Tony Jones is the CEO of One Nucleus, a not-for-profit Life Sciences and Healthcare membership organization specializing in supporting life science companies to maximize performance and bringing people together to drive innovation and economic development.
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In this episode of the Marketing Science Podcast, we talk with him about how life science and healthcare companies have adapted their digital marketing strategies during 2020. Alongside how One Nucleus has worked to encourage collaboration and how they have managed the challenges of running virtual events during the pandemic. Below is an adapted transcript from the podcast.
How important is it for scientists to collaborate and share their work online and to move towards more open-access science?
It is pivotal that scientists prioritize collaboration because true innovation often happens at the intersection of two different sectors. Collaboration has always been critical, but when it comes to publication and sharing ideas, I think you must find the balance between scrutiny or peer review and open access.
On social media, a lot of non-scrutinized information is published, which creates confusion and can lead to conspiracy theories that can build momentum quickly. However, in science, the only way to test a hypothesis is to argue against it, so I’m also not saying that people shouldn’t publish things that contradict established ideas.
Platforms that allow open publications help speed up knowledge dissemination, but those platforms also need to create mechanisms for scrutiny and assessing the actual data.
The sharing of knowledge and the process of scrutinizing open publications can lead to more collaboration, and that's an excellent way to progress. The speed with which we’ve progressed in COVID-19 vaccines and treatments highlights how vital collaboration is within the life science industry.
How has technology played a role in increasing collaboration in the life sciences sector?
Technology has enabled us to communicate and share knowledge at breakneck speed. At One Nucleus, the point of us coming together through physical events was always to share knowledge. With technology, we can do that online and through virtual events.
The advancement of technology has also led to an ability to move knowledge around quicker. Scientists love sharing insights and knowledge with their peer groups because that refines their thinking. Suppose this had happened even five years ago. In that case, it would have been much more difficult to see the same progress without the quality of infrastructure and technology we have around digital connectivity today.
How does One Nucleus facilitate global collaboration and interaction between its members in life science and healthcare?
We have often collaborated with groups similar to One Nucleus, but we usually focused on doing events that were face-to-face. If we were all at a big convention in the US, we would plan collaborative events while all of our member companies were together.
"Moving these events online has enabled more international connectivity where we can share insights with our members."
During our virtual events, we can have members from all over the world share their perspectives, leading to more connectivity. Someone from the UK might be able to learn about the manufacturing of advanced therapies going on in New Jersey and get involved, which would have been more difficult before we were forced online.
At a time when our members cannot travel to open up those new collaborations or new service offerings, virtual events and online collaboration have been areas where we've been able to add real value. We’ll also continue to ask ourselves how we can use technology more effectively in the future and learn from our recent experiences of the covid-19 pandemic.
Can you describe what your online events have been like this year regarding attendees and subject matter?
The size of the events varies a lot with One Nucleus as we do smaller round table discussions and larger conferences like ON Helix that draw hundreds of people. The job for One Nucleus is to work out what our participants want to learn as well as what information they are looking to share with their target market.
We’ve seen real collaboration come out of these events. During our online events, our participants haven’t considered keeping information away from their competition. Instead, they have come together as business leaders to share ideas around things like working within the COVID guidelines, being good employers, and being good corporate citizens.
Our online events have also helped us deepen our relationships with our member companies. Virtual events have enabled us to engage with people based in the labs or on the operational side of the business, who usually would not have been able to leave the company to go to a physical event, but who can attend an hour-long webinar.
Are there any other ways that virtual events have benefited your members and attendees?
I have talked with colleagues about how to better encourage networking and knowledge-sharing for students and those in the early stages of their careers. With our recorded events and sessions, there is an excellent archive of on-demand material building up that people can use.
I look back to when I was working in labs and wondering what direction to take my career. It would have been invaluable to learn about the industry from this on-demand content, which is often much more accessible and affordable than in-person conferences.
Can you tell us more about what you learned from running the ON Helix event as a virtual event over the summer?
The virtual event attracted over 400 people, but the transition to planning online was a challenge for our small team at One Nucleus. We had a lot of questions about the type of content to create for a digital event vs. a physical event. But we saw it as a challenge and an opportunity to learn.
One of the benefits of digital events was the ability to engage with our attendees globally more easily. Without the hassle of flying in speakers from other countries or paying for travel costs, we could easily get someone like an investor from California or a public health specialist from Australia to deliver a session.
We’ve learned a lot from the ON Helix event, and we’re currently rolling this forward with Genesis, another flagship event. We’ve created a set of on-demand content that we’re calling ‘Around the World’ because of our ability to host a global set of speakers who will discuss the same topic from their particular landscape.
For your upcoming event, Genesis, how much of your content will be live and interactive vs. on-demand?
