Faisal Ahmed is interviewed about his background in digital marketing and views on social media and its use in pharma. He has over 14 years experience in digital, including roles at Amazon and launching multimedia games websites. For the past 3 years, he has worked in healthcare. He defines social media as having evolved into social amplifiers like Facebook and content sites like Tumblr. In pharma, social media is mainly used for PR with a push message rather than interaction. The biggest mistake companies make is not considering the end user perspective. The future of digital marketing will be driven by increasing smartphone usage and 4G enabling more powerful applications.

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SOCIAL PHARMA FACES: FAISAL AHMED - MULTI-INDUSTRYMULTI-INDUSTRY
Rebecca Aris Interviews Faisal Ahmed
Social Pharma Faces:
Faisal Ahmed
Interview Summary
RA: Thank you for joining me today Faisal. Firstly, what is
your background and current focus?
FA: I’ve been involved with the digital scene for about
14 years, starting with various roles at Amazon, then
as head of e-commerce for a company that was part of
NTL, managing orders and sports rights for over 90
football clubs. After that, I did digital marketing for
Playboy for a bit before launching MMO in the UK,
which is a multimedia games website for a company
called 505 Games. For the last three years I’ve been
involved with healthcare, firstly setting up the digital
team at Langland, before doing the same thing here at
Life Healthcare.
RA: How do you define social media, particularly with
regards to an industry such as pharma?
FA: It’s so hard as social media has been a buzzword
for the last six years, but it’s really been around since
I first got on the internet. The old AOL and prodigy
websites were all about message boards and chatting to
people, one of the cool things back in the 90s, which
were probably the first social networks. But social
media properly kicked off with Friendster back in 2002,
followed by MySpace and, of course, Facebook.
Over the course of our social pharma faces series we have spoken with many people at the forefront of
innovation when it comes to digital pharma. But we have to admit there is even more innovation happening
beyond the confines of our own industry, much of which carries significant lessons for healthcare.
So pharmaphorum was pleased to catch up with one digital and social media expert who has spent only
the minority of his career within the healthcare sector. Faisal Ahmed has already featured on the pages of
pharmaphorum with his “Beginner’s Guide to Digital Pharma” series back in early 2011, where he shared
some ideas picked up from working at Amazon and developing consumer-focussed online campaigns.
We thought it was high time we heard his direct views on where pharma is heading online. Read on to find
out what he has learned from over a decade working in the consumer digital space and where he thinks the
digital future of pharma will be.
I think it’s evolved into two different concepts. There are the
social amplifiers, which are sites like Facebook, LinkedIn and
Twitter, where you’re talking to one person who is connected
to many others who can also discover your conversation. Then
you have social content sites like Tumblr and Pinterest, which
are getting really popular, and these are going to be big in 2012.
As for pharma, it’s mainly being used for PR purposes right
now,with a push message rather than interaction.It is evolving,
but for me there has only been one standout campaign in
pharma social media, which is Psoriasis 360. But it’s a shame
no-one has come up with anything to match it as that was
launched two years ago.
RA: And how do you see the landscape evolving for digital
marketing in pharma?
FA: It’s getting better. When I joined three years ago it was
all about trying to educate people
around how to do a product or disease
website for physicians and consumers,
so it was a lot of technical education
on websites. Then we entered the
phase we are still in, which is about
putting your detail onto iPads, the
latest trend! As a third phase, there are a few apps which are
now coming to fruition. So there is still a lot to do to move
on from selling websites towards proper consumer-focussed
digital strategies.
RA: So how does pharma need to change to fully embrace social
media?
FA: It’s all about education, to be honest. I do a lot of tours of
pharma companies and we need to educate people around how
best to use social media, plus we need more education from
industry organisations like the ABPI around what pharma can
and cannot do. At the moment the industry seems to have its
hands tied as there is uncertainty about the regulations, but if
this is clarified, pharma can think more out-of-the-box.
RA: What are the most common mistakes you see being made in
digital within healthcare?
FA: The single biggest mistake is that people don’t think
about the end user. As I said, social media is mainly being used
for press releases right now. We need to avoid multimedia-
mediocrity – let’s talk to people, let’s ask healthcare
professionals, nurses and doctors what they really want from
us digitally. Let’s embrace their ideas and feedback, because
perhaps you would find that a product website might not be
the best tool to educate a doctor about your drug!
RA: Everyone is talking about Google+ and comparing it to
Facebook, so what opportunities can you see for pharma here?
FA: There are quite a few opportunities. If you can remember,
about a year ago we published an article on pharmaphorum
about how to use Google+, so hopefully people read it and
have started using it a bit more. It is tough for pharma though,
because obviously it is an open platform, but it could be a great
research tool. However, I’m always dubious about Google
going into other products, because if they don’t see any benefit
revenue wise, or the ability to scale it up globally, they usually
cut the product. So if you’re investing a lot of time in Google+
you’ve always got to think will Google be in it for the long run?
RA: What do you think the future of digital marketing looks like?
FA: [Laughs] Digital is everywhere, so there are so many
opportunities! At the moment we’re in an age of connectivity
where media is out there, so media outlets like the newspapers
and TV have embraced digital a lot; they’ve recently switched
from analogue to digital. Increasing smartphone usage has also
really helped and when 4G kicks in you’re going to have that
seamless transition, so your smartphone is going to be 10 times
more powerful.So I think 4G is key and the applications within
a smartphone are going to really change how we market, how
we advertise, and how we interact with people in the future.
Republished with the kind permission of www.pharmaphorum.com - follow @
pharmaphorum on Twitter for the latest articles
Rebecca Aris is the Managing Editor of pharmaphorum.
Tweet her @Rebecca_Aris
“...social media has been a buzzword for the last
six years, but it’s really been around since I first
got on the internet.”
“4G is key and the applications within a smartphone
are going to really change how we market...”
About the interviewee:
Faisal Ahmed is one of a handful of people in the UK that has been involved with digital for over 14 years, providing digital thought leadership
to some of the biggest brands globally, also contributing to some of the best-selling books on digital, having been part of the start-up team at
Amazon, defining how we shop online.
Faisal has launched digital strategies for 90 football Clubs, the ECB and WRC. He also launched Playboy’s mobile and social media platforms in
2006 and one of the first online social networks. Over the last 2 years, Faisal has been working in Healthcare winning over 30 awards and bringing
to life both one of the first mobile apps and augmented reality in healthcare.