Brick City Greenhouse team members weigh in with their commentary on some of the most critical issues in the industry as 2023 ends and 2024 approaches.

Q: What critical topics would you like to see addressed in healthcare in the upcoming 2024 election year?

Todd Greene, Brick City Greenhouse Senior VP, Omnichannel Marketing, reflects on the effects of artificial intelligence (AI) on healthcare, citing an October 2023 executive order that addressed AI and health data. Artificial intelligence itself presents complex legal and ethical questions, but these issues are especially sensitive when AI is applied to certain areas of science and disease management. Greene suggests that, soon, it will be critical to have a firm grasp on the implications of the executive order, especially as our industry seeks guidance on how to negotiate the use of AI in the coming years.

Fred Kinch, Brick City Greenhouse Founder, sees 2024 as a time to continue to be sensitive to clients’ needs to work efficiently and within firm budgets. As companies find themselves making more cost-cutting moves, agencies like BCG will be instrumental in using our expertise to stretch resources and meet new client needs through engagement in smaller projects.

Q: How has the application of artificial intelligence impacted business and working with clients?

Renée Wills, Brick City Greenhouse Co-founder, relays the ways BCG has embraced artificial intelligence by “harnessing the power of generative AI” for agency self-promotion. “When using AI in this way, we can stay up-to-date with recent technological advancements while gaining an understanding of their applications for future use in client work. One key way BCG has involved AI in promotional work is through the creation of first-draft, small-scale content such as social media posts. Using AI as a starting point can help inspire more detailed, thoughtful creative work.”

Although artificial intelligence has been in the headlines throughout 2023, Todd Greene acknowledges that AI has been used in our work in some form for decades, even before “generative” AI became available for daily use. Greene suggests that we will continue to “experiment and apply the predictive nature” of traditional AI to patient and HCP data. But moving forward, Greene says, changes will be evident as we look at the acquisition and employment of “data lakes.”

Q: How has social media transformed messaging and engagement with patients and HCPs? How has influencer marketing changed/shaped strategies and possibilities in reaching target audiences?

Todd Greene highlights that social media messaging has “blurred the lines of authority” and quieted the power of communication once held by established marketers, putting control into the hands of creators and influencers. Clients must decide whether to participate in social media channels, a decision which is complicated further by necessary legal guidelines imposed on pharmaceutical marketing communications. By nature, these restrictions tend to preclude engagement, which is a hallmark of social media. Still, Greene says, social media channels can help pharma companies in less obvious ways, like conducting research and staying aware of relevant conversations.

Q: What excites you looking ahead to 2024?

Fred Kinch is excited about the possibility of a resurgence of biotech and startup pharma brands. Many of these emerging and smaller companies have promising research and assets in unmet-needs areas, and only need a boost from venture capitalist funding to bring these products to market.