asco 2016 twitter analysis

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How did pharma use Twitter at ASCO 2016?

www.ashfieldhealthcare.com: Part of UDG Healthcare plc2

The meeting is one of the largest gatherings of medical professionals in the world, with world-renowned faculties discussing the very latest in cancer treatment, and ground-breaking research announced throughout the eventAdditionally, ASCO’s Annual Meeting has led the way in terms of social media utilisation. Indeed ASCO themselves state that “Social media serves as one of the major public health engines of the 21st century, granting doctors and the general public alike unprecedented access to information on cancer prevention, treatments, research, and survival.”*In particular, ASCO has championed the use of Twitter to open conversations around the world and provide guidance and knowledge to the public and professionals alike.

Each year, ASCO’s Annual Meeting brings together 30,000 oncology professionals from around the world

*Source: https://www.asco.org/training-education/education-career-resources/social-media-resources


In particular, we wanted to look at how pharmaceuticals are communicating using the hashtag, to provide insight into how the most active companies are being successful on the platform We found that pharma companies were a large and valid part of the ASCO conversation, and were using increasingly innovative techniques to interact through the platformThat analysis can be found here:- http://

www.slideshare.net/Ashfield-Healthcare/how-did-pharma-use-twitter-at-asco-2015

So the question is… How has this evolved in 2016?

Last year, we conducted some analysis of the #ASCO15 hashtag

http://www.slideshare.net/Ashfield-Healthcare/how-did-pharma-use-twitter-at-asco-2015




ASCO focus in 2016

The theme for ASCO 2016 was Collective Wisdom: The Future of Patient-Centered Care and Research.

ASCO state “We must partner with healthcare professionals and specialists of diverse backgrounds to meet the evolving challenges in providing optimal care to our patients”*

*Source: https://am.asco.org/about

Did Twitter support this goal?


BEFORE WE ANALYSED PHARMACEUTICAL INPUT INTO #ASCO16, WE TOOK A LOOK AT THE BROADER TRENDS


#ASCO12 #ASCO13 #ASCO14 #ASCO15 #ASCO160

10000

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60000

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80000 We are beginning to reach the point of maturity for the hashtag,

continued growth will be largely reliant on overall Twitter usage

growth, rather than awareness and engagement with the hashtag

154% increase

50% increase

Use of the ASCO hashtag continues to increase, albeit slower than in previous years

Source: Symplur, Date range: 2nd June – 7th June

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15% increase


As with #ASCO15, #ASCO16 was utilised to raise awareness within specialist areas of oncology

#bmsatasco #lcsm #immunotherapy

#cancer #bcsm #immunooncology

#lungcancer #oncology #breastcancer

MOST POPULAR HASTAGS FOR #ASCO16

#cancer #oncology #hcsm

#btsm #breastcancer #asco14

#lungcancer #melanoma #hpm

MOST POPULAR HASTAGS FOR #ASCO15

Lung Cancer/Breast Cancer Social Media communities

These topics included breast cancer and lung cancer, for which specific community hashtags have increased in popularityAlso, perhaps unsurprisingly given the industry’s continued increased focus on immunotherapies, immunotherapy hashtags featured amongst the most popular


Looking at overall mentions of terms used alongside #ASCO16, a similar picture emerged, with immunotherapy leading the way

Mentions0

500

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Immunotherapy Breast Cancer Lung Cancer Myeloma ImmunooncologyPancreatic Cancer Kidney Cancer Ovarian Cancer Genomic

Source: Sysomos.com, based on Tweets using #ASCO16, between 2nd – 7th June 2016

Topic

Men

tions


WHO WERE THE MOST ACTIVE PHARMACEUTICAL COMPANIES USING #ASCO16?


Who were the major influencers within #ASCO16 conversation?

Impressions are a way to measure conversation around an event on Twitter, showing the potential number of people who could have viewed your tweet, as opposed to follower count.As in 2015, four pharmaceutical companies featured in the top 10, demonstrating their continued prevalence on the platformMerck featured in the top 10 for the first time, amassing 5.6 million impressions

2016 2015

Vs


Across the board, 2016 saw a decrease in tweets from pharma companies during the event when compared to 2015

Roche BMS Genentech AstraZeneca Merck Pfizer

ASC02015 ASCO2016Total number of #ASCO16 tweets by company

Source: Sysomos, Date: 2nd June – 7th June

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Across the most active pharmaceutical companies, there

was an average 57% fewer tweets sent!

: Part of UDG Healthcare plc www.ashfieldhealthcare.com12

Pharma representation in the top 10 influencers, measured by impressions

*

Source: Symplur, Top 10 by impressions, Date: 2nd June – 7th June *Genentech were the 11th biggest influencer in 2015 and 2016, included for illustrative purposes.

