At A Glance
Pharma marketers need privacy-first identity workflows that keep DTC and HCP paths separate while connecting activation and measurement. Experian’s pharma marketing playbook shows how brands can prepare audiences, coordinate approved destinations, and build measurement into the workflow so teams can connect media exposure to trusted outcomes.Pharma marketers need to build more meaningful relationships with patients (DTC), caregivers, and healthcare professionals (HCP) across a health journey that spans many channels, partners, and decision moments.
That creates an operational challenge. Data, activation, and measurement often sit with different vendors, each with its own rules, IDs, and handoffs. DTC and HCP campaigns need separate identity paths, but both still need to support the same brand objective. Pharma marketing teams need a clearer way to connect audience strategy, media exposure, and outcomes without adding risk or confusion. That starts with identity, not as a single system for every audience, but as a governed workflow that keeps DTC and HCP paths separate and coordinated.
In our pharma marketing playbook, “From onboarding to outcomes: The privacy-first independent identity workflow for pharma marketing,” we show pharma brands how to build privacy-first workflows that connect identity, activation, and measurement across the healthcare ecosystem.
From onboarding to outcomes
Pharma marketing teams need identity workflows that can support accurate audience creation, governed activation, and partner-enabled measurement without combining DTC and HCP identity paths.
Download our pharma marketing playbook to help your team:
- Plan DTC and HCP identity strategies with clearer separation
- Prepare audiences for activation across approved channels and partners
- Evaluate audience quality, usable reach, and governance
Here are three priorities pharma marketing teams can use to build more governed, measurable engagement.
1. Why should pharma marketers keep DTC and HCP identity workflows separate?
Pharma marketers should keep DTC and HCP identity workflows separate because each audience requires different data signals, activation paths, and measurement methods. Separate workflows give teams clearer governance controls while helping DTC and HCP campaigns support the same brand objective.
DTC and HCP campaigns often support the same brand objective, but they need separate ways to manage data, reach audiences, and measure results. That’s where identity plays a central role. It gives pharma teams a governed way to keep DTC and HCP data, activation, and measurement separate while coordinating both toward the same goal, like driving drug awareness and impacting prescribing behavior.
The missing layer in pharma marketing. Watch our Q&A
DTC activation depends on privacy-safe identity, which can include tokenization, aggregated audience logic, and non-clinical consumer context. This helps brands better understand patients and caregivers as people, not only as condition-defined audiences.
HCP activation depends on a different foundation. It may use signals such as National Provider Identifier (NPI), specialty, practice location, partner identifiers, and other verified attributes. When DTC and HCP workflows are treated as one system, you can create governance risk, weaken audience logic, and make measurement harder to defend. Keeping them separate gives teams clearer controls, audience planning, and a stronger way to show how both efforts support the same brand goal.
2. How can pharma marketing teams make audiences activation-ready with privacy-safe identity?
Pharma teams can make audiences activation-ready by translating fragmented inputs into governed audience workflows that can be matched, activated, separated, and measured. Privacy-safe identity helps prepare DTC and HCP audiences for approved channels and partners while maintaining the separation each workflow requires.
Privacy-safe identity helps prepare DTC and HCP audiences for approved channels and partners while maintaining the separation each workflow requires.
After separating DTC and HCP data, activation, and measurement, the next step is making each audience ready to use across approved channels and partners. Pharma audiences rarely start in a format that is ready for activation across platforms, publishers, and partners. Inputs may come from partner audiences, platform identifiers, CRM systems, privacy-safe consumer signals, HCP attributes, or partner-provided data.
Those inputs need to be translated into usable audiences through governed identity workflows. For DTC campaigns, activation readiness may include cohort construction, non-clinical enrichment, caregiver logic, tokenized matching, and exclusion rules. For HCP campaigns, it may include verified identity inputs such as NPI, specialty, practice location, and professional address.
A strong workflow answers four questions:
- Can the audience be matched accurately?
- Can it be activated across approved destinations?
- Can DTC and HCP separation be maintained?
- Can the audience connect back to verification and measurement?
When the answer is yes, pharma brands have a stronger foundation for audience quality, usable reach, and cross-channel activation.
3. Why should pharma marketers build measurement into the workflow from the start?
Pharma marketers should build measurement into the workflow from the start because campaign exposure needs to connect back to permitted identity frameworks and partner-held outcomes. Planning measurement before activation gives teams a clearer, more explainable way to evaluate how audience strategy, media exposure, and outcomes work together.
Making audiences ready for activation is only one part of the job. Pharma teams also need a clear way to connect media exposure to outcomes, and that measurement plan needs to be in place before a campaign goes live.
