Content excellence

More content, delivered faster

The traditional content supply chain was born in a ‘paper world’ rather than the digital one in which we now live. In other words, it was designed for a relatively small amount of content for a few channels. Yet, while digital communication technologies have transformed pharma marketing, the system that supports it is mostly unchanged.

This traditional supply chain is now struggling to cope with the content production and approval requirements for an ever-increasing number of channels: eDetailing presentations for multiple indications, self-service detailing websites, approved email, remote engagement tools, and webinar materials. The content supply chain is already slow, inefficient, ineffective and expensive. It will only worsen as companies switch to omnichannel marketing, which delivers personalised content to HCPs and patients.

There is a human impact too. Legacy content systems are increasingly frustrating for everyone involved. Colleagues in MLR are struggling to review and approve ever-increasing numbers of assets. Affiliates face rising localisation demands. And brand teams are upset that things move so slowly.

The problem does not lie with any one department or function. It’s systemic. Pharma’s content supply chain was simply not built for the digital world. And therefore just increasing content production budgets—spending more—won’t solve the problem. What’s needed are new processes and systems.

How it works

Content excellence means optimising your content supply chain for the digital world. It speeds up the whole process by making each phase — content creation, approval, production, and distribution — more efficient. This requires a clear strategy and detailed implementation plan, which we develop through a 4-step process:

Review: a situational analysis to understand how you work with content and how your content supply chains fit together. This process uncovers the pain points and bottlenecks that need to be fixed. In effect, stage one of the content excellence process provides the rationale for change — and the means to get buy-in from internal stakeholders.

Design:  a plan that details your content excellence strategy. This phase describes how you will build assets in the future, describing your content creation vision and how this will be realised — your implementation roadmap. Together, the vision and roadmap provide your business case for change. 

Implementation: your content production model and organisational setup. This phase details the implications for your people, processes and partnerships. The result is an implementation plan that describes the required organisational setup, people’s roles and responsibilities, and the required resources to make the change.

Technology:  your requirements for technology platforms, systems and tools. This phase analyses your current technologies and their application to your content excellence strategy. It details how current tools and systems can be optimised and identifies opportunities for new solutions to be deployed to bring efficiency to your supply chain.

These four steps result in a content excellence strategy and an implementation plan that meet your organisation's specific needs — resulting in content that is cheaper, faster, and easier to produce. And it takes the stresses and burdens off internal stakeholders throughout the organisation — from MLR to affiliate localisation.

New technologies and content formats

The updated procedures and systems that content excellence puts in place make better use of new technologies. One option is to enhance your existing systems. For example, many pharma companies have invested in Veeva Vault. This can be configured to meet your company's specific content management practices and workflows. Yet this rarely happens. A content excellence programme, therefore, can unlock Veeva's potential to meet your precise requirements.

Another option is to boost your digital asset management (DAM) system with a content authoring solution that’s designed for pharma’s regulated business environment. For example, Anthill’s own Activator product integrates seamlessly with Veeva Vault — enabling a better user experience. As a result, content creation, management, MLR reviews and localisation are all made easier for brand teams and their agencies.

A content excellence program also enables you to make use of modular content. This has a significant impact — providing benefits throughout the content supply chain because it meets pharma's specific needs. Modular content means pre-approved blocks of content — 'modules' — that contain everything needed to tell a complete mini-story, e.g. product claims, references, copy, graphics, and logos. Consequently, modules can be combined to create marketing assets quickly. For example, you can use the same module in approved email, eDetailing, social media, remote detailing and self-service systems.

The result is faster asset creation because production is more efficient. That benefits global brand teams, affiliates and agencies. And for colleagues in MLR, modular content simplifies content reviews and avoids unnecessary duplication of work. Instead of repeatedly approving tactics with very similar content, they can approve modules once, which are used multiple times.

Content excellence & AI

The latest development in pharma content excellence is the application of AI to pharma’s supply chain. There are numerous potential use cases, from generating content and automating routine marketing tasks to optimising the MLR process to speed approvals. Two transformative options are already being pioneered by Anthill.

Arcane is a pharma AI solution for content discovery, planning, and generation. Arcane enables you to unlock AI’s potential in pharma safely. Designed specifically for the demanding needs of healthcare, Arcane solves pharma’s content discovery, reuse and creation challenges. It reduces costs, removes complexity, and accelerates production — providing compliant content in the high volumes required by today’s personalised marketing strategies.

One specific Arcane use case is using the power of generative AI to build modular content in high volumes. By removing production complexity modules become easy to create and, therefore, your communications can be even more targeted — precisely matching tightly defined HCP profiles.

Anthill is also pioneering the next innovation: applying AI to assemble modular content into ready-to-use tactics. This innovation will make the benefits of modular content even more accessible by enabling natural and intuitive workflows. As a result, you can create high-quality, fully-specified tactics using everyday language.

Anthill expertise

Make content production easier, faster and much cheaper. And simplify the process for all internal stakeholders. Anthill can partner with you throughout the content excellence process — providing the project management expertise, technical smarts and creative know-how that ensure a smooth process.