients admitted to hospital with dementia in any diagnosis position.

Elective Admissions

Day Care Admissions

Non-Elective Admissions

600

Thousands

- 5 36,210 non-elective admissions in 2019 - 4 41,825 non-elective admissions in 2020

Patients

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800

When we look at dementia in any diagnosis position we can see (as shown on the graph to the right):

Oct-20

ALL ADMISSIONS

meditrends

- 4 5,640 non-elective admissions in 2019 - 3 7,895 non-elective admissions in 2020

Oct-19

Oct-18

400

200

0 Oct-16

Oct-17

Oct-18

Oct-19

Oct-20

*Primary diagnosis position/primary admissions: The diagnosis that is the main cause/reason for admission. **Secondary diagnosis position/secondary admissions: Secondary diagnoses are conditions that coexist at the time of admission, that develop subsequently, or that affect the treatment received and/or length of stay.

These diagnoses are vital to documentation and have the potential to impact a patient’s severity of illness and risk of mortality. Up to 20 secondary diagnoses can be recorded per admission *** Any diagnosis position: Any diagnosis position means that the diagnosis of interest has been listed as either the primary diagnosis or one of up to 20 secondary diagnoses.

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DEMENTIA - TIME TO MATCH FACTS WITH FUNDING

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meditrends

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Code

Description

MAT, 2 Dx, 1 Admission: Admission Count

110X

Essential (primary) hypertension

21,235

R296

Tendency to fall, not elsewhere classified

11,420

Z115

Special screening examination for other viral diseases

11,245

1489

Atrial fibrillation and atrial flutter, unspecified

9,190

E119

Type 2 Diabetes mellitus: Without complications

8,375

Z501

Other physical therapy

8,195

Z921

Personal history of long-term (current) use of anticoagulants

7,200

N390

Urinary tract infection, site not specified

7,165

Z867

Personal history of diseases of the circulatory system

7,105

K590

Constipation

6,985

I678

Other specified cerebrovascular diseases

6,840

Z507

Occupational therapy and vocational rehabilitation, not elsewhere classified

6,450

N179

Acute renal failure, unspecified

5,715

R54X

Senility

5,595

F009

Dermentia in Alzheimer disease, unspecified

5,210

I259

Chronic ischaemic heart disease, unspecified

5,045

CO-MORBIDITIES The co-morbidities report in Meditrends allows us to determine the conditions/ co-morbidities that patients with dementia in any diagnosis position are being admitted for.

We can see from the table above that ‘essential (primary) hypertension’ is the most common co-morbidity among those admitted with dementia in any diagnosis position, with 21,235 admissions in the 12 months up to October 2020. This is followed by ‘tendency to fall’, with 11,420 admissions in the 12 months up to October 2020.

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THE COST OF TREATING DEMENTIA PATIENTS ADMITTED TO HOSPITAL The cost of treating patients with a primary diagnosis was £122,030,000 in 2019 and £74,828,000 in 2020.

When we look at costs associated with patients admitted with dementia in any diagnosis position, the costs are even higher, due to the large number of patients in this cohort, as detailed above, and the complexity of the treatment that they require.

In 2019 the cost of treating patients with dementia in any diagnosis position was £2,145,134,000. In 2020 this cost reduced to £1,421,075,000, probably as a result of decreased hospital admissions due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

DEMENTIA - TIME TO MATCH FACTS WITH FUNDING

If we don’t address how dementia is understood, researched, diagnosed and treated, the burden on the NHS is set to increase exponentially over the coming years.

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WHO IS AFFECTED BY DEMENTIA? The NHS states that one in 14 people over the age of 65 have dementia, and the condition affects one in six people over 80.

Meditrends confirms that the majority of patients admitted with dementia in any diagnosis position are aged 71 years and over, and we can also see from the graph below that there are more female patients admitted than males.

There are, however, a significant number of patients aged 61-70 presenting to hospital with dementia in any diagnosis position. In 2020 there were 84,725 males aged 61-70 in this patient cohort, and 63,665 female patients.

The number of people with dementia is increasing because people are living longer. It is estimated that by 2025, the number of people with dementia in the UK will be more than 1 million.1

>90 81-90 71-80 61-70 51-60 41-50 31-40 21-30 11-20 0-10

600,000

Male

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400,000

200,000

200,000

400,000

600,000

800,000

Female

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THE RISING COST OF DEMENTIA CARE The total cost of dementia in the UK is expected to more than double in the next 25 years, from £26 billion to £55 billion in

HOW DICE IS SUPPORTING ALZHEIMER’S RESEARCH UK Dice has selected Alzheimer’s Research UK as our chosen charity for the next 12

20402, as the number of people living with dementia increases.

In 2012, for every £10 in health and social care costs, cancer received £1.08 in research funding, coronary heart disease (CHD) received £0.65, stroke received £0.19 and dementia received £0.08. This is 13 times less than cancer, and despite the fact that the economic impact of dementia is greater than cancer and heart disease combined.

If we don’t address how dementia is understood, researched, diagnosed and treated, the burden on the NHS is set to increase exponentially over the coming years as more of us live longer, and more of us suffer from the cruel effects of dementia and related diseases.

It is a critical area for the government to support in terms of research funding, not only to alleviate the burden on the NHS,

months. We are committed to raising awareness of dementia and Alzheimer’s, as well as raising money to support Alzheimer’s Research UK’s impressive efforts.

Alzheimer’s Research UK is the UK’s leading dementia research charity dedicated to diagnosis, prevention, treatment and cure. Its mission is to bring about the first life-changing dementia treatment by 2025.

In the past year alone Alzheimer’s Research UK has invested over £13.3 million into 64 new research projects. But its fundraising efforts have been greatly impacted by the Covid-19 pandemic.

Dice commits to doing everything we can to support the efforts of Alzheimer’s Research UK, especially in light of how badly Alzheimer’s patients have been affected by the Covid-19 pandemic, with

but also to help eliminate the suffering of dementia patients and their friends and family.

restrictions on care homes, isolation and delays in treatment.

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Alzheimer’s Research UK https://www.dementiastatistics.org/statistics-about-dementia/ https://www.dementiastatistics.org/statistics-about-research/research-funding/

‘50KM IN 10 DAYS’ CHALLENGE We kicked off our fundraising activities with a challenge. We each committed to walk, run or cycle 50km between 1st and 10th April.

Everyone rose to the challenge and some even far exceeded 50km, whilst others found it slightly more taxing!

Collectively we walked/ran/cycled over 798km and raised £4,387.72 for Alzheimer’s Research UK. For more information, please visit alzheimersresearchuk.org Reach out to SARAH BROOKS sarah.brooks@dice-comms.co.uk

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WHAT DO WE REALLY VALUE AS A SOCIETY? with

WINNIE McFADZEAN

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ON PAGE 50

TOWARDS BETTER HCP ENGAGEMENT – AN EMAIL MASTERCLASS When communicating with HCPs, email is becoming more and more important.

But what simple methods can we employ to improve engagement?

Written by LOUISE KNAPP Client Services Director

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Email has stood the test of time as a lowcost and high return means of customer engagement, and that’s as true in pharma as other industries. According to the DMA (Direct Marketing Association), email marketing produces around £42 for every £1 spent1.

It’s also the preferred method of communication for HCPs, and overwhelmingly so. According to a recent study, 66% of HCPs prefer being contacted by email, compared to 17% who favour the second most popular option: direct interaction with reps2.

From an HCP’s perspective, email is far less intrusive than a phone call or message sent via WhatApp or an equivalent platform. There are clear advantages for pharma brands too. As well as equipping you with a captive audience, you’ll know the precise identity of people who have received, opened and engaged with an email. This makes it easier to review performance and tweak campaigns, compared with Google and social channels.

However, this isn’t to say results from email are guaranteed. Whether you’re using Veeva Approved Emails or taking a broadcast approach to your email marketing, it’s worth being mindful of the fundamentals that underpin any successful campaign.

FOCUS ON BENEFITS, NOT FEATURES

According to the DMA, email marketing produces around £42 for every £1 spent.

drug of its kind, but how is it going to solve the HCP’s problems and transform the lives of patients? How, ultimately, can it deliver better health outcomes?

This is the narrative you should lead with if you want to get an HCP interested.

Shift the focus from what you do to why you do it.

MAKE IT PERSONAL Beyond storytelling, there are other ways to strike that all-important personal connection with HCPs. One of the most effective is simply addressing them by their name, whether in the subject line, email copy, or preferably both.

The Free Text Token in Veeva Approved Email allows reps to personalise their compliant emails to HCPs, providing a level of flexibility akin to traditional emails. This becomes more powerful when accompanied by approved content tailored to an HCP’s specific treatment area.

SEGMENT YOUR AUDIENCE

An easy trap to fall into is highlighting the key features of your treatment, rather than the benefits. Yes, it may be the first

Segmentation plays an equally important role in personalisation. By narrowing your audience into defined groups, based on specific criteria, you can

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target them with relevant messaging and avoid sending a blanket email to all of your HCP contacts.

You could look to segment your list of HCPs by variables such as treatment area, geographical location or even content preferences, whether that’s video, infographics or statistical reports.

By reviewing the types of email they are opening and clicking, you can segment your list further, making every email as relevant (and convertible) as possible.

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DMA Marketer email tracker 2019 2 Healthlink Dimensions

The future of email is omnichannel, so start thinking about seamlessly integrating it with your other channels.

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KEEP IT CONVERSATIONAL

action (CTA).

It can be easy to turn emails into a oneway dialogue, when they should be used as a means of initiating a conversation with HCPs. To that end, try to keep the tone of your emails conversational, but without sounding unprofessional.

Again, this is where the Free Text Token in Veeva Approved Email can come in handy, allowing you to break

TEST EVERYTHING

up the approved content with some engaging copy. Questions are also a tried and tested literary device for driving engagement, even if it just gets an HCP thinking rather than eliciting an immediate response.

It’s advisable to give reps a selection of pre-approved lines, so they can select the text and tone that is most appropriate for the recipient, while remaining compliant.

As Mits Mistry explains in his brilliant article on page 25, you should always look to test different versions of your email campaigns, where possible.

With an A/B test, you can change an element of your email such as the subject line, header, CTA or body content. From there, you’d create a subset of your HCP contacts, sending version A to 50% of the subset and version B to the remaining 50%. Once the results are in for the subset send, the top-performing variant can then

OFFER SOMETHING MORE Beyond the information on your product and its benefits, consider providing HCPs with additional material relating to their area of expertise, or further information on the rare disease that your drug is designed to treat.

This sort of value-add can boost your chances of conversion, especially if you give the HCP some actionable or insightful content that they can apply within their practice area. How you choose to include this in your email is up to you – whether it’s cited within the body content, or downloadable via a call-to-

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be sent to the remainder of your database to instantly impact your campaigns.

LET DATA POWER YOUR STRATEGY The more you test, the more data you will gather. From there, you can start to see trends and insights that will better inform your strategy going forward. Yes, you may start with some core metrics, but over time you can begin looking into much deeper and more meaningful insights such as therapy sentiment amongst segments, which in turn will greatly benefit future executional work.

The more data you have, the easier it is to segment your database and target the right customers with the right message.

For that reason, it’s important to utilise on-site data collection and tracking, as well as preference centres.

In 2020, Dotdigital reported that preference centres were missing in 66% of emails. This is a huge opportunity missed by many brands. The use of preference

centres empowers customers and is a great opportunity to collect data to power further communications. In consumer world, for example, preference centres

Veeva CRM Engage. Alternatively (or in addition), you could show them the reengagement messaging on social media.

It may be the catalyst that makes them

are used to determine which products customers are interested in and the channel they want to hear from you on.

remember and return to a conversation.

DON’T USE EMAIL IN ISOLATION Whilst email is a powerful marketing tool, it’s important to remember it’s not the only one at your disposal. The future of email is omnichannel, so rather than thinking of it as an isolated channel, start thinking about seamlessly integrating it with your other channels.

Coming back to the conversation around data, let’s say a contact is moving through a re-engagement series, but the data shows they aren’t opening emails. Instead of continuing to send them emails, why not encourage reps to interact directly with an HCP, whether with a phone call or an invitation to a virtual meeting via

AUTOMATE WHERE POSSIBLE Finally, never underestimate the importance of automated emails.

Combined with an element of personalisation, automated emails can deliver the right message, at the right time, to the right contact, meaning they are always relevant to your customers.

Automated emails should become a vital part of your strategy from the moment an HCP signs up. From nurturing leads through the sales process to re-engaging with long-term customers, they can help you build deeper relationships with customers, not to mention better response rates. Examples of automated emails include welcome emails, lead nurture series and after-sales support.

At Dice, we have a wealth of experience delivering successful email campaigns for industry-leading pharmaceutical brands.

WHAT IS A PREFERENCE CENTRE? An email preference centre is a form that allows subscribers to control the marketing they receive from brands. By giving customers an opportunity to modify their communication preferences, it can help reduce your unsubscribe rate while improving their satisfaction. Preference centres can give subscribers control over frequency of contact, their preferred marketing channels, and the type of content they want to be sent.

Reach out to LOUISE KNAPP louise@dice-comms.co.uk

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SUCCESS

has many fathers The media storm around the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine is simply the latest example of the pharmaceutical industry being vilified. But where does this sentiment come from?

Written by SANDRA LAIRD Director – Medical Education & Market Access

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In his private moments, I wonder whether Pascal Soriot, CEO of AstraZeneca, finds himself wondering why he bothered.

Why he bothered to partner with Oxford

headline and we don’t critically evaluate the data, the risk or the argument. We allow ourselves to be influenced by headlines and sentiment rather than

with the AstraZeneca vaccine might be two in a million. What else carries a two in a million risk of death? The answer, according to the Cambridge University

University to develop and distribute a vaccine for Covid-19, why he bothered to put in place a manufacturing consortium and distribution network, why on earth he agreed to supply said vaccine on a not-forprofit basis during the pandemic!

Surely, he could be forgiven for thinking that he was doing a good thing. Surely it wasn’t crazy of him to think that his company might actually gain some kudos for the super-human efforts that they have made. Surely, he was safe in thinking that the company of which he is custodian wouldn’t be vilified in the process of bringing one of the first Covid-19 vaccines to market. You would think so, wouldn’t you? But you’d be wrong.

Why is the pharmaceutical industry so hated? Why has AstraZeneca been vilified?

Negative views of the industry are rife.

It’s widely reported that the industry’s reputation is worse even than the tobacco industry. But why? I’m sure we all have our theories, but here are mine.

rational argument.

statisticians Sir David Spiegelhalter and Mike Pearson, is a 500-mile drive in a car, a 40-mile cycle ride or a 12-mile trip on a motorbike.

As Tim Hardford said in The Times the other week, “Ride a motorbike to the vaccination centre and your journey is more dangerous than the side effects of the vaccine.” Despite that, all across Europe, although thankfully not in the UK, people are refusing to be vaccinated with the AstraZeneca vaccine. How mad is that?

When a systemic failure to understand the risk / benefit balance combines with an omnipresent blame culture, the environment is near-impossible to navigate. That’s the current reality.

1. HEADLINE CULTURE

2. SENSE OF ENTITLEMENT As a society we are not sufficiently knowledgeable about the value that the industry brings. To me it’s mind-blowing that my parents were born before diuretics and beta blockers were launched, at a time when measles was a rite of passage and polio commonplace.

Do most people in the UK, and the developed world at large, stop to think of the value that pharmaceutical innovation has brought? Do they not realise that the stent their father had fitted, the breast cancer treatment their friend received or the myriad of other interventions that HCPs deploy every day means the people they love are living longer? No, they take it for granted, they think it’s a right and they don’t give the pharmaceutical industry the credit it deserves.

3. FAILURE TO UNDERSTAND THE RISK / BENEFIT BALANCE

Fear and controversy sell newspapers.

Twitter does not enable a nuanced argument. The echo chamber of social media is self-perpetuating.

I’ve said it! But said what?

That’s my point. We live our lives in soundbites. We are bored before we get to the end of the article. We stop at the

The central tenet of pharmaceutical regulation, the balance of risk vs. benefit, might be everyday currency to us, but not to most people. Somehow, as a society, we accept all sorts of risks in our daily lives but we expect there to be zero risk associated with medicines.

