In today’s launch environment, omnichannel success is no longer defined by the number of channels activated, but by how effectively brands orchestrate engagement across them. As healthcare audiences become more fragmented and expectations for personalized, relevant interactions continue to rise, launch teams are under increasing pressure to deliver the right message, through the right channel, at the right moment. We heard from six experts that shared their perspectives on what recent launches have taught the industry about omnichannel execution. We asked:

  • What lessons have recent successful launches taught the industry about omnichannel execution?
  • What are the most critical channels to prioritize during the first six months of a product launch, and why?
  • How can marketers determine the right channel mix for different stakeholder audiences, including HCPs, patients, and payers?
  • How has AI changed the way companies optimize omnichannel engagement during launches?

 

Peter Stolarski

Customer Engagement Lead
Takeda Pharmaceuticals

When a launch goes well, everyone wants to study what messages resonated, where stakeholders were reached, which platforms, what messaging sequence changed behavior, and how the budget was split. It feels like the answer is in there somewhere; it usually isn’t.

The launches worth learning from didn’t win because they picked better channels or had the best campaign—they won because they could move. They put a message into the market, saw what was actually happening—what resonated and what didn’t—and adjusted before the window closed. The details matter, but not as much as gaining an insight on what drives behavioral change.

That sounds simple; it isn’t and three things tend to break it.

The first is data infrastructure. If you can’t see the signal as it happens, you aren’t learning. You’re looking backward and calling it insight.

The second is speed to market. A test-and-learn loop runs in days or weeks. If content takes longer than that to launch, the loop was never real to begin with.

The third is organizational complexity. The more stakeholders a launch touches, the more places good work can stall between them.

Here is the part that gets missed. The teams that solve this don’t treat medical, regulatory, and compliance as a gate to get through. They treat those teams as partners in building the process itself. They create ways to account for regulatory rigor and still get content into the market faster. When that partnership works, everyone starts seeing results sooner. And results create their own mandate to keep going.

We tend to frame omnichannel maturity as a technology challenge. It’s just as much a leadership one. The marketers who execute well have the digital acumen to know where to see insights and how to move forward and the emotional intelligence to bring their cross functional partners along with them.

The launches that win aren’t the ones with the best plan. They’re the ones with the courage to adjust to what the market is telling them.

 

Nolan Mayer

Senior Director, Engagement Strategy
BGB Group

While omnichannel promises a seamless, unified brand experience across all touchpoints, regardless of channel, recent successful launches have revealed that the channel activation component is more of a strategic discipline rather than a media deployment tactic.

Does omnichannel provide efficiencies in touchpoint frequency? Absolutely. There is no denying that omnichannel can roll out more tactics in less time. But is that effective? We would argue “no.” Omnichannel’s executional value resides, instead, in sequencing engagements. After all, what good is a bombardment of channel touchpoints for your audience if your messages are irrelevant for a particular moment in their journey?

We’re also learning, even validating, that coming out of these launches is the importance of modular content. Modular content has proven itself to be a key component as it ensures the right message be in the right channel at the right time. Again, what good is a brand experience that carries a message fit for a journey phase other than the current one? The modular content that brands must create is inherently agile. It is because of modular content’s inherent agility that we can mix and match content and better personalize engagements while not reinventing the wheel. This experience is valuable learning as it validates everyone’s hypothesis around modular content’s valuable role in omnichannel orchestration.

And what would be omnichannel orchestration without data? Our content and assets need to be and are being infused with data. We’re learning that data integration is proving to be more valuable than channel volume.

This is no surprise. To harken back to the earlier question, “what good is a brand experience if messaging isn’t relevant to the particular moment?” We’re learning (validating) that the role of data is to optimize engagement in real-time at the speed our brands’ need.

 

Hank Greene

VP Engagement Strategy
RevHealth
hank.greene@revhealth.com

During the first six months of a launch, your priority shouldn’t be on building a robust, complex funnel, it should be creating coordinated, surround sound messaging across channels where your audiences already engage.

This begins by focusing on content efficiency versus  content expansiveness across your website or CRM. Of course, your platforms should give users a compelling place to learn and take the next step, but brands can find early success with an interactive landing page and a short series of launch emails, supported by a simple initiation process for early patient onboarding.

Starting lean here does two things: it keeps your information actionable and easy to understand (critical to making your launch narrative stick) and creates opportunities to re-engage audiences over time as new content, tools, and resources are added.

From there, your efforts should expand your ecosystem with tactics that will take your launch messaging to where your audiences are. This includes contextually relevant endemic placements, social campaigns on platforms where target audiences are active (Reddit and LinkedIn are both emerging channels here), and programmatic media and inhome CTV to round out efforts with reach and frequency—all of which should prioritize zero-click content and inplatform interactivity to both meet modern user experience expectations and lower the barrier to engagement at launch.

