It came up again in conversations yesterday – ‘co-creation’ – that elusive beast that forms so much of medico-marketing planning.
For the uninitiated, ‘co-creation’ is the philosophy that all promotional & non-promotional materials, events and projects that a bio-pharma/lifescience company develops are created out of collaboration between the medical and marketing departments.
That every initiative is born out of a balanced, symmetrical relationship between medical and marketing.
Not ‘flagged to’ or even ‘discussed early in development’ with the other side, but actually started by marketing and medics working together.
Agreeing on the desired outcome…
…the approach…
and the route forwards.
And like any great collaboration, this means that about half the time
Concepts will come from Medical
Initiatives will be led by Medical
Ownership of outcomes will sit with Medical
So, if the word ‘co-creation’ feels more like lip-service than reality, the issue could be with the harmony between Medical and Marketing – and a sometimes invisible division within what is actually one team.