Fierce Pharma 2025: Why a Unified Audience is Your Key to 2026 Success 

Patient-first impact: building trust and delivering results 

For the first time, leaders from marketing, commercial, medical, digital, and regulatory spheres converged under one roof. Formerly Digital Pharma East, the newly minted Fierce Pharma Week created a more collaborative landscape across all departments involved in improving patient outcomes. 

Reflecting on my time connecting with partners, clients, and peers at Fierce Pharma Week, the critical question in all of my conversations was clear: How can brands overcome fragmentation, deliver consistent and effective messaging, and engage patients in a meaningful way that impacts health outcomes? 

The answer is a fundamental shift in strategy. The future of pharma marketing lies in deploying unified audiences across all channels, nationwide, with privacy-safe strategies. 

Here are four key takeaways to inform your 2026 strategic planning from the conference room floor.  

1. The value of pharma ads reflected in patient survey 

A special highlight this year was seeing Swoop’s Chief Patient Officer Eric Peacock and leaders from Novo Nordisk and WPP Media thoughtfully discuss the role of advertising in supporting the patient journey for chronic conditions. The discussion brought to life key findings from Swoop’s custom survey of more than 900 patients. The results revealed that 83% found treatment ads beneficial, and two-thirds took action after exposure to life sciences marketing. The results underscore how advertising can be a meaningful, positive resource for patients navigating complex, healthcare journeys. 

2. CTV: A powerful channel not a siloed Strategy 

Connected TV (CTV) is now central to media strategies, enabling precise, AI-driven targeting. Maximize its power by integrating it into a holistic strategy that reaches a unified audience across all channels. Patients and healthcare providers (HCPs) don’t live on a single channel, and neither should your brand’s targeting strategies. CTV is a critical component, but its effectiveness is magnified when it’s used to reach the same unified audience across all channels. 

3. Medical Affairs is a growing resource for consistent, credible messages 

Medical Affairs has evolved from advisory to a cornerstone of healthcare strategy. By integrating earlier in clinical development, regulatory decisions, and payer strategies, this once siloed department can now enhance credibility and connection with patients and HCPs for a brand. As discussed by Swoop’s EVP of Strategic Partnerships Beth Luce the strategic rise of medical affairs ensures that engagement is built on a foundation of scientific integrity. This credibility is the crucial first step, providing a trustworthy and consistent message that can be deployed with confidence across every patient touchpoint. 

4. Activate and understand audiences at scale with AI  

Artificial intelligence (AI) is the engine that makes activating a unified audience possible. From predictive analytics to automated workflows, AI is reshaping engagement. It delivers superior ROI with a single smarter audience, not chasing disparate signals. 

• Predictive Audiences: AI allows us to anticipate patient needs and identify audiences most likely to hit the next step in their healthcare journey. Creating a more intelligent, proactive audience. 

• Smarter Optimization: AI continuously refines targeting and messaging for a specific audience, ensuring the right message finds the right patients and HCPs on the right channel at the right time, maximizing impact and eliminating waste. 

This high-performance engine must be built on a privacy-safe structure, ensuring that every engagement is both effective and ethically sound. 

Putting it all together for bigger impact on patient outcomes  

In 2026, success will hinge on activating one unified audience across all channels, nationwide. 

The future is a patient-first approach: Engage a single, intelligent, privacy-safe audience with a consistent message, seamlessly, wherever they are. This is how brands will break through the noise, build trust, and deliver impact.  

Celebrating together in Philadelphia reminded me that the real power of this industry is in the relationships we build. Let’s connect and drive the industry forward together! I can’t wait to see everyone again next year!