Pharma measurement requires more than knowing whether media ran. Brands need to connect exposure signals to permitted identity frameworks and partner-held outcomes in a way that is accurate, governed, and explainable. Those outcomes may include script lift, qualified HCP engagement, audience quality, and exposure-based HCP reporting where appropriate.
Clean rooms and partner-enabled workflows can help connect exposure, identity, and outcomes in a governed way. For DTC campaigns, this may involve linking tokenized audience or exposure data to a measurement partner environment. For HCP campaigns, this may involve resolving exposure back to HCP identity using NPI, professional address, specialty, practice location, partner identifiers, or measurement partner IDs.
When measurement is planned before activation begins, teams gain a clearer view of how audience strategy, media exposure, identity, and outcomes connect.
How does Experian help pharma marketing teams connect identity, activation, and measurement?
Experian helps pharma marketing teams connect identity, activation, and measurement by serving as a neutral, interoperable workflow layer across data, onboarding, approved destinations, and measurement partners. Experian helps teams keep DTC and HCP identity paths separate while preserving the connection between activation and outcomes. Our role centers on three practical needs. We help teams:
As a neutral, interoperable identity, data, and workflow layer, we help brands translate fragmented inputs into activation-ready audiences, connect those audiences to approved destinations, and preserve the structure needed to evaluate performance.
Download Experian’s pharma marketing playbook
These three priorities give pharma teams a place to start. Our full pharma marketing playbook goes deeper into how pharma brands can build privacy-first workflows across onboarding, activation, sequencing, and partner-enabled measurement. Inside the playbook, you’ll find a more detailed look at how to:
- Keep DTC and HCP identity strategies separate
- Prepare audiences for activation across channels
- Evaluate audience quality and governance
- Connect exposure to trusted outcomes through partner-enabled measurement
For pharma marketers working across fragmented data, platforms, and partner ecosystems, our playbook offers a framework for moving from fragmented inputs to more governed activation and stronger measurement readiness. Download our full playbook to learn how privacy-first identity workflows can help pharma brands connect onboarding, activation, and outcomes.
FAQs
Pharma marketers need separate DTC and HCP identity workflows because patients, caregivers, and healthcare professionals require different data signals, activation paths, and measurement methods. Keeping those paths separate helps teams maintain governance while coordinating both efforts toward the same brand objective.
Privacy-safe identity helps pharma marketers translate audience inputs into activation-ready audiences without treating DTC and HCP workflows as one system. It can support tokenized matching, cohort construction, verified HCP identity inputs, and the separation needed to connect activation with trusted outcomes.
Experian helps pharma brands connect data, identity, onboarding, activation, and measurement across a fragmented partner ecosystem. Experian’s identity foundation and workflow connectivity help teams prepare audiences for approved destinations while preserving the structure needed to evaluate trusted outcomes.
Measurement planning should happen before activation begins. When pharma teams define measurement early, they can connect audience strategy, media exposure, identity, and partner-held outcomes in a more accurate, governed, and explainable way.
Pharma marketers should look for audiences that can be matched accurately, activated across approved destinations, kept separate across DTC and HCP workflows, and connected back to verification and measurement. This gives teams a stronger foundation for audience quality, usable reach, and cross-channel activation.
