Pfizer rose to a new level of prominence as one of just three main providers of the COVID-19 vaccine and booster shots. Now, as emergency restrictions have eased and many have moved past the pandemic, the pharmaceutical giant is changing the way it markets its brand, with a new chief marketing officer, and, as of today, a new agency roster.

Pfizer has awarded its “integrated global engine” to Publicis Groupe and named Interpublic Group of Cos. its lead creative partner, three months after initiating a massive review incorporating advertising creative, media, PR and production duties. 

It is a major victory for both Publicis and IPG, which beat out multiple holding companies in one of the industry’s most hotly contested—and lucrative—reviews of the year. MediaLink was the consultant on the review, which kicked off in February. Dentsu’s Carat was the incumbent on U.S. media, while global media is handled by various agencies across the globe.

Publicis, by handling data and tech, media and creative production, will help form the new Pfizer marketing machine. Last year, New York-based Pfizer spent $2.8 billion on worldwide advertising, up from $2 billion in 2021, according to the company’s financial documents. Yet the bulk of the $100 billion brand’s spend is in the U.S., where Pfizer ranked as the 36th largest advertiser, spending $1.49 billion in the U.S. in 2021, according to Ad Age’s Datacenter.

“Pfizer is a leader,” said Drew Panayiotou, who was hired as the drug company’s first global chief marketing officer in the fall after working as CMO of Verily, Alphabet’s life sciences research arm. “We are looking at how the company goes to market and how to continue to be a leader—to do things that others don’t do in the industry in service of driving science and driving breakthroughs.”

IPG was not immediately available for comment and Publicis had no comment.

“We are proud of the Carat team and our long-term partnership as Pfizer’s U.S. media partner,” said Jacki Kelley CEO, Dentsu Americas chief global client officer. “The progress and success we have shared is a testament to the amazing people on both sides and our critical partners. We are inspired by Pfizer as a company and by Drew’s ambitious agenda for marketing and wish him and everyone at Pfizer continued success.”

The marketing restructuring is the culmination of several years of transition for Pfizer, as the company strives to return to its science-driven roots. In 2020, Pfizer spun off its Upjohn generic drugs business, combining it with competitor Mylan Pharma to form a new company, Viatris. That left Pfizer to focus on its health-based innovation and be more agile and science-focused, according to Panayiotou.

Last year, Pfizer continued telling its brand story with a redesigned logo—trading its old blue pill for a more modern helix-type symbol that screams science, particularly after the COVID-19 vaccine breakthroughs. Earlier this year, Pfizer amplified this theme with an emotional campaign from Grey New York pitting losers such as fear, sorrow and illness against the winner of science.

COVID vaccine momentum

Pfizer’s success as an early administer of the COVID-19 vaccine helped catapult the brand into mainstream recognition and appeal beyond the pharmaceutical aisle. Vaccine-awareness campaigns with celebrities including Michael Phelps, Questlove, Pink and Jean Smart attracted even more support. Now, the pharma titan plans to continue its momentum with its new agency partner and revitalized marketing department.

“We had spent all those months not knowing what was going to happen with the pandemic, and suddenly, they give us that magical 95% efficacy moment—even my mom now knows what Pfizer is,” said Manuel Hermosilla, assistant professor of marketing at Johns Hopkins University’s Carey Business School. “That moment imprinted on many of us a re-enchantment with the pharmaceutical industry, that feeling that scientific magic is possible and Pfizer is a company that knows how to make it happen.”

Look back: How Pfizer marketed its vaccine through gaming

Of course, Pfizer’s was not the only vaccine administered during the pandemic. Moderna, backed by the star power of Dolly Parton, and Johnson & Johnson also got brand boosts. Moderna, in particular, has been trying to parlay its COVID-19 gains into more brand recognition. The pharma company recently ran an ad touting its own scientific prowess as more than a COVID-vaccine company. The commercial focused on the mRNA science behind the vaccine and how it can help in other medical areas.

A veteran marketer

Yet Panayiotou, Pfizer’s new CMO, is a veteran marketer with a plethora of the industry experience needed to continue the brand’s rise. Prior to his two-year stint at Verily, he built a business incubator at Chick-fil-A, led BBDO’s Atlanta office and worked as U.S. CMO of Best Buy. Panayiotou also has marketing experience from the Walt Disney Co. and the Coca-Cola Co., where he developed marketing for Sprite and Fanta. In the mid-’90s, he worked as a product director at Johnson & Johnson.

“I got a call to come to Pfizer and what did attract me is the fact that I could build something that doesn’t exist and has never existed before,” said Panayiotou about the opportunity to build up Pfizer’s marketing department into a more agile machine.

That reconstruction starts with streamlining the brand’s agency roster. In the past, Pfizer has worked with every holding company. That includes such shops as WPP’s Grey New York, which created the brand’s most recent campaign, VMLY&R, EssenceMediacom, Mindshare and Wavemaker; IPG’s FCB and IPG Health; and Omnicom’s Rapp, PHD, TBWA\WorldHealth, according to Ad Age’s Datacenter. 

“We clearly realized we needed to have more simplification of our agency structure,” said Panayiotou, noting Pfizer needed to simplify how it goes to market and make integrated marketing easier. “We also wanted to leverage scale.”

Global products, local connections

The appointment is a big win for Publicis, which has seen a spate of activity of late with its “Power of One” strategy. The holding company, whose revenue jumped nearly 20% last year, was the big winner in LVMH’s North American media review earlier this month.

IPG’s Mediabrands, meanwhile, just won U.S. media buying and planning duties for the direct-to-consumer brands at Bristol Myers Squibb.

Under Panayiotou, Pfizer has also been building up its internal marketing department, which numbers around 1,000 staffers. The company is hiring for four key areas, including UX and design, to improve the digital experience for patients and doctors; innovation, to better integrate new channels such as telemedicine; data science and analytics, to unearth better insights; and media and performance marketing, to deliver the best ROIs and engagement on campaigns using a data-driven approach.

Pfizer is a global company but “health care is a local thing,” said Panayiotou. “So how do we think about products that are global that are made for the world, but connect them the right way locally?”

Pfizer is in the midst of a busy 18 months in which it plans to launch 19 medicines and vaccines, including a dozen new medicines and seven expansions. With its new agency partner, the company expects to be smarter and faster with how it markets such products.

“The Goldilocks element is to really figure out how to do high-tech and high-touch marketing,” said Panayiotou.