Not long ago,the following sentence would have sounded like a consultant\u2019s fever dream: In 2026, digital advertising spend in the pharmaceutical sector will, for the first time, officially exceed linear TV spend. It\u2019s a milestone that\u2019s been forecast, debated and used to justify a thousand strategic pivots.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Sandy Weag, EVP of engagement strategy and communications planning at CMI Media Group, has watched this transformation up close and is unambiguous about what it means for how agencies operate. \u201cGone are the days when we\u2019re going to lock in spend in a way that\u2019s inflexible,\u201d Weag says. \u201cWe\u2019re expected to be optimizing almost on the fly.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
That\u2019s not a small cultural shift. It means the old model \u2014 develop strategy, allocate budget, execute, measure six months later, repeat \u2014 is functionally obsolete. The campaign that isn\u2019t being actively managed in near real time is, at this point, a campaign that\u2019s underperforming.<\/p>\n\n\n\n