We recently dove into the Healthcare Marketers Trend Survey Report from Medical Marketing & Media and Swoop, and we’re excited to share some key insights with you. This report gathers perspectives from leaders across the biotech, pharma, and medical device industries, offering a clear look at how marketing strategies are shifting for 2025 and beyond. As the landscape continues to evolve, understanding these trends is crucial for staying ahead and optimizing your approach in the ever-changing healthcare market.
Overarchingly, the theme of the report is that marketing investment across the healthcare industry is trending downward, prompting a shift in strategy. With tighter budgets, organizations are being pushed to prioritize smarter, data-driven decisions to ensure impact. Rather than broad spending (traditional approach for pharma marketing), marketers are making “optimization trade-offs”—focusing efforts on high-propensity audiences and more effective tactics, channels, and messaging frequencies.
Key stakeholder groups, including physicians, patients, and payers, have seen notable budget cuts, and although some investment has shifted to roles like pharmacists and nurse practitioners, the increases are marginal.
Looking ahead, 2025 budgets are expected to stay flat or only slightly increase, reinforcing that “doing more with less” is not just a challenge but the top opportunity. This requires a mindset shift: pharma must break from traditional, high-spend marketing models and embrace innovation and data utilization to guide decisions and maximize limited funds.
In addition to the above – a few other key trends were highlighted:
- Shifts in Marketing Tactics:
- For consumers, there has been a shift away from linear TV advertising, with a growing preference for non-linear TV (addressable, connected TV, programmatic ads) due to better targeting capabilities. Similarly for healthcare professionals (HCPs), this also coincides with an increased reliance on sales representatives and professional meetings and events after their previous declines in 2023.
- Social media usage for HCP engagement is set to increase, highlighting a shift towards more authentic, conversation-based marketing over traditional promotional tactics.
- Omnichannel Marketing:
- The report indicates that omnichannel marketing has now matured, with marketers focusing on using various channels to create a seamless experience across patient and healthcare provider touchpoints.
- The role of video content remains crucial, but marketers are leaning more into shorter-form videos and social media to enhance engagement.
- Impact of Political and Economic Climate:
- The political climate, including changes expected under the new administration, has prompted healthcare marketers to rethink their strategies, especially regarding investments in payer-focused marketing.
- This is also likely impacting the shift away from Linear TV given the high investment to create long-form video ads for pharma and the uncertain political climate and potential shifts in regulations.
- Patient-Centric Focus:
- The report underlines that while HCPs remain central to decision-making, there is an increasing acknowledgment of the growing influence of patients/consumers, with marketers being urged to consider more patient-centric marketing approaches.
Butler/Till’s Point of View:
The 2025 healthcare marketing landscape is undergoing a significant transformation. The report suggests that healthcare marketers are becoming more adept at navigating a complex and rapidly changing environment. This means a move away from traditional, high-spend models and embracing new, omnichannel approaches—integrating social media, video, and programmatic ads for more personalized engagement.
The trend toward “doing more with less” is a pragmatic response to economic pressures and shrinking budgets. The key to success will be balancing short-term optimization with long-term relationship-building. At Butler/Till, we believe this is the moment for innovation to guide marketing decisions and truly engage with both healthcare professionals and consumers.
Contributors: Lindsay Mueller
