Welcome to The Supreme Pod by Supreme Group, where we discuss the art behind effective marketing in life science and healthcare. Every episode, we'll bring you insider strategies and expert interviews on crafting campaigns that drive real impact.
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E16: When and How to Run Meta Ads in Life Sciences
Monday, September 21, 2026 • Duration 29:32
Meta Ads often don’t make the shortlist in life science marketing. LinkedIn and Google typically get the budget and the attention, with Facebook and Instagram often written off as consumer channels with no place in B2B.
But the reality is that Meta can provide scale and high engagement, particularly for B2B growth initiatives, HCP campaigns, and compliant patient recruitment strategies.
So when do Meta Ads earn a place in a life science media plan? And how do you get the most out of them?
In this episode, Eric Southwell sits down with Robin McArthur, Senior Manager, Paid Social (Supreme Optimization) and Ally Dolezal, Senior Strategist, Paid Social (Supreme Optimization), two of the most experienced Meta specialists in the life sciences industry, to discuss when Meta earns a place in the mix and what it takes to build a campaign that performs.
If you are a senior marketer in life sciences or healthcare, and Meta has been sitting untested in your channel mix, this episode is for you.
What you'll learn about in this episode
- The four pillars of building a successful Meta Ads campaign for life sciences from scratch, including setting benchmarks
- The mistakes that show up in almost every Meta account audit and how to avoid them
- Why consolidating campaigns and ad creatives beats spreading budget across parallel tests
- Tips to avoid creative fatigue or MLR bottlenecks
- What Andromeda actually is, and how to make it work for your business
- Which of Meta's AI creative features are worth turning on and which aren’t
- A case study showing a clinical trial recruitment playbook that delivered fully eligible, geographically qualified registrants at around $15 each
- How Value Rules restores demographic control without switching off AI targeting, and the bid-down approach used on a trial with strict eligibility criteria
E15: How to Build a Paid Media Strategy That Delivers Results in Life Sciences
Tuesday, September 1, 2026 • Duration 01:03:18
One-size-fits-all paid media strategies rarely work for life science companies, where audiences are often highly niche and deal sizes range from $50 reagent orders to million-dollar CDMO contracts.
So, how can you build a paid media channel strategy that suits your life science business and delivers results?
To unpack how to build a program that works, Paul Avery sat down with three of Supreme Group’s most experienced paid media strategists: Irene Lecker, PhD, Director of Performance Marketing at Supreme Optimization; Mihaela Pupavac, PhD, EVP of Operations at Supreme Optimization; and Eric Southwell, Chief Growth Officer at Supreme Group. Between them, they have decades of experience in building effective paid media programs for life science and healthcare organizations.
If you're a marketer in pharma, biotech, medtech, or diagnostics and you've been running paid media campaigns that aren't delivering the outcomes you need, this is worth a listen.
Key takeaways from this episode:
→ Audience size and company maturity drive strategy more than price point. A $100K microscope and a $50 reagent need completely different channel mixes, but not for the reason most people think.
→ Bing is the most underused channel in life science. Half the cost per click of Google, and your ads show up in Microsoft Copilot, where locked-down university and pharma laptops are doing most of their searching.
→ Video is the highest-ROI awareness play, and AI has made it more cost-effective. One team cloned a CEO's voice from a kickoff call recording, built three awareness videos, and 10X'd their LinkedIn following in four months without him lifting a finger.
E14: Tackling the Big Challenges in Pharma Marketing Today
Monday, August 10, 2026 • Duration 23:59
What have been some of the biggest challenges facing pharma marketing teams in 2026 so far, and how can commercial teams adapt to ensure a competitive advantage?
In this latest episode Eric Southwell, CGO at Supreme Group, sat down with Olly Johnston, EVP of Platform Growth and Transformation at Supreme Group, and Kelli Gauss, Director of Marketing and Growth at Pivot Design (a Supreme Group company), to discuss how they are tackling some of the industry’s biggest challenges.
Together they dig into AI adoption and how to actually realize its value, weigh in on when omnichannel is the right fit for a business, and look ahead to the looming drug patent cliff.
They also touch on staying creative amid tightening regulations and possible solutions to the shrinking access sales reps have to HCPs.
If you are a senior marketer or commercial lead in pharma or biotech setting direction for the remainder of 2026 and beyond, this episode is for you.
What you'll learn in this episode
Why a small, ‘safe’ AI pilot often costs as much time and resource as a more ambitious, infrastructure change, and where the disproportionate value actually sits
How a modular content approach lets a brand adapt fast when regulatory rules change
Why untitled letters are showing up more often, and how to treat compliance limits as a creative brief rather than a ceiling
How to determine if an omnichannel ambition is realistic for your organization and where to get started
E13: Get Real: How Pharma Brands Can Earn Trust in 2026
Friday, July 24, 2026 • Duration 33:53
How can a pharma brand earn the attention and trust of patients, physicians and other stakeholders in an industry filled with skepticism, AI generated noise and an overwhelming array of media channels?
