Closing the annual European Pharmaceutical marketing congress – The Communication Challenge 2007 – Danny Meadows-Klue urged firms to rethink how they approach digital channel communications. “Repeating in your 2008 plans what you did back in 2006 or 2005 simply isn’t good enough”, he said. “At a time of massive social and technological change, most firms are failing their brands and their shareholders. In today’s world patients look to Google before their GP, primary healthcare workers struggle to keep up with current practice and rely heavily upon online learning, new digital communities have replaced the hospital canteen for informal chats, and most clinicians simply don’t have the time to see pharma sales reps. The customer has changed, the channels have changed, yet most companies are yet to do more than tinker with their marketing mix. Take your best people, take some time out from the day today, take stock of the changes, and create a new plan.”