Innovation drives the pharmaceutical and life science industries, pushing the boundaries of what’s possible in medicine. From groundbreaking treatments to new drug delivery systems, the industry is evolving at an unprecedented pace. Nowhere was this more evident than at CPHI Milan 2024, a global platform where the future of pharma innovation took centre stage.

The Notch team travelled to Milan to hear from innovators about their work in advancing treatment options across various modalities. We spoke with leading CDMOs about how Antibody Drug Conjugates (ADCs) and Peptide Drug Conjugates (PDCs) are advancing cancer treatment with greater precision and fewer side effects. We also witnessed the rise of novel modalities, such as TIDES (oligonucleotides and peptides), reshaping how diseases are targeted and treated. But the scope of innovation didn’t stop there. Sustainable drug delivery systems, digital transformation initiatives, and green chemistry are redefining how therapies are developed and brought to market.

Innovation Meets Communication Challenges

While the scientific advancements in pharma are remarkable, a significant hurdle remains: how do we effectively communicate these complex innovations to resonate with diverse audiences? The life sciences sector is highly technical, fast-paced, and constantly evolving. Breakthroughs in research and development must be translated into compelling, actionable market solutions.

This challenge became particularly clear for the Notch team at CPHI Milan, where communicating breakthrough technologies and services was a central theme in many discussions we had. The Notch team noticed a recurring concern—how can companies position their innovations to stand out in such a competitive marketplace? Navigating regulatory landscapes while addressing market demands is difficult enough, but simplifying the science behind cutting-edge technologies that enable ADCs or sustainable drug delivery systems for target audiences requires a unique set of skills.

This is where industry-focused B2B marketing strategies play a pivotal role, helping to bridge the gap between technical innovation and market relevance.

The Art of B2B Marketing in Pharma

Pharma B2B marketing is about more than promoting a technology, service, or solution—it’s about telling the story of your innovation. It requires translating highly technical details into clear, engaging narratives that resonate with stakeholders across the pharma ecosystem. From early-career scientists and R&D personnel to C-suite officers and investors, effective communication can make or break the success of your innovation.

At Notch Communications, we specialise in bridging this gap. We help life science companies turn complex scientific concepts into narratives that inspire, educate, and ultimately drive business results. Our approach is built on a foundation of scientific accuracy, balancing technical precision with compelling storytelling, ensuring that your innovations capture attention and stand out in the crowded pharma market.

Proven Strategies for Success: How Notch Supports Pharma Innovation

To help our clients navigate the complexities of the pharmaceutical industry, we focus on key strategies that ensure their innovations gain the visibility and traction they deserve. These themes resonated strongly at CPHI Milan, where many innovators and thought leaders highlighted similar challenges:

A New Chapter for Notch: Same Commitment to Innovation

As we unveil our refreshed brand and website, Notch Communications remains deeply committed to helping clients navigate the rapidly evolving pharmaceutical landscape. Our mission is to be the strategic partner that bridges the gap between cutting-edge science and commercial success. Whether you’re driving advancements in therapeutics, adopting sustainable practices, or embracing digital transformation, we’re here to ensure your innovations are communicated with clarity, precision, and impact.

In a world where scientific innovation moves fast, clear and effective communication is key to gaining investment, building partnerships, and achieving regulatory approval. At Notch, we’re experts in life science marketing, dedicated to turning your complex scientific breakthroughs into stories that resonate, engage, and drive tangible results.

This commitment was reinforced at CPHI Milan, where we had the opportunity to discuss the industry’s most pressing challenges and innovations. From the importance of simplifying complex science to the power of digital-first strategies, the conversations at CPHI confirmed that effective communication is critical to success in today’s competitive landscape.

Let’s shape the future of pharma together.

In the dynamic pharma and biotech sector, staying ahead means seizing every opportunity to connect, engage, and grow. Events like CPHI Milan 2024 are invaluable for business, technical and marketing industry leaders, offering a platform to showcase innovations, build relationships, and drive business growth.

