The Playlist, Not the Single: What True Omnichannel Looks Like in Practice

PulsePoint’s annual HealthNEXT Summit focuses on the most pressing issues health marketers face today. This year’s summit, hosted in New York City, was a high-impact, single-day event where the industry’s top doers, thinkers, and innovators came together to discuss how health marketing is changing—and what they can do to future-proof their strategies.

This post is part of a series of the top takeaways from each of the summit’s sessions, including expert-led panels, one-on-one fireside chats, and innovation breakouts.

4 Key Takeaways From The HealthNEXT Omnichannel Panel

Health marketers have never had more channels at their disposal: search, social, endemic, EHR, conversational AI, audio, and beyond. But when channels operate in silos, all that reach is only partly realized. The brands winning today aren’t just present everywhere; they’re telling one coherent story across every touchpoint in the physician journey, including the walled gardens. 

This session, moderated by PulsePoint’s VP of Sales Amy Fishman, dug into what true cross-channel orchestration actually requires and what’s at stake for brands that crack it. The panel was a lineup of, in Fishman’s words, “powerhouse females leading our industry.” Here are some top takeaways from their discussion.

1. Orchestration is essential

Marketers hear a lot about omnichannel in theory, but in practice, most teams are still managing channels in separate workflows with different teams, budgets, and measurement. What barriers to orchestration do industry leaders encounter today, and what do brands gain from pulling it off? 

Rachel Eckerling, Executive Vice President of Performance Media at Publicis Health Media, compared omnichannel orchestration to a literal orchestra: The brass, string, and percussion sections all operate in completely different ways, but their work has to harmonize in order for a performance to succeed.

Likewise, every line of communication in an omnichannel campaign also needs to work in harmony. “They need to function as one holistic arm for omnichannel to work in a holistic, strategic way,” Eckerling said.

Gillian Parrish, Director of US Oncology Marketing at Gilead, laid out two major reasons why true orchestration pays off: Impact and speed. “An orchestrated brand has 40%–50% more ROI than a siloed brand,” she said. And when it comes to launch day, “Everything has to coordinate.” A well-orchestrated campaign can reach full speed on day zero, while siloed brands can take weeks to accelerate.

2. Center the physician journey

When a physician is researching a new drug, they might search for clinical data, see a social ad, receive an email, and encounter an EHR alert all within the same decision journey. How can marketers coordinate those touchpoints so they reinforce each other rather than feel repetitive or contradictory?

“Physicians experience one seamless journey,” said Jill Kregel, Head of Partnerships at Omnicom Media Health. Every interaction with an HCP should build on the previous one rather than contradicting it. “The key is to ensure that every touchpoint actually adds value, not just serving the same ad over and over.”

When brands move from channel-centric planning to journey-centric planning, they may find that less is more. Parrish argued that true omnichannel is “signal-driven, not calendar-driven.” Instead of working to meet a set schedule of ads, brands should aim to connect with HCPs in the right moments. “You don’t want to feel spammy.”

3. Messages can flourish in walled gardens

Walled gardens are part of the omnichannel landscape today. How do our panelists decide what belongs inside a walled garden versus the open ecosystem when you're building a plan? 

Christie Volke, Executive Vice President of Media Strategy at Assembled Intelligence, encouraged marketers to remember that walled gardens serve a purpose. “The point of a walled garden is to protect the data that lives there,” she said. With that in mind, marketers have rich opportunities to use the platforms how they’re meant to be used, creating moments that engage audiences where they already are.

Is walled garden fragmentation here to stay, or should marketers expect to see more consolidation in the future? Eckerling pointed out that, like any pattern in the industry, nothing is forever. Marketers can’t predict the future, but they can adjust their strategy to expand and contract based on current trends.

4. Don’t leave out sales

Marketers track real-time signals constantly—page visits, content downloads, and so on—and feed those signals into the media engine for channel orchestration. But where does sales force activity fit into that picture today? Are CRMs playing in tune with the rest of the marketing “orchestra”? 

Parrish said the industry needs to work communication channels between advertising and sales. “We’re good at sending things to physicians. But how do we take field insights and feed them into marketing to inform our strategy?” she asked.

“We can set sales up for greater success,” said Volke, citing the tools marketers currently have at their disposal—including HCP365—to gain powerful insights about audiences. She hoped to see brands using those as part of a more comprehensive, orchestrated effort between marketing and sales teams.

As any of our expert panelists will attest, true omnichannel marketing is easier said than done. But the stakes are too high for brands to fall back on traditional channel-based thinking and siloed operations. When cohesive audience journeys consistently drive better outcomes, cross-channel orchestration is essential to deliver results for brands, HCPs, and patients.  

Keep an eye out for more posts diving into each of the topics we discussed at HealthNEXT 2026. Want to be involved in our next event? Contact the team here.