Yet another HIMSS has come and gone. As promised, we took a look back at our predictions and also did a data-driven and qualitative analysis to showcase key insights and findings from HIMSS19.  The end goal being to provide valuable insights on how best marketers and communicators can optimize their efforts at HIMSS in 2020.

Qualitative Insights from HIMSS

This year, big tech and consumer companies solidified their focus in healthcare and showcased tangible products and momentum. For example, tech juggernauts like Salesforce came out swinging with hard news focused on new capabilities aimed at personalizing the patient experience and breaking down data and information silos to better connect patients and providers. Whereas Google went from glitzy main stage keynote in 2018 to in-booth demos showcasing that they are ready and able to meet providers greatest cloud and data challenges – even if they involve faxes.  For more tried and true health tech players in the space, this year signaled stiffer competition as these more mainstream brands start to show value regarding proof of concept.

In addition, mainstream media was out in full force for what I believe to be the first time ever at HIMSS.  Notable media organizations like Kaiser, CNBC, Wall Street Journal and even STAT were present and covering news from the show.  STAT even went so far as to have a daily newsletter.  To me, this signals that media – beyond Healthcare IT News, Health Data Management and Health Leaders – is recognizing that tech in healthcare is directly tied to consumer health and well-being.  What was once a massive B2B playground for health IT vendors is now a more level playing field as media makes the connection between the future of tech and a vision for the healthcare of tomorrow.

Lastly, people were excited about the promise of AI again. There seemed to be much less trepidation and fear associated with AI. Given the focus on data liberation at the big event, AI innovation seemed natural fit for mainstream discussion. After all, to derive insights from data you actually need to be able to access and share the data. Clearly, it’s a good time to be an AI company in healthcare.

Data-Driven Insights for HIMSS 2020

Many of the predictions shared by influencers in advance of HIMSS19 were spot on. As expected, AI (#AI was second most used hashtag at HIMSS), patient experience, patient care and cloud were all big topics of conversation. Other notable topics of conversation that weren’t high on our radar but stood strong at HIMSS were value-based care, Internet of Things, augmented reality and virtual reality. These are the topics and technologies that people were excited to see and experience while in Orlando.

Other key data-packed takeaways to help you plan for HIMSS 2020:

• Conversation on Twitter peaked on Tuesday – plan your social content pre- and early-stage at the conference. Conversation grows crowded and then drops quickly as you hit the mid-mark during HIMSS week.
• Top media included Healthcare IT News, Healthcare Finance News, Mobihealthnews and Physicians Practice – most these media properties are HIMSS-owned but Physicians Practice is notable and should be considered a target for news and subject matter expert one-on-ones. Also, the HIMSS social media ambassador program is changing. We are interested to hear more details on just that.
• Your booth and paid presence matters at HIMSS, still – “Booth” was the most common one-word term. The fastest way to cut through the clutter is to put smart dollars behind marketing at HIMSS and to create an in-booth experience that is engaging and forward-looking (see Nuance.) Also, if you have the money, get your experts on the stages and podiums that matter most to your organization. It’s worth it.

With the breadth of new health tech and digital health events, there are an array of ways to spend your marketing and communications dollars.  And while events like HLTH and CES offer interesting takes on tangential topics and trends, the reality is that HIMSS remains the largest health IT show in the world.  It’s the one place where each and every facet of healthcare is connected for a few short days – and it’s a space that is changing more rapidly than ever.  That change and innovation at the intersection of healthcare and technology is critically important for each and every one of us who is or will be reliant on our healthcare system and the people behind it. And so while HIMSS is massive and an investment, it’s necessary and important – for the future of healthcare and for the brands driving this change day-in and day-out.

Research and contributions for this post were provided by Lauren Walter, Research Manager at W2O.

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If you’re interested in learning about W2O, check out our Analytics and Healthcare pages.