But with so much at stake, how can you ensure that your presence at CPHI Milan translates into tangible success?

Here are five key strategies to help you maximise your impact at this essential event:

1) Embrace Hybrid Strategies: Expand Your Reach Beyond the Booth

While in-person attendance at events like CPHI Milan has rebounded to pre-pandemic levels, the power of digital engagement shouldn’t be overlooked.

Incorporating virtual tours, on-demand webinars, and online content can significantly extend the reach of your on-site activities, allowing you to engage a global audience that might not be physically present.

In addition to these digital elements, leverage digital sponsorships and social media to maintain visibility throughout the event lifecycle. These tools not only amplify your message but also keep your brand relevant and accessible before, during, and after the event.

Grow Your Audience with a Hybrid Approach.

2) Establish Thought Leadership: Be Seen, Be Heard, Be Influential

To stand out in the crowded halls of CPHI Milan, positioning yourself as a thought leader is essential. Engaging with media before the event can secure valuable opportunities for interviews, panel discussions, and press coverage, enhancing your credibility and expanding your reach.

If you’re launching a new product or service, applying for relevant awards at CPHI can significantly boost your exposure. Recognition as an industry leader not only builds trust but also attracts potential customers to your booth.

3) Leverage Milan’s Prime Locations

Strategic out-of-home (OOH) advertising in Milan’s busiest areas can significantly enhance your event visibility. High-traffic spots near the event venue, such as airports, train stations, and major walkways, offer prime real estate for impactful advertising.

When planning your OOH campaign, focus on clear, consistent messaging that leaves a lasting impression on event attendees. Simple yet powerful visuals and concise messaging can make your brand stand out in a sea of competitors. Find out more in our whitepaper!

Key transport links are ideal for OOH ad space.

4) Optimise Your Booth Strategy: Create a Memorable Brand Experience

Your booth at CPHI Milan is more than just a space—it’s an opportunity to create a memorable experience that resonates with attendees. Use dynamic visuals, interactive elements, and hands-on demonstrations to draw visitors in and keep them engaged.

Ensure that all booth activities align with your overall brand messaging and aesthetics. Consistency across all touchpoints helps reinforce your brand identity and ensures that visitors leave with a clear, positive impression of your company.

5) Maintain Momentum Post-Event: Keep Your Brand Top of Mind

The end of CPHI Milan doesn’t mean the end of your marketing efforts. To maximise your return on investment, prompt follow-up is essential.

Personalised emails offering additional information or exclusive deals can keep your brand top of mind.

Additionally, sharing post-event content through blogs, newsletters, and social media can engage those who couldn’t attend the event. This approach not only sustains the momentum but also broadens your reach to a wider audience.

Partner with Experts

CPHI Milan is a pivotal event for pharma leaders. By embracing hybrid strategies, establishing thought leadership, leveraging local advertising, enhancing booth engagement, and maintaining momentum post-event, you can transform your participation into a powerful driver of business growth.

At Notch, we specialise in crafting tailored event strategies that ensure success. Let our expert team guide you in making a lasting impact at CPHI Milan and beyond.

The Notch team attends CPHI North America 2024

Attending CPHI Milan?

Contact us now to arrange a meeting with our pharma marketing experts.

Get in touch: hello@notchcommunications.co.uk

About CPHI Milan 2024

When: 8 – 10 October 2024
Where: Milano, Italy

CPhI Milan 2024 is set to be an exciting event, taking place from October 8th to 10th at Fiera Milano, Italy. Celebrating its 35th edition,

CPhI Milan is a premier gathering for the global pharmaceutical industry, bringing together over 62,000 attendees and 2,400 exhibitors from more than 166 countries.

This event offers unparalleled opportunities for networking, learning, and collaboration across various sectors of the pharma market.

