Forecasting 2024: Five Trends To Help You Plan for Pharma Marketing Success in the New Year

As you close in on the end of 2023, it may feel hard to predict where you need to focus in 2024. Let us help! Here are five areas we recommend.  

• Pharmatizing artificial intelligence (AI). What do you need to do while AI is hitting its stride across healthcare? 
• The global advertising market. It’s growing in surprising ways: how should that change your approach? 
• Television. Almost 90% of the top live programs have one thing in common…is that where you’re advertising?  
• Social media. Things changed a great deal in 2023, particularly for one platform. But other platforms are offering brands a tool that was once limited to big budgets.   
• Health equity. Where can brands consider – and change – social determinants of health?  

Pharmatizing AI 

You won’t be surprised that AI is first on our list of important trends. But of course, AI is nothing new, having been interwoven into our days, and our work, for years. What IS new is the increasing capability and power of AI tools – and, therefore, new uses, many of which are more visible than older, behind-the-scenes utilities. This includes exciting improvements to healthcare research and treatment, but of course, where we focus our attention at EVERSANA INTOUCH is on what we call “pharmatizing AI” for life-sciences marketers (as evidenced by our partnership with Amazon Web Services to create AI solutions).  

Your 2024 Take-Home: The AI revolution isn’t one you can sit back and wait to finish. It’s important to explore what’s available now and talk to experts to determine where your brand should be benefiting today from these new tools. (After all, your competitors are!) 

Advertising Grows… But Only for a Few  

The global advertising market is expected to top $1 trillion for the first time in 2024, and more than half of that will be spent on Alibaba, Alphabet (which owns Google and YouTube), Amazon, ByteDance (which owns TikTok), and Meta (which owns Facebook, Instagram, and Threads). Moreover, the growth of the market is expected to come from those five alone – the other 48.1.% of advertising will be flat. And pharma advertising, as a sector, is expected to be one of the fastest-growing sectors, at 11%, more than half of which will be in digital.  

Your 2024 Take-Home: It’s hard to overestimate how much these five companies affect advertising. Consider where your investment makes the most impact: depending on your brand and your audiences, do you want to be in the busiest arena or a bigger fish in a smaller pond?  

The Definition of “TV” Continues to Evolve 

While linear TV spend continues its decline, connected TV is growing. To put that into context, though, despite the decline, linear TV is still the world’s third-largest medium. And in live TV, 86% of the top live programs are sporting events. That’s quite a stat, and one that pharma advertisers should notice. 

Your 2024 Take-Home: Consider where sporting events fit into your mix. And while it isn’t time to give up on linear TV, it’s definitely time to amp up your attention to streaming audiences.  

The Shifting Social Media Landscape and Opportunities 

“Stay away from Twitter” was not a recommendation you would have seen in mid-2022 – but the platform formerly known as Twitter looks like an increasingly risky option, as both monthly users and advertisers back away, given the volatility of its new owner. It’s not all bad news on the social front, though. Short-form digital video on TikTok and Instagram Reels are increasingly popular full-screen, audio-on, cost-effective ways to create targeted, memorable, emotional connections.  

Your 2024 Take-Home: Your social media mix is definitely not “set-it-and-forget it”: keep a weather eye on who you choose to work with. And stop thinking of video as a large-budget-only option: digital brand building with short-form video is powerful at any scale!   

Health Equity Remains a Priority, Especially in Market Access 

As Gary Ainsworth, Managing Director and Head of Market Access, wrote recently, “[Studies] have confirmed access disparities based on geography and race, particularly when it comes to essential medications. These findings emphasize the critical need for pharma/biotech manufacturers to incorporate considerations of social determinants of health (SDoH) into their market access strategies.” Curious to learn more about SDoH? We have a recent article on that, too, by Becca Sturey, Senior Copywriter.  

Your 2024 Take-Home: Consider how your brands can play a more active part in improving SDoH, from policy to patient assistance, from accessible websites to targeted educational materials (and Becca notes many other opportunities in her article).  

As you look ahead to 2024 with your EVERSANA INTOUCH team, keep these five topics in mind to ensure you’re not only prepared, but ahead of the rest!