In this episode, Paul sits down with Nicky Battle, President of Supreme Communications, to discuss why pharma brands need to get real in 2026 and lean into honesty and authenticity to cut through and build trust.
If you are a senior marketer, communications lead, or commercial leader in life science, healthcare, or pharma trying to figure out how to build a successful strategic communications program in 2026, this episode is for you.
What you'll learn in this episode
Why the rigid 1 year comms plan produces volume without breakthrough, and what should replace it
How being too risk averse and over-sanitized can undermine successful strategic communications
The value of open data access when it comes to building physician and patient trust
Why compliance guardrails don't have to kill authenticity, and how brands can find the "Goldilocks zone" between the two
The importance of listening in strategic communications, including an example of mirroring a community's exact language to build a connection
00:00 Welcome and introduction (Nicky Battle, President, Supreme Communications)
00:55 Why "PR has a PR problem," and reframing strategic communications as earning permission rather than reputation
E12: AEO in Life Sciences: What's Actually Working in 2026
Tuesday, July 14, 2026 • Duration 48:32
In life sciences, buyers are now more likely to find your brand through an AI-generated summary than through a traditional Google blue link in the search results page. Answer Engine Optimization (AEO) is an evolving marketing tactic that addresses this shift and focuses on optimizing content for answer-first experiences via AI. But how does AEO actually work in life sciences marketing and how do you know when it’s working?
Recorded live at Supreme's annual offsite in Punta Cana, host Eric Southwell (Chief Growth Officer, Supreme Group) is joined by Paul Avery (EVP, AI Adoption, Supreme Group), Dean Hallam (Scientific Digital Marketing Strategist, Supreme Optimization), and Lauren Whitehead (Managing Director, Supreme Optimization) to give an honest, data-backed picture of the current role of AEO in the marketing mix and how to ensure your organization can be found by AI.
What you'll learn in this episode
AEO and SEO share the same foundations, the technical bedrock hasn't changed. What's changed is how content surfaces and what winning looks like (citation vs. ranking).
AI traffic converts 4.5x better than organic, but it's still less than 1% of traffic for most life science clients. Proportional investment matters.
Your biggest AEO risk might be invisible content. JavaScript-rendered specs, interactive maps, gated PDFs. LLM bots can't read any of it.
Digital PR is more important than ever. How your brand appears across the web directly influences AI citation frequency.
Quick wins and where to start if you’re overwhelmed
Strategies based on your audience. Pharma and patient audiences need different AEO strategies. Branded vs. unbranded, HCP vs. patient, the approach and expectations must differ.
E11: What AI-Native Means for Life Sciences & Healthcare Marketing
Tuesday, June 16, 2026 • Duration 59:01
AI-Native vs AI-Dependent. There's a massive difference. AI-native means using tools to amplify your expertise and AI-dependent means handing off your thinking entirely. The team at Supreme Group unpack this distinction and much more in the latest episode of Supreme Pod.
Recorded live at Supreme's annual offsite in Punta Cana, Paul Avery (EVP, AI Adoption) sits down with Sheldon Zhai (Chief AI Officer and Founder), Paulo Simas (Head of AI Growth), and Ramon Felciano (Board Member and Strategic AI Advisor) to discuss the benefits and considerations of becoming an AI-native organization in complex, regulated marketing environments such as those found in life sciences and healthcare.
If you are a senior marketer, agency leader, or commercial lead in life science or healthcare trying to understand what meaningful AI adoption and deployment looks like from the inside, this episode is for you.
What you'll learn in this episode
The distinction between AI-native and AI-dependent, and why using AI to amplify domain expertise is very different from outsourcing your judgment to it
The biggest potential AI efficiency gains for life sciences and healthcare commercial teams including fully automated, reliable MLR review
Why top-down AI mandates fail where peer-to-peer learning and sharing succeeds
Practical examples of an AI-Native agency in practice, including a website created in five days and a buried dashboard experiment that became a viral capability
Why becoming AI-native starts with reinventing workflows from the ground up
How AI efficiency gains in non-personal promotion could fund a meaningful shift back into personal promotion, and what that rebalancing means for commercial teams working in life sciences and healthcare
Links
Supreme Intelligence:
E10: What the AI Forward Deployed Expert Model Means for Healthcare & Life Sciences
Tuesday, June 2, 2026 • Duration 34:21
Ninety percent of generative AI pilots fail, often because the technology is disconnected from data, workflows, and anyone accountable for results. As a fix, some AI providers now offer Forward Deployed Engineer (FDE) models to build custom AI solutions from inside a company.
