Connected TV and OTT For Life Sciences Summit Event Recap

Keytakeaways from the CTV and OTT for Life Science Summit in Philadelphia

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Connected TV (CTV) is the future of programmatic advertising—and for the health and pharmaceutical industries specifically, this emerging channel represents a wealth of opportunities. Digital marketers are increasingly turning to CTV to round out their omnichannel strategies and reach the right audiences. 

This February, PulsePoint was excited to sponsor and participate in the first annual Connected TV and OTT for Life Sciences Summit. Hosted by Momentum Events on February 7–8 in Philadelphia, this summit brought together marketers and pharmaceutical professionals to discuss how they can use CTV to extend their traditional ad campaigns and reach the right patients and providers with their messaging. Speakers included programmatic and digital marketing experts from Google, CMI Media Group, Sanofi, Bayer, GSK, and PulsePoint.

PulsePoint Director of Client Strategy Eric Juran wrote up his key takeaways and themes from the event—don’t miss his insights below.

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Just the other day, I had the pleasure of attending the Connected TV and OTT for Life Sciences Summit, hosted by Momentum Events in sunny Philadelphia. If you asked me 2 to 3 years ago if there’d be a conference solely focused on OTT for pharma, I'd say you were joking. But here I was surrounded by agencies, brands, and partners all trying to better understand one of the most impactful channels for the pharma space. Folks took the time to talk about topics ranging from how to best test into CTV and measure its impact to creative best practices.

Here at PulsePoint, we think it’s paramount to look at CTV and OTT as part of an omnichannel media strategy. CTV is not a channel that should live in a silo but an important tool that can work in tandem with other channels to help benefit campaign outcomes. That’s why we’ve built the Life demand-side platform to embody a Real Time Intelligence Loop™ approach for all types of campaigns. This means you can plan, activate, measure, and optimize your omnichannel campaigns (inclusive of CTV/OTT) seamlessly, all in one place!

Here are a few of my takeaways based on the four most talked about themes were at the event:

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CTV and OTT life science planning‍

• According to Brett Saunders from the Halley Group, setting an actionable KPI at the onset is crucial. At PulsePoint, we stress the importance of determining your measurement plan (actionable KPIs) before you activate and use that framework to guide the campaign—including for CTV and other channels.
• Depending on the size of the media buy, consider OTT as part of your linear AND digital buys. CTV shouldn’t be planned in a silo or be one-sided.
• Lisa Hynoski of GSK reminded the audience that “HCPs are people too.”
• With a clear goal, CTV can be a great channel to reach HCPs given its 1:1 nature and that they can act just like other consumers.

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Health audience activation on connected devices

• Work with a platform that can activate omnichannel campaigns to minimize fragmentation and maximize control.
• Malcolm Halle from PulsePoint and Erica Hawthorne from The People People, co-presented on Using New TV Buying Approaches to Power Omnichannel Connected Journeys and spoke at length about the relationship between data and people. Erica said “using people's data to target them is like having a relationship with that person,” highlighting the importance of personalization and inclusion in CTV campaigns.

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How to measure CTV and OTT performance

• Christopher Whylie from Xandr echoed my stance on measurement and how benchmarks don't really exist. Every campaign is unique, so set your own and go from there!
• The space is heavily fragmented with no clear winning measurement solution (yet). 

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CTV healthcare campaign optimization

• Think quality over quantity when considering what data to use to optimize.
• Stephanie Douglas from Sanofi spoke to how, for the brands she oversees, embracing the “test and learn” framework for CTV was critical in understanding what success means and how it can impact optimizations.

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BONUS: Creatives that resonate with physicians and patients

• Reusing a consumer ad to reach HCPs is totally okay. It’ll work just fine.
• The quality of the creative/segmentation is 60% of the equation, i.e., very important.

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If any of the above caught your attention or surprised you, reach out at ejuran@pulsepoint.com! I’m always looking for a good discussion. Maybe we can solve CTV fragmentation together.

About Eric Juran, Director of Client Strategy, PulsePoint:

Eric Juran is a Director of Client Strategy who works with agencies and brands to formulate strategic digital activations for use in PulsePoint’s suite of healthcare-centric tools and platforms. Eric has worked with multiple top pharma and health/wellness companies during his career (including Gilead, Sanofi, and Unilever), spanning many therapeutic areas. He has experience in search, social, and programmatic channels and has held multiple certifications from Google, Trade Desk, Facebook, and other companies over his career. When not reading about, thinking about, or talking about digital strategy, you can likely find him going for a hike, playing a round of golf, or building something in his workshop at home. 

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