The split will be about 60% live and interactive and 40% on-demand content. To mimic a physical conference where you have opportunities to engage in person with delegates, we have planned a week surrounding the event with scheduled ‘Innovation Workshops’, where exhibitors can run a 1-hour interactive workshop to enable that live interaction.
These workshops no longer have to compete with other conference sessions. You’re also getting a more engaged and interested audience because you know that each attendee is coming to your session because they have a specific interest in what you offer.
We also learned that it is helpful to supplement live and interactive sessions with on-demand content. We’ll have live streaming, but we'll also release some pre-recorded content that will be accessible simultaneously. If an attendee isn’t particularly interested in one live stream topic, they can easily find an on-demand topic they are more interested in.
It’s also important to encourage our attendees to make the best use of the on-demand content to get the best return on their investment of time during sessions. The on-demand content can give excellent background information for the live events, encouraging people to engage more with live panelists and ask questions they may have otherwise been too intimidated to ask.
How many delegates are you expecting for Genesis 2020, and what do you think networking will look like at the event?
Attendance is expected to be 400 - 450 delegates for Genesis 2020. There will be about 20 Innovation Workshops going on across the week, which are replacing the exhibitors. We have also scheduled those interactive workshops so that none overlap.
We recognize that many people don’t want to spend four full days watching digital workshops, so you can tailor your agenda to include the most interesting sessions to you. And again, we will be recording all sessions, so they will be available on our website after the event.
Beyond that, it's going to be interesting to see how active people remain after the event in terms of following up with contacts on the event networking system or connecting with someone from an on-demand session they watched. If you don’t get a chance to network with someone during physical events, you've often missed that opportunity to connect. With digital events, you've got the ability to go back and network with someone and leverage that connectivity.
There is an addition to the marketing efforts of the Innovation Workshops in that the brand awareness for those businesses will be boosted as everyone attending will be paying attention to which events they want to attend - therefore reading into precisely who and what those life science companies do.
How have companies adapted their communications and digital marketing strategies over the course of 2020?
We’re generally seeing a considerable increase in life science digital marketing activity volume. Science companies like contract research organizations and technical service providers are creating much more digital content than they used to. Many companies have embraced technology and found innovative ways to make content more accessible online. Current marketing trends in digital marketing for life sciences certainly go further than email marketing and search engine optimization.
I have been impressed with how our member companies in the life sciences sector have learned how to do digital marketing. These companies have managed to get inside the mindset of their audience and learn about their interests and what type of subjects will drive them to digital marketing content like webinars or pre-recorded educational videos. This insight has made way for impressive content marketing strategies and campaigns.
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The companies that are successfully adapting their digital marketing strategies have given a lot of thought to the critical message they are trying to get across and how to get that message across quickly in succinct marketing campaigns.
For a long time, we've talked about what the future of communication looks like and how it will become more of a conversation and less of an information push. I think the pandemic has just fast-forwarded that.
What will future events like ON Helix and Genesis look like? Do you see a hybrid event format working?
Assuming we can return to face-to-face events, I anticipate using more technology. We may continue to create on-demand content that can supplement or lead people into face-to-face conferences. Retaining that ability to bring international perspectives to our events has also been very valuable, and I think technology will continue to allow us to do that.
Hybrid events have been around for some time, so I think we'll have to learn what elements work and what doesn't for an event like ON Helix or Genesis. That may differ for other events, even within our life sciences and healthcare sector.
I believe that Genesis and ON Helix will come back in a physical form, but I can easily see why a virtual event like Genesis 2020 would still work well in the future for lead generation. There will be forms of hybrid events; we just need to figure out what they will look like and how they will influence life science marketing trends.
How has the financing and investment side of the life sciences sector been affected throughout 2020?
What has been interesting over this period is that it looks like 2020 is going to be a record year in the number of investments raised by the life sciences sector in the UK. A portion of that money has come into companies active in the COVID-19 response, driven by a need for a rapid response. Many companies have raised money outside of the COVID space as well.
Financing has worked at a very healthy level. We may see people who haven’t been investing in life sciences before start to see the monetary value of investing and the opportunity to invest as responsible citizens.
People want to be a part of more significant causes and impact investing. We've seen the life science sector justifiably raise significant money during 2020 because it has demonstrated that it adds a lot of value to our society and our populations.
What are the major biotech, healthcare, and life sciences trends that you expect to see over the next five years?
Many of the trends are already happening. For example, the use of artificial intelligence and machine learning, data science to better inform research, and particularly in the biomedical field, we’re seeing a convergence of technology and biology.
I think what this pandemic has done is accelerated those trends. We will see more interdisciplinary teams developing within the life science space. And bringing this back to the last question, these developments may help bring in new investors to the life sciences or healthcare sectors.
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