Before choosing an FDE partner, healthcare and life sciences organizations should ask: does this company understand the complex realities of regulated healthcare commercialization? And will they recommend what's best for my company’s needs, or what's best for their platform?
In this episode, Sheldon Zhai (Founder and Chief AI Officer, Supreme Group) digs into the considerations and opportunities of an AI deployment model in regulated healthcare and life sciences commercial environments.
If you're a senior marketer, commercial lead, or AI decision-maker in healthcare or life sciences trying to figure out how to make AI actually land, this episode is for you.
What you'll learn in this episode
What a FDE model is and what it means in practice for a healthcare and life sciences company
The benefits of a healthcare specific FDE model vs a generic FDE model
Why platform agnosticism matters in a market where most AI partners have a platform agenda
How to identify a commercialization partner that is genuinely AI-Native
Data security and compliance considerations, and what pharma companies should ask before committing to a FDE provider
The 20/60/20 model for human-AI collaboration, and why the human contribution may shrink in time but grow in impact
How a patient website project went from a three-month, six-figure quote to five-day delivery at thirty percent lower cost, with full legal and regulatory sign-off
The first breath of a pharma brand is the moment a company stops thinking only about the molecule and starts asking what that molecule needs to mean to physicians, patients, caregivers, institutions, payers, and the communities around it.
In this episode, host Paul Avery sits down with Elizabeth Yi, Doug Tischler, and Meredith Pugh from Broth to unpack what happens when a biotech or pharma company begins turning science into a market-ready story.
The conversation covers when brand work should begin, why market preparation takes longer than teams expect, how to translate complex science into simple communication, and why launch success often depends on experience, infrastructure, and adoption pathways as much as the brand itself.
If you are building, launching, or preparing the market for a pharma, biotech, rare disease, or healthcare brand, this episode is for you.
What you'll learn from this episode
How the "first breath" moment shifts a company from molecule thinking to market, HCP, patient, and community meaning
Why pharma brand planning often needs to begin years before launch, even while clinical data is still developing
How scientific platforms help build confidence, comfort, and readiness before a brand is available
Why a single, choiceful brand idea matters more than trying to communicate every possible product advantage
How to use market research without letting the safest answer flatten the work
Why early-stage companies need to think beyond brand into experience, process, access, and digital infrastructure
How patient and HCP insight can change the story a launch team needs to tell
Why first-in-category status is not enough without community trust, education, and market preparation
How AI is changing agency workflows without replacing the need for strategic judgment and client stewardship
E8: How to Build LinkedIn Ad Funnels That Actually Generate Life Science Leads
Tuesday, March 17, 2026 • Duration 57:53
Most life science companies are already running LinkedIn ads with great content and strong creative. So why aren't the leads coming in? Usually, it's because the strategy is broken.
In this episode, Eric Southwell (CGO, Supreme Group) and Irene Lecker (Director of Digital Strategy, Supreme Optimization) pull apart real LinkedIn campaigns from MilliporeSigma and Roche, showing exactly where each funnel breaks down and how to fix it.
What you'll learn from this episode
Why LinkedIn's member skills and professional profile data make it the only platform where you can target with the specificity needed for life science advertising
Case Study: How MilliporeSigma's ads have strong creative and a compelling free sample offer but lose prospects through a broken click path and mobile-unfriendly forms
The three-stage funnel Eric and Irene would build from existing content: video for awareness, gated PDF for consideration, lead gen form for conversion
Case Study: Why Roche's thought leadership ads are a standout, and why this ad format can deliver 10x the click-through rate of standard promoted posts
How to layer LinkedIn audiences using geography, industry, job function, seniority, and member skills to find the right scientists without inflating your cost per click
Why LinkedIn lead gen forms consistently outperform external landing pages, and when the one exception applies (live webinars)
The weekly optimization habits that turn a mediocre campaign into a lead generation engine within three months
A quick disclaimer: all information in this episode is publicly sourced, opinions are our own, and we have no affiliation with either MilliporeSigma or Roche.
E7: The Moments That Matter for Women Leaders in Life Science & Healthcare
Friday, March 6, 2026 • Duration 34:08
In life sciences and healthcare, stepping into leadership is about finding the right environment, the right mentors, and the courage to invite yourself to the table.
In this special International Women's Day episode, Eric Southwell sits down with four of Supreme Group's most senior women leaders — Nicky Battle (President, Supreme Communications), Liz Kanter (President & Executive Creative Director, Pivot Design), Shannon Carlson (President & Founder, C24), and Elizabeth Yi (Co-Founder, Broth) — for an honest conversation about what it actually takes to grow, lead, and thrive.
What you'll learn from this episode
Why the culture you work in matters more than the title you hold, and when it's time to walk away
The critical difference between mentors and sponsors, and why you need both
How to stop waiting to be noