Healthcare Brands Gain Support From CMI Media, Microsoft Advertising Partnership
- by Laurie Sullivan @lauriesullivan, April 8, 2025
As Trump’s tariffs on pharmaceuticals have the potential to threaten the industry, CMI Media Group, WPP’s healthcare agency supporting media planning and buying, along with Compas, a media-buying agency, will work with Microsoft Advertising.
The goal is to help healthcare brands find innovative ways to reach customers and produce better return on investments.
"Buying clout" lets us find the best prices for the "significant number of pharmaceutical brands" CMI works with," said Justin Freid, Chief Media Innovation Officer, CMI Media Group. "It lets the buying agency find cost effective ways to advertise across Microsoft's network of platforms."Freid pointed to Microsoft's network of companies such as Xbox and LinkedIn as platforms to place and serve ads, as well as those opportunities with Copilot. Microsoft has always been a partner to test strategies and build unique products for pharma, and that requires trust and a strong partnership.
Analysts have warned since earlier this year that increased tariffs will drive up drug prices, impact innovation, and force companies to rethink their global manufacturing strategies.
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Aside from using the word “partnership” to describe CMI’s relationship with Microsoft, Freid said, the company works as "an expert" with Microsoft as the company decides the type of targeting to implement within MSM. And, how to measure success of programs. Other terms he used during the conversation with MediaPost included “testing ground” and “brainstorming” to better serve the pharmaceutical industry.
Microsoft Advertising in 2024 named CMI Media Group as its Performance Partner of the Year. This latest evolution of the relationship delivers strategic support and guidance from both companies with a goal to provide further innovation like targeting or ad units, data and transitioning transparency, and collaboration.
One of the biggest pharmaceutical industry changes is how the media gets bought to reach consumers.
Fried sees the pharmaceutical industry transition from mainly running media on linear TV to online video and connected television to reach healthcare professionals. Video now extends across nearly every platform, from social like TikTok and Facebook to Search.
By combining Microsoft Advertising’s capabilities with CMI Media Group’s strategic expertise, the goal is to elevate client success and accelerate growth in an increasingly competitive landscape.
Fried also spoke briefly about the work CMI has done with AI agents to help its internal planners and analysts more productive and have insights readily available.