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Last night, I addressed the San Francisco chapter of the Healthcare Business Women’s Association (HBA) on trends and insights related to diversity and inclusion coming out of the 37^th Annual J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference, which took place in the city earlier this month. This was especially meaningful to me as I recently was selected to sit on the HBA’s Global Board of Advisors. This is a huge honor as HBA is dedicated to improving gender parity to achieve meaningful progress for women in business and optimize the benefit to business.

As the founder and CEO of W2O, one of the things I’m most proud of is our dedication to gender parity at all levels of the firm. It is without a doubt the reason for our continued growth and success.

In sharing insights on JPM 2019 – the annual conference that brings more than 9,000 healthcare investors, media and business development teams together for five days – I based my observations on presentations made by more than 450 executives from the world’s leading drug and biotech companies, who set the tone and expectations for performance over the year to come.

I’ve been attending this conference for more than 20 years and have witnessed an incredible amount of change in the industry. This year, my three main takeaways were:

• Companies are positive about business in 2019.
• Pipelines are a priority.
• Margin expansion and investment are strategic imperatives.

Having said that, I focused my remarks last night, not on financial forecasts and outcome predictions of failures and success, but on what makes a business successful from the inside out. Additionally, in partnership with my W2O colleague, Senior Director of Analytics, Meredith Owen, I talked about how to leverage W2O’s analytics capabilities to measure and model just how critical it is to have the right balanced workforce where everyone’s ideas are heard and people can reach their full potential regardless of gender, ethnicity or sexual orientation.

The W2O Healthcare Relevance Index is an annual report that looks at approximately 60 Fortune 500 companies in the healthcare industry and applies a proprietary analytics model to determine the relevance of organizations on the topic of diversity and inclusion. In this age of social and digital, Relevance is the new Reputation. If your organization is relevant, it’s engaging with key stakeholders on terms that are mutually beneficial. The outcome impacts sales, profitability, recruitment, retention, innovation, leadership and valuation.

The 2019 W2O Healthcare Relevance Index includes the following topline findings:

• Healthcare organizations are not making the progress necessary in diversity and inclusion as demanded by key stakeholders.
• Diversity and inclusion must be a CEO mandate. (My experience alone reinforces that notion.)
• Employees are moving the dialogue to diversity and inclusion and signaling its importance to their productivity.
• Innovation remains an elusive elixir as we heard at JPM 2019. Yet, a remedy is about adding new and different voices to ideation.
• Diversity and inclusion is not a communications problem but an organizational issue that must be addressed at the C-Suite level. Commitment to change is key

As I shared with HBA, my mother shaped my thinking with regard to diversity and inclusion at a very young age. She was the CEO of a business and was very successful breaking all kinds of barriers at the time and instilling in me a belief in a better approach and system based on the human spirit and ideal. It’s how I ultimately built my firm and why dialogue, discussion and debate rule, and why multiple voices are respected and heard.

As we look at the healthcare industry in 2019, one could argue that things are moving in the right direction regarding diversity and inclusion. But, there needs to be a sense of urgency. A commitment that accelerates improvement.

To that end, all of us must voice our opinions and challenge the industry to do better. Our collective futures depend on it!

Jim

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Leaders Addressed the Latest Issues, Trends and Tech During W2O Group’s JPM19 Digital Health Luncheon

An impressive array of healthcare experts braved rain, flight delays, and travel headaches to participate in W2O Group’s 5th Annual Digital Health Luncheon, held in partnership with Squire Patton Boggs at the J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference (JPM19). The luncheon explored new approaches and vexing challenges across healthcare today – from data sharing hurdles to driving behavior change and supporting an aging population.

How critical is data liquidity in healthcare? According to Mona Siddiqui, Chief Data Officer, Immediate Office of the Secretary at HHS, it’s truly healthcare’s gold. “(Our) vision is to have a department that is more evidence-based. Where policy making, decision making and the ways we think about resource allocation are all grounded in data,” she explained.

The first panel after Siddiqui’s keynote, was focused on how healthcare can better enable our aging population. By 2035 the 65+ population will outnumber those who are 18 and under so how can we help America age well? “At the end of the day, the same tech that empowered the internet will be the same technology to empower seniors,” explained Aashima Gupta, Director, Global Healthcare Solutions at Google Cloud. So what trends are making headway in the aging space? According to Wen Dombrowski, MD Chief Convergence Officer at CATALAIZE, empathy, voice user interfaces and self-driving cars are top of mind.

Panelists agreed that it’s all about simplicity for both seniors and their caregivers when it comes to leveraging technology as an enabler. “We have a design problem, not an innovation problem. You don’t want to be cared for, you want to be enabled by technology,” concluded Chetan Parekh, Associate Brand Director & Innovation Portfolio Leader at P&G Ventures.

Another pressing issue that was discussed at the event was best practices for driving behavior change in healthcare. Despite the recent focus in this space, Ben Wanamaker, Head of Consumer Technology and Services at Aetna, believes more must be done. “The health delivery system is not well organized. There are very few standards, as if our brain is not part of our body,” he explained during the second panel. George Savage, Co-Founder and Chief Medical Officer at Proteus Digital Health, believes we’re hitting a tipping point, not because people like change, but because as an industry, we have no choice.

Ben Hwang, CEO of Profusa, agreed, noting, “most of the value creation around behavior change in healthcare is in chronic (care). How do we bring health front and center to the individual?” Ashwini Zenooz, MD, Senior Vice President & General Manager, Global Healthcare & Life Sciences at Salesforce, believes that to truly make people change, we must focus on making them feel encouraged during every touchpoint of the healthcare experience.

The event concluded with a conversation with Marcus Osborne, Vice President, Health & Wellness Transformation at Walmart. The two discussed Walmart’s new legacy in the healthcare space with Marcus noting, “historically we have not viewed ourselves as a healthcare company. Historically we’ve viewed ourselves as (a company) taking care of people.” This framework of thinking has inspired Walmart’s recent moves in the healthcare space and continues to guide Marcus’ predictions around the future of health as the consumer is made priority number one.

Despite different companies, perspectives and experiences, all speakers seemed to agree that for real change to occur across the healthcare ecosystem, two key things are required:

• Innovative and easy-to-use technology; and
• A consumer-first mindset.

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For more information on W2O Group’s 5^th Annual Digital Health Luncheon, held in partnership Squire Patton Boggs, check out #W2ODH19 via Twitter. Curious what happened last year at the 4^th Annual Digital Health Luncheon? Check out last year’s recap here.

Earlier this week, crowds of excited journalists, brand reps and PR folk descended on Las Vegas for the annual celebration of technology and innovation that is CES. We were there, and saw lots of demos, gigantic booths and overwhelming displays; and some unexpected and quirky products. We at W2O looked high and low to find what we think will be the most important topics for you as you look to the next few years:

Autonomous Transportation

Watch out for news from the sky coming to a smart city near you, but it isn’t just drones this year. The Bell Nexus is an all-new hybrid electric aircraft designed to be an ‘urban air taxi’ as soon as the early 2020s working with companies like Uber to ease congestion and speed travel. On the ground, Mercedes showed off a prototype modular system with different pods using the same chassis, while Aptiv offered autonomous Lyft rides for attendees to and fro. BMW, Audi and others showed off their AD partnerships with tech companies like Intel and Bosch (respectively), with vehicles loaded up with 360 AR entertainment systems from partners like Warner Bros and Disney. When you don’t have to drive yourself, you’ll have plenty of time and space to enjoy all kinds of work and entertainment options!

PCs are Back?

After a multi-year streak of declining or flat sales, many analysts are predicting that 2019 will be the first year to see Y/Y growth (though small). Security improvements, along with Windows 10 performance improvements and supply availability driving reduced cost have finally broken the dam on companies holding back on refreshing their inventory. Additional improvements in laptop screen quality, battery performance, 5G and network improvements, voice and biometrics and other form factor changes will delight users that have grown accustomed to tablet use. We saw loads of great, high-end product launches from Dell, HP, Lenovo, Microsoft, Sony and others, as well as Chromebook-style updates for less expensive models.

5G is Everywhere, Again

It’s the announcement that we’ve heard before, but this time it’s being put into our devices – and cars – and towers – and everything else. 5G, the promise of faster networks and deconflicting traffic, has been all the rage, but hasn’t come to life just yet for 99% of the world. This year, we are watching for devices to become equipped with the ability to work on the network, signaling that reality is just around the corner. Development sandboxes from Intel and Verizon as well as development kits indicate that it’s safe for organizations to start planning for integration.

Voice Control + Personal Assistants

We had a chance to check out cute and cuddly robots as well as industrial ones, but the improvements were really in increased integration for voice commands with smarter responses and more helpful utilities (aka just a little smarter). Personal assistants, both virtual and robotic are maturing in skill set and utility and are beginning to offer real value to users of all kinds. Users are increasingly comfortable with voice commands and the devices becoming easier to manage, integrating with personal assistants in new ways. No major announcements are expected this year on the voice front, though Google and Amazon both made some incremental updates and integrations with transportation (Alexa on bicycles) and physical devices (Google Home has over 30 languages).

Folding Screens

Have you ever wanted more visual space on your mobile device or laptop, but still wanted to fit it into your bag? The new generation of strong-but-flexible folding screens promise just that, with mobile devices that you can expand and contract, as needed. This may be one of the more high profile announcements of CES, but it isn’t quite ready for primetime just yet. However, the implications for incredible user experiences is truly exciting and makes this one a space to watch.

So How Does all of this Apply to Healthcare?

As with any trend, we believe you need to start with your strategy first, and then the right solution for your audiences will be evident. The technology above might be right for your audiences in health facilities, practices or at-home care with telemedicine. Improvements in AI, networking, security, wearables and voice control will continue to change how care is delivered to patients within facilities, as consumers, and for systems as organizations, but it’s never a one-size-fits-all. Some of the interesting digital health previews included ‘powered suit’ body-sized wearables that help with physical therapy and provide feedback that teach patients how to rebuild strength, even scaling down to ‘power gloves’ for arthritis. We saw backpacks that let the hearing impaired experience music and biofeedback wearables that improve quality of life through sensing what patients can’t – helping with Afib, Diabetes and other chronic conditions.

And finally, integrating user data with AI from systems, plus other personal historical information and context to enable better and more insightful recommendations for every patient or user. Whether the personal data comes from the individual only, or is blended with data from other blinded medical records and macro data from all available trend data, that information adds invaluable detail and reference to enable better solutions for all patient challenges. We expect to see interesting announcements from organizations large and small detailing how to connect data with real patient challenges in the rest of 2019, so watch this space for more!

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ASH 2018 (American Society of Hematology’s Annual Meeting& Exposition) has come and gone so it’s time for us to peer into MDigitalLife and see how health stakeholders engaged at the preeminent hematology conference. One of the most unique elements of MDigitalLife is the collection of HCP digital presences matched back to their unique NPI numbers. This connection allows us to analyze HCPs based on a plethora of data points, including their Twitter activity. To really lean into this unique asset and provide the most value to our readers, we’ve decided to specifically look at how HCPs engaged in ASH18 and who they were most interested in this year. There were over 37K tweets from 7,400+ unique twitter handles mentioning #ASH18 from 12/1 to 12/4. Of that conversation, we tracked 13,132 tweets from 1,064 verified HCPs categorized in MDigitalLife. To compare that to previous years, we looked at the number of verified HCPs posting at ASH since 2014 and plotted them in the graph below.

First the good news, #ASH18 total HCP conversation increased with a 3% bump over HCP conversation at #ASH17. However, we did see a slight decline in the number of unique HCPs posting at ASH this year, compared to last year. It was only a drop of 34 HCPs (-3%) but considering the change from 2016to 2017 was an increase of 339 HCPs (+44%) it is a bit concerning. Looking at it another way, the smaller number of HCPs cranked out more posts than the year before with an average of 12.3 posts per author this year compared to 11.6 last year. HCPs were more active for ASH18, indicating a strong backchannel conversation and highly engaged audience. When you look a little deeper you see that 43.6% of that HCP conversation came from just the top 20 most active HCPs, so we are clearly seeing a very engaged core group of HCPs who are driving nearly half of the conversation. Knowing who those core HCPs are and what they are saying is crucial to understanding the key messages coming out of ASH. Beyond just volume of HCP conversation, we also took a look at which accounts HCPs are mentioning most to understand the most “popular”handles at ASH18. Reviewing the list, you may notice quite a few familiar faces from last year’s #ASH17recap including our 3 most active HCPs at #ASH17, Dr. Thompson (@MTMDPhd), Dr. Majhail (@BldCancerDoc) & Dr. Mohty (@Mohty_EBMT). Other familiar faces include passionate patient advocates Myeloma Teacher (@MyelomaTeacher) & Yelak Biru(@NorthTxMSG). Side note, it’s always a good sign to see patient advocates engaging alongside HCPs during medical meetings to ensure the patients voice is heard. Every account on the list above is absolutely crucial to the online ASH community, but we also wanted to look beyond popularity, to engagement in order to understand the accounts contributing the most shared content by HCPs during #ASH18.

Looking at this list of accounts receiving the most retweets by HCPs during #ASH18, we begin to identify some new faces contributing excellent content like Harvard Hematologist-Oncologist David Steensma (@DavidSteensma), Oxford HematologistGraham Collins (@Graham74gc), andUCSF Hematologist Nina Shah (@NinaShah33).Combined with longstanding HCP online influencers like Vincent Rajkumar (@VincentRK), Naveen Pemmaraju (@DoctorPemm), Miguel Perales (@DrMiguelPerales) and others, wesee a tremendous core of active HCPs contributing engaging content and leading a thriving online community centered around #ASH18. The HCP ASH community is clearly in good hands. For more on the importance of social media at ASH, be sure to listen to my wonderful colleagues Eileen O’Brien & Brianna Pereira’s W2OGoPodcast on the topic published earlier this week. And If you are interested in understanding more about the online ASH conversation and how you can best engage with key health stakeholders online, shoot me a note on Twitter/LinkedIn or fill out our contact us form and we will be in touch!

This post was co-authored by Kevin Johnson, President of W2O marketeching 

“I keep saying that the sexy job in the next 10 years will be statisticians, and I’m not kidding.” — Hal Varian, Chief Economist, Google

Frankly, all of us at W2O are onboard with that observation.  It’s why we’ve hired more than 100 data scientists and analysts to help ensure that all our communications efforts are grounded in insights and analytics.  It is also why we had the pleasure of hosting PR colleagues as well as clients at our offices as part of the PR Council’s Executive Education series to discuss Harnessing an Analytics-Driven Approach to Fuel Optimal Targeting, Activation & Measurement.  The title captures the approach that is the core of who we are as an agency.

The fact is the abundance of data, and the progress and application of machine learning and AI, have allowed us as marketing and communication consultants to provide more tailored insights and in turn more customized strategic guidance to our clients on a real-time basis like never before. We now use data to identify specific audiences and those who have influence, the natural language these audiences use to communicate, the context in which they communicate in, and the channels where they most often get information and engage. At a time when companies are pushing the limits of innovation, fiercely competing for market share and working hard to grab customer attention in a distracted world, flipping the model to be truly audience-centric and one of influence vs., one-way communication is critical. Our session explored how data can be woven throughout the research, strategic and creative process and be applied to full omnichannel PESO activation.  Here are a few takeaways from our discussion

• The age of data is here. Embrace it. Learn how to use it. Let it be your guide.
• Findings are not insights. To get to actionable insights, you need the secret sauce that goes beyond the technology platform to include subject matter experts and strategists to analyze the data and a process that maps out a plan to move from data collection though insight generation.
• Influencing the influencer is what PR has always been about. This explains why PR is at the center of the analytics revolution and how it has given communicators the ability to better target and measure than ever before.
• Your corporate or brand story can be channel-agnostic. Data can help us to tailor content across paid, earned, shared and owned channels, including media buying and search, to maximize its impact.
• Keywords are the first step in understanding what’s being said by your customers – but not the only step. Don’t stop at how keywords are being used.  Go beyond to look at how those influencers engage and behave through all their content … and can lead to new insights.
• Data is everywhere – The key is bringing it all together for the most comprehensive picture.   Work in partnership with your other departments, data providers and agencies to pool as much data as you can and have access to in order to ensure you can have the most comprehensive view of a situation, audience or brand.  

