Before she transitioned from the PR side to the pharma advertising side, Publicis CoLab group account supervisor Brielle Hoffman found herself “itching” for more creative work.
“I don’t have a tie to the work I’m doing,” she recalled thinking.
Previously, Hoffman had gotten her feet wet in the pharma marketing space with an internship at a creative agency during college. After graduating, she landed in issues and crises PR, untangling problems for major companies. While she valued this important work, it wasn’t until a project with Takeda Pharmaceuticals crossed her desk that her passion for healthcare-focused work was reignited, opening the door to using her natural creative and strategic lens to maximize the impact of important campaigns.
Hoffman has been with Publicis CoLab, the massive advertising company’s dedicated arm for Pfizer marketing, for two years now. In her current role, she’s able to scratch the creative itch while helping consumers navigate important, crucial choices, in an area where “there’s nothing that we do that doesn’t feel important,” she said.
In a Q&A for Fierce Pharma Marketing’s “Rising Stars” series, Hoffman discusses the importance of representation in marketing, the nuances that go into casting for multimedia campaigns, checking in on your “doers” and staying curious amid an ever-shifting landscape.
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?
I wanted to pursue a career in pharma marketing because I wanted to be a part of the decision-making that truly affects people. Healthcare is something you talk about, you read about every day without even thinking about it. We're probably subconsciously making decisions every single day that affect our health, the health of people that we care about, and I just wanted to ensure I was always working on a project, a brand that felt important.
And working within the healthcare space, there's really nothing that we do that doesn't feel important. Everything feels really big because if you're catching people where we want to catch them at the right moment when they're making these decisions, you know that creative message you put out there, that campaign that they saw-that is what makes them make their health choices. So ultimately, I wanted to work in a field where everything we put out into the world felt like it had maximum impact and importance.
FPMK: What has been the most rewarding or challenging project you’ve worked on so far?
When I started on the brand that I'm currently working on, we did kind of an audit of our creatives in market, and typically you do a big video shoot that also turns into a photo shoot, and it just so happens that originally all of our hero actors were appearing Caucasian. They weren't actually necessarily American, but they were appearing as Caucasian, and we did not have this breadth of creatives to use that were accurately showing our consumers, our patients, our healthcare providers, and you know, I think it's basic human instinct. If you see yourself, you can relate. If you don't see yourself, it's so much harder to resonate with the messaging. So we wanted to develop two TV spots: one incorporating our African American heroes, and then one incorporating Hispanic American heroes and translating it to Spanish, but it comes with all the nuances of really making sure you're not just selectively choosing new casting.
You know, we're showcasing a house, we're showcasing couples interacting, we're showcasing jewelry and clothing and all of that creative decision goes into what is authentically an African American household. What is authentically a Hispanic American household? How do these couples interact? So it wasn't just selecting the right casting. It was truly every single detail that goes into making this process and this project authentic to its goal, which was representing more of our consumers, so I would say it was difficult. We worked very closely with our multicultural agency at the time to really nail all these details because they were just so-it's funny on the screen. They're so small, but in the decision-making process, it's so big. So really, just making sure we were developing creatives that would actually resonate with our audiences.
FPMK: What advice would you give to people who’ve worked in pharma marketing for decades?
I would say always keep a pulse on and check in with your doers. As you get more senior, we obviously look to the bigger picture strategic briefs, the bigger picture campaigns. You know, what wins awards, but what wins awards are the people who get these projects and these campaigns through the strenuous reviews. So the people on the ground who really know the process, whether that is your agency process or the process of working with the clients and medical, legal, and regulatory, it is so crucial to be, you know, keeping those people in mind because they really get the work out the door.
Without the doers, we have this awesome creative, and then we don't know what to do with it. There are so many different processes for, you know, getting it through all the right reviews, then media trafficking and ensuring it's getting to our right audiences, and a lot of that is owned by what I would say are the more junior people that you work with. So, I think it's crucial to check in with them.
I'd also give a second answer that would be staying curious. I just think so much is always changing, and the answer that we, you know, stood by last year is just not the same answer anymore. And it's just being curious and asking questions, even if you feel like you've been doing this for a long time—everything is changing.
For example, you know the way in which we reach our audiences is completely different because they're spending time in places that we didn't necessarily know they were going to spend time. They weren't doing it last year or within the last five years, whether that be asking questions on Reddit, using LLMs to serve all of the information that they need, or going on YouTube, which is now the number two search engine, just always staying curious and being agile to the new answers.
FPMK: What do you like to do when you’re not working?
When I am not working, I definitely prioritize feeling good. I like to go to the gym. I like to make sure to get my steps in. I feel like feeling good internally helps me be a better teammate. I like to travel. I always like to put something on my calendar to look forward to, even if it's a small trip with my significant other or a bigger trip outside of the country. I just feel like it's really important to have something to look forward to. And then, I live in New York City. So trying as many new restaurants as I can without breaking the bank.