Global Campaign Planning in Pharma: Lessons from the Field
When it comes to planning global campaigns in pharma, if you’ve been in this space long enough, you already know how wildly different the expectations, rules, and even digital experiences can be from one market to another.
Take content access as an example. In Italy, medical content is gated behind a login: only verified HCPs with credentials can view it. In the UK, a simple HCP self-declaration via a popup disclaimer can be enough. The experience a physician has with your brand, the journey they take to access your materials, and even the tone of the content — all of this must adapt to local standards. And that’s before even touching pharmacovigilance, which is a different world from region to region.
Over the years, I’ve had the opportunity to support many global projects — and for those who’ve worked with me, some of this might ring a bell. What I’ve come to realise is that while methodologies vary, assumptions are the one constant obstacle. They sneak in early, and they’re rarely challenged hard enough. The danger lies, as always, in what you don’t know.
The Global–Local Dance
In many of the global campaigns I’ve worked on, local affiliates are brought in for “buy-in.” But the “in” is often a strategy cooked up by the Global Brand team or tied to broader organizational change: new IT, new CRM, new Customer Engagement programs — you name it.
One of the most interesting implementations I was involved in came from a German organization — I’ll avoid naming names, as the point isn’t to advertise but to share something useful. They were designing an integrated solution to enhance the HCP experience while adding real utility to the rep toolbox.
What stood out wasn’t just the technology. It was the approach. They treated the planning like a UX research sprint: identifying real problems, gathering inputs from medical, marketing, sales, and market access, and aligning on business priorities across regions and functions. That clarity made a difference.
Not Just Rollout — Real Readiness
The solution itself was modular, with each piece categorized by deployment phase. Affiliates helped define their needs early and were also involved in piloting and launching the modules. They had to pass through a “Readiness” phase: content had to be selected, processes aligned, change managed, and internal sponsors activated. Some countries tested individual modules, while others — particularly the larger ones — launched entire platforms.
Crucially, the entire system was built on customizable templates with full documentation: epics, user stories, acceptance criteria — the works. So when an affiliate picked up the solution, they weren’t starting from scratch. They could adapt it to local needs while staying in sync with the global structure.
For example, HCP validation was handled through third-party services, CRM was integrated via Salesforce, and content was managed via Veeva. All of it tied together in a deduplication effort that, while painful at times, was absolutely necessary — thousands of assets had to be restructured to fit into workflows with tracking, reporting, and data mining.
Ownership = Engagement
What I loved was that local stakeholders involved in the pilot became part of the global team — not just token contributors, but actual support for the rollout. Agencies were selected early on, and over the next 2–3 years, the work was complex, ambitious… and genuinely enjoyable.
I was involved in planning, designing, running some of the pilots, presenting the platform across countries, and adapting the approach for local contexts. What worked really well was the decision not to impose creative vendors. Affiliates were allowed to work with local agencies — the ones who truly understood their HCPs. The only requirement was to stay within the process and use the shared tools.
So… Did It Work?
Well — yes and no. The vision was solid. But the timeline was aggressive, and trying to implement everything at once made it hard to optimise tactics or course-correct where needed. In hindsight, I’d argue for more granularity, more breathing room. The project wasn’t very lean — but in fairness, that may not have been the goal.
Still, from an organisational perspective, this was probably the biggest digital transformation project I’ve ever worked on. Others have come close, but few matched the scale, the integration, and the genuine global-local collaboration.
PROJECT: Customer Integration
OBJECTIVE: To unify technologies, processes, and vendors by creating a scalable Medical Affairs platform template, then localising it across priority countries.
COUNTRIES INVOLVED: Italy, Spain, France, Japan, UK, Brazil, China, USA
MY ROLE: PMO on the agency side + Engagement Director supporting local adaptations and affiliate alignment
Would I do it all again? Absolutely. Would I tweak the approach? Without question. But that’s the beauty of these complex builds — they stretch you, test your assumptions, and, when done right, create systems that people actually want to use.
Let me know if you’ve faced similar challenges in global rollouts — especially in pharma. I’d love to hear how others are tackling this mix of compliance, relevance, and transformation at scale.
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