CMI Media Group’s Melissa Giordano on advocating for women who are not in the room

Summary

The Current Podcast: In-Depth Summary

Episode: CMI Media Group’s Melissa Giordano on Advocating for Women Who Are Not in the Room
Release Date: March 27, 2025
Hosts: Kat Vesse and Ilyce Lefring
Guest: Melissa Giordano, Chief Client Officer at CMI Media Group

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Introduction

In honor of International Women’s Day and Women’s Month, The Current Podcast features an insightful conversation with Melissa Giordano, Chief Client Officer at CMI Media Group. Hosts Kat Vesse and Ilyce Lefring delve into Melissa’s significant contributions to healthcare marketing, her advocacy for women in the industry, and the innovative strategies that have driven remarkable outcomes for her clients.

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Melissa Giordano on a Game-Changing Healthcare Campaign

Campaign Overview

Melissa Giordano discusses a pivotal campaign that marked a turning point in her career. The initiative targeted nurse practitioners (NPs) and physician assistants (PAs) who were instrumental in patient care but had been underserved by traditional marketing efforts.

“One of the first memorable campaigns... we developed a campaign in partnership with our client’s creative agency to educate nurse practitioners and physician assistants about a particular product that would ultimately help their patients.”
— Melissa Giordano [01:23]

Key Insights and Strategies

The campaign stemmed from a deep analysis of claims data, revealing that NPs and PAs were not only prescribing medications but also referring patients to specialists. Recognizing their pivotal role, Melissa and her team tailored messages specifically for this audience.

“We realized that they are often the ones that are seeing the patients first. So let's get the information about the product directly into their hands.”
— Melissa Giordano [03:23]

Challenges and Solutions

Operating within the heavily regulated pharma and biotech environment posed significant challenges, including budget constraints and the need for compliant creative assets. Melissa emphasizes the importance of quick turnaround and resonant messaging to overcome these obstacles.

“...develop new creative assets, but within a really limited budget and also find the messages that would resonate...”
— Melissa Giordano [03:30]

Indicators of Success

A critical moment of validation came when the distribution of product samples began, serving as a leading indicator of the campaign’s effectiveness. The increase in sample requests translated directly into prescriptions, signaling the campaign’s success.

“...seeing the number of samples that were being requested and ultimately then seeing later down the line prescriptions being written...”
— Melissa Giordano [04:08]

Performance Metrics

The campaign yielded extraordinary results, boasting a 1300% return on investment and generating $32 million in total revenue from prescriptions over twelve months.

“We saw a 1300% return on investment... $32 million in total revenue resulting from their total prescriptions over 12 months.”
— Melissa Giordano [08:04]

Lessons Learned and Future Tweaks

Reflecting on the campaign, Melissa expresses a desire to expand the audience earlier and accelerate the development of creative assets to benefit patients sooner.

“I would have expanded our audience even earlier on in the program... get our creative up and running much sooner.”
— Melissa Giordano [09:08]

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The Role of AI in Healthcare Marketing

Melissa highlights the transformative impact of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in healthcare marketing, particularly in data mining, segmentation, and creative optimization. AI facilitates the rapid creation of personalized messaging and real-time campaign optimizations, enhancing efficiency and effectiveness.

“AI... helps us better understand the voice of our customer and create segments that we can then create message sequences and journeys...”
— Melissa Giordano [10:25]

She further explains how AI has been integral to CMI Media Group for nearly a decade, enabling the team to analyze vast datasets and refine their marketing strategies dynamically.

“We’re using AI... to scale from a perspective of optimizations real time... making optimizations more quickly.”
— Melissa Giordano [11:21]

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Engaging Healthcare Professionals Beyond Physicians

Melissa underscores the importance of targeting healthcare professionals beyond traditional physicians, such as nurse practitioners and physician assistants, who play a crucial role in patient interaction and treatment decisions. By providing these professionals with tailored information and support, brands can foster better patient outcomes and deepen their market impact.