The MHRA has recently published data indicating that the risk of fatal blood clot

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SUCCESS HAS MANY FATHERS

Somehow, as a society, we accept all sorts of risks in our daily lives but we expect there to be zero risk associated with medicines.

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As a society we are not sufficiently knowledgeable about the value that the pharmaceutical industry brings.

4. PROFITS

WHAT NOW?

This one I really struggle with. Why is it okay for Apple, Microsoft, Amazon and a plethora of other companies to make billions, but every single dollar of profit made by pharmaceutical companies is seen as profligate? Is it because we are seen to be cashing in on people when they are weak and in need? Well, we need to challenge that, because often we enable people to live with chronic conditions for many years, we improve quality of life, we make the years they have left worth living.

It really is time that we stopped to understand this visceral response to pharmaceutical companies making profits.

It is, to my mind, one of the biggest barriers to improving our image.

Success does indeed have many fathers.

Isn’t it about time that our successes were recognised, applauded and leveraged to the benefit of the developed and developing world?

If images from India in the last few months haven’t shown us we have work to do, then there really is no hope for us as a society or an industry.

5. FAILURES OF THE PAST Perhaps that biggest reason for the industry’s poor reputation though is failures of the past. We all know what they are, and we must be honest enough to acknowledge what we’ve got wrong and change, really change. Only then will we as an industry have any chance of gaining trust and rebuilding our reputation.

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SUCCESS HAS MANY FATHERS

Reach out to SANDRA LAIRD sandra.laird@dice-comms.co.uk

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There’s

COMFORT IN CONSISTENCY

Some of the most successful brands in the world have hardly changed over the years. Sure, there may have been the odd tweak here and there, but fundamentally their original values still hold strong.

If you’re thinking of making some changes, remember it takes an average of five to seven brand impressions for a customer to remember your brand, so consistency should be at the forefront of any decision.

BRANDS THAT HAVE MADE FUNDAMENTAL CHANGES

How long does a brand last before it needs refreshing? Probably longer than you think.

Written by ROB WILSON Creative Director

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Coca Cola changed its recipe in 1985 to chase after Pepsi sales at the detriment of its loyal customer base. However, it wasn’t long before it reverted back to its core principles and traditional recipe.

It’s not easy staying relevant when it feels like your brand is aging, but there are many ways to do this through campaigns and tweaking your branding. As long as you are focused on retaining your original values, you’ll protect your most loyal fan base and perhaps even grow it.

Consistency doesn’t have to mean boring or restrictive. It means getting the basics right and knowing your market.

Take Audi, for example. The company has

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Consistency doesn’t have to mean boring or restrictive. It means getting the basics right and knowing your market.

As long as you are focused on retaining your original values, you’ll protect your most loyal fan base and perhaps even grow it.

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had its classic ‘Vorsprung Durch Technik’ line for years, but that hasn’t prevented it having a constant stream of creatively different ads over the past few years, such as the futuristic ‘Landing’ (search ‘Audi TT Landing’ on YouTube). Its never-changing strapline underpins all of its ads and has become synonymous with the brand across the world.

of ‘Simple Greatness’ relies on existing visual marks like the label outline, and builds on the simple original logomark; a clever approach to refreshing your brand.

Heinz avoided the mistake of losing sight of their tradition and history by playing on it instead.

Steve Jobs’ mission statement for Apple in 1980 was “To make a contribution to the world by making tools for the mind that advance humankind.” Not only is that statement relevant today, but some might say Apple has stuck to the same principles in its brand strategy from day one. You may recall Ridley Scott’s ‘1984’ Macintosh commercial, which concludes with the Apple logo front and centre.

Roll on 40 years and recent Apple ads are still extremely creative, but still end with the logo centre screen without clutter. Sure the logo colours are gone, but the Apple image is still consistent with the brand. Apple’s products are simple and elegant, and so is its branding. It feels like there’s no wasted communication; they’re slick and beautiful, and because of their consistent use of imagery, tone and typeface, you feel safe in the company’s hands and understand you are purchasing quality and support.

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THERE’S COMFORT IN CONSISTENCY

HOW IMPORTANT IS YOUR LOGO? Some might say your logo is one of your greatest assets and your customers should always be familiar with it. Play with this at your peril. However, by refining some of the existing assets along with an injection of strong creativity, it can take a refreshing twist whilst not losing consistency.

JKR agency tweaked the classic Heinz sans-serif logo and surrounding elements to unify the brand worldwide. The theme

Taking these lessons into the world of pharmaceuticals, we can all strive to be more consistent. It really does matter, even down to the smallest details. Is our industry too quick to refresh campaigns and messages just because they have budget to use, or a new team feels like they need to put their stamp on proceedings?

Campaigns take time to bed in and be exposed. I’m sure it must be reassuring for HCPs to identify their favoured product through an easily identifiable image or message – not so if this changes too regularly.

People recognise familiarity; it encourages feelings of safety and security.

Remember: consistency makes consumers trust your brand.

Reach out to ROB WILSON rob@dice-comms.co.uk View

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WORD OF THE QUARTER

VOC

(VARIANT OF CONCERN) (abbreviation / descriptive phrase applied to viral mutants)

Courtesy of WINNIE McFADZEAN Senior Medical Writer

Viruses mutate constantly, and multiple variants of the virus that causes Covid-19 (SARS-CoV-2) are emerging and disappearing all the time.

Health agencies across the world monitor circulating new variants – applying labels to those that look like they might have increased transmissibility, might impact on morbidity and mortality, could evade detection or might show a decreased susceptibility to drugs, vaccines or natural immunity.

A variant of concern (VOC) – as its name suggests – is one that is spreading rapidly and warrants being watched carefully.

A VOC is “one up” from a variant of interest (VOI), and a “near relative” of variant of high consequence (VOHC).

SARS-CoV-2 VOCs that remain under close scrutiny include:

VOC B1.1.7 and B1.1.7+E484K – The “UK” variants VOC B1.351 – The “South African” variant VOC P.1 – The “Brazilian” variant VOC B.1.617 – The “Indian” variant

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WHY TESTING SHOULDN’T BE CONFINED TO THE LAB Believe it or not, experiments are just as important in marketing as they are in science.

Written by MITS MISTRY Designer and Developer

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Experimentation is the beating heart of science. It is also responsible for the life-saving vaccinations that are slowly releasing the world from the grips of a

Google Optimize, Optimizely and VWO are just three of the website testing platforms available to marketers, with A/B testing also built into Google Ads and

global pandemic.

But it isn’t just science where experimentation plays such a vital role.

More often than not, successful pharma marketing is the result of regular and rigorous testing.

So, what does testing mean in a marketing sense? And more importantly, how can you use it to your brand’s advantage?

various email marketing platforms to test acquisition content.

A TALE OF TWO TESTS The two most common tests used in marketing are A/B testing, sometimes referred to as ‘split testing’, and multivariate testing. Both can be used to test different versions of landing pages, emails or display ads.

It isn’t just science where experimentation plays such a vital role. More often than not, successful pharma marketing is the result of regular and rigorous testing.

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A/B TESTING A/B testing is an optimisation method that compares the performance of two different versions – version A and version B – of a display ad, landing page or email.

Depending on the channel, ‘performance’ could mean open rate, click-through rate, form completion or another key metric.

Say, for example, you are A/B testing an email. First, a subset of your database would be created. Version A would be sent to 50% of your subset and version B would be sent to the other 50%. You can then compare the performance of each against your KPI and send to the remainder of your database. Keeping a log of performance is useful to inform future campaigns.

A/B testing is typically used to assess the impact of changing a single element. That could be a subject line, page header, call to action (CTA), image, or even the date or time of send.

For example, you may wish to test the impact of removing your navigation from a landing page header. If conversion rates are higher for the page that doesn’t contain your navigation, you will know why. This wouldn’t be the case if you also changed the wording of a CTA, or any other page components.

WHY TESTING SHOULDN’T BE CONFINED TO THE LAB

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MULTIVARIATE TESTING

TOP TIPS FOR SUCCESSFUL TESTING

As the name suggests, multivariate testing is used to compare the performance of multiple versions of a

Therefore, you may decide to craft an alternative subject line, change the header image and embed a contact

While there are tangible benefits to testing, you’ll only get the most out of it by doing it in the right way and following

campaign, where a higher number of variables may change.

