Klick Health spills its secrets in new pharma marketing playbook

Klick Health's big book of secrets is out. In a 230-page book that began shipping last week, the independent pharma and healthcare agency lays out the processes, tools and insights it uses to build adaptive brands for life science companies.

The Adaptive Brand Playbook speaks to what Klick found was a growing sense of unease among marketers at those companies. Klick research found pharma companies wanted to modernize their marketing approaches but were stumped by technology issues or the inability to pivot legacy systems or just overwhelmed by a fast-paced and ever-changing market, Peter Flaschner, Klick’s managing director, said.

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The idea for the book began to take shape after Klick’s Muse conference last year featuring former first lady Michelle Obama. In wrap sessions, team members talked about next moves, and the idea of creating a book outlining the agency's “secret sauce” was raised. Klick team members realized they had already written down their ideas, formulas and strategies—so why not turn them into a book?

“There was some back and forth about ‘is it smart for us to give away our secret sauce?’” Flaschner said. “We decided ultimately that the ingredients of the secret sauce that make it really super secret are the people who actually do the work. So we decided we are very comfortable sharing our approaches, some of our tools and some of our templates, knowing that you still need the minds of the people to complete that.”

The 230-page book ships in its own unique container: a plexiglass briefcase complete with a high-definition screen that plays a video introduction led by co-founder and CEO Leerom Segal and explained in detail by other staffers. (The plastic case and screen are fully recyclable, Flaschner said, and Klick will also take back containers and reuse them for others who want a copy of the book.)

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Klick plans to distribute 1,000 copies in the first run. With several thousand requests already pending—Klick debuted a preview of the book at the J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference—it is also considering a second run. The website will serve as an evolving content hub in the coming weeks, where readers can get excerpts from the book and more information.

Along with the book, Klick is also debuting Adaptive Brand Clinics, a custom workshop the agency plans to take to life science marketers’ locations.