“These nurse practitioners and physician's assistants... are really the ones that are seeing patients often for the first times...”
— Melissa Giordano [06:08]

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Women in Leadership: Rapid Fire Q&A

Marketing Mistakes When Targeting Women

Melissa identifies a common pitfall in marketing to women: the lack of authenticity in representation and the inability to address the specific problems women face.

“When they're not authentic in how they are representing women in their advertising or in the problem that they are trying to solve for a woman.”
— Melissa Giordano [13:02]

Advice for the Next Generation of Female Marketers

Melissa advocates for women to support and uplift other women, especially those who may not have a platform.

“Advocate for other women who are not in the room whenever you have an opportunity to do so, help pay it forward.”
— Melissa Giordano [13:19]

Best Career Advice Received

Melissa shares two pieces of invaluable advice that have guided her career:

1. Always Tell the Truth: Emphasizing integrity, this advice from her father has helped her navigate tough situations.

   “Always tell the truth and you will never get caught in a lie.”
   — Melissa Giordano [13:33]

2. Do Right Over Being Right: From her CEO, Susan Dorfman, this principle encourages making ethical decisions and fostering a safe environment for innovation.

   “Do right over being right... it’s okay if you make a mistake... ensuring that we're keeping an open mind to different perspectives.”
   — Melissa Giordano [13:33]

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Host Reflections

Kat and Ilyce reflect on Melissa’s insights, particularly her approach to viewing doctors as both providers and patients, and the strategic decision to focus on nurse practitioners and physician assistants. They commend Melissa’s emphasis on authenticity and integrity, highlighting the importance of these values for aspiring leaders.

“When she was talking about speaking to doctors, that doctors are also patients. ... reaching doctors in that blue jean moment... when they're off duty.”
— Kat Vesse [15:02]

“Her integrity and just, like, betting on herself and making sure she showed up in her as her authentic self...”
— Kat Vesse [16:22]

Melissa’s final remarks on advocating for women and maintaining authenticity resonated deeply with the hosts, reinforcing the episode's overarching themes of leadership, integrity, and impactful marketing.

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Conclusion

Melissa Giordano’s episode on The Current Podcast offers a compelling look into strategic healthcare marketing, the integration of AI, and the vital role of women in leadership. Her experiences and insights provide valuable lessons for marketers aiming to create meaningful and effective campaigns while championing authenticity and integrity in their professional journeys.

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For those interested in innovative marketing strategies and leadership insights, this episode is a must-listen. Stay tuned to The Current Podcast for more engaging conversations with leaders shaping the future of marketing.

Transcript

[Kat Vesse]

I'm Kat Vesse.

[Ilyce Lefring]

And I'm Ilyce Lefring.

[Kat Vesse]

And welcome to this edition of the current podcast.

[Ilyce Lefring]

In honor of International Women's Day and Women's Month, we're spotlighting incredible women who are shaping the future of marketing.

[Kat Vesse]

Today, we're thrilled to be joined by Melissa Giordano, Chief Client Officer at CMI Media Group. With a career dedicated to healthcare marketing, Melissa is passionate about ensuring patients, caregivers and healthcare professionals have access to the right information at the right time.

[Ilyce Lefring]

Melissa has worked on groundbreaking initiatives, including one that expanded a brand's reach by tapping into an audience of nurse practitioners and physician assistants, driving better outcomes for both patients and healthcare providers.

[Kat Vesse]

We'll dive into how that campaign became a game changer, the lessons learned about engaging healthcare professionals, and how personalized marketing strategies are reshaping the industry.

[Ilyce Lefring]

Plus, we'll talk about the evolving role of women in marketing and how brands can better connect with female audiences in meaningful ways. So let's get started. So thank you, Melissa. It's so great to have you, Melissa, here at south by Southwest. First of all, I'm wondering if you can walk us through a specific campaign that was a turning point in your career and what made it stand out.

[Melissa Giordano]

Well, thank you both for having me. It's lovely to be with you today. One of the first memorable campaigns, I would say, was the one that you described in the intro, which where we identified an audience that we saw was prescribing or at least seeing patients with a particular condition in immunology. And we noticed that they weren't getting the level of marketing support that the physicians were receiving. So we developed a campaign in partnership with our clients creative agency that would take the scientific information that the NPs and PAs, nurse practitioners and physicians assistants would find beneficial to be able to help educate them about this particular product that would ultimately help their patients. And that was a real moment for me to see the true impact from really understanding when you reach an audience that isn't receiving information that they are searching for, how impactful that can be.

[Ilyce Lefring]

When working on this initiative. What, what were those key insights that led you to initially like target nurses and physician assistants?

[Melissa Giordano]

Yes. So we look at the entire audience within a particular category to really understand who they are seeing from a patient perspective, looking at claims data. And in that insight, that's where we really uncovered that this particular individual group, if you will, they were not only prescribing but oftentimes also referring to see a specialist. So that's when we uncovered that we could use some of the messages that we had been targeting to the physicians. And there's a lot of specialty publications that are actually sent directly to nurse practitioners and physicians assistants. And we realized that they are often the ones that are seeing the patients first. So let's get the information about the product directly into their hands.

[Kat Vesse]

Yeah. And as you're trying to get that information directly into the physician hands, what challenges did you face and how did you overcome them?

[Melissa Giordano]

We faced some challenges within pharma and biotech. It's a heavily regulated environment. And so there had been, you know, some exploration of creative assets. So we needed to develop new creative assets, but within a really limited budget and also find the messages that would resonate in order to help either, you know, educate the, the healthcare professional about the product in general, or for some people that were more familiar, it would be more about financial assistance programs. So it was really in the, you know, having to develop new creative get that turned around quickly in order to get the program up and running.

[Kat Vesse]

Was there a particular moment during this campaign where you realized it was going to be a success?

[Melissa Giordano]

Yes, this is a particular product that we were able to use samples with, where physicians could have samples that they would give to patients. And so we were able to use that as a leading indicator of being able to see if they were able to request a sample, then we would know, okay, it's likely that they're going to ultimately prescribe this product for their patients.

[Kat Vesse]

And just a tactical question on that. Do you typically target your messaging towards solely providers or patients or both?

[Melissa Giordano]

Typically we target towards both. For this particular campaign, we were really targeting the healthcare professional, but oftentimes we will look at it holistically. So really that intersection of what messages are we sending to patients and caregivers and then, you know, trying to target together what messages their HCPs within their regions are seeing as well.

[Ilyce Lefring]

I mean, that sounds to me like difficult to do in a lot of ways because they're two very different audiences and looking at, they're really trying to find two different answers or two different sets of information. How do you determine like which audience might like, take priority?

[Melissa Giordano]

A lot of data and research that goes into it. So really trying to understand, you know, what the preferences are of the healthcare professionals. So where are they going to look for information and what kind of information are they consuming in those different channels? Also, it's important to remember that healthcare professionals are patients also. So we call those white coats off or blue jeans moments for those doctors and physicians. Yeah. So, you know, they're also consuming marketing and advertising in the same way that everyone else is. So we think about it in those moments as well for what they're doing within their lives and when we might be reaching them and also being careful not to be disruptive to them.

[Kat Vesse]

Yeah. Remaining authentic to their off duty moments.

[Melissa Giordano]

Correct.

[Kat Vesse]

What were the biggest lessons learned about engaging healthcare professionals outside of the traditional physician audience?

[Melissa Giordano]

Ultimately, these nurse practitioners and physician's assistants, you know, really are the ones that are seeing patients often for the first times when they're coming in with symptoms and they really want to just help their patients feel better. And so they need to find out obviously what the diagnosis is, but then what treatment options are available. And that's what I think, you know, really made a difference in being able to help get them the information that they needed about this particular product to ultimately help their patient.

[Ilyce Lefring]

What insights would you say you've gained from patient behavior or their reaction to the campaign? How did it perform?

[Melissa Giordano]

Basically, the campaign performed phenomenally. We actually ended up extending the program a few extra months because we were able to grow this audience of healthcare professionals for our client to ultimately invest in themselves. We also had. What was unique about this program was the medical sales force for this particular client had an uncovered territory as well where they didn't have enough reps to, to be able to go and call on these physicians to educate them about these products. So a physician would order a sample and that would give the sales rep an opportunity to go and hand deliver those samples to the physician. So it was really, that was an unknown for us in the beginning for how exactly that would perform. But seeing the number of samples that were being requested and ultimately then seeing later down the line prescriptions being written, that was when we really knew this program was going to be a success.

[Ilyce Lefring]

And can you share any of the specific stats or KPIs that you guys hit?

[Melissa Giordano]

Yeah, of course. So we saw a 1300% return on investment. Yes. It was incredible for what we had invested in this particular program and what it ended up generating for our client was $32 million in total revenue resulting from their total prescriptions over 12 months.

[Kat Vesse]

Oh my goodness. Wow. That's amazing. Congratulations.

[Melissa Giordano]

Thank you. Yeah, we were really excited.

[Kat Vesse]

I also imagine you see some brand marketing trickle down effect coming when you focus on nurse practitioners and physicians assistants. When they are pushing forward a brand, then patients become more aware of it anyway. And I'm sure that becomes a really nice feedback loop as more patients come back in.

[Melissa Giordano]

Yes, exactly. And then being able to See also there's such an important audience as well in helping to refer patients to specialists that we see outside of this campaign, but in other conditions that we work in as well.

[Kat Vesse]

If you could go back and tweak any part of the strategy, what would you do differently?

[Melissa Giordano]

Oh, that's a great question. I would have expanded our audience even earlier on in the program. And the only thing that I would have done differently was try to get our creative up and running much sooner so that we could have, you know, ultimately helped these patients that much sooner.

[Ilyce Lefring]

Very cool. Now let's zoom out and look at the big picture a little bit. What are some of the biggest gaps you see today in how healthcare brands currently engage with patients and practitioners?

[Melissa Giordano]

I think there are gaps that our clients are definitely, you know, working on overcoming, and a lot of it has to do now with getting messages that will resonate with the audiences, but having a variety of those messages. We've been hearing a lot about personalized medicine, and so with personalized medicine also comes personalized messaging and ensuring that we are reaching our audience with a message that will be representative of them when they actually are receiving that content. And part of what we're seeing from a gap perspective is how then creative agencies are developing that content more quickly and really ensuring that it's authentic content.

[Ilyce Lefring]

Amazing. Do you see AI helping at all in this area?

[Melissa Giordano]

Absolutely. So AI, obviously here at south by Southwest has been a massive topic, and just in our industry in general, AI, really where I think it'll be able to help our clients and us is to create different iterations of that creative more quickly. Also in seeing it and helping mine a lot of the data and the insights that we have. So if we were to look at claims data, lab data, social listening and intelligence data, market research, mining all of that information to be able to help us better understand the voice of our customer and create segments that we can then create message sequences and journeys to be able to help people along their path from symptoms to diagnosis to treatment.

[Ilyce Lefring]

Okay, so when it comes to media planning and buying, how are you guys looking towards AI to scale your efforts there?

[Melissa Giordano]

Yeah, we're using AI in multiple ways. And it's interesting because we've been using AI for almost a decade now, if not longer, from a machine learning aspect. So. So there's a difference between the generative AI, how we're using it within CMI Media Group is from a mining of all of the various sorts of data that we have, sources of data that we have, and helping us then create segmentation more quickly than we would have before without the use of AI. We're also using it from a perspective of being able to understand within creative messages which creative messages are going to resonate better with our audiences, colors, graphics, et cetera. We're also using it to help us scale from a perspective of optimizations real time. So that's another item within our industry of where historically it would have been that we really want to see how campaigns will perform over a long period of time. And now we're seeing that we need to be using iterative content and making optimizations more, more quickly. So with that, that's how we'll use AI to help us get to those optimizations more real time. It might not be as real time as it is in other industries, but we can get pretty close.