So, rather than making one change to a page and sending the ‘before’ and ‘after’ versions to two segments of your audience, a multivariate test will typically entail changes to numerous components.

By way of example, you may be looking to identify the cause of low click-through rates on an email campaign. With an A/B test, you may already have an idea of the cause, but in this case, there are various elements to be considered.

form. All combinations of these elements would then be tested – one version will incorporate all, others will include two, others simply one.

This naturally creates multiple versions of an email, but once the results are analysed, you should in theory be left with a common denominator – i.e. the component, or combination of components, that has the biggest impact on click-through rates.

In the above scenario, you could be looking at eight different versions of the same email.

some basic rules.

KNOW WHY YOU’RE TESTING Rule number one when it comes to testing is to know why you’re doing it in the first place. All science experiments starts with a hypothesis, and the same applies here. Especially with A/B testing, you should have a good idea what you expect to achieve (or prove) by changing one element of a campaign.

This hypothesis should be defined upfront. For example, “By using an audience-matched header image, the test variant will evoke a sense of familiarity and belonging, in turn boosting conversion rates.”

Don’t be afraid to think offline as well as online.

For example, why not A/B test the opening sentence that your reps use on sales calls to HCPs?

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WHY TESTING SHOULDN’T BE CONFINED TO THE LAB

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DESIGN TESTS TO MAKE A SUBSTANTIAL DIFFERENCE There’s no point conducting a test if it isn’t going to have a significant impact on performance. That’s why it’s important to change key components, rather than making minor adjustments. For example, a change to your value proposition, contact form or subject line is more likely to make a difference than a small grammatical change within the intro copy.

TEST EVERYTHING Don’t be afraid to think offline as well as online. Before the internet, marketers would use A/B test coupons in magazines and count the number of people who came into a store with one coupon compared to another. This method is still used today, so consider what you could test beyond your digital campaigns. For example, why not A/B test the opening sentence that your reps use on sales calls to HCPs?

There’s no point conducting a test if it isn’t going to have a significant impact on performance.

If you can’t accurately assess the results of a test, it will count for nothing. This means your UTM tracking has to be spoton. UTM (Urchin Tracking Module) is a simple piece of code that can be added to URLs to generate Google Analytics data for digital campaigns. UTM codes can be created through auto-tagged Google Ads campaigns, or using other online tools (simply search ‘UTM builder’), and added to your email, PPC or social campaigns.

UTM codes allow you to attribute

traffic from a specific campaign, source, medium, keyword or other content page. These can all be defined within the URL by implementing code such as ‘utm_source=Facebook’ or ‘utm_ campaign=Intro_Offer’, and tweaked for each iteration of a page or email.

For example, if we wanted to test the impact of changes to a PPC campaign for paracetamol, a URL could be set up as follows: https://www.dice-comms. co.uk/paracetamol?utm_ campaign=paracetamol&utm_ medium=cpc&utm_ source=facebook&utm_ content=paracetamol_V2 A different ‘content’ tag would be required for each variant of an advert

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WHY TESTING SHOULDN’T BE CONFINED TO THE LAB

NAIL YOUR UTM TRACKING

to ensure accurate tracking, e.g. ‘utm_content=paracetamol_V3’, ‘utm_ content=paracetamol_V4’, and so on.

TIME IT TO PERFECTION Whether it’s an email, ad or landing page, it’s crucial that you send or launch the various versions at exactly the same time, otherwise the data will be skewed.

Once launched, let the data gather over a minimum of two weeks, allowing for seasonality.

If there is no notable top-level difference at the end of the initial testing phase, you should review performance across different dimensions. Does a variant win on mobile devices? How does the acquisition channel impact performance? If there are still no significant differences, look to end the test

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Various studies show that brands who test regularly enjoy higher conversion rates, so now is your time to put testing into practice.

and evaluate your null result, ideally with a view to either re-running with a more impactful change or moving to a different element.

ENSURE YOUR SAMPLE AUDIENCE IS BIG ENOUGH While platforms such as Google Ads and Facebook Ads Manager make it easy to build a substantial (albeit anonymous) audience for targeted ad campaigns, your email database should only include people who have opted in to receive your emails.

This means the audience size may be smaller when testing email campaigns.

You’ll want at least email 100 opens to gather accurate and actionable data, so before conducting a test, consider the size of your current subscriber list and average open rate.

Reach out to MITS MISTRY mitesh@dice-comms.co.uk

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TEST, TEST AND TEST AGAIN As well as delivering incremental gains to your bottom line, regular testing should also multiply the impact. For example, if you see a 5% gain at one part of the customer funnel, it will be felt everywhere.

On the other hand, if you don’t make any changes at all, the impact will be nil.

Various studies show that brands who test regularly enjoy higher conversion rates, so now is your time to put testing into practice.

Please get in touch for any further advice, or to find out how we can optimize your campaigns for better sales outcomes.

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WHY TESTING SHOULDN’T BE CONFINED TO THE LAB

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POWER – The –

of imagery

There’s a cliché somewhere about a picture and a thousand words. Don’t worry, we’re not going to use it here. However, we firmly believe that great content doesn’t always have to be written; sometimes it just has to be seen.

With that in mind, the Dice team has collated a selection of photos from the past quarter that either tell their own story, or have quite simply left us speechless. Or both...

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ARTICLE TITLE

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THE POWER OF IMAGERY

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THE POWER OF IMAGERY

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THE POWER OF IMAGERY

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THE POWER OF IMAGERY

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THE RIPPLES AND THE TSUNAMI Written by SANDRA LAIRD Director – Medical Education & Market Access

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Covid-19 has undoubtedly transformed our lives over the past 12-18 months. We have, of course, been focused on the short-term impact on individuals, the NHS and the economy, but what of the long term?

There are, of course, the ongoing implications of high numbers of cases in other countries and worries about emerging variants, but that’s not something we can control. From a healthcare perspective the ripples of Covid-19 will be felt for years, perhaps even decades.

NHS waiting lists are reported to have hit 4.7 million people, a 14-year high1. The last time they were that long the new Wembley Stadium had just been completed, Apple had just released the very first iPhone, the Bank of England was bailing out Northern Rock and the final Harry Potter book was being released. Put like that, it’s a pretty significant backward step. When will the backlog be cleared? Even a betting man wouldn’t bet on it being anytime soon!

The impact of Covid-19 on primary care has been substantial. Cancer Research UK estimates that around 350,000 fewer people than normal were sent for an urgent suspected cancer referral during

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April-August 20202. There were around 60% fewer referrals in April 2020 compared with April 2019 and this had yet to recover in August 2020, with referrals still slightly lower than before the first lockdown .

We all know that behind these data are patients who will be diagnosed later, with more advanced disease, poorer outcomes and ultimately excess mortality. Those are the hard facts.

There was much talk early on in the pandemic about increased suicide rates.

Thankfully that doesn’t seem to have materialised, with a recent article in the BMJ confirming that suicide rates have not risen3. That doesn’t mean though that there has been no impact on mental health. Suicide is after all an end-of-the-line sign of mental health. How many newly emergent mental health crises have there been that we are yet to fully measure?

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EMPTINESS AND STAGNATION A recent article by Adam Grant in the New York Times (19th April 2021) hit the nail on the head. He describes a feeling of ‘languishing’. Not depressed, but not thriving; a sense of stagnation and emptiness, of muddling through days feeling joyless and aimless. He described languishing as the neglected middle child of mental health, the void between depression and flourishing – the absence of well-being. How many people are languishing and how long will it be before they are thriving? One suspects that a languishing epidemic is upon us, with no imminent cure in sight.

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In healthcare, as in strategic planning, we are at risk of overestimating the impact of short-term threats and underestimating the impact of long-term threats.

WHAT’S AHEAD AND WHAT ROLE FOR PHARMA? In healthcare, as in strategic planning, we are at risk of overestimating the impact of short-term threats and underestimating the impact of long-term threats. We see what is immediately in front of us, but we are not good at imagining what might be.

We have all been so busy following new Covid-19 diagnoses, deaths and variants of concern that we have not yet stopped to really consider where we should go from here. We see the wave, but not the ripple and certainly not the tsunami.

