How did pharma use Twitter at ASCO 2015?

www.ashfieldhealthcare.com

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How did pharma use Twitter at ASCO 2015?

www.ashfieldhealthcare.com: Ashfield Commercial & Medical Services2

Pharma has been understandably nervous to use Twitter

Complex and limited regulatory

guidance

Potential liability for user generated

content

Monitoring burden

Character limit makes product content high

risk for non-compliance

Immediacy of response expected

How to monitor for and report adverse events


WE USED THE AMERICAN SOCIETY OF CLINICAL ONCOLOGY (ASCO) ANNUAL MEETING TO

EXPLORE LATEST TRENDS IN HOW PHARMA ISUSING TWITTER


Why ASCO?

Amongst physicians, oncologists are particularly active online and in social media

ASCO is the largest oncology conference: 30,000 attendees from more than 100 countries in 2015

ASCO proactively encourages attendees to engage via social media with tips, recommended hashtags and ‘Featured Voices’ on Twitter

Source: http://www.asco.org/


The ASCO effect: #ASCO15 was utilised to raise awareness across all areas of oncology

#cancer #oncology #hcsm

#btsm #breastcancer #asco14

#lungcancer #melanoma #hpm

Tweeters took the opportunity to highlight specialist topics within oncology, with lung cancer, melanoma and breast cancer being the most discussed tumour types…

Healthcare social media –a huge topic at this year’s ASCO!

POPULAR TWITTER HASTAGS FOR #ASCO15

Note:#hcsm = health care social media#btsm = brain tumour social media#hpm = hospice and palliative medicine


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#ASCO12 #ASCO13 #ASCO14 #ASCO15

It should be noted that the year-on-year growth in tweets has

slowed, a sign that the # is reaching maturity?

154%increase

50% increase

The use of Twitter and the ASCO hashtag continues to rise and rise!

Source: Symplur, Date range: 29th May – 2nd June

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Who were the most influential pharma companies using

#ASCO15 in 2015?


Who had a share of the #ASCO15 conversation?

One way to measure the amount of conversation around an event on Twitter is to monitor impressions

While follower count will show you the direct impact you can have on users, impressions tells you the total number of people who could have seen your tweet in their feed

Impressions include individual tweets, tweets that mention your brand handle, and retweets of your content

It should however be noted that impressions are not a good measure of engagement, as it only indicates who potentially could have viewed a tweet

Top 10 influencers by impressionsDate: 27th May – 2nd June


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#ASCO12 #ACSO13 #ASCO14 #ASCO15

Astra Zeneca

BMS

Pfizer

Genentech

Roche

Novartis

Boehringer

Pharma representation in the top 10 influencers, measured by impressions

*

Source: Symplur, Top 10 by impressions, Date: 27th May – 2nd June (7 days also utilised for previous years)*Genentech were the 11th biggest influencer in 2015, included for illustrative purposes.

2015 saw pharma having a bigger voice in the conversation, with more companies featuring and more impressions being generated

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Pharma participation didn’t end there...

Source: Sysomos, Date: 28th May – 2nd June

Additional companies tweeting the #ASCO15 hashtag

http://www.google.com/url?sa=i&rct=j&q=merck+serono+logo&source=images&cd=&cad=rja&docid=uyrVRYXS31k15M&tbnid=SZmi5cmdEKgzSM:&ved=0CAUQjRw&url=http://www.apeg.org.au/Research/tabid/117/Default.aspx&ei=rs9IUZCbNaq60QHN9IC4Ag&bvm=bv.43828540,d.dmg&psig=AFQjCNHXzU8A3x_2RnZSig6xhikHjwmeWg&ust=1363812600386711

http://www.google.com/url?sa=i&rct=j&q=merck+serono+logo&source=images&cd=&cad=rja&docid=uyrVRYXS31k15M&tbnid=SZmi5cmdEKgzSM:&ved=0CAUQjRw&url=http://www.apeg.org.au/Research/tabid/117/Default.aspx&ei=rs9IUZCbNaq60QHN9IC4Ag&bvm=bv.43828540,d.dmg&psig=AFQjCNHXzU8A3x_2RnZSig6xhikHjwmeWg&ust=1363812600386711


We looked at the top 5 pharma influencers in more detail


Roche tweeted almost twice as much as the other top pharma influencers

Roche BMS Genentech AstraZeneca Pfizer

Total number of #ASCO15 tweets by company


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BMS Genentech AstraZeneca Roche Pfizer

Tweets from the top 5 pharma influencers generated a large number of retweets

Retweets are a good measure of engagement and it is clear that BMS

and Genentech generated good audience engagement with their tweets.

