Tara Sparks was just days away from starting her new job at Novo Nordisk in February 2025 when she gathered with some friends to watch her team, the Philadelphia Eagles, take on reigning Super Bowl champs, the Kansas City Chiefs.
Like most Americans, but especially as a marketer, she also tuned in for the commercials. That year, everyone was talking about Dunkin’s DunKings2 spot with American actor and filmmaker Ben Affleck and American football coach Bill Belichick, and Hellmann’s take on the infamous Katz’s deli scene in “When Harry Met Sally.”
“Wouldn’t it be incredible to work on one of those ads?” Sparks remembers telling her friends during one of the commercial breaks.
Less than a year later, she’d help orchestrate Novo Nordisk's very first Super Bowl commercial, using the biggest stage in marketing to introduce the newly approved pill version of its GLP-1 weight loss drug Wegovy to millions of Americans.
Sparks spent more than a decade in the luxury beauty space before making the leap to pharma last year. Now, as Novo Nordisk’s director of paid and earned media, she works across the company supporting all therapeutic areas and brands.
In a Q&A for Fierce Pharma Marketing’s Rising Stars series, Sparks spoke more about her role in Novo’s Super Bowl campaign, how she’s helping the company adapt to new marketing innovations, and why her tennis racket cover has become a conversation piece.
Responses have been edited for length and clarity.
Fierce Pharma Marketing: What inspired you to pursue a career in pharma marketing, and what keeps you motivated in your current role?
Tara Sparks: I like to think that pharma found me. Last winter, Novo Nordisk approached me about the role I’m in now, and I was instantly interested. I found the opportunity to work on such incredible brands—brands that are changing people’s lives in the diabetes, obesity and rare disease space—so compelling.
Working on campaigns and channels that really are having a meaningful impact on patient lives is such an incredible motivation to go to work every day.
When I reflect on the last year, I’m so proud of what we’ve accomplished. A big focus has been around modernizing our immediate approach, from optimizing what’s currently in place and then thinking about things like channel allocation and the way we increasingly try to meet consumers where they are, but also adapting new innovations, like AI influencer marketing.
These are the things that are novel over here—and a lot of this is novel industrywide—but I enjoy helping our brands to prepare for and take full advantage of the opportunities.
FPMK: What has been the most rewarding or challenging project you’ve worked on so far?
TS: This year we ran Novo Nordisk’s first-ever—and my first-ever—Super Bowl ad. It was so exciting and such an enormous undertaking by so many cross-functional teams. Our ad that ran within the big game supported our FDA-approved oral weight loss medication [Wegovy], and it really stands out as a highlight. Being part of this journey from inception to reality was incredibly rewarding but also challenging.
Sitting with the team in a war room and watching the ad come to fruition in real time was so exciting and such a payoff. We were monitoring the impact in real time and seeing that more people online were searching for our brand than for any other comparable GLP-1. It was such an encouraging early sign of how effectively our months and months of hard work across so many teams translated into real, measurable attention.
FPMK: What advice would you give to people who’ve worked in pharma marketing for decades?
There are so many talented individuals who have grown up here, either in the industry or at Novo Nordisk, and they’ve really been such amazing and invaluable sources of education for me. They bring such institutional knowledge as I’m coming in with fresh eyes. I found that we really work best together when there’s shared learning.
For seasoned pharma marketers, I’d say use your existing skill set, which is so valuable, but also be open to new ideas, from new team members, culture, the industry, to broaden the aperture and navigate today’s landscape.
For example, one of the first things I did upon joining here was to look at consumer and HCP behaviors. One of the things that really struck me out of the gate was that 53% of consumer Millennials are saying that they’re taking health advice from content they’ve seen on social media—not necessarily from a doctor but from anyone. So that’s a huge source of influence. And then on the physician side, 85% are saying that patients are mentioning social media during medical appointments. So as marketers, we have the responsibility to understand that this is changing at a macro scale. And we have to adapt accordingly.
FPMK: What do you like to do when you’re not working?
TS: I have two elementary school-age sons, so a lot of my time when I’m not working is spent with them. When I’m not running after my two boys, I’m an avid needlepointer. It’s like mental yoga for me and a really good way to unwind, stretch my creative muscles and work on projects that I think are beautiful and that I get to give as gifts and display in my home.
What I’m probably most known for amongst my circle of friends is the 20 belts I’ve made for my husband. Though personally, my favorite piece of needlework I’ve ever completed is my tennis racket cover. It has green and white stripes and says “tennis bum.” I call it my “needlepoint Everest” because it was quite an undertaking. But it was well worth it because it’s quite a conversation piece and I get to see it every time I play.