Nevermind Kurt

I’m just back from the 2nd annual ExL Digital Marketing for Medical Devices conference in San Diego, a well-attended, information-laden event full of engaged participants and rich dialogue about the future of Med Device Marketing. The venue was the Hard Rock Hotel, an offbeat setting for a Med Device conference, and, truth be told I did find it a bit disconcerting to stumble past a portrait of Kurt Cobain before going to bed every night.

Location aside, the timing of the conference was propitious: On April 29, the day of my speech, the industry was greeted with potentially game-changing news. Jawbone, the company that makes the UP health tracking wristband (and other very cool technologies like the Jawbone Bluetooth speaker and wireless headsets) announced it had acquired BodyMedia for more than $100 million.

Bill Drummy's UP band: ready to track the ascent

This is a very big deal, for a number of reasons. First, the UP band, along with its major competitors The Nike+ Fuel Band, and the FitBit, represent the maturation of the “wearable computing” revolution. Mobile technology has now advanced to the point where reasonably priced devices are being quickly adopted by consumers (UP bands now track one billion steps a day, and 600,000 hours of sleep every night), realizing the promise of improving people’s fitness. Moreover, the acquisition of BodyMedia means Jawbone is doubling down in the healthcare space, acquiring some 87 additional patents for wearable computing, and declaring itself a major medical device player.

Jawbone can no longer be considered a novelty company with a “cute,” ancillary technology.

According to FastCompany.com: ‘Jawbone’s acquisition of BodyMedia foreshadows a future when its products may be used for medical purposes’ — some believe health insurance companies could be using digital fitness tools to calculate premiums down the road, for example.

“‘BodyMedia has invested a ton in medical-grade products — they have FDA approval,’ Jawbone CEO Hosain Rahman says. ‘They understand how to run a clinical trial.’”

Significantly, Jawbone also announced that they are opening up their API to outside developers, which means that makers of, I don’t know, traditional medical devices, now have the opportunity to connect (or even merge) their devices with the UP technology, with tantalizing potential for speeding device adoption, increasing compliance, and, ultimately, improving outcomes for patients while reducing healthcare costs.

So it’s a very exciting time indeed to be in the Med Device business, as long as you have the right vision for the future, and the willingness to take risks and think in new ways about how Med Device companies should be delivering value to patients, HCPs, payers — indeed the entire healthcare ecosystem.

I realize that’s a big “if.” Because it’s equally possible to read UP’s move as a dire threat, causing some conservative Med Device manufacturers to think the UPstarts are about to bypass them… because the traditional manufacturers just can’t compete with the fast-moving Silicon Valley players.

People harboring such pessimism will surely find it self-fulfilling.

Another, more optimistic theme also emerged from the conference: pragmatic ways in which Med Device manufacturers can embrace the new world and turn their deep understanding of disease states and patient behavior into new market opportunities. In my speech, I spoke about the ways in which some healthcare giants have begun to partner with technology companies to create mobile apps that solve specific patient problems, to develop plug-ins that connect mobile phones to devices, and to improve the dialogue between patients and HCPs. All worthy, appropriate goals that can produce significant business results. But these initiatives can’t be approached successfully without a deep understanding of how this new world works, and the steps you need to take to get the business and the technology right.

Many companies start moving down the path to a mobile healthcare app, for example, and get stopped in their tracks when they discover they need to get the app approved as a medical device. But to succeed in a dynamically changing atmosphere, you can’t abandon your strategy at the first encounter with some turbulence. Getting your app approved by the FDA as a Medical Device (510(k) clearance) does add time and cost to your initiative. In most cases, though, it doesn’t add years to the timeline or millions to the budget; we’ve found it to be a manageable endeavor and one that can be well worth the investment if the app you’re building will truly add value and improve outcomes.