To my mind, the pharmaceutical industry has a major role to play in supporting recovery in all of these areas. Really? How? In the absence of the NHS workforce expanding exponentially, clearing the

THE RIPPLES AND THE TSUNAMI

backlog of patients waiting to be treated across a host of clinical conditions will need service provision to be reimagined. The Planning Guidance for 2021/224 sets out how the NHS will restore services. Along with delivering the strategic goals of the Long Term Plan the following priorities have been identified:

Staff health and wellbeing, recruitment and retention

Covid vaccination and meeting needs of patients with Covid-19 T ransform service delivery, accelerate elective and cancer service restoration, and manage increasing demand on mental health services

Expand primary care capacity to improve access, outcomes and address health inequalities

Transform community, urgent and emergency care, timely admission and reduced length of stay Collaborative working

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A FRESH TAKE ON GOALS AND TREATMENT OUTCOMES?

From a healthcare perspective the ripples of Covid-19 will be felt for years, perhaps even decades.

The Planning Guidance sets out the way forward for hospitals: Recover activity towards previous levels

Produce delivery plans for elective in-patient, out-patient and diagnostic services (including specialised services)

Maximise available physical and workforce capacity across each system

Consider high impact changes – adapting ward environments to enhance flow, patient segregation and service transformation initiatives

Prioritise the clinically most urgent patients

Clinically led review and validation of waiting lists

Effective communication with patients – proactive approach to vulnerable patients

Address the longest waiters and tackle health inequalities

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More than ever, services will need to consider adopting treatment approaches that improve service efficiency, increase capacity and reduce length of stay. We need to consider refocusing our messages, so long obsessed with budget impact, to incorporate these.

That’s not to say that cost will not continue to be important, because of course it will. Although £6.6 billion in additional funding, including a £1 billion Elective Recovery Fund, sounds like a lot, it won’t go as far as we think. Budgets will continue to be stretched and we will need to consider this in our marketing strategies.

We need to have an eye on the evolving financial flows and payment systems in the NHS in England. The dust has yet to settle, but it’s very much looking like Payment by Results has had its day. Some might say about time too. We all know that it never was about results but about activity. To play devil’s advocate, payment based on activity might be exactly what we do need, but that ship may have sailed!

Services are being encouraged to learn from other systems. Traditionally the NHS is reluctant to adopt solutions developed elsewhere in the system. There is a tendency to adopt a ‘not invented here’ mentality and to justify it based on service differences, rather than looking to see the similarities.

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Surely pharma is uniquely placed to support this process, with the in-depth knowledge that our field-based teams have on services? Perhaps at this juncture, if we approach it in the right way, we will find a receptive audience desperate for any help they can get in dealing with the post Covid-19 tsunami.

Reach out to SANDRA LAIRD sandra.laird@dice-comms.co.uk

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BMJ 2021;373:n995 https://www.cancerresearchuk.org/health-professional/diagnosis/hpcovid-19-and-cancer-hub#HP_COVID-190 3 BMJ 2021;372:n834 doi: https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.n834 (Published 29 March 2021) 4 NHS England & Improvement. 2021/22 priorities and operational planning guidance: implementation guidance. March 2021. https:// www.england.nhs.uk/publication/implementation-guidance/ 1 2

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– Conversion Clinic –

LANDING PAGE

ESSENTIALS You’ve done the hard work getting HCPs onto your site, but they’re not taking that all-important next step. Sound familiar?

Unfortunately, the journey from lead generation to conversion wasn’t designed to be easy. However, there are some landing page fundamentals that, applied correctly, can give you a better chance of turning that prospect into a customer.

Good news: these tips are as valid in pharma as they are in the B2B world.

Written by JAMES PAUL Art Director

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LOOK BEYOND THE HOMEPAGE

LEAD WITH TRUST SIGNALS

While there is value in directing brandled campaigns to your homepage, this probably isn’t the ideal destination if you’re

Trust signals are just as important in pharma as they are in the consumer world. Just like any customer, not only do HCPs want proof that your treatment ‘does what it says on tin’, they also want the assurance that your brand is reputable, respected and recommended.

Including data points, testimonials or accreditations above the fold is a great

looking to direct HCPs to specific content, or raise awareness of your expertise in a particular disease area.

Dedicated landing pages, on the other hand, give you the ability to tailor your message, CTAs and page content to individual products, services or audience segments, while ensuring users don’t need to navigate to another page to enquire or ‘take action’.

NAIL YOUR VALUE PROPOSITION Studies show that many users leave a web page within ten seconds, but a strong value proposition can increase this to minutes.

Your value proposition is a single statement at the top of your landing page that communicates the benefits you offer, the problem or needs you solve, and what sets you apart from the competition.

In pharma, the ‘problem’ or ‘need’ will typically be treatment for a disease, but it could also be information on a specific condition.

A great value proposition should be the first thing that users see when landing on your page, sitting front and centre above the fold and creating an emotional connection with customers. What will your treatment mean for them? Answering this succinctly at the top of your landing page is the first step to successful conversion.

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way of building trust with a customer as soon as they arrive on your landing page.

Scattering these trust signals throughout the rest of the page will simply reinforce the claims you are making about your treatment and its benefits, both to HCPs and patients.

MAKE TAKING ACTION EASY CTAs (calls to action) are critical to every landing page. Whatever form they take, they’re the doorway to conversion, so make them visible.

A great landing page will naturally direct people’s eye towards a CTA, whether through positioning, colour choice, or indeed both. In addition, the hierarchy and visual flow of your page should naturally funnel people to the place where they can take action.

Making this ‘action’ clear in the CTA copy – e.g. ‘Request a call’ – will minimise confusion and maximise your chances of conversion. Think ‘active’, not ‘passive’: is there an obvious output of clicking that button or completing that form?

CONSIDER SECONDARY CTAS

CONVERSION CLINIC

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It’s easy to focus on the conversion, but it’s worth remembering that some users could still be in the ‘consideration’ phase and won’t be ready to commit just yet.

Users also expect a smooth experience across all devices. People shouldn’t have to zoom in to read your content on a smartphone, so make sure your page is

That’s where secondary CTAs can come in handy.

Rather than hitting users with a number of hard CTAs, consider offering some alternative conversion actions, such as the ability to download an e-book or register for a webinar. This will add value for a prospective customer and keep your brand front of mind when they reach the purchase stage of the conversion funnel.

Data consent capture is critical here. By giving customers an option to provide their contact details, you’ll be able to reach out to them again in the future.

However, to avoid falling foul of GDPR, you’ll need to explicitly state how their data will be used and give them the option to opt out.

responsive. The harder you make it for customers, the harder it will be to convert.

MAKE IT SEAMLESS

HIGHLIGHT WHAT MATTERS TO CUSTOMERS If you know your customers inside out, you should know exactly what they’ll want to read when landing on your page.

Some may want reassurance that you understand their needs, while others will crave data about a specific disease or the efficacy of your treatment.

Where your landing page has been guided by search intent, consider subtle ways of highlighting the terms that prospects have been searching for.

Whether it’s bolding up your body copy or including key terms in headers, draw users’ attention to the things that matter most to them.

Customers expect a seamless experience from the very first time they encounter your brand, whether online or offline. If the way you portray yourself on your landing page is unrecognisable from a display ad, social post or email, HCPs will lose faith and be less likely to engage, let alone convert.

Consider the imagery you are using on ads and whether it’s consistent with your destination page. The same applies to your messaging: the last thing you want to do is mislead customers in any way, even if it’s accidental.

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DON’T FORGET TO TEST A landing page is just the beginning.

Once you’ve started gathering data on performance, you should test different elements on the page to understand how they resonate with your audience and ultimately impact conversion. Check out Mits Mistry’s article on page 25 for some top tips on testing.

Hopefully these tips will stand you in good stead for future campaigns, or inspire you to revisit your existing landing pages. However, please don’t hesitate to get in touch if you’d like to discuss your digital needs further.

Reach out to JAMES PAUL james@dice-comms.co.uk View

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Rather than hitting users with a number of hard CTAs, consider offering some alternative conversion actions, such as the ability to download an e-book or register for a webinar.