Congress presence is equally critical during the months post launch. Showing up consistently at these key events will position your brand narrative within the broader context of scientific leadership and credibility in the category.

Key to all this is strong alignment with your sales teams. Marketers can get lost in intricate digital journeys, but personal promotion remains at the center of effective pharma marketing engagement. Ensure that reps have an effective IVA and a focused suite of resources at their disposal to amplify your non-personal approach.

 

Todd Greene

SVP, Omnichannel Marketing
Brick City Greenhouse
todd@brickcitygreenhouse.com

After prioritizing the training of reps and MSLs, the most critical channels for the first six months of a product launch are the full suite of owned websites (corporate, unbranded, branded), earned media, and old reliable: paid search.

Product websites are the most obvious channels for direct audience traffic from HCPs and patients ready to access the brand. However, it is critical that marketers prioritize the full ecosystem of websites—especially marketers at less-established start-ups.

Corporate websites gain trust from investors, potential hires, journalists, payers, KOLs, and patients. Unbranded websites allow marketers to establish awareness and education of the unmet need. All websites provide an increase in online visibility, search engine and answer engine optimization, and omnichannel integration (e.g., lead generation, pixel retargeting, MSL outreach).

Paid search then becomes the most irreplaceable brand-builder and traffic-driver. It captures high-intent audiences and allows for budget flexibility.

And as search shifts from navigation to answers, audiences are increasingly using AI to get synthesized answers, compare options, and refine questions conversationally. This means all websites need thoughtful content inclusion, purposeful page structure, and UX, and cross-linking among them. Prioritizing these tactics on all websites will help increase the odds of traditional search engines and new answer engines mentioning the products and company (and citing each website as a linked source).

Interestingly enough, this evolution of search has also increased the value of traditional earned media. Receiving product or clinical study mentions at conferences, in external publications, and/or with other earned initiatives like KOL interviews and roundtables, will result in a brand and company being part of the therapeutic category’s online conversations and LLM training data. Receiving third-party validation of the science behind the product—from KOLs, researchers, publishers, and presenters—is a tried-and-true method for achieving credibility, and it remains imperative in 2026 and beyond.

 

Oliver Nelson

Managing Director
Evolvics, powered by Syneos Health
oliver.nelson@syneoshealth.com

The fastest way to get channel mix wrong is to start with theory instead of behavior. High performing marketers flip the model by isolating their most valuable segment, often highly engaged HCPs, and tracing their journey backward from conversion.

This reverse engineering approach reveals what actually worked. Did engagement start with search alone? Was it reinforced by Online Video? Did Paid Social accelerate movement through the funnel? These insights expose the real sequence of influence, not the one outlined in a planning deck.

Once that proven pathway is identified, the strategy becomes scalable. Budget shifts toward recreating that exact touchpoint map across the broader addressable market, dramatically improving efficiency and predictability.

Different stakeholders require different pathways. Patients often need sequential education and emotional validation, while payers demand concise, evidence‑driven messaging delivered through fewer, more precise channels. One‑size‑fits‑all omnichannel is no longer defensible.

The brands gaining ground are those that let real behavior dictate investment and aren’t afraid to walk away from channels that don’t earn their place.

“The brands that win launches aren’t typically the ones with the most content. They’re the ones who learn the fastest and act on it.”

 

Stephanie D’Agostino

Managing Director, Omnichannel Enablement
Klick Health
sdagostino@klick.com

At its core, AI has changed one thing more than anything else—time. The industry has always struggled to get to optimized engagement fast enough for it to matter and that is more critical than ever during a launch when prescribing habits are still forming and every moment counts.

In practice that means moving from static reporting to continuous optimization. Instead of waiting weeks to understand what’s happening in-market, pulling in claims, engagement, formulary, and behavioral data in near real-time to refine target audiences, key messages, and marketing channels. If an HCP engages with content Monday, it’s now possible to quickly determine the next best action and get that information to the field rep while it’s still relevant.

On the content side, assets that used to take weeks to produce can now be turned around in hours. That matters because speed of content production, MLR review, and time to market have always been the bottlenecks that kept next-best-action from delivering on its promise. Beyond focusing on owned channels (email, portals, rep-triggered content), the real opportunity is pulling NBA through into paid media.

When an HCP engages meaningfully with content, that insight should be feeding a programmatic or social campaign within hours, not weeks. Closing that loop is what takes NBA from a tactic to a true omnichannel experience.

The brands that win launches aren’t typically the ones with the most content. They’re the ones who learn the fastest and act on it.