Of course, not all the talk at the conference was about mobile apps and wearable computing. There were plenty of thoughtful presentations about the “blocking and tackling” of Med Device marketing, including developing global websites (Olympus’ Ross Nunamaker @rossnunamaker and, in a variation on that theme, Becton Dickinson’s James Walker @jimmyw8; the importance of “content marketing” (Cook Medical’s Gail McDaniel and, focusing on HCP webinars, Gambro’s Anne Bonelli); patient support programs (Zimmer’s Line Berg Østergaard @superline); and a particularly well structured and clear-sighted talk from Prolifiq CEO Jeff Gaus @jeffgaus, about how mobile “appification” is changing the entire enterprise software landscape.

The rocky, momentarily stable, San Diego shoreline

It was revealing that several of the speakers expressed, in colorful language, that marketers had to have the “guts” (think of another word for “guts”, a little lower down) to take risks. In fact, according to Dr. Jon Hyman, an orthopedic surgeon and founder of Orthomind.com, this particular anatomical trait may be more important than any other if you want to accomplish anything substantial as the tsunami of change keeps rearranging the economic shoreline.

And to me, this relates directly back to the UP news: a hot silicon valley company has decided health devices are a growth business and you can make money at it if you approach the issue with fresh eyes. They must have some… guts.

So after a decade of debate, what exactly have we learned and where do we go from here? To answer this last ROI riddle, the outspoken Heartbeat CEO takes us through his journey to find support for “Evidence-Based Marketing” – where we started, the evolution of ROI measurement, and how we’ve finally arrived at digital’s accepted success.

Check out the feature article for Pharmaceutical Executive magazine and what is the most definitive piece you’ll find on measuring ROI in pharma:

Evidence-Based Marketing: Its Rise, Stall and Ultimate Triumph

Source: Bill Drummy, as published in Pharmaceutical Executive magazine
Date Published: April 2013

Combining the two can be a precarious effort, of course: finding just the right perspective, context and punchline. Calibrating the laugh such that it provides insight and not insult. Even then, you still have to navigate revisions and regulatory, focus group reports as well as feedback from friends and family. ­Holding onto a good joke can be even harder than writing one.

But when a solution to a manageable condition is combined with an inspirational consumer insight, healthcare marketing can deliver a laugh along with an indelible message. Here are a few chuckles and hoots from our international colleagues:

Check out the article on MM&M online:
Private View: Combining advertising with humor

Source: MM&M Magazine
Date Published: April 2013

So I’m just back from the DTC National conference in DC (#DTCN2013). I was one of the leaders of a workshop there on Digital Marketing, along with Aurora Archer (@auroraarcher) from AstraZeneca, Buddy Scalara (@marketingbuddy) from Ogilvy, and Bill Meisle (@billmeisle) most recently with GSK. After the workshop (four hours with a very curious and informed group of pharma marketing folks), I managed to catch some of the main conference agenda as well, although (sadly) I did not manage a glimpse at a single cherry blossom.

I was most impressed with a speech from futurist David Houle (@marketingshift). The following highlights of his talk, derived from his recent book, “The New Health Age,” you may find as worthwhile as I did.

Houle’s thesis is that, due to the radical impact of technology (particularly the Internet and mobile devices), we have entered a new epoch in human history, one that portends far faster and more dramatic change than our species has ever witnessed before. Houle christens this new era “The Shift Age” and the years we are now living through as the “transformation decade;” he predicts that over these ten years, we will see as much change as our species has experienced over the last 1,000 years.

Three forces (or “flows”) are behind the breathtaking acceleration of change of the transformation decade: the flow to global, the flow to the individual, and, enabling the first two flows, the constant stream of electronic connectedness.

All of this resonated strongly with me, as I have been writing about what I call the “Speed of Change” for the last several years. But for an audience concerned with the practical implications of rapid change in the healthcare environment, the most interesting part of Houle’s talk began with his discussion of “9 dynamic flows.” Or to express it in more pedestrian terms, nine ways in which the orientation about healthcare is changing in fundamental and permanent ways. The idea is that the transformative effects of the shift age will trigger a “shift” in consciousness from outmoded, “legacy” ways of thinking, to new cognitive and behavioral paradigms better adapted to this changed environment. Most of these “flows” are trends you have heard or read about and which you may be already seeing. But it was impressive, and stimulating, to see them laid out in one, well-framed package.

