Bucking the trends in healthcare communications
Posted on 18. Mar, 2010 by Claire in Communications, Health, Industry
I recently read the excellent and enlightening HCA report ‘Five Years of Change in Healthcare Communications’. On first glance it appeared to paint a bleak picture of the way the healthcare communications industry is changing: Stricter regulations are making our business more challenging in terms of creativity and meeting business objectives; agencies are having to diversify in terms of the services they can provide to meet the needs of multiple stakeholder groups; everybody is feeling the financial squeeze due to the recession and industry-specific factors; procurement deals are adding to the pressure of profit margins, and good talent is difficult to find and keep.
Then I read it in detail and realised that in this difficult climate I was heartened that Aurora is bucking these trends. The report looks at trends in the last five years – almost the length of time Aurora has been operating. During this time, Aurora has excelled in creativity, developing new and exciting ways of doing things for our clients, all strictly within the ABPI Code of Practice. If anything, the Code has made us think even harder about how we do things. We have delivered digital communications in many forms from online press offices to physician webcasts, conducted disease awareness campaigns, achieved widespread media coverage, organised physician and patient meetings, managed issues, and advised on corporate reputation. We have diversified from day one, believing that communications encompasses much more than ‘traditional PR’. We have a digital offering based on sound knowledge of the regulated healthcare industry. We have a clinical trials offering. We provide medical education and public relations services of course, but we have also delivered a marketing campaign, including branding and advertising, for a big global client.
The number of clients seeking our expertise is on the increase and they stay with us for the long-term. We had an 80% pitch success rate in 2009 but we are also awarded business without a pitch and existing clients hand us more work and recommend us to their colleagues.
Last but certainly not least, we have an amazing and talented team, all of whom have been recommended to us by friends in the industry. Everyone contributes to how the agency develops and this creates an incredible dynamic. Nobody has ever left the agency since we started in December 2005 – a considerable achievement considering a slightly improved industry average agency staff turnover of 19% in 2008-9. Clients are happy with this too as it means they work with a consistent account team that understands their business needs.
The HCA annual benchmarking survey has given us lots of food for thought over the years and this latest trend analysis is well worth a read. It is certainly good to see that communications is now considered a core component of pharma companies’ brand and corporate strategies, and that agency and in-house teams are working in closer partnership than ever before. That’s just what we love to hear.