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If you are interested in learning more about W2O, check out our Analytics and About pages. 

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With just five months to go until the UK divorces itself from the European Union, the conversation has stepped up a notch to the point where it’s impossible to flick through a newspaper or turn on the TV without hearing conversation surrounding Brexit. After nearly a year and a half of planning, it is still to be decided what precisely is happening on Brexit Day, and what kind of deal, if any, Britain will be handed.

Like virtually all of the UK population, I have no idea what is to come once Britain leaves the EU, and in particular to our Life Sciences sector. So, I signed up to Fierce Biotech’s Executive Summit to hear the opinion of a panel of experts as to what might happen to the world of healthcare post-Brexit. Speakers consisted of leaders of key Life Science corporations in the UK, including the Bioindustry Association, the AMR Centre, and the Cell and Gene Therapy Catapult. They spoke about how they are planning for Brexit in terms of funding, staffing and any impact to longer term projects, as well as what opportunities may lay ahead once Britain has left the EU.

Brexit often has cynical connotations in the public eye. Most Londoners voted to remain, so when I arrived at the event, I expected this to be the general perspective of the audience and speakers. However, like the rest of the audience, the smiling optimism of the speakers surprised me. The first question that the panel fielded concerned the industry’s health in the current pre-Brexit limbo. They explained that the Life Sciences industry hadn’t experienced a quantifiable decline in funding or collaboration interest from their European partners since Britain’s decision to leave the EU. They even noted that 2018, so far, has seen a whopping record £1.5bn investment in Britain’s Biotech industry.

Overall, the speakers displayed huge confidence in the sector, along with some concerns worth bearing in mind, which broadly fell into the following topics.

No More Money Pot?

British researchers are concerned that funding from EU countries will be on the decline once Britain leaves the EU. The speakers gave their view that on the flip side, partly due to Brexit, private investment funding is strong, particularly from the US, with both academic and commercial sectors booming as a result. With groundbreaking drug results coming through, investors have been more willing to invest in earlier stages of research. Dr Peter Jackson, Executive Director for the AMR Centre, explained that some EU funded collaborative efforts are “fairly impenetrable”, so the UK often turns to the US as he believes that a “small amount of quick money is better than a large amount of slow money”.

More Agile and Innovative Approach to Drug Development

It was explored whether EU regulatory frameworks may promote or hinder the speed of innovation. A new EU Clinical Trials Regulation (Regulation 536/2014) will come into play next year in attempt to make clinical trial regulation more consistent across the EU, allowing sponsors to submit a single application when conducting trials in multiple countries. Once the UK leaves the EU, clinical trial sponsors in the UK will no longer automatically be eligible for the new legislation. Therefore, the UK will have an opportunity to adopt a more flexible approach regarding regulation. This could revolutionise clinical trials design, allowing the UK to innovate and focus on operating a more liberal, risk-based regulatory environment without over-regulation, giving patients access to treatments that are on the cutting-edge of medical developments.

Better Together

Researchers are concerned that leaving the EU could establish barriers to scientific partnerships and talent from EU nationals that have provided a massive boost for British research. To plan for a potential brain drain, Matthew Durdy, Chief Business Officer at CGTC said it made them explore avenues outside of Europe for future collaborations. The CGTC now has deals with China and Canada, and he explained that it has made them more open to the rest of the world, which has been “a real positive for us.”. Dr Chris Doherty, Managing Director of Alderley Park, built on this by making the point that, as a nation, we may not be fully utilising our most qualified employees. Britain is lucky enough to have a strong education system with a rich supply of PhDs, however, as with many jobs in the science sector, school leavers are being trained to do the same job as doctorates. Chris believes that with the advent of Brexit, we can look towards developing more specialist, focused positions for highly qualified candidates to utilise Britain’s top-qualified talent, and potentially spur more intra-UK collaborations. The development of consortia within regions across the UK would enable funds to be pumped into areas outside of the capital and other key UK cities.

