Welcome Jessica Seilheimer

Name: Jessica Seilheimer

Company: EURO RSCG LIFE MetaMax

Job Title: VP, Group Account Supervisor

Date Joined: 2-FEB-2009

I am an ePharma Pioneer and I have a lot to say about how I evolved into one.

I have been interested by all things “digitally possible” since I was given my first email address in college back in the Power MAC G4 days. However, I didn’t start my career off in pharma, I started in publishing--at Ladies Home Journal magazine and aided in the development and launch of More magazine and MORE.com-- my first foray into anything “digital” (which, at that time, equated to “website”) and I officially caught the E-bug.

I left publishing and moved in to pharma advertising in 2000 when product websites were nothing more than static flashcards and detail aids repurposed on screen. While working one of my accounts in 2002, I had the opportunity to concept, and lead the development of my client’s first grant-supported educational website for physicians. No one at my agency wanted to work on this project. I jumped on it. The objective was to offer physicians online CME, patient ed and tools to build their practice with a multi-disciplinary approach to patient care via an online channel.

This project took 13 months to complete and was the most movitativing professional experience because it was “baptism by fire”. It was the first website my agency had created; there was no case study, no process to base it on and we outsourced every web designer/writer and the youngest SEO specialist from a small PA “web” agency to get the project done (I’m not certain he was even out of college at that time, but knew everything there was to know then!) The site launched in August of 2004.

Via that opportunity, I learned a few things:

• I loved creating process where there is none
• I loved developing an interactive project that engaged the user (much more fluid that print)
• I loved designing the methodology for, and moderating unpaid market qualitative research to ascertain user experience feedback
• I knew that I had then crossed into a new era of my professional life

I continued to follow my instincts which led me into my next professional digital opportunity where I was accountable for the program management, content management, awareness efforts and growth of an independent, multi-grant supported educational initiative, another site offering online CME and practice tools to physicians. This was a shell of a site that needed populating, and fast. There was a content management system called Common Spot, so I had to learn how to write basic HTML code and manage the development and production of the content updates (archived webcasts, videos, animations, HCP interviews, real-time congress reports, etc…)

Following that, I yearned for greater marketing involvement, more creativity- overall greater brand presence. I went back to my roots in pharma and so began my 4-year tenure at Grey Healthcare Group.

Grey’s umbrella vision was digitally focused (as was the larger WPP vision) and change was in the air at that agency. I opted into every opportunities to learn about new digital offerings and trends by which pharma had opened its ears/eyes to through utilizing available channels/touchpoints for DTP and DTC promotional efforts.

For 2 years I focused my energies on a client’s multi-product franchise portfolio of professional and consumer business- print and then their digital business. Through collaborating with our seasoned interactive creative department we embarked on a journey of integrating a digital and print account (offline/online) at our agency- unchartered territory. A journey of trial and error lead to many failures and successes- all of which equated to positive learnings and applied best practices. I gained invaluable knowledge through working with innovative colleagues who challenged your mind and thinking (and the way we have traditionally done business with pharma clients) as to how we could engage and increase the reach to HCPs and patients through myriad initiatives via digital channels, including CRM programs and monitoring targeted social networks to inform strategic thinking. It was an invaluable overall 4-year experience and I applaud companies like WebMD, Sermo, J&J, Merck and AZ for leading the way and giving us digital case studies to learn from.

I just joined EURO RSCG LIFE MetaMax on a multi-product franchise that encompasses professional, consumer, MMR and digital business and have plans expand my knowledge and increase my experience within the pharm-tastic digital space.

I was excited to find the ePharma Pioneer Club. Having the opportunity to be an ePharma pioneer, network with, and learn from others who play and live in the digital space will enable me to further expand my knowledge, share best practices, unite others with innovative visions and contribute to the greater need of making web 2.0/health 2.0/semantic web (and whatever else everyone is coining this new digital era) a reality for pharma. From what I hear, all things 3.0 are peaking around the corner and I can’t wait to meet them!

I am a member of the HBA, HMC, both since 2006. I began my career at Interlink Healthcare Communications in Lawrenceville, NJ in January 2000. I graduated from William Paterson University with a BA in Journalism in 1997.

Welcome Eileen O'Brien

Name: Eileen O'Brien

Company: Compass Healthcare Communications

Job Title: Director, Online Promotions

Date Joined: 28 Jan 2009

Facebook Profile * LinkedIn Profile

I built my first healthcare website for consumers in 1995 and have been passionate about Internet marketing ever since!

As a marketer, the web was always part of my job, but since 1999 I have been dedicated to emarketing. I work at Compass Healthcare Communications, an interactive agency focused exclusively on pharma.

My current interest is adapting social media for the unique pharma space, and have spoken at several industry events on the topic as well as leading a CBI webinar.

Since 2000, I've acted as an expert judge for the Web Marketing Association WebAwards, the eHealthcare Leadership Awards and the WWW Health Awards. Also, I'm addicted to learning from colleagues and building relationships on Twitter.

I received my AB in history from Brown University and an MS in Organizational Dynamics from the University of Pennsylvania.

Back to the future

Social media stories are everywhere now and a lot of marketers are worried that if they don't have a social media strategy then they are losing a valuable marketing space. According to an article in Fortune almost 70% of of marketing social media programs are doomed to fail. Most pharma companies have not made the leap into social media yet for good reason: do consumers really want to engage pharma companies in conversation and can that conversation be attributed to ROI?

Let's step back a moment and look at the marketing environment. This is the worst economic period since the great depression. As a result consumers are spending less, have less to spend and going to the doctor less. According to Consumer Reports almost 70% of those patients that get an Rx are either not filling it, splitting tablets, or engaging in some other non-compliant behavior.

The growth numbers for social media are stunning but remember that people are spending a lot more time at home now, are angry and want to vent, and are using social media for to stay in touch with friends. Some marketers have a major presence on social media sites but the debate about ROI (i.e. linking to sales) is still up for serious debate.

So should pharma experiment with social media programs? Well first there has to be a fundamental change in the way pharma looks at marketing of prescription drugs. Marketing today is not about products it's about relationships and the relationship between consumers and big pharma is broken. The change from product to relationship starts with complete transparency on all levels of the organization. This is a new concept for pharma and they have to tread lightly because there are a swarm of sharks ,known as the legal profession, who would like nothing better than for pharma to admit a new side effect for drug currently on the market. Still pharma's efforts to reach out to current customers has been dismal at best. It would be easy to build a database of customers to update them on ongoing clinical trials and allow patients to share information and tips but then the legal and regulatory people would need megadoses of Maalox.

This gets me back to my original point: do consumers want to have a relationship with big pharma? The answer to that is if the relationship is beneficial then YES. How can it be beneficial? Pharma has a lot of medical expertise in the form of thought leaders and inhouse medical people. Consumers want access to these people because they don't often get the time to truly have a conversation with physicians. Chain drugs have tried to enhance the patient-pharmacist relationship but it can be embarrassing to talk about your prescription while others wait on line.

DTC marketers are seeing huge budget cuts now and they have to ensure that every dollar they have goes to drive business. They can try and educate and inform senior executives that marketing has moved from product to conversation but that discussion is always going to come back to "what's the ROI". Until senior management understands the change in marketing pharma will just dabble in social media and until they understand that it's what of value to the patient/customer not marketer that drives the conversation we'll just be headed back to the future.