IQVIA Digital @ SXSW 2025: Takeaways for Healthcare and Life Science Brands
This year’s South by Southwest event, billed as the “essential destination for global professionals,” provided IQVIA Digital a great opportunity to convene industry experts and leading thinkers. In four panel discussions, our leaders and other experts across the healthcare spectrum explored challenges and opportunities in digital healthcare marketing. Here, we summarize insights from those sessions.
Top takeaways:
- Artificial intelligence is making direct-to-consumer audience creation more complex, and healthcare companies need to work to capitalize on the benefits and mitigate risks.
- Media can play a crucial role in the efforts of healthcare organizations to meet the specific health needs of women.
- Healthcare marketers should learn from the wine industry’s initiatives around using data to understand customer preferences and improve their marketing.
- Online gaming offers novel opportunities for healthcare marketers to reach their audiences.
AI, privacy and the future of DTC: Walking the tightrope of innovation
Our first session, “AI, Privacy and the Future of DTC: Walking the Tightrope of Innovation,” featured Luk Arbuckle, global AI practice leader at IQVIA Applied AI Science, and David Reim, audience data lead from IQVIA Digital. In a Q&A format, Luk and David engaged in a conversation about marketers using AI to transform direct-to-consumer (DTC) healthcare marketing. For example, AI can bring greater precision to consumer audience creation because it can de-identify consumer health data, enabling it to be used (consumer health data that has not been de-identified cannot be used).
David and Luk discussed ways that marketers can determine whether AI-based marketing programs are right for them. Luk emphasized that marketers should ask questions that help assess how appropriate, responsible and trustworthy the programs are, in addition to seeking information about the boundaries or “guardrails” within the program that keep data safe. Additional topics addressed by Luk and David included the meaning of “defensible AI” and the challenges of navigating data privacy demands.
From periphery to power: Scaling the sex & gender health gap
Andrew Burkus, senior principal at IQVIA Digital, led a productive discussion in our second session, “From Periphery to Power: Scaling the Sex & Gender Health Gap,” that explored progress in diminishing the gender health divide in the U.S. Nicole Benedetto, head of U.S. Innovation and Established Brands, Organon, and Andrea Palmer, CEO, Publicis Health Media, were panelists, with special guest Dr. Shawana Moore, former president of the National Association of Nurse Practitioners in Women’s Health and nurse practitioner at Emory University.
A core theme that emerged from the discussion is that women’s health is relevant to everyone. Nicole noted that her company defines women’s health broadly as “conditions that are unique to women, that disproportionately affect women or affect women differently,” which results in a wide range of therapeutic areas that need to be looked at through that lens. Conversation spanned a wide range of issues — from maternal mortality, access to healthcare and the lack of investment in women’s health to preventive care, above-brand initiatives that succeed in education and advocacy, and the importance of authenticity in those efforts. Andrea noted that some of the best campaigns succeed because “they get to the heart of human needs and answer human questions.”
Panelists agreed that to close the gender health divide, we must bring down systemic barriers, enhance healthcare accessibility, and target communications that champion women’s unique needs. They recognized the media’s critical role in helping healthcare companies, as it can drive holistic education, awareness and advocacy initiatives for women that transcend individual products. Addressing the unique ways in which the vast majority of diseases manifest differently in women is a primary challenge, but by identifying and tackling these differences, we can drive transformative change and ensure better care for all women.
I’m getting a hint of data: Lessons from the wine industry
During an enlightening panel, “I’m Getting a Hint of Data: Lessons from the Wine Industry,” we were pleased to share the stage with Oz Demir, head of Digital Marketing at Genentech; Melissa Giordano, chief client officer at CMI Media Group; and Dr. Marinda Kruger, vice president of Winemaking from FirstLeaf. Nicola Partridge, director of Commercial Strategy at IQVIA Digital, moderated the conversation, which centered on ways the wine industry uses data for marketing and what healthcare marketers can learn from it. Although wine and healthcare are very different, panelists noted several key parallels.
First, both industries rely on diverse data sources beyond customer insights. Dr. Kruger shared that the wine industry uses data on personal preferences to determine whether new wines will resonate with existing customers. Similarly, healthcare marketers can integrate additional datasets to inform strategies based on patient or healthcare provider preferences, creating a personalized experience.
Second, AI plays a crucial role in driving the understanding of broad datasets and generating content to extend reach in both winemaking and healthcare marketing. But as Oz Demir noted, “Humans are still better at understanding emotions, which means you still need a human to digest data and fully understand what is resonating with clients.”
Why gaming is the real media score for pharma
Our last session at SXSW was “Health Points: Why Gaming Is the Real Media Score for Pharma.” Moderated by Cristin Liberatore, senior director, Pharma Commercial Strategy at IQVIA Digital, panelists Dave Gluck, senior client partner at Unity; Kimberly Jones, president and CEO at Butler/Till; and Alison M. Tapia, former Senior Director, Performance Marketing and Digital Innovation at Dermavant Sciences, explored the potential of in-game advertising for healthcare brands.
While it may be a new area for pharma marketers, our panelists agreed that in-game advertising offers a uniquely large, leaned-in audience. They shared that 71% of Americans play video games, and an American Medical Association survey indicated that 60% of doctors responding also play. To play well in this arena, they noted that pharma brands first need to understand its specific dynamics. Marketers looking to enter this space should ask, “Does our target audience have a high prevalence of gamers?” If so, marketers can then identify the games favored by their audiences and determine the best ways to reach them through that medium.
Our panelists explained how they successfully collaborated on a game for a healthcare campaign focused on reaching psoriasis patients. In their initial research, they discovered that people with psoriasis are five times more likely to be gamers, so they decided to design some in-game advertising to reach them. Early on, they went to other internal stakeholders to bring them in on the campaign. Within the game, they were able to precisely measure performance and impact. Audience quality was high and showed that their gaming campaign reached their audience at times when the audience was interested in consuming pharma content.
By exploring the use of gaming within a brand’s specific target groups, marketers can find new audiences who may be more likely to interact with in-game ads. Looking at the data, bringing in partners and talking to internal stakeholders early in the process will help set marketers on a fruitful path, with measurement a critical piece in supporting future investments in these new channels.
We were delighted to host so many of our partners at SXSW 2025. The healthcare marketing challenges posed by AI, gender health inequity, gamification and data use are significant, but there are ways to transform these challenges into opportunities. At IQVIA Digital, we work with experts and their organizations to navigate this terrain and identify potential opportunities together. Learn more about us here.