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Tapad launches global privacy-safe solution to provide continuity in the absence of third-party cookies Switchboard, a module within The Tapad Graph, will connect emerging cookieless identifiers to traditional IDs, creating a more holistic view of the consumer and driving value exchange within the advertising ecosystem Tapad, part of Experian, a global leader in cross-device digital identity resolution, and a part of Experian, announced today the launch of Switchboard, a first-of-its-kind solution to help navigate the evolving cookieless landscape. Switchboard, a module within The Tapad Graph, will operate as a global, privacy-safe solution to provide continuity in the absence of third-party cookies by connecting new cookieless identifiers to traditional digital IDs for a comprehensive view of consumers and their digital touchpoints. Switchboard will enable interoperability across the growing number of these digital identifiers and the value exchange between publishers, content creators and consumers. Leading digital identity solutions partnering with Tapad, part of Experian at the launch of Switchboard include Unified ID 2.0, ID5, Lotame Panorama ID, BritePool, Retargetly IDx and Audigent Halo ID. Tapad, part of Experian plans to expand support to additional identity solutions on an ongoing basis. In addition to these identity solutions, early partners across the ecosystem include The Trade Desk, Amobee, Martin, ShareThis, Eyeota and Catalina. “This diverse group of launch partners and testing customers will prove that Switchboard is an important tenet for the future of identity resolution. We’re excited to be proactive in our approach to give marketers time to adapt new solutions and test their function in tandem with the third-party cookie, while continuing to give our customers flexibility and control,” said Mark Connon, General Manager of Tapad, part of Experian. “Facilitating access and usage of 1st party identifiers is crucial to help marketers prepare for the cookieless future. Thanks to Switchboard, ID5’s cookieless IDs will be available to a wider audience of brands and agencies and enable them to run effective, data-driven campaigns beyond the third-party cookie,” said Mathieu Roche Co-founder & CEO of ID5. Switchboard provides value across the marketing and advertising ecosystem as the need for the ability to support multiple cookieless ID’s across ad tech increases throughout 2021. With a decade of expertise creating digital identity resolution products, Tapad, part of Experian is poised to solve this challenge through innovation and quality, privacy-safe data-driven solutions. “Interoperability is paramount for brand marketers, agencies, publishers and platforms if we want to support an open and free Internet and break free of the stranglehold of walled gardens,” said Pierre Diennet, Global Partnerships at Lotame. ”Lotame Panorama ID’s participation in Switchboard reflects our steadfast commitment to collaborating across and within the industry and providing value to all of its players.” “As advertisers continue to contemplate the future of identity, Amobee is proud to partner with Tapad, part of Experian on this next-generation solution to provide a comprehensive view of consumers,” says Bryan Everett, Senior Vice President of Global Business Development at Amobee. “With the imminent loss of cookies, advertisers must think creatively in order to respectfully engage consumers in a privacy-compliant way and Switchboard can play an important role in addressing their respective identity needs.” Tapad, part of Experian is welcoming identity solutions and Tapad Graph customer participation in Switchboard throughout 2021. Stayed tuned for more updates and information on Switchboard in the coming months. Get in touch
Adapt with Tapad, a part of Experian Leading browsers have made public announcements and technical deployments to reduce the digital advertising accessibility of third-party cookies for data collection, storage, and sharing due to growing privacy concerns. As a result, there has been growing momentum to find an alternative via cookieless IDs, with the intent to create a replacement that helps ensure continuity across the ecosystem. At Tapad we’ve chosen to approach the market with a solution that provides agnostic interoperability for these cookieless identifiers, so that marketers can continue to work with the identity providers of their choice while maintaining the most holistic view of consumers across digital touchpoints. Introducing switchboard Switchboard is a module within The Tapad Graph that leverages our core capabilities across machine learning and identity management to provide a connection between traditional digital identifiers and the new wave of cookieless IDs that will be utilized in the future. Customers of Tapad can take advantage of its broad ecosystem of identifiers to drive targeting and frequency capping strategies and enable detailed measurement and attribution post-deprecation of the third-party cookie. Our goal is to accelerate the adoption, scale, and utility of cookieless IDs with the release of the Switchboard module within The Tapad Graph, while maintaining an agnostic approach to the market. Switchboard for identity solutions In the evolving landscape agencies and marketers will need to invest, test, and analyze the best combination of cookieless ID partners to meet their objectives. The Switchboard module will increase the utility and value of the cookieless ID space in conjunction with other addressable IDs, by providing a layer of connectivity that will be natively missing with the deprecation of third-party cookies. Identity solutions at launch: Switchboard for graph customers For existing Tapad customers who leverage the Switchboard module in The Tapad Graph, it will provide a seamless way to facilitate interoperability while resolving identity back to a Household or Individual. By providing this translation layer, Tapad will take on the responsibility of encryption and decryption protocols where applicable, which will deliver added functionality to our customers. Tapad + Experian partners at launch: Use cases Resolve existing first-party data with new cookieless solutions through The Tapad Graph to minimize data loss Frequency cap at the Individual and Household level via Cookieless and traditional ID Reach consumers at scale across all touchpoints and IDs Build a more inclusive and holistic view of the consumer journey Run accurate and scalable measurement before and after the formal deprecation of third-party cookies in