This resulted in less impressions overall from the top pharma influencers

Num

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f im

pres

sions

ACSO13 ASCO14 ASCO15 ASCO160

5,000,000

10,000,000

15,000,000

20,000,000

25,000,000

30,000,000

35,000,000

40,000,000

45,000,000

50,000,000

MerckAstra ZenecaBMSPfizerGenentechRocheNovartisBoehringer

17% decrease


BMS Merck Genentech AstraZeneca Roche Pfizer

ASCO15 ASCO16

Nevertheless, despite fewer tweets, retweets of top content were on par with #ASCO15

BMS generated 2,917 retweets over these 20 tweets, which is the likely

result of a sponsored twitter campaign

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0

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Source: Sysomos, Date: 2nd June – 7th June

Total number of #ASCO16 retweets by company – top 20 tweets only

Retw

eets

Merck's engagement with the hashtag generated the 2nd highest

number of retweets over ASCO 2016

This shows that the quality of the tweets has remained high, pharma companies are just reducing the quantity being sent

3500


WE LOOKED AT THE TOP PHARMA INFLUENCERS IN MORE DETAIL, REVIEWING ACTIVITY COMPARED WITH #ASCO15


WHAT WERE THE TOP PHARMA THEMES DURING #ASCO16?


Pharma added a face to #ASCO16, through well-received video interviews, statements and trial updates

13 Retweets 14 Favourites


29 Retweets60 Favourites



Immunotherapy featured heavily, with pharma engaging with the topic through a wide range of content types

infographics

Videos

Surveys

Animations


‘Patient power’ was a theme of many of the tweets


WHAT WERE SOME OF THE NEW WAYS PHARMA ENGAGED WITH THE AUDIENCE?


30-May 1-Jun 3-Jun 5-Jun 7-Jun 9-Jun 11-Jun0

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Tweets

The top pharma influencers continue to extend the life of the congress through the hashtag, but could do more...

#ASCO16 was utilised before, during and after the event, however this graph demonstrates that the top pharma influencer’s content was still very much focused on the days during the event – only Roche were still tweeting the hashtag 2 days after the event

ASCO 2016

30-May 1-Jun 3-Jun 5-Jun 7-Jun 9-Jun 11-Jun0

5

10

15

20

25

Genentech

Pfizer

Bmesnews

Aztrazeneca

Roche

Num

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36,703 #ASCO16 tweets on 5th June, a 120% increase from #ASCO15

BMSnews

AstraZeneca


New trend 1: Promoted campaigns to drive retweets

BMS retweets outnumbered all combined pharma retweets by approximately 37%This is likely to be due to a selection of tweets promoted through a sponsored Twitter campaign to reach a larger audienceOn the surface, this campaign looks to have been successful, with significant exposure of the tweets and a huge number of likesTo our knowledge, this is the first time the ASCO hashtag has been utilised within a sponsored campaign

2401 likes

3602 likes

1922 likes


New trend 2: Utilisation of polls to engage with the audience

Twitter introduced polls in October 2015, and these are beginning to be utilised by pharma to engage with the audience in a compliant wayThese polls registered between 69 to 86 votes, which is great engagement and can allow for some really useful insights for both viewers of the poll, as well as the pharma company


Source: Twitter

Creating content that requires the audience to respond in an interactive way is a great way to ensure users spend longer engaging with contentGenentech continue to lead the way here, following up last year’s ‘T Cells Attack’ game with a game to raise awareness of MRD status. They have also created a great piece of content exploring cancer trends in the USA – this was amongst the most retweeted content of the meeting

New(ish!) trend 3: Creating interactive content


FINAL THOUGHTS


Thoughts for #ASCO17

Last year we hoped for more of a focus on patients and for pharma to help amplify the work of patient advocacy groups and associations. While ‘patient power’ was definitely a major theme this year, pharmaceuticals still tend to focus in on their

own initiatives rather than demonstrate partnership with these groups and really try to lift the patient voice.

Let’s use Twitter to highlight great initiatives outside of pharma!



Whilst Twitter polls have enabled a form of interaction with the audience (and should continue to be encouraged!), Twitter and #ASCO16 was still primarily used as a push, ‘one-way’, platform

for pharma communications. Additional direct engagement with professionals during the

congress, through scheduled tweet chats involving experts and researchers should be encouraged, and will support in ASCO’s

quest for ‘partnership’ across disciplines



#ASCO16 was the year that pharmaceutical companies reduced the quantity of tweets and continued to increase the quality. This is a trend we would like to see continue. The audience is

exposed to an incredible amount of information during ASCO, so every tweet must count. The leading companies will continue to

refine their Twitter strategies and this can only be a good thing for themselves and their audiences.


AuthorsSteve Hunt and Jason Mazur are Strategists within Ashfield Digital & Creative, part of Ashfield Healthcare Communications, a global leader in multichannel medical education, healthcare communications and PR. The views presented in this slide deck are the authors’ own.

[email protected]

Steve Hunt Jason Mazur