Think of it this way, Mr. Houle suggests, healthcare constitutes 20% or so of the economy. But few of the forces of the rest of the economy have really yet impacted this 20%. In the next few years, the dynamic affecting the 80% of the rest of the economy will begin transforming this lagging 20% much more profoundly. So this is what’s in store for healthcare in this decade, nine “flows” divided into three broader categories:

How we THINK about Health Care

1. From Sickness to Wellness. With the economic pressure to contain costs while improving outcomes, and with greater access to information (i.e. the “flow to the individual”), we will see participants in the healthcare ecosystem (including pharma) needing to focus on promoting wellness, as opposed to reacting to sickness.
2. From Ignorance to Awareness. Again, with information so, fluid, and with the individual so much more empowered by technology to gain greater access to knowledge, patients and caregivers will be ever more aware of their role in management of their care, and in the selection of treatment (including branded Rx options).
3. From Supplier driven to Payer Driven. You see how these flows are co-mingling… With more information and higher pressure for the individual to be a conscious purchaser of healthcare, much new pharma marketing will need to focus on the financial discussion with people paying the bill, including consumers who are increasingly sensitive to costs because of high co-pays and insurance premiums.

How We DELIVER Health Care

4. From Treatment to Prevention. If we are really concerned about wellness and cost, it will force us to look upstream to where good healthcare begins. Not treating disease, but preventing it. I actually thought Houle could have gone further here: if a pharma company is in the wellness business, not the ‘sickness’ business, why not become a compliance, fitness and nutrition company, and not just a medicine company? Houle didn’t predict this would happen, but I am. In fact, certain pharmcos, like Sanofi, have already made moves in this direction.
5. From Reactive to Proactive. Related thought. Really another way of saying “from Treatment to Prevention” or even from “Episodic to Wholistic.”
6. From Episodic to Wholistic. #4 seeps into #5 and pools with #6. Instead of responding to illness episodically, let’s (finally) begin treating health as an asset to be preserved and fortified. Moreover, as personalized medicine starts making HCPs smarter about which medicines work best for which patients, we will move away from “one size fits all” medicine, and start treating individuals as, well, individuals.

How we PAY for Health Care

7. From Procedures to Performance. We are seeing this already, in the early attempts of Obamacare and health insurers to change to more outcomes-based measurement (capitated costs per patient and the like). Changing the incentives to match what we really want: better outcomes, not more procedures, is smart and inevitable.
8. From Isolation to Integration. People’s healthcare will not be looked at in isolation, and, when the promise of EHRs is realized, a treatment team will be much better able to manage the “whole person.” Moreover, the exploding role of social media in healthcare is leading to extremely influential patient advocacy communities that will have impact on treatment choices, approaches to care, and even legislative action.
9. From Non-efficient to Efficient. Again, this is redundant. But all the economic factors will favor the most efficient forms of delivery of healthcare. Any process or procedure that adds cost or waste to the system will wither away; the tolerance (and funding) for redundancy will eventually dry up.

In that vein, perhaps Mr. Houle could make his talk more efficient by channeling his nine tributaries into just the three broad categories. But that’s a quibble. I found his thinking on target and his presentation a useful way to direct all the change that’s hitting us into manageable conceptual buckets.

Other highlights from DTC National: David Meerman Scott’s lively and useful talk on “New rules of Marketing and PR,” which revealed that a surprising number of pharma marketers were serious Deadheads, and the Stryker/GSW knee replacement case study, which demonstrated the mechanics behind how a great health campaign rounded into place.

If you’ve been following my recent blog posts (and who hasn’t?) you may recall that I railed against ePharma in NYC for feeding people like horses (standing up in the exhibit space at elevated troughs). But DTC did exactly the same thing, so apparently it is now received wisdom that dropping crumbs near exhibitors’ booths is essential for conference success — paying customers be damned. Next time I’m packing my own beef jerky.