Since its humble beginnings in 1990 with 16 exhibitors and 250 delegates in a hall in Frankfurt, CPHI has grown into the leading international pharmaceutical industry events brand, with the flagship Wordwide event (now positioned as CPHI + the host city, e.g. CPHI Barcelona in 2023) seemingly getting bigger and better every year. The upcoming CPHI Milan 2024 is predicted to welcome 62,000 visitors and over 2,400 exhibitors to the city that’s home to the espresso, high fashion, and DaVinci’s “The Last Supper”. 

CPHI feasts not only in Europe, however, with its geographical reach now expanded to feature events in nine countries, including China, India, Korea, Saudi Arabia (a first for 2024), and, of course (as is the subject of this blog) North America.

CPHI North America has been running since 2017 when it collocated with Informex, the established fine and specialty chemical industry show, the name of which has since been dropped from the event. A long-time native of the Pennsylvania Convention Center, Philadelphia, the show has never quite hit the heights of its older European sibling, both in terms of attendance and significance in the industry calendar, but it still gives a great opportunity to catch-up with familiar faces and learn about the latest in the industry. My colleague Ryan and I packed up our laptops and lanyards and headed to the home of the Liberty Bell to attend the show, from which we bring you the following insights:

1. Do look up

Adam McKay’s 2021 satire Don’t Look Up highlighted the world’s indifference to the climate crisis. However, the pharmaceutical industry certainly isn’t taking this lightly, with the environment becoming a huge topic of conversation. In response, ‘Sustainability’ was added as a new conference track for this year’s show. During these sessions, attendees were able to learn from others what targets they should be setting, how to make actionable changes, and how sustainability can be built into procurement practices.

Programmes such as Energize—formed to accelerate the adoption of renewable energy and reduce greenhouse gas emissions within the pharmaceutical value chain—were also covered, alongside several insightful, real-word case studies.

2. Panic at the (silent) disco

For 2024, the two conference theatres were moved to the show floor, aiming to create a buzz amongst the booths. To facilitate this without having the speakers’ voices boom loudly over other conversations, attendees were required to download the CPHI app and use headphones to listen to the talks on their phones.

Overall, having the theatres on the show floor did add to the buzz, but the jury was out on the technology. In the main, it worked well, although there were some noticeable glitches during some of the talks we attended.

This was particularly apparent when speakers opened the floor up for questions, which may have put some delegates off raising their hands to contribute to the conversation. However, recordings of all presentations have since been added to the app, which enables attendees to listen back to any interesting talks they might have missed.

3. The future of Pharma

Other insightful sessions within the conference agenda included those on CDMO outsourcing trends, which highlighted the need to build resilience in supply chains by re-shoring or near-shoring manufacturing.

Excipients and their key contribution to drug efficacy and delivery were raised in several talks. The role of AI and digital technologies in opening avenues for improved care was also explored. In particular, the continued evolution of connected media and smart wearable devices that is making them more accessible and affordable to patients from all demographics.

The need to embrace Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) was another hot topic. Mirroring the wider social movement, it was emphasised how companies are now looking to enhance their reputation while also contributing to a fairer and more respectful workplace.

4. Some booths are built better than others

As usual, exhibitor booths came in all shapes and sizes at CPHI North America, from very basic displays with a few pull-up banners to more sophisticated bespoke modular constructions.

It is a tried and tested method, but the most popular booths were the ones with games and happy hours designed to draw a crowd. A golf game and a gin certainly attracted Ryan and I later in the day. We both found that the more relaxed atmosphere encouraged networking and made for some truly competitive golfing (the less said about our efforts at the latter though the better!)

5. Philly for the future?

CPHI North America has already announced that it will be staying in Philadelphia for 2025, with CPHI representatives on the show floor encouraging sign-up for next year. The new CPHI Saudi Arabia event in December was also promoted heavily throughout the event.

Interestingly though, the event feedback survey distributed asked attendees for their preferences for the location of the show, including options such as Las Vegas and New Orleans.

The survey also fielded attendees’ thoughts about the show dates, potentially in response to the view that May is too close to DCAT Week in March.