In summary, my main takeaway from the event was that the biggest risk of Brexit is the uncertainty. It’s hard for companies to plan around Brexit, especially when they don’t know exactly what they need to plan for. Fortunately, the UK has a dominant position and a longstanding history of breakthrough contributions from its scientists. From Isaac Newton to Stephen Hawking, and Charles Darwin to Richard Dawkins, the pursuit of knowledge and innovation is embedded in Britain’s national identity. As we await the finalisation of some sort of agreement with the EU next March, people are working on it so that natural selection will favour the UK to adapt in order to survive. W2O will continue working with its clients to help them innovate, collaborate, and utilise potential regulation flexibilities. As for now, the Life Sciences sector will remain “business as usual”.

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If you’re interested in learning about W2O, check out our About and Healthcare pages.

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It was great to roll up our sleeves with other researchers at EphMRA’s meeting this week to work through solutions to current industry challenges. For our presentation, we picked the topic of how to make insights ‘stickier’ and more relevant to brand teams – a way of thinking that is foundational to W2O and reflected in our consultative, integrated approach. If our insights don’t thread through to practical outcomes for our clients, then we are simply not hitting the mark and might as well put on our coats and go home!

One recurrent theme that we heard from other attendees is about how siloed structures can be a barrier to effective insights, meaning on one hand that insights, once produced, may get ‘lost’ in the business. It was also apparent that, too often, research teams operate in isolation from their colleagues for whose benefit the research is ultimately intended – making it hard to produce outcomes that are business-aligned and actionable. This is a common, and deflating, refrain amongst the research community.

For our part, we shared tips that we believe can make all the difference. A selection of these follows:

1. Think Like a Consultant

It’s no longer enough to just be a researcher. To get through to our time-poor clients we have learned to start with the end in mind, get right to the point and tell stories backwards. We know no one has the time for 100+ slides and so we are relentless in our approach to front-load our presentations with the insights that matter most.

2. Triangulate, Measure and Frame

The worlds of market research and analytics are increasingly colliding and we are seeing the best way to validate insights, especially at scale and over time, is to triangulate across sources. Insights that are robust are persuasive. If brand teams believe in them they will design their engagement plans using them. It sounds like a simple principle, but it remains difficult to work out which insights will frame what we call the ‘money slides’ in the read-out without truly engaging with the brand teams and asking them what specific data they need.

3. Effective Data Storytelling

Stories have many dimensions. In terms of content, stories have a beginning, a middle and an end. Using a framework like the classic hero’s journey can help bring an element of drama to your presentation. The experience of the story is important to how ‘sticky’ it is as well. Compelling data, imagery and data visualisation all play a role. Even something as simple as the layout on the slide matters too. We have found that keeping charts clean and removing the noise keeps the focus on what is most important.

4. Interactive Formats Sustain Interest

Going one step further and allowing our clients to explore the data themselves with filters or animation which shows how the it unfolds over time has greatly added interest and stickiness to the experience of interacting with insights.

5. Seek Opportunities to PR the Value of Insights

Thinking beyond lunch-and-learns (though we like these too) to ways to highlight innovative approaches and get our clients gathered together to help us all solve problems is always valuable and we encouraged the attendees to consider ways they can do that to shout about the value they bring to the organisation in their own roles.

To close our presentation we asked the audience for their views on which of the ways in their experience made the most difference to the ‘stickiness’ of insights and their potential to endure over time.

The results below appear to reflect a strong desire in the pharmaceutical market research industry to move outside of their swim lane and to step up into more of a consultative role. Learning to tell better and more strategic stories about the insights that we reveal is a key element of that journey and one that we pledge to continue to pioneer with gusto at W2O.

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If you’re interested in learning about W2O, check out our About and Analytics pages.

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