More than 75 top marketers from 28 global pharmaceutical companies, including AbbVie, AstraZeneca, Janssen, Lilly, Lundbeck, Merck Serono, Roche, Shire and TEVA, have gone head to head in the finals of this year’s Marketer of the Year, organised by PharmaTimes, with the winners to be unveiled at a prestigious ceremony on 5 December in London.
This is a particularly special year as the PharmaTimes Marketer of the Year competition marks its 20th anniversary and many of the past winners will attend on the night.
In addition, this special ceremony will also coincide with the awards for the unique, customer-nominated PharmaTimes Communications Team of the Year 2013, which this year sees finalists from a range of healthcare communications agencies from small independents to global agencies including ICC Lowe, PAN, Red Door Communications and ApotheCom.
For the first time this year the competitions are truly international and categories will be awarded to marketers and communication teams working in both UK and overseas markets. The marketer finalists competed across seven categories – aspiring marketer, new marketer, senior marketer, senior marketer non-UK (new for 2013), aspiring marketing manager, international marketer (new for 2013) – for the chance to be recognised by senior marketing professionals and their peers, while the communications team finalists answer a real-world brief set by senior industry marketers that is designed to illustrate key agency competencies.
“This is a fantastic opportunity for marketers and communications professionals to showcase their most talented people,” says PharmaTimes’ director Sean Morgan-Jones. “Even for game-changing innovative new medicines with a positive health technology assessment, patients are not guaranteed access and so uptake is a real issue for the industry. So finalists taking part in the Marketer of the Year competition were put through a number of exercises based on a fictitious medicine and therapy area to explore this critical aspect of marketing in today’s multi stakeholder environment.”
“And this year, we’ve been able to generate even better competency benchmarking data for all participants as part of the competitions’ promise to help professional development.”
The Communications Team finalists will compete for both UK and international titles on 2 December, and the theme will be revealed on the day.
“PharmaTimes Marketer of the Year competition sets itself apart from other competitions by focusing solely on the individual’s and team’s marketing skills, expertise and thinking. There is a major focus on professional development in the form of feedback, which every entrant is encouraged to receive from the judges on a one to one basis, and in networking with industry peers,” says Danny McCormick, Sales and Marketing Manager, Oncology, at Merck Serono Ltd, and Vice Chair of the competition’s executive steering committee.
“The standard of entries was once again very high in the 2013 competition and the range of different companies represented has increased which makes the competition even more valuable. It was really pleasing to see some entrants who have progressed since the 2012 competition and now competing at a higher level, which just goes to show what a difference it can make.”
Unique competitions
Recognised as the leading awards for pharmaceutical marketing professionals, the Marketer and Communications Team competitions are unique competency-based programmes that invite individual and team finalists to compete in a real-life challenge devised and judged by senior marketing and healthcare leaders from companies including Merck Serono, Roche, Lilly, Lundbeck, Actelion, Shire and GSK.
“The competition and awards on 5 December will be an occasion to remember and put an important global spotlight, not just on talented individuals and teams who made the finals but also on the companies they represent and the whole marketing and communications fraternity,” adds Sean Morgan-Jones.
This is your opportunity to network with senior and board level marketing professionals from more than 40 global pharmaceutical companies and communications agencies, the large majority being pharma.
Secure your place at the ceremony – alongside some of the biggest brands in the global pharma industry, including AbbVie, Baxter, Janssen, Lundbeck, Napp, Roche and Shire – to hear what made the finalists and winners stand out from the crowd and meet with the marketers and teams set to define the future of global pharma marketing and communications.
Limited opportunities are available for sponsorship and a few tickets still remain. To secure your place, go to: http://www.pharmatimes.com/Competitions/Marketer/Attend.aspx or to discuss the last remaining sponsorship opportunities, contact Donna Lee Randall on +44 (0)20 8487 9105 or donna@pharmatimes.com.
With thanks to our sponsors Alchemist Consulting, Binley’s, Cegedim, Chase, Dark Horse Agency, Doctors.net.uk, McCann Torre Lazur, PI Partnership, The MSI Consultancy, SAP, Star, VirdisPharma and Visions4Health for all their support. And thanks to SAP, which hosted the competition finals.
