eWeek: Cognizant’s Vice President and Global Markets Leader of Life Sciences Says Life Sciences Companies are Looking to Move Beyond Advertising-Based Strategies to Communicate

“This acquisition was driven by our customers,” Shankar Narayanan tells eWeek.com regarding Cognizant’s acquisition of Cadient Group, a full-service digital marketing agency that serves a broad spectrum of life sciences companies in the pharmaceutical, biotechnology, consumer health, and medical device industries. “Cadient Group brings complementary new market opportunities, expertise, and intellectual property along with capabilities in brand planning, content development, user-centered design, and multi-channel analytics.” Excerpts:

“Combined, Cognizant and Cadient Group’s capabilities will expand the opportunities for both companies to tap into the spend on digital transformation more broadly, including R&D, the medical segment within life sciences, and the consumerization wave sweeping the health care industry.

As part of the acquisition, we’re gaining digital assets and intellectual property including Reveal, an insights and analytics platform; Immerse, an experiential marketing platform; and OneVoice, an advocacy campaign management platform. The life sciences marketing landscape tends to consist of big agencies that provide creative capabilities, but we feel we can offer an end-to-end solution that spans creative and technological know-how to execution.

The life sciences industry has very strict regulations in terms of what companies can communicate about a product, so companies need to strike a balance between maintaining their brand messaging and meeting these regulations. Cadient Group’s experience would play a key role in helping companies manage this balancing act.

Additionally, messaging needs to reach key stakeholders that can range from providers to payers and customers. A go-to-market strategy should include brand and sales marketing that addresses all these stakeholders.

Life sciences companies are looking to move beyond advertising-based strategies to communicate.

They are increasingly moving toward mobile and social media, but still need to meet industry regulations on what they need to include or exclude from their marketing campaigns. Thus, the future of marketing for life sciences companies really lies in the hands of regulators and how they will adapt existing regulations to accommodate new and expanding platforms that go beyond traditional television and print media.”