PS – You can see all my reactions on Twitter @drumbeat, #DTCN2013.

To help find out exactly what’s in store for pharma’s future, MM&M magazine gathered some of the industry’s eminent thinkers, including Heartbeat’s own Bill Drummy, to predict what 10 game changing trends are next on the horizon and why disregarding them would be ill-advised.

Check out the article on MM&M online:
10 trends that will change the face of the industry (if they haven’t already)

Source: MM&M Magazine
Date Published: April 2013

But for those of you missed last week’s ePharma Summit in NYC, you actually did miss something. Not everything was worthwhile, of course, and there was the usual uneven quality of presentations and annoying conference mechanics. But I found a couple of panels, and a few speeches, very valuable indeed.

Anyone who follows me on Twitter (@drumbeat) will know what I thought were the highlights, but to take a step back with a week’s perspective, and allow a moment’s reflection (how very un-twitter!), these are my larger thoughts about the event.

First, for those of you who don’t know, ePharma Summit has become, over the last few years anyway, arguably the most important of the many pharma-focused events that course through the year like so many antibodies in the marketing bloodstream. But like all such conferences, its grip on relevance is tenuous, dependent on the quality of the content, the speakers and the attendees.

Thought Leaders dig into Meaty Issues

On the first full day of the conference, the Thought Leader Panel, moderated by conference co-chair Paul Ivans, addressed some meaty industry issues perturbing an industry in the throes of change. After Mr. Ivans’ useful and delightfully data-rich opening (some nuggets: two-thirds of HCPs will be employees rather than independent businesses by the end of this year; US healthcare costs 18% of GDP, about twice what other developing countries spend, and we don’t get better outcomes for our higher spending), Nancy Phelan from BMS, and Charlotte McKines from Merck, both noted that the changing healthcare landscape was forcing the industry to (finally) become more ‘patient centric’ and, internally, less divided into silly siloes.

“We must stop looking at the patients in one dimension,” declared Ms. Phelan from her perspective as VP Customer Strategy & Operations at BMS. Ms. McKines, who is Merck’s VP Marketing Communications and Channel Strategies, agreed, although she took a different angle: “We need a more integrated approach to various disciplines. We should stop calling people ‘digital’; in the future, the successful marketer IS a digital marketer. There should be no more ‘Digital Centers of Excellence.’ Digital will be integrated into everything,” declared Ms. McKines.

Another panelist, Dr. Anthony Slonim, EVP and Chief Medical Officer from Barnabas Health ACO, provided sorely needed perspective from the increasingly influential ACO world. (And kudos to ePharma organizers for bringing this viewpoint to a pharma marketing conference.) “The increasing focus on prevention and wellness is important; but the role of the entire care team is changing dramatically.” This is one of the least well-understood of the changes caused by the Affordable Care Act (aka “Obamacare”). And it presents a different paradigm than pharma is accustomed to. “We haven’t engaged with doctors to see how all this is affecting their jobs,” observed Dr. Slonim.

Cavan Redmond, the refreshingly straightforward new CEO of WebMD, noted that the setting for delivery of healthcare is changing rapidly as well. “Last year, the 15th million patient walked into a Medi-clinic; that represents the fastest growth of a new healthcare delivery paradigm – ever.” Roger Holstein, CEO of Healthgrades, pointed out some of the flaws in the existing patient marketing model for pharma. “Healthcare is always local. But DTC takes a national approach… We need to understand the ROI and efficiencies of all channels on a local level.”

The roll of the field salesforce, too, needs to be reexamined. “You need to use your sales reps differently;” asserted Dr. Slonim, “They need to be adding value to physicians and patients.”

The conversation moved on to other big issues and I heard from several other audience members afterwards that we all wished the discussion could have continued for another hour. Too many significant issues to squeeze into a 40-minute time slot. Still, credit where credit is due: The panel added a weightiness to the proceedings that is rarely attained.