Could the future of CPHI North America lie away from Philadelphia? Time will tell, but for now CPHI North America remains in the City of Brotherly Love.

Final thoughts

Whatever the future holds for CPHI North America, it’s clear that the pharma event industry is returning to its pre-pandemic best. More attendees are predicted to arrive in Philadelphia next year and the CPHI brand continues to expand into new regions and markets.

As well as CPHI, there are a huge number of other industry shows, from niche application-specific symposiums to the large global general shows, as key figures look to exchange ideas, network, and drive innovation.

At Notch, we regularly attend industry events and we look forward to meeting with our partners and industry network again soon at CPHI Milan!

Matt Dayan, Group Account Director, Notch

Camps International is an ethical school expeditions organisation that runs volunteering trips for young people in the UK, UAE and Australia.

This year, Notch Communications is sponsoring a student, Millie Rhodes, as she fundraises for her trip to Borneo with Camps International. In Borneo, Millie will be undertaking work with sustainable projects within the local community.

A few months before she sets off, we sat down with Millie to get to know more about the work she’ll be doing and what she’s most excited about!

Thank you, Millie, for taking the time to talk to us. First of all, what initially inspired you to undertake this opportunity to fly off to Borneo?

I was lucky enough to be given this opportunity with Camps International through my school. I am keen to broaden my horizons and learn about the day-to-day lives of different communities.

I also want to develop a greater understanding of the world-at-large and learn more about different cultures that I wouldn’t otherwise have the chance to interact with!

We understand that you have organised number of fundraising activities in order to pay for your trip. Could you tell us a bit more about these?

The cost of the trip was relatively high – coming in at around £4500 – in addition to essential travel expenses such as vaccinations. When raising this sum of money, I found that organising a big variety of activities was the most important thing.

One of the main activities I did to raise money was making and sell home-made dog biscuits! Running this taught me a lot about enterprise. Things like keeping my prices low by sourcing the ingredients at discount supermarkets, like ALDI, was really important. I’ve also utilised a range of channels to sell my biscuits and get my message out to as many people as possible. Using social media really helped – my first post resulted in over 50 orders! A local café also sells around 30 bags of my dog treats a week on my behalf.

Raising money alongside the other members of the expedition team has been really hard work, but also very rewarding. From quiz nights to Zumbathons, engaging with the local community has strengthened my own communication skills and helped instil me with the confidence to manage events, time and finances. It has also helped me develop a greater sense of resilience when overcoming challenges and managing the ups and downs that come with organising activities like these.

What kind of community work will you be doing? Have you done anything similar before closer to home? How will it benefit the local community?

During my expedition, I’ll be taking part in activities that not only help the local communities, but also the environment and the local ecosystems which have been devastated by deforestation driven by palm oil demand. These include things like building shelters, improving sanitation facilities for the local people and cleaning beaches. By engaging in a range of community work, we’re hoping to benefit the local community in a wide range of ways.

While I’ve never done anything like this and it sounds quite daunting, I’m really excited by the challenge and can’t wait to get stuck in!

While you’re in Borneo, how will you be engaging with the local community?

I’m looking forward to making new friends with the local children. I’ve been told they play a very good game of football, so as a goalkeeper, I’m looking forward to the challenge! I don’t know a huge amount about the local culture, apart from the talks I’ve given, so while I’m there I’ll be learning as much as I can about the culture, cuisine and language!

In what ways do you hope this experience will impact your personal growth and development?

I’m hoping that this trip will broaden my perspective of the world and make me more appreciative of other cultures. I’m also very excited to earn my PADI open-water diver qualification, which will both provide me with a lifelong skill and enable me to appreciate the exotic marine life in Borneo!

I’ve found that a big part of the experience is not the actual trip, but the fundraising itself which has helped me grow my teamwork, problem solving and communication skills.

Lastly, what message or advice would you like to share with other teenagers who are considering participating in trips like yours?

Take the opportunity and go for it!