Chrome Map online data into offline activities Hear why industry leaders are adapting with Tapad + Experian As advertisers continue to contemplate the future of identity, Amobee is proud to partner with Tapad, a part of Experian, on this next-generation solution to provide a comprehensive view of consumers. With the imminent loss of cookies, advertisers must think creatively in order to respectfully engage consumers in a privacy-compliant way and Switchboard can play an important role in addressing their respective identity needs. — Bryan Everett | Senior Vice President of Global Business Development | Amobee Connecting offline and online shopper activity in a privacy-compliant way is fundamental to marketing effectiveness and determining return on ad-spend. That’s why we’re excited to be a launch partner for Tapad + Experian’s Switchboard offering; it provides a unified solution for supporting the variety of proprietary and anonymous user ID standards required by advertising demand-side platforms today. — Brian Dunphy | SVP Digital Business and Strategic Partnerships | Catalina As the industry evolves, Tapad + Experian’s Switchboard presents a privacy-safe solution that allows for the continued activation of data and an alternative to advertising within walled garden environments. We look forward to collaborating with Tapad and the industry as we collectively transition to support cookieless identity. — Don Lee |SVP of Global Platform Partnerships | Eyeota We are excited to participate in this proactive solution to the sunset of third-party cookies. Switchboard’s agnostic interoperability, with BritePool and other ID providers, will create high-value for marketers as they transition to the era of cookieless web advertising. — David J. Moore | CEO | BritePool Interoperability is paramount for brand marketers, agencies, publishers and platforms if we want to support an open and free Internet and break free of the stranglehold of walled gardens. Lotame Panorama ID’s participation in Switchboard reflects our steadfast commitment to collaborating across and within the industry and providing value to all of its players. — Pierre Diennet | Global Partnerships | Lotame At this pivotal moment in the industry, we are excited to be partnering with Tapad, a part of Experian on their cookieless initiative and making Retargetly IDx available into the Switchboard solution, providing global brands, platforms and publishers with a compliant, cookieless ID solution for the Latin American market; enabling them to target, reach and measure users at scale through the region. — Daniel Czaplinski | CEO and Co-Founder | Retargetly With Audigent’s Halo ID, we’re architecting a cookieless future where clients and partners have confidence in the actionability and interoperability of exclusive 1st party audiences, originated from some of the world’s leading publishers and creators. We see collaboration as being critical to a collective understanding of identity and Tapad, a part of Experian as a trusted partner with solutions such as Switchboard to support continuity for marketers’ addressability. — Drew Stein | CEO and Founder | Audigent Facilitating access and usage of 1st party identifiers is crucial to help marketers prepare for the cookieless future. Thanks to Switchboard, ID5’s cookie-less IDs will be available to a wider audience of brands and agencies and enable them to run effective, data-driven campaigns beyond the third-party cookie. — Mathieu Roche | CEO and Co-Founder | ID5 Addressing the current identity challenge requires transparency and collaboration. We are pleased to align ShareThis data with Tapad + Experian’s growing ecosystem. ShareThis data helps marketers evolve beyond the cookie to complete the picture. Tapad + Experian’s Switchboard offering will support ShareThis’s deep connections to clients and technology platforms, preserving and growing the accessibility of our data. — Michael Gorman | SVP Product and Business Development | ShareThis Get in touch
With the emergence of email addresses as a currency for brands to communicate with their consumers offline; attaching email data to in-store purchases lays the groundwork for future advertising strategies. However, this advantage in having an additional digital touchpoint also creates a new challenge for marketers. How do they connect what they know about their customers via offline data and PII, or personally identifiable information, with what they want to know about their online behaviors and interactions? Taken a step further, how can they create actionable strategies that connect these two streams of consumer insights in order to drive them to make more future purchases; and even become loyalists? At a time when the shift from traditional to online shopping feels more like a landslide; connecting online and offline data has never been more valuable or more urgent. The solution for these marketers lies in the framework of identity resolution; and a key capability called hashed email onboarding. Hashed email onboarding is a privacy-safe way to connect consumer email addresses to their related digital devices and other digital identifiers. The methodology prevents the consumers actual email address from being readable; while still providing marketers a connection between those emails and other touchpoints for an individual. Instead of understanding the customer journey in two distinct parts; how they interact with a brand or company offline and separately how they interact with a brand online; hashed email onboarding allows for the two parts to be woven together in a holistic view of that consumer. The power of connecting these data sets can be seen when combining offline and online attribution and measurement to improve frequency capping and look-alike modeling. It’s important to note that not all identity resolution vendors that onboard hashed emails function in the same way or provide the same level of data. Some connect only to desktop or only to mobile devices; while others don’t actually make direct linkages at all- they simply provide the hashed emails as a targetable digital audience for upload. While hashed email onboarding and the connection between offline and online data is a powerful strategy; it needs to be as structured as possible across the most data available to reveal truly efficient targeting and measurement strategies. Tapad, a part of Experian has built a hashed email product feature that works with the existing flexibility of The Tapad Graph to deliver the most holistic consumer view in the structure that works best for your business objectives. Get in touch