As health marketing undergoes rapid disruption around privacy and identity, delivering personalized messaging at scale becomes a steeper challenge—and an even more important goal. It isn’t just about “selling” more products. It’s about finding new ways to reach people and improve health outcomes.

At AdLab Health Marketing Summit, DeepIntent Founder and CEO Chris Paquette urged harnessing the full power of data and tech to this end, saying, “This is precisely the time when innovators and experts must come together to create a powerful vision for our future.”

Paquette moderated our AdLab panel, “The Tables are Turned in the Study of Technology,” which asked leaders to identify the roadblocks to personalized advertising and the most promising opportunities to surmount them. Panelists Brian Malinowski, EVP of Business Intelligence at Publicis; Joshua Palau, VP of Performance Media at Pfizer; and Frank Lin, VP and GM of Digital Media at IQVIA, shared their visions for collaboration and progress.

It Starts with Interoperability

Pharmaceutical brands, healthcare agencies, data providers, and ad tech companies are all working toward the same goal: improving patient outcomes. For that to happen, it is essential to ensure that our data, technology, and people communicate effectively with one another.

Paquette asked our panelists to highlight state-of-the-art solutions and best practices that will advance innovation in our industry. Lin said, “The state-of-the-art is the benchmark we all have been striving for. We’re all struggling with aspects of data coming together or how [to] do personalization. Instead of just having this aspirational goal, how do you sequence those objectives into that end goal?”

According to Palau, the state-of-the-art comes down to “doing the fundamentals right” and understanding the problem we’re trying to solve. Whether it’s more personalization, improved measurement, or better consumer journey mapping, “I’m trying to solve for patients getting the right products.”

Malinowski offered a way forward, “The concept of interoperability is one that I think we take for granted,” he said. “Most of our large clients have so many disparate data systems, sources, [and] processes. The state of the art doesn’t have to be a technology issue. It can sometimes be more about just getting the right people in a room to solve a problem that you already have.”

Personalized Advertising Requires Outcomes-Based Data

Data powers everything we do, from campaign planning to optimization and measurement. And there’s one area where our data is seriously lacking: quantifying the real-world impact of personalized advertising on patient outcomes. That’s why companies like IQVIA are focused on incorporating more outcomes-based data from clinical research and patient care into digital media campaigns.

“Our roadmap is highly influenced [by] the definition of patient outcomes,” said Lin. “We are really starting to inject leading-indicator data for the purpose of personalization, not only for delivering the message at the right place and right time. We believe that it’s time to go beyond that—how do they feel when they get that message, what are they supposed to feel, and how do we marry the two together? That’s part of the predictive understanding of what is the right way to take care of a patient.”

Malinowski noted the importance of leveraging outcomes data to measure and optimize faster, ultimately driving better conversion rates. However, interoperability is still a challenge. “The data that exists in the space is so vast,” he said. “Actually harnessing it is one thing. Harnessing the different datasets and platforms that are actually going to be able to work together—that’s the biggest part of establishing the roadmap.”

You Can’t Spell Innovation Without AI

According to Palau, “The job of the marketer is simple: make a meaningful connection with a consumer.” As consumers expect more personalization in advertising, he sees the potential in artificial intelligence (AI) to deliver personalized content at scale, among other benefits. For example, his team at Pfizer currently uses an AI-powered tool called Charlie, which tracks pacing. “It shows where our spend [is] going. It shows some level of analytics. It all builds into this bigger platform where we are doing more content creation as well.”

Malinowski highlighted the value of improving the customer’s journey, noting that “the customer wants to feel like they are being spoken to.” This is one of the main reasons he believes we’ll see more education and evangelization within organizations about AI’s promise.

Even with new and forthcoming privacy regulations, it’s crucial for us to keep up with our customers. By joining forces and using more holistic data, we can build future-proof solutions that enable life-changing personalized advertising.

Malinowski explained that these solutions are often more within reach than we might assume. “It’s orchestration, it’s organization, it’s centralization,” he said. “Making sure things are mapped out, data sources are addressed, and things are actually clear [as regards] what we’re using and what we’re using it for, and just keeping tabs on what we’re building and how we’re actually going to use it. I think that’s really state-of-the-art in its simplest form.”

Want more insights from AdLab Health Marketing Summit? Check out these top takeaways from our attendees!