Point-of-Care Perspectives
from PatientPoint

As any wise realtor will tell you, the key to success is ‘location, location, location.’ I’m sure most pharma and health and wellness marketers would agree. Channel selection is a huge part of your strategic planning process. But the job’s not done there: with the right place must come the right message. What’s the point in reaching patients if the message doesn’t resonate?

This is the conversation I have with many of PatientPoint’s client partners. While they’ve come to the right place (and by that I mean not only Point of Care but PatientPoint!), there’s so much more opportunity, and resulting success, to be had if they take that next step and tailor their message to the unique environment of the doctor’s office.

Right Place, Right Message

Unlike other media channels, Point of Care has the unique value of letting brands know exactly where a person is in his or her care journey and what they are about to do—talk to their doctor. Marketers need to make the most of this opportunity. Mass media may garner profile data to help marketers create targeted messages, but those channels don’t put a brand’s message in the moment of treatment decision-making.

That’s why it surprises me to see marketers creating custom messaging for ads running during TV sporting events, in special editions of print publications and on out of home media but not Point of Care. There’s no greater time for an impactful message! Yet, as last week’s webinar revealed, two out of three marketers still use content designed for another marketing channel.

Yes, the limit on promotional review time to get custom creative approved is a major challenge that must be addressed. In many cases, however, a point-of-care campaign doesn’t require entirely unique creative assets. There are ways to customize content that do not materially change the FDA’s OPDP approved assets, enabling brands to deliver a more tailored message to patients at the Point of Care.

Right Call to Action

As Sarah Bast, head of investments, marketplace and partnerships at Publicis Health Media, suggested in our whitepaper, “Point of Care Takes Its Place at the Top,” consider changing the campaign’s call to action to capitalize on the specific doctor’s office environment. Rather than driving patients only to a brand website, prompt them to ask the doctor for more information about the treatment or product during their visit. This readjustment can be done with minor edits. For example, prompt patients to ask about the brand in the exam room by adding a super in the last frame of a TV FDA-cleared spot or adding a billboard that runs directly after the approved ad. This does not need to be resubmitted to the FDA for clearance and usually only requires a low-tier internal PRT review.

The good news is it’s not all on brands themselves to figure out how to maximize their message’s effectiveness. Unlike most media channels, Point of Care (and PatientPoint) offer creative studio services to re-use existing assets for placement and support creative updates. Acting as an extension of the brand’s team, we provide guidance on what works best, based on our longstanding history and success in customizing content for the Point of Care.

Some key best practices you should keep top-of-mind include:

• Follow the video viewership trend of watching with subtitles on by adding captions to your videos at the Point of Care. This will ensure your message gets through regardless of size or sound level of the office.
• Use simple, direct messaging that can telegraph across the room. Patients need to be able to glance up and grasp quickly the idea that they should ask their doctor about your brand. Make that language clear and high contrast for maximum impact.
• Add clear touch actions to ‘learn more’ where applicable. A patient shouldn’t have to guess what that next best action is you want them to take.
• Surround-sound the office with connected campaigns from the waiting room to exam room to back office. With PatientPoint, you have the unique opportunity to not only impact patients while they wait for their doctor but also reach doctors as they are in between caring for patients. Pick a strong message and reinforce it with patients in the waiting and exam rooms. But then don’t miss the opportunity to tell doctors why they, too, should be thinking about your brand as part of that same patient consult.

We’ve seen client partners who follow these best practices and create custom campaigns for the Point of Care tend to see an increase in overall promotional performance than deploying standard messaging in the channel. It really does work!

Want more best practices? Our team is here to help tailor your message for the waiting room, exam room, back office and beyond. Contact us for a consultation.