Doctors Speak: What Pharma is Missing

The other major highlight of the conference’s first day came near the very end of the day, with a robust physician discussion about their changing reality (and how pharma could be more relevant to that reality.) Moderated by Sanjay Pingle, President of Physician’s Interactive, the panel included three MDs along with Wendy Mayer, the VP of Worldwide Innovation for Pfizer (a daunting title if there ever was one.)

“We haven’t figured out,” said Ms. Mayer, “how the changes in the healthcare landscape are changing our value proposition.” Dr. Jordan Safirstein, a Cardiologist from Mountain Lakes, NJ, agreed: “The old pharma marketing model is antiquated; you need to find out what doctors actually NEED. Pharma needs to find its way back to be an integral part of healthcare delivery.”

In a comment that reprised the theme Paul Ivans mentioned at the start of the day, Kecia Gaither, Vice Chairman of the Ob/Gyn Dept. at Brookdale University Hospital, underscored the doctor’s diminishing influence over prescribing. “Doctors still have a say on which drugs are on formularies, but the head of pharmacy and the CFO make the real decisions. Yet pharma is still starting with the medical person at the hospital, and then going to the CFO and Pharmacy head later.” So it’s incumbent on pharma to broaden their focus and alter their messaging to make the economic argument, not just the medical case, for using a branded medication. Dr. Gaither cited the instructive example of a drug to help lung development for premature infants. “The branded drug works in 24 hours, instead of 48 hours. So once I explained the value of saving that extra day in the Neo-natal unit, I got the more expensive medicine approved.”

On a similar theme. Dr. Vincent Marchello, Chief Medical Officer of Elderplan, part of Brooklyn’s Metropolitan Jewish Health System, explained the mechanics behind the new decision-making process: the Pharmacy Benefits Manager (PBM) presents data about drugs to be considered for formulary to the P&T Committee, which then approves products and informs Medicare, the ultimate payor in many cases. Without understanding how to influence this decision chain, much of pharma’s current marketing will be irrelevant. So how to do that? One example: “The #1 reason for readmission is medication interaction issues,” explained Dr. Marchello. “And there is a 1% penalty for readmission. That adds up to a lot of money, and so there’s a huge incentive for hospitals to reduce readmission.” Demonstrate how pharma products can reduce readmissions (and generally improve outcomes) and you can be successful in the new environment.

Again, the panel could have easily gone on for another hour, based on the richness of the topic and audience interest. But the 40 minutes were up.

These two panels alone made the entire event noteworthy. But there were other quality presentations as well, including a Mobile Panel that included Sharon DeBacco from Ironwood Pharmaceuticals, who spoke about the need for dynamic, personalized mobile content; Amy West from NovoNordisk presented a compelling case study (with real data!) on NovoNordisk’s successful Diabetes Patient Support program; Stephanie Schibell from Sanofi dove into what it takes to truly get a pharma culture to change; Merck’s Craig DeLarge’s gave an inspirational talk about mapping patient stories to the hero’s journey. And, my personal favorite on Day 2: Former Newsweek columnist Dan Lyons’ hilarious and eye-opening talk about the Social-Mobile Revolution (he said we are now living “inside the Internet” with cats poking heads through slices of bread – you had to be there). And of course there was the rock ‘n roll event for the Children’s Brain Tumor Foundation that included Janssen’s Pete Dannenfelser and Quality Health’s Chris Neuner, who broke new ground by playing a Kings of Leon song at a Pharma Conference. (Although, a slight disappointment that they did not chose “Sex on Fire.”)