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Total number of #ASCO15 retweets by company - top 20 tweets only

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BMS generated over 400 retweets from a single tweet!

This tweet was one of the most retweeted and favourited around the ASCO15 hashtag

It would have contributed significantly to overall BMS impressions

Although this particular tweet was quite typical of the type of tweets sent during the event, it shows that if a few influential people pick up the tweet, it can spread fast (even if not all the engagement was positive in its sentiment…).

Smart use of hashtags would likely have contributed here, capitalising on broader oncology terms as well as ‘#DYK?’, a popular acronym, particularly in Pharma tweets.

416 Retweets –314 Favourites


First, we talk about science. That’s at the heart of what we do, and it’s important that we share inspiring science in fun, interesting ways.”

Ed LangSenior director, External Communications, Genentech

Genentech utilised #ASCO15 in a number of engaging ways throughout the event

Quote sources SOCIAL BUTTERFLIES OR WALLFLOWERS? ;http://www.gene.com/stories/social-butterflies-or-allflowers?utm_source=T&utm_medium=E& utm_content=10123&utm_campaign=ASCO2015; Image source: Twitter

We share our views on topics beyond any particular medicine, like regulatory science,clinical trials and patient empowerment”

We try, as much as we can, to be creative in how we use digital channels to tell our stories.”


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26-May 27-May 28-May 29-May 30-May 31-May 01-Jun 02-Jun 03-Jun 04-Jun

Total #ASCO15 tweets

The top 5 pharma influencers extended the life of the congress through the hashtag

#ASCO15 was utilised before, during and after the event, however this graph demonstrates that the top 5 pharma influencers were generally more active prior to the event, and less active after the event, when compared to #ASCO15 as a whole.

ASCO 2015

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Genentech

Pfizer

Bmsnews

Aztrazeneca

Roche

16,653 #ASCO15 tweets on 31st May!

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The top 5 pharma influencers used Twitter for a number of topics

Patient Perspective Posts

Drug Data Posts Disease Awareness Posts

An analysis of the top 20 retweeted tweets from each company showed that these tweets fell into the following 6 topics: Treatment types, disease awareness, drug data, patient perspectives, congress activity and corporate messages.


Each pharma company utilised at least 4 topics…

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Roche AstraZeneca Pfizer BMS Genentech

Drug data

Corporate message

Congress activity

Patient perspectives

Treatment types

Disease awareness

Disease awareness tweets created the highest amount of engagement, but all topics appeared of interest!

A breakdown by topic of the top 20 retweeted tweets for each company

Source: Sysomos; Date: 28th May – 2nd June

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We explored some of the best tweets from the top 5

pharma influencers


Video, infographics, images, storyboards, quizzes and links to resources prompted the most retweets, favourites and interactions…


Source: Twitter

67 Retweets – 29 Favourites


www.ashfieldhealthcare.com: Ashfield Commercial & Medical Services21 Source: Twitter

And some more…





Genentech received a huge number of retweets and favourites for an interactive game posted several times throughout ASCO

Source: Twitter

106 Retweets and 227 Favourites throughout ASCO


Thoughts for #ASCO16

Given the huge amount of patient-centric focus in the industry, there are additional opportunities to raise the voice of patients

socially through the event, be this through pharma-created content or retweeting patient advocacy groups.

Let’s bridge the borders!



Twitter and #ASCO15 was still primarily used as a push, ‘one-way’, platform for pharma communications.

Additional direct engagement and two-way conversation would be welcomed and the industry must continue to support the

regulators to define rules of engagement on the platform.



There were some fantastically creative entries to #ASCO15 that stand up well against other industries.

There is certainly no evidence of pharma as ‘laggards’ on Twitter and we fully expect pharma to keep innovating on the platform,

resulting in them contributing to an even bigger part of the #ASCO2016 conversation. Watch this space!


Authors

Steve Hunt and Jason Mazur are Digital Strategists at Ashfield Healthcare Communications, the global leader in multichannel medical education, healthcare communications and PR.

The views presented in this slide deck are the authors’ own

Contact

[email protected]

[email protected]

Steve Hunt Jason Mazur


About Ashfield Healthcare Communications

At Ashfield Healthcare Communications, there is one guiding principle that connects all of our agencies: to help patients and healthcare professionals get the medicines, knowledge and support they need through insightful, tailored and scientifically rigorous multichannel communications. Ashfield is part of UDG Healthcare, an international outsourcing solutions partner for the pharmaceutical industry.

How did pharma use Twitter at ASCO 2015?

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