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HOW DID YOU FIRST GET INTO MEDICAL COMMUNICATIONS? It was a happy accident really. My background was in accounting – I worked

THE ALEA INTERVIEW – with –

PAV VILKHU Pav Vilkhu, Account Manager at Dice, discusses her personal connection to pharma and how she’s been supporting those in need during the pandemic.

I love the feeling that I am doing something good.

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for Grant Thornton before going into teaching for a short while. However, it just so happened that I had a friend who worked for Dice. When I started to look for jobs back in the corporate arena, she had accepted another job elsewhere, but didn’t want to leave Dice in the lurch.

She asked me if I was interested, and I thought “Sure, why not?”

I started part-time as an office manager, but soon started picking up more work on client accounts. Having come from a client-facing background, dealing with clients was my thing, so account management seemed like a good fit for me. The great thing about Dice is that you’re not pigeonholed into a role. Yes, there are specialist roles, but if we want to challenge ourselves, Matthew (Dickinson) is great at asking how the company can help with that.

WHAT WAS YOUR EXPERIENCE OR PERCEPTION OF THE PHARMA INDUSTRY PRIOR TO JOINING DICE? I came into it quite naively, to be honest. On a personal level, my dad had been diagnosed with leukaemia a few days before I accepted the role at Dice, and as a family we were going through new territory with dad and his illness.

I remember talking to members of the

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It’s sad that the industry gets so much bad press; there are lots of hard-working people, but when it comes to Joe Public it seems to fare badly at times.

team who were compassionate about my family’s situation and how to manage it, and this gave me a really positive introduction to pharma.

Although dad was given the all clear in January 2020, unfortunately he contracted Covid in April and sadly passed away in May. We ended up saying goodbye to him via a computer screen, and having previously seen news about other people going through the same thing, you go from being sympathetic to empathetic.

It’s sad that the industry gets so much bad press; there are lots of hardworking people, but when it comes to Joe Public it seems to fare badly at times.

As unfortunate and devastating as the pandemic has been, for pharma it has provided the opportunity to showcase just how much good we can and do actually do.

meant closures and job losses, and could ruin people’s lives. In pharma, no matter how big or small your role is, you genuinely feel like you are helping in some way. The more I work on disease areas, and the more research that comes out, the more perspective I have on how much pharma actually does. Knowing I am part of that is incredibly empowering.

HOW WOULD YOU DESCRIBE THE CULTURE AT DICE? It’s a really fun-loving culture, with a beautiful and eclectic mix of people.

Everyone brings a different dimension and level of experience to the team. The recently-recruited graduates, for example, bring fresh perspectives, and the senior members of the team provide collective years of expertise and wisdom, making us a real three-dimensional agency, which is

I love the feeling that I am doing something good. In my corporate career, I trained in insolvency, which sadly often

very important.

As much as we love having fun, there’s still a strong ‘work hard, play hard’ mentality. Precision and deadlines are everything in this industry, so you have to be on the ball (even the fantasy

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THE ALEA INTERVIEW

WHAT ASPECTS OF YOUR JOB DO YOU FIND THE MOST REWARDING?

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I come from an avid hockey family, so that’s my main passion.

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football one – which Mits, Dice’s Designer and Developer, never seems to lose!).

However, little things like a relaxed dress code go a long way to relieving the pressure, without reducing the incentive to work hard. I remember coming in “suited and booted” for my interview, and a couple of colleagues hedged their bets on how long I’d turn up wearing stilettos!

HOW DO YOU LIKE TO UNWIND OUTSIDE OF WORK? In terms of sports, I come from an avid hockey family, so that’s my main passion.

I am also a massive Liverpool fan, along with Rob, Dice’s Creative Director. All of my siblings are United fans, and my dad supported Chelsea, so you can imagine our house on match days!

I’ve also been doing charity work with the homeless in London over the past three to four years – going out once or twice a week providing hot meals. I carried on doing this throughout the pandemic and also volunteered with a local pharmacy dropping off medicines to vulnerable people who were unable to leave their homes, as well as delivering meals to the elderly in care homes.

As a Sikh, selfless service is something we are taught from a young age and forms the cornerstone of our faith. I feel very blessed and grateful to be able to serve the community, be that providing meals or simply a chat, asking someone how their day or week has been, and I have made so many lovely friends through this work. It’s a real pleasure.

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WHAT HAS THE PAST YEAR TAUGHT YOU, ON A PERSONAL AND PROFESSIONAL LEVEL? My ability to use Zoom, Skype and emojis has improved dramatically, that’s for sure! But on a more serious note, I think being ‘stuck’ at home in the midst of a global pandemic, working from home, home schooling and the constant battle for Wi-Fi connection have all been great teachers in the art of patience and resilience. Knowing what really matters, and ‘never mind the rest’, has been a key learning curve for me.

In a weird way, being at home has also brought me closer to some of my clients and colleagues – how often would you have a meeting in your client’s living room, sometimes with their children and/or pets present?! But somehow that feeling of everyone being ‘in the same boat’ has strengthened our connections as people, and ultimately as an agency

work there remotely for up to a year, to ease the impact of the pandemic on the country’s travel and tourism industry.

Everyone asked if I’d planned it!

In all seriousness, however, the pandemic has fundamentally changed working patterns. We now have a freelancer in New Zealand who we brief work to in the evening, and by the next morning it’s done. It has opened up so many avenues we previously wouldn’t have explored.

Reach out to PAV VILKHU pav.vilkhu@dice-comms.co.uk

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WHAT IS THE FIRST THING YOU WILL DO ON JUNE 21ST? It’s the cliché answer I know, but I’d love to book a holiday! Everyone at Dice knows that I’m the office eskimo and how I’m always cold, so I’d love to be able to go back to Dubai or Mexico and rekindle the ‘battle of the tans’ with James, Dice’s Art Director, and a fellow sun worshipper!

At the start of last year, I said my vision for 2020 was to set up a Dice office in Barbados. In July, Barbados introduced a Welcome Stamp that allowed people to

THE ALEA INTERVIEW

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COULD I HAVE A WORD PLEASE...?

When it comes to effective marketing, whether in or beyond pharma, never underestimate the power of words.

Written by JEN JAMES Senior Medical Writer

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There’s no denying the power of imagery to influence how we feel and behave (see page 30). Humans are extremely good at remembering pictures; research conducted in 1970 showed that people were able to remember more than 90% of 2,500 pictures that they saw for ten seconds each, even when tested up to three days later1. But does our affinity for images make them more powerful than words?

I would argue, from a writer’s bias, that words too have the ability to trigger actions, sway opinion and influence how we feel. Words can change the way we interpret images and in some cases be just as memorable in their own right.

SHIFTING THE NARRATIVE ON CLIMATE CHANGE In 2019, The Guardian’s Editor-In-Chief, Katherine Viner, changed the language the newspaper uses when covering stories about the environment. Feeling that the conventional phrase ‘climate change’ “sounds rather passive and gentle when what scientists are talking about is a catastrophe for humanity”, she plumped for more robust and emotive terms such as ‘climate crisis’ and ‘climate emergency’ in the hope of using language to grab attention and prompt action.

A small study in the US by neuroanalytics company SPARK Neuro2 suggests that rebranding ‘climate change’ may indeed affect the way we feel. It looked at how 120 participants responded to six terms, including ‘climate

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crisis’ and ‘climate change’, and found that the former elicited an emotional response up to three times larger than the latter.

THE IMPACT OF WORDS ON IMAGES Words have the power to change the way we interpret an image. This is illustrated brilliantly by the ads below.

The one on the left, reportedly created by a Belgium-based ad agency for Pepsi in 2013, takes a dig at its competitor Coke.

But Coke perhaps had the last laugh with the clever retort on the right, apparently penned by a Coke fan. Changing the tagline completely alters the meaning of

these identical images.

Tweaking famous taglines can also spark controversy, as shaving company Gillette discovered when in 2019 it updated its famous tagline “The best a man can get” to the more socially responsible “The best men can be”. The copy change formed the backbone of a campaign addressing negative behaviour among men in the wake of the #MeToo movement. While it received praise from some for examining what “The best a man can get” means for modern times, many raged against the new direction on social media. The change in words and how this framed the accompanying images evoked a hugely

Tweaking famous taglines can also spark controversy, as shaving company Gillette discovered in 2019.

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Words can change the way we interpret images and in some cases be just as memorable in their own right.

emotional and polarising response.

‘DOES EXACTLY WHAT IT SAYS ON THE TIN’ Sometimes the words used in an advertising campaign strike a chord for all the right reasons. Take Ronseal’s popular phrase “Does exactly what it says on the tin”. So successful was this 1994 tagline developed by London-based ad agency HHCL that not only did sales shoot up, establishing Ronseal as brand leader, but it has since transcended advertising slogans and become part of our everyday vernacular. As Ronseal said: “The phrase has come to represent a product or policy that is open, honest and delivers against its promise”.

Another tagline that overshadows any accompanying imagery is “Because you’re worth it” by L’Oréal Paris. Despite celebrating its 50th birthday this year,

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the company boasts that it still resonates today, “uniting women around the world, encouraging them to fearlessly embrace their ambitions and believe in their selfworth every day.” Not bad for a string of words!

Standing L et al. Perception and memory for pictures: Single-trial learning of 2500 visual stimuli. Psychonomic Science 1970;19:73-74.

2 SPARK Neuro. Rebranding Climate Change. Available at: https://www. sparkneuro.com/rebranding-climate-change/ 1

Reach out to JEN JAMES jen.james@dice-comms.co.uk

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WHAT DO WE REALLY VALUE AS A SOCIETY? It would take a hard heart not to have been moved by the sight of Captain Sir Tom Moore doing his 100 laps of the garden, raising close to £40 million for the NHS, and then going on to reach his 100th birthday.

Written by WINNIE McFADZEAN Senior Medical Writer

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EXTRA YEARS – STOLEN AWAY

A third of older people in our society die with dementia. A third.3

We all aspire to live well and live long.

Babies born since the year 2000 can expect to live to be 1001. But we won’t all get that telegram from the Queen, let alone a knighthood, and good mental and physical health is far from a certainty in old age.

Yes, improvements in healthcare and a plethora of Nobel-worthy drug discoveries in the past century are to be applauded as having contributed to people living longer and healthier lives. Yet there has been a cost. For every sprightly 73-year-old still dazzling on the tennis court or nailing it in the boardroom, there are many more ‘elderly’ living with chronic diseases, frailty and poor mental health.

Take dementia. The numbers and the stats are numbing.

By 2050 the number of people in the world living with dementia is projected to triple, relative to numbers reported in 20152,3. Dementia has been described as

In April 2021, Covid-19 stopped being the leading cause of death in England.

Dementia is now ‘higher up the charts’ – back to claiming more lives than Covid-19 according to the latest ONS monthly figures.

A third of older people in our society die with dementia. A third 3.

As with any condition – the number of deaths provides just a snapshot of the burden of disease, not to mention the impact.

Nearly a million people in the UK are thought to be living with dementia but there are currently no life-changing treatments for the condition. To summarise the (largely unsuccessful) quest of recent years to find effective treatments for dementia would require a whole other article. The Lancet Commission on Dementia Prevention, Intervention and Care2,3 does that job better than I can in that regard, and their papers should be a compulsory read for anyone with even a passing interest in public health.

Dementias gradually rob an individual of their abilities, and along the way impact on the family, friends and supporters of the affected person.

“the greatest global challenge for health and social care in the 21st century” 2,3.

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THE GLOBAL COST AND IMPACT OF DEMENTIA Nearly 85% of the staggering US$818 billion global costs of dementia (2015) are related to family and social, rather than medical care3. Anecdotally, I have a friend whose parents are now both in a care home: one needs round-the-clock care due to general frailty of old age, the other due to dementia. Happily, they still get to live together as a couple, but it costs £10k a month for that care. I don’t deny that that’s a fair cost and my friend’s family are happy to meet it, but you do the maths. Selling the family home will only cover care for a limited period.

PRICELESS PRIORITIES So, what do we value as a society when it comes to our ageing population and fixing our priorities for medical research and therapeutic endeavour?

Are we happy to congratulate ourselves that people are living longer and smile at the shining examples of fit and healthy ‘seniors’? To hope that when we reach old age we’ll be one of the lucky ones, and somehow, magically, there will be new medicines and better social care structures to let us reap the rewards of retirement?

Alzheimer’s Research UK – our chosen charity at Dice for 2021 – knows that the road to breakthrough medicines requires committed investment in both basic and applied research. Our own industry knows that the past 20 years have seen many

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more failures than successes in the search to find new targets and new drugs that might help slow, prevent and manage the myriad aspects of dementias.

PREVENTION, PREVENTION, PREVENTION It’s not all doom and gloom; we can be ambitious about prevention. Like so many non-communicable diseases, there is evidence that addressing risk factors has the potential to delay or prevent disease.

Early, preventive measures during life could reduce dementia cases by around 40%2,3. The usual suspects come to the fore: exercise more, reduce/don’t smoke, manage and control hypertension, obesity and diabetes across a lifetime.

WHAT DO WE REALLY VALUE AS A SOCIETY?

Education in early life matters too, as does social contact throughout life – with each contributing to our ‘cognitive reserve’ for later life2,3.

Three new modifiable risk factors have just been added to the list of things that are causally linked with dementias3.

Excessive alcohol consumption, head injury and air pollution.

Recent research shows that getting the right amount of sleep in middle and old age is also important. That one is a bit of a “Goldilocks” story: less than six hours a night is bad, and too much sleep is also bad. You’ve got to get it just right4.

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RESEARCH, RESEARCH, RESEARCH It’s not all doom and gloom on the treatment front either. Much can be done to manage the co-morbidities that come along with old age and affect over 50% of people with dementias5. Biomarkers for disease and research into early and prodromal syndromes that may signal early signs of Alzheimer’s are fruitful ground for therapeutic research2,3.

We can get there – we’ve seen it with other diseases. It probably won’t be one magic bullet but a mixture of drugs and tailored approaches, not least as ‘dementia’, like ‘cancer’, isn’t just one disease. But if we don’t try and don’t invest, we won’t succeed.

urgently invest in dementia research and set out plans to deliver on a promise to double funding and speed up progress into clinical trials5. As I write, they are just shy of the 50,000 needed to take their petition to Number 10.

References 1. Christensen K, et al. Ageing populations: the challenges ahead.

Lancet 2009;374:1196-208.

2. Livingston G, et al. Dementia prevention, intervention, and care: 2020 report of the Lancet Commission. Lancet 2020;396:413-46.

3. Livingston G, et al. Dementia prevention, intervention and care.

Lancet 2017;390:2673-734.

4. Sabia S, et al. Association of sleep duration in middle and old age with incidence of dementia. Nature Communications 2021;12:article 2289.

5. Cigolle CT, et al. Geriatric conditions and disability: the Health and Retirement Study. Ann Intern Med 2007;147:156-64.

6. https://www.alzheimersresearchuk.org/campaigns/dementiaresearch-at-risk-petition/

Reach out to WINNIE McFADZEAN

INVESTMENT IN DEMENTIA THROUGH ALZHEIMER’S RESEARCH UK

winnie@dice-comms.co.uk

I’ve got a rose-covered cottage earmarked for my old age, but until then I’m off to sign the Alzheimer’s Research UK petition to the UK government to

Nearly a million people in the UK are thought to be living with dementia but there are currently no life-changing treatments for the condition.

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DEMENTIA – TIME TO MATCH FACTS WITH FUNDING with

SARAH BROOKS

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A PLATFORM – for –

CHANGE How pharma can use social media to promote the truth and counter false narratives.

Written by

THE IMPACT OF SOCIAL MEDIA ON APPROACHES TO HEALTH The vast majority of people use social media platforms to keep up to date with current events and find information; this includes health-related information. In fact, a recent survey found that more than 40% of people say that information found via social media affects their approach to their own health1. And of the demographic most likely to use social media for health-related discussions (18- to 24-year-olds), 90% said they would trust medical information shared by others on social networks2.

MATTHEW BAKER Senior Account Executive

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Whether you’re a fan of it or not, social media has become a key component in our lives. More than half of the world now uses social media – a staggering 4.2 billion active users, to be precise.

Facebook, the most-used platform, attracts 2.7 billion active users each month. Instagram (1 billion) and Twitter’s (330 million) numbers seem almost unimpressive in comparison, yet they are still huge.

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Brand communicators need to recognise that the best way of fighting back against the fear caused by instigators is to promote the truth and counter the false narratives.

SOCIAL MEDIA AS PART OF YOUR MARKETING STRATEGY Clearly these numbers show the importance of social media for the pharma industry. Yet if you were to ask people to name brands with large online presences, there’s a good chance they wouldn’t mention many (or any) pharma companies.

Of course, in the UK the promotion of medicines is strictly and closely monitored by the Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry (ABPI); although pharmaceutical companies are still able to share impartial information

So, when you consider the rules and regulations imposed upon them, it’s not really all that surprising that some companies may not see social media as the best use of their marketing budget. This may go some way in explaining the lack of social media presence, but this doesn’t have to be, or even should be the case.

Pharma companies have a certain amount of responsibility to be present on social media, not just for their own interests, but for the interest of the industry and the general public as a whole.

on social media, provided it complies with the ABPI Code of Practice.

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FIGHTING THE SPREAD OF MISINFORMATION Whilst platforms like Facebook and Instagram can be a good place to get answers on lifestyle and health, a certain amount of precaution needs to be taken as the sources of this information may not be the most reputable.

There is more misinformation being spread online than ever, and whilst trusted information still carries weight, fake news or misleading articles are constantly popping up on our feeds, often shared by names with the power to influence (including politicians and celebrities). Particularly in the past 12 months or so, a lot of misinformation being spread has related to Covid-19 and vaccines. Pharma brands have faced a combative environment from anti-vaxxers and conspiracy theorists who have been determined to damage the efforts of those involved in the development of vaccines. There is a distrust of big pharma

amongst a large population (not just those who identify as anti-vaxxers), and this distrust isn’t new.

Whether it be vaccines, anti-cancer treatment, or any kind of new development, there’s a feeling among many that the wool is being pulled over their eyes. As a result, pharma companies have for some time been coming under a social media assault. Of course, governments and educational authorities need to do their bit in fighting this distrust, but pharma brands also need to respond to this assault.

Specifically, brand communicators need to recognise that the best way of fighting back against the fear caused by instigators is to promote the truth and counter the false narratives. The more brands can manage risks to reputation and value, the better chance they have of controlling the conversation and readdressing the lack of confidence and confusion that currently exists around modern medicine.

SHOWCASING BRAND VALUES

Social media can help pharma companies use their platform to become trusted suppliers of information.

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A PLATFORM FOR CHANGE

Social media is probably the best way to showcase a brand’s values, and as highlighted above, pharma companies should take any opportunity they can to boost their reputation. As well as posting relevant and informative content that shows audiences the value they offer beyond corporate, pharma brands can also use social platforms to provide an insight into what goes on behind the scenes, giving them a more human feel.

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Pharma brands can also use social platforms to provide an insight into what goes on behind the scenes, giving them a more human feel.

STAYING RELEVANT

BECOMING A THOUGHT LEADER

People follow brands for a reason.

Maybe they’ve had a good customer experience, they want to keep up with industry changes, or they just find their posts interesting. Once they’re following, they should want to remain a follower. Social media lets you post entertaining and informative content that people should want to read, ensuring that they’re happy whenever your brand appears on their feed.

It’s also interesting to note that videos generate over 1,200% more shares than posts containing texts and/or images (infographics are also worth considering!). The more interesting the content, the more times a post will be shared – leading to more views, more followers and stronger relationships with audiences. By building relationships, a brand will stay relevant as the audience will want to keep reading and sharing your posts.

For big brands, it’s important to stand out these days, but in a world where everyone is trying to make their voice heard it’s becoming increasingly difficult to do so.

Social media can help pharma companies use their platform to become trusted suppliers of information.

Continually posting informed opinions and the best answers to questions that target audiences are asking will position a pharma company as a go-to expert in the field, establishing trust in the process.

Never a bad thing for pharma.

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REMAINING COMPLIANT Of course, anything posted on social media must still abide with the ABPI Code of Practice. Don’t worry, this doesn’t mean you need to hire a lawyer to run your Twitter page. However, it’s advisable to have people familiar with the guidelines reviewing posts before they go live.

Further to this, a social media strategy with guidelines for employees will help get everyone on the same page.

Keeping an eye on comments that users leave on posts is also recommended as these can sometimes be an issue. It’s better to be safe than sorry, so consider removing comments that raise compliance issues or make inappropriate claims.

Whether you’re looking for more advice on social media best practice, or a strategy aligned with your goals, don’t hesitate to get in touch with Dice today. We’d love to help amplify your brand.

Reach out to MATTHEW BAKER matthew.baker@dice-comms.co.uk View

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THE LAST WORD The rapid rollout of Covid vaccines could spell good news for another important vaccination programme.

Written by

celebrating an end to the majority of the Covid-19 restrictions.

We’ve all played our part in getting to this point by staying at home, adhering to social distancing rules, washing our hands, isolating, getting tested, wearing masks and so on. The development and rollout of an effective vaccine in record time has also been key.

It’s mind-blowing that at the time of writing on 11th May 2021, more than 50 million doses of the vaccine have been administered in the UK alone, less than 18 months since research into Covid-19 vaccines first began.

This is in stark contrast to the usual process of vaccine development, which is slow going for a myriad of reasons.

Attempts to develop an effective vaccine for malaria first began around 80 years ago, gaining traction from the 1980s onwards. Over 100 malaria vaccine candidates have entered clinical trials over recent decades, but none has met the World Health Organization (WHO) goal of at least 75% efficacy.

That is until April this year, when for the first time a malaria vaccine showed unprecedented efficacy levels in a clinical trial, meeting the WHO goal.

Researchers from the University of Oxford and their partners reported in The Lancet landmark findings from a Phase IIb trial of a candidate malaria vaccine, R21/

JEN JAMES Senior Medical Writer

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If things have gone to plan according to the government’s roadmap out of lockdown, by the time you’re poring over this second edition of Alea we should be

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It’s important not just because of the threat malaria poses, but also because investing in vaccines can help prepare us for the next pandemic.

PROFESSOR ADRIAN HILL, THE UNIVERSITY OF OXFORD

Matrix-M, which demonstrated high-level efficacy of 77% in African children aged 5-17 months over 12 months of followup.1 Recruitment is already underway for a Phase III licensure trial to assess largescale safety and efficacy in 4,500 children, aged 5-36 months, across four African countries, and commercial partner, the Serum Institute of India, has committed to manufacturing at least 200 million doses annually in the coming years if licensure is achieved.

The WHO estimates that malaria causes over 400,000 deaths each year globally and says that progress in reducing malaria deaths has stalled in recent years.

Most deaths are amongst children in Africa.

With hope that an effective vaccine

IIb trial, Professor Adrian Hill from the University of Oxford, was keen to point out that Covid shows how quickly it could be deployed.

Writing in The Conversation, he noted: “The speed and success of developing COVID-19 vaccines shows what’s possible, and should be an inspiration to get this malaria vaccine finished, licensed and distributed. It’s important not just because of the threat malaria poses, but also because investing in vaccines can help prepare us for the next pandemic.

Work on this vaccine helped speed the development of the Oxford vaccine for COVID-19 as well.”2 He believes that one lasting benefit of a terrible pandemic might be a quicker route to a malaria vaccine and safer future for children in some of the world’s

against malaria could now be closer than ever before, co-author of the Phase

poorest countries. Let’s hope so.

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Datoo MS, et al. The Lancet 2021;May 5: https://doi.org/10.1016/ S0140-6736(21)00943-0.

2 New malaria vaccine proves highly effective – and COVID shows how quickly it could be deployed. Available at: https://theconversation.com/ new-malaria-vaccine-proves-highly-effective-and-covid-shows-howquickly-it-could-be-deployed-159585 [Accessed May 2021].

1

Reach out to JEN JAMES jen.james@dice-comms.co.uk

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Pharmacohesion® is a consistent, unified strategy to ensure your brand makes an impact.

Our work through Pharmacohesion® aims to marshal all the data, opinions and channels at our disposal to help you to build, launch and continually develop your brand within competitive worldwide and regional markets.

There are four stages to Pharmacohesion® – each informing the next in a continuous cycle:

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