4 Constructive Suggestions

So overall I’m very glad I was there and will attend (and present) again. But to be constructively critical, here’s what I hope to see change at the next ePharma Summit:

1 – More flexible time slots so that higher quality talks can reach a more natural conclusion. Why can’t the conference folks make timing changes on the fly to satisfy the audience’s true interests and attention? Yes, some people would get bumped, but the attendees would be happier (and isn’t that the purpose?)
2 – More slots allocated to the meaty topics that are the big drivers of change facing the industry (e.g., the role of ACOs, the treatment team dynamic; new selling dynamic caused by EHRs; the shift from the old DTC model to more targeted, granular campaigns). Again, credit to ePharma for addressing some of these issues this year, but the weighting needs to be shifted.
3 – Stop making people eat like horses — standing up at troughs. I know you do it so people will hang out in the Exhibitor space. But humans really don’t like it and many people just left to have a human-friendly lunch at these places called “restaurants” which are often located near (or even inside) hotels hosting conferences.
4 – Finally, another pet peeve of mine, since this is an “e” conference, can you please include people’s Twitter handles on the agenda and speaker slides? Would be nice not to have to search for those while Tweeting about some speaker’s brilliant remarks.

Ok, I’m done.

Google’s recently announced “Enhanced Campaigns” promises to bring major change to the way paid search bidding will be undertaken. What wasn’t announced, however, was the potential for the new “percentage-based bid adjustment process” to not only increase cost, but also limit control.

Lucky for us, Heartbeat Senior Search Planner, Kat Sabatini weighs the pros and cons in Heartbeat’s latest POV and shows you exactly how Google may be handicapping search planners (and your search campaigns) in the process.

Download the POV now:
Google AdWords Enhanced Campaigns

Source: Kat Sabatini | Senior Search Planner, Heartbeat Ideas
Date Published: March 2013

This position is in LA, but requires a week of training in our NYC office.

Responsibilities:


- Scope definition (deliverables, cost and schedule), and drafting statements of work
- Budget/resource planning, allocations and management to ensure profitability
- Managing large cross functional teams
- Tracking changes and project related tasks
- Working with account creative, client and media to obtain all necessary information and specifications to produce deliverables
- Assist in developing effective documentation, including sales proposals, creative briefs, project plans and site architecture and requirements documentation
- Ensuring quality of final deliverables
- Interfacing with internal and external clients as well as third party vendors


Candidates must have the following experience:

- 3- 5 years Internet project management experience
- Must have experience working with internal teams on multiple projects at once
- Proven success delivering projects on time and within budget
- Proficient in MS Project, Word, Excel, PPT, and Visio
- Meticulous attention to detail
- Self-motivated, disciplined, fast learner, organized
- Excellent verbal, oral and written communication skills
- Research & analytical skills
- Undergraduate degree or similar certification

Heartbeat’s own Janelle Starr – SVP, General Manager of Heartbeat West – was 1 of 10 women leaders in healthcare marketing who shared their stories with Med Ad News to reveal the many paths a career, and life, can take. Careers, what keeps them motivated, how they achieve work/home balance, the importance of networking, and gender differences (or lack thereof), nothing was off limits in this industry inside-look.

Check out the PharmaLive.com article to find out how these amazing women got to where they are today (and why they’re not planning on going anywhere).

“The View” Times 10

Source: Christine Truelove, Med Ad News, as featured on PharmaLive.com
Date Published: February 2013

The Search Planner is responsible for all aspects of day-to-day client account management. Part manager, part analyst—he or she will be expected to closely monitor campaigns, report on performance, and make suggestions for improvement within the team and to clients. He or she will have the opportunity to grow their knowledge and gain valuable industry experience by working closely with display and SEO teams, creative development, website and technical development, strategy and account teams.

Job Responsibilities:

• Day-to-day management of paid search accounts: budget pacing, optimizations
• Generate keyword lists and assist with ad copy development
• Implement and track client campaigns
• Conduct keyword research and competitive/market analyses; be able to present findings in both informal and formal environments
• Produce reports that analyze campaign activity
• Recommend testing opportunities or optimizations to clients and internal teams
• Utilize AdWords, Bing Ads, and Google Analytics (among other tools)

Job Qualifications:

• Bachelors Degree, 1-3 years of paid search experience
• Demonstrated knowledge of paid search best practices and bidding
• Proficiency in Microsoft Excel, PowerPoint, search engine tools
• A degree of “search nerdery” – a passion for what’s new in an evolving industry
• Ability to think on one’s feet and participate in team knowledge development
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills; some client-facing experience
• Experience working with healthcare/finance/”sensitive industry” clients a plus

Our synergistic approach to fulfilling client needs allows the Media Planner to be client facing while he/she simultaneously works with internal departments from conception to completion, making creative suggestions and providing input along the way.