[Kat Vesse]

So we're going to move on to a rapid Q and a rapid fire Q and A. In celebration of International Women's Day and Women's Month, we wanted to ask you about what it's like to be a woman leader in our space. What are some of the biggest mistakes brands make when marketing to women, in your opinion?

[Melissa Giordano]

I think when they're not authentic in how they are representing women in their advertising or in the problem that they are trying to solve for a woman.

[Kat Vesse]

What advice would you give to the next generation of female marketers who want to make a lasting impact?

[Melissa Giordano]

Advocate for other women who are not in the room whenever you have an opportunity to do so, help pay it forward.

[Ilyce Lefring]

What's the best career advice you've received as a woman in marketing, and who gave it to you?

[Melissa Giordano]

I'm gonna have to give two answers to that, and one of them, which is one that has also helped me in the previous question that you asked, is always tell the truth and you will never get caught in a lie, which was from my father. Throughout my entire upbringing, I found that to be very helpful in tough situations. The other piece of advice is from our CEO Susan Dorfman, and it is do right over being right. And I really loved that in the sense of being able to, you know, always do what is right. And in that sense, it's okay if you make a mistake or if you have a learning, you don't always have to be right. And so that creates, I think, a safe space for us to, you know, make sure that we're innovating, make sure that we're trying new things, and make sure that we're keeping an open mind to different perspectives.

[Kat Vesse]

How lucky to have a female leader like that to set that tone, that's amazing. Well, thank you so much, Melissa. We enjoyed this conversation so much.

[Melissa Giordano]

Thank you for having me. This has been a great day.

[Kat Vesse]

All right. Another great combo.

[Ilyce Lefring]

Yes.

[Kat Vesse]

We had Melissa Giordano from CMI Media, and I'll start. I thought one of my favorite moments was when she was talking about speaking to doctors, that doctors are also patients. And I think, you know, at the trade desk and with the current. We see that a lot, too, where we're marketers. Speaking to marketers.

[Ilyce Lefring]

Yes.

[Kat Vesse]

And that's like a meta dilemma that you have to solve for. So I really. It really resonated with me to hear her talk about reaching doctors in that blue jean moment when they're off duty because they're also facing their own challenges in healthcare for their own personal journey.

[Ilyce Lefring]

And I feel like it's interesting because this campaign focused on reaching them versus patients, which I feel like usually it's the opposite. Usually healthcare brands focus on the patient rather than the provider, but this time, this campaign focused on reaching those nurse practitioners as well as those doctors. So that's just a different twist that I didn't expect.

[Kat Vesse]

And those numbers really speak for themselves. I mean, driving $32 million in revenue, I think it's safe to say it worked. So that was just a really fun part of the convo, too. Moving into the women in leadership questions that we asked at the end, something that rang true in her entire interview was her integrity and her just, like, betting on herself and making sure she showed up in her as her authentic self wherever she went. And I think that's just, like, such an important note to double click on for all aspiring leaders, male or female, that the more that you can remain true to yourself, the further you can take your career and go on that.

[Ilyce Lefring]

Note, I really loved how her CEO was the one who prioritized the message of doing right over being right completely.

[Kat Vesse]

And I love that it's coming from the CEO that she's the one from the top down saying, take risks. Don't worry about if you're gonna end up being right about them, but ensure that you're putting your integrity first and doing the right thing on all times. I mean, I think that's something that, at least for you and I, we can take into our daily work lives, and I hope, I hope for our listeners as well. And that's it for this edition of the Current Podcast. Be sure to tune in this whole month as we release all the recordings from south by Southwest. See you next time.