In the second episode of Pharma Decrypted, host Sabine Louët, founder of SciencePod, spoke with Madelene Borgvall, a global brand leader with extensive experience in rare disease product launches. Borgvall shared practical lessons on what pharma teams should prioritise when planning and rolling out multichannel campaigns, from channel selection and editorial planning to change management and scalability.
Here are the key takeaways from the conversation:
Omnichannel is no longer optional
The distinction between multichannel and omnichannel may sound like science conference jargon, but Borgvall made it clear on where she stands: multichannel, in its traditional sense, is an outdated model.
The old approach involved running multiple tactics in isolation: an email here, a banner there, each as a one-shot effort with no connective tissue between them. The result? Fragmented communication with no way to measure collective impact.
Borgvall argued that each and every campaign needs a backbone. This central hub, typically a website, is where all content lives and where all other channels drive traffic. Whether it’s a sales representative sending a follow-up email or an e-blast to promote a new data release, each piece should link back to this hub. This connection is what turns a collection of isolated tactics into a coherent campaign and, critically, what makes impact measurable.
If full-omnichannel isn’t achievable for you immediately, Borgvall recommended cross-channel at minimum: linking at least some tactics together so your communication has a traceable thread. As without that? Teams are left guessing at what worked and what didn’t.
Match Your Channels To Your Objectives
Not all channels serve the same purpose, and Borgvall drew a clear line between those designed for reach and those built for depth.
Light engagement channels, such as banners, e-blasts, and third-party media, work well for broad awareness. They cast a wide net and connect with a large pool of physicians. At the global level, this kind of reach is often the priority, particularly at the early stages of a product launch when awareness is the primary objective.
Deep engagement channels, such as mechanism-of-action videos, KOL-led (Key Opinion Leader) content, webinars, and social media, target a narrower audience but generate far greater impact. At the local level, Borgvall found these to be especially effective, particularly when delivered in local languages. Webinars in particular proved valuable for disseminating new data between congresses and for presenting patient cases that resonate with prescribers.
When asked to name just three channels as a starting point, Borgvall’s answer was pragmatic: a content hub, approved follow-up emails linked to the sales team activity, and webinars. These three, when connected, provide the basic building blocks of a functioning omnichannel campaign.
Editorial planning is the most important ingredient
Borgvall didn’t hesitate when asked to identify the single most important ingredient in orchestrating a rare disease launch: editorial planning.
Defining what you want to say and when, not as a standalone digital strategy, but as a core element of the brand plan. Too often, omnichannel strategy is treated as a separate workstream. The argument was made that it should be fully integrated into the brand plan, with content mapped against the studies, data releases, and congresses that punctuate the year.
Critically, editorial planning in this context extends beyond marketing. In rare diseases especially, patients are often highly informed about their treatment options. If medical affairs, commercial, and patient communications are not aligned, the physician sees inconsistency from the company, and the patient may arrive at a consultation with expectations that don’t match what their clinician has been told.
Emphasis was made on the importance of working in campaigns rather than trying to say everything at once. Earlier efforts with content-heavy approved emails had produced underwhelming click-through rates. The shift to shorter, modular content delivered in quarterly campaign cycles proved far more effective. Each campaign period carried a single clear message, and the click-through data from each cycle informed the next, creating a genuinely iterative process.
Bring legal, compliance, and affiliates in early
Borgvall was candid about the realities of change management. In one launch, her team had just six months to implement the omnichannel transformation. It worked, but she was clear that a year is a more realistic timeline for most organisations.
The process starts with an honest assessment of where the company currently stands: what CRM systems are in place? What analytics capabilities exist? Are KPIs are being measured at all? From there, teams need a short-term, mid-term, and long-term vision, with step-by-step goals at three, six, and twelve months.
Top management support is essential. Without senior stakeholders backing the project, omnichannel risks being treated as a tactical add-on rather than a strategic priority. Borgvall noted that when barriers arise, and they always do, it is the senior sponsors who push the project forward.
Companies with more advanced omnichannel capabilities can adapt in a matter of months. Those starting from a lower base of maturity need the full year, and they need to set realistic expectations along the way. Without these incremental milestones, disappointment sets in and sceptics revert to old habits.
Scalability comes from standardisation
Scaling a multichannel rollout across markets is one of the most resource-intensive challenges in pharma. Borgvall’s approach is centred on standardised templates and modular content produced at the global level to achieve success.
Providing affiliates with pre-built, translated materials that required only local adaptation and regulatory sign-off, the go-to-market timeline shortened considerably. Locally, affiliates can focus their own budgets on high-impact, deep engagement tactics, such as locally run webinars in local languages, while global can handle the repeatable elements.
Borgvall mentioned targeting 80 to 90 percent content reuse at the local level. New evidence generation was layered into the existing core story framework as it became available, ensuring that campaigns stayed current without requiring a full content rebuild each quarter. The storytelling remained consistent across markets, even as the supporting data evolved.
Key Takeaways
- Connect your channels or don’t bother. Isolated tactics with no connective thread produce fragmented communication and unmeasurable impact. At a minimum, link your channels through a central content hub.
- Match the channel to the objective. Use broad-reach tactics for awareness and targeted channels for deep engagement. The two serve different purposes and work best in combination.
- Editorial planning is the backbone. Integrate your content calendar into the brand plan, align medical and commercial messaging, and work in focused campaign cycles rather than trying to communicate everything at once.
- Bring stakeholders in early. Legal, compliance, medical, and local affiliates all need to be aligned from the start. Late-stage misalignment costs time and money.
- Allow a realistic timeline for change management. Six months is possible but tight. A year is more realistic for most organisations. Set incremental goals and secure top management sponsorship.
- Standardise to scale. Modular content produced at the global level, with local translation and adaptation, is the most efficient route to consistent, high-frequency communication across markets.
The views expressed in this interview are the speaker’s own.
Interview conducted by Sabine Louët. Edited from the interview transcript for clarity and length.