This position is responsible for developing multi-channel media plans in accordance with the objectives, strategies and goals communicated by Heartbeat Idea’s roster of top tier clients. In keeping with Heartbeat’s philosophy of ‘next new’ you would also be responsible for meeting with vendors and sales reps to ensure our company stays on top of emerging media platforms and offerings.

Job Requirements:

Bachelors Degree
2-3 years of media planning experience across all channels
In-depth understanding of marketing and on- and off-line media
Knowledge of the terminology and mechanics of the advertising industry
Strong negotiation skills
Strong organizational skills and the ability to multi-task in a fast paced environment
Superior communication skills
Ability work independently while contributing to team goals
Working knowledge of 3rd party software: specifically DoubleClick, MRI and the Nielsen suite
Proficiency in Microsoft Excel and PowerPoint

Job Qualifications:

Understanding of CPM, CPC, CPA, and CPL buying models as well as GRPs
Ability to present ideas and gain consensus and support
A high level of energy and initiative to explore, conceptualize and implement new processes and work flows
Experience working with Pharmaceutical clients a plus

Maybe that’s your attitude too. Maybe your proudest professional moments have come when you found the perfect CTA for that OTC campaign, or when you & your partner hatched that ridiculously smart campaign idea for that biz dev pitch, or when you nailed the editorial tone on that copy deck.

That sound familiar? If it does, we should meet.

Heartbeat West, an integrated agency with digital roots, is looking for a tough ‘n’ talented Senior Copywriter to partner with us on campaign concept development and to drive the editorial creation of websites and interactive marketing applications. We opened our doors in Santa Monica this year in January and we’re building our creative team. This is your chance to be a part of something exciting from the ground up!

The ideal candidate will have a winsome attitude, understand the ever-changing interactive advertising landscape, and be anything but a yielding when it comes to enforcing copy development do’s and don’ts. We are looking for someone with healthcare writing experience though, so if you aren’t sure what HCP or DTP means…this isn’t for you.

Responsibilities:

Partner with ADs, and Designers to generate original marketing campaigns that open eyes and spark imaginations for on significant agency engagements and business development projects
Independent point person for original (directed) copy development on assigned client engagements, including both tactical projects (websites and interactive marketing applications) and creative campaigns
Conjure & evolve of top-notch marketing copy that realizes campaign & project objectives in engaging and articulate language
Justify creative work against creative brief objectives; aka, defend the work and hear the critiques
Pay obsessive attention to narrative consistency, voice & tone, as well as accuracy of content (in partnership with Editorial)
Commit to polishing copy details while maintaining broad perspective on narrative flow and editorial voice
Deliver fluent knowledge of interactive capabilities, content development and editorial flow
Write, reference and annotate copy in preparation for medical/legal review in a deadline-focused environment
See copy decks and manuscripts through development and to launch (in partnership with Editorial)
Develop original content for new projects, and collaborate with Medical Director when needed
Help mentor more junior Copy Writers, developing their ability to produce quality work

Skills:

Ability to recognize strong creative ideas and see them through to completion.
Ability to sell ideas to other members of the creative team and to clients.
In-depth knowledge of pharmaceutical/healthcare marketing.
Ability to thrive under pressure in a fast-paced environment.
Ability to meet deadlines for multiple projects simultaneously.

Requirements:

A strong copy portfolio and unique voice.
Track record as a creative problem solver with a knack for fresh ideas and a new perspective.
At least 5 years’ web copywriting experience, including work in pharma/healthcare.
Experience with writing consumer-focused content.
Bachelor’s degree.