You probably know the fun and ease of streaming music. Playlists update constantly, automatically predict your interests, and refresh based on your listening activity. But what does that have to do with pharma direct-to-consumer (DTC) marketing you ask?
Most pharma brands and their agencies aren’t “streaming” – they’re building audiences that are equivalent to that CD you bought. Or an old mix tape you made, with a list of songs that never changes. They’re using consumer real-world data (RWD), such as past claims, labs, appointments, and prescriptions, that are a snapshot of a patient, frozen in time.
Your CDs or vinyl collection are an important part of your musical history and profile. Remember naming your playlist and writing it on a CD with a colorful permanent marker? We digress... Similarly, RWD is the bedrock of DTC audience building because it can tell us a lot about a patient’s past. That longitudinal story is a strong starting point, but hardly the whole or current picture of your ideal patients. Instead, think about RWD as a background to train a predictive, AI model. Just like your listening history can inform streaming services’ predictions of songs you may like, claims and other data can help AI predict when patients are approaching brand eligibility—and a conversion opportunity.
Most marketers still use RWD to create their actual campaign audience list. If patient eligibility or needs change – as they always do – campaign targeting will be no more than a shot in the dark. Indeed, many brands invest in RWD-based lists for years, which could be leading to media waste and missed opportunities.
Certainly, real-world data showed an accurate picture of a patient’s needs and wants at a point in time, but it’s highly likely that patient’s needs have changed by the time your campaign launches. When used as an audience-building tool, RWD is “dated” data – and can be months old by time you execute.
When you have a data lag and can’t predict critical info about your target audience, a lot can get missed:
The result? Limited commercial impact that can weaken marketing results and prevent qualified patients from learning about your brand.
Mistimed or misdirected marketing doesn’t just lower new Rx rates, it can result in fewer prescriptions attributed to marketing activity. And while the perception is that pharma marketing budgets are unlimited, the reality is that media spending is heavily scrutinized, and inefficient marketing can threaten future budget allocations. More importantly, failing to connect with truly eligible patients at ideal, conversion-friendly moments means they may miss out on critical information, support, and potentially life-changing therapies.
It starts by shifting your approach to the data. Here’s what that looks like in practice:
By using RWD in its appropriate historical context, marketers can avoid the challenges of data lags, and limitations of conventional approaches to consumer audiences. AI is ideally suited to find patterns in large datasets, and use those patterns to make predictions about future occurrences. That means lists stay fresher, media placement is more targeted, and brand conversion is more likely. At OptimizeRx, we call these lists adaptive audiences—made possible through our Dynamic Audience Activation Platform (DAAP).
In most campaigns, you or your agency are likely to begin by developing an ideal patient profile (using RWD) to “find” your targets. With OptimizeRx’s adaptive audiences, that profile becomes an actual, brand-specific AI predictive model that looks for eligibility signals, and links those signals to hyper-local geographies comprised of the 35M+ available zip-9s.
Based on the optimal refresh cadence, marketers can then prioritize the zip-9s with the greatest concentration of signal to reach the maximum eligible patients. HIPAA complaint scale is delivered across preferred channels, with a highly relevant, personalized brand message. In this way, media is always optimized to reach the segments with the greatest opportunity for brand conversion. This dynamic media deployment solves the challenges of returning a higher ROI while meeting patients’ evolving care needs and staying privacy safe.
How adaptive audiences are different:
Think of adaptive audiences as the streaming playlist of your DTC marketing campaign – advanced, AI-driven technology that offers unmatched precision and personalization. Fueled by RWD, easy to launch, and with the potential to deliver six times higher script lift while helping patients thrive. And that’s music to our ears.
Learn more about OptimizeRx’s adaptive DTC audiences, powered by our Dynamic Audience Activation Platform and Micro-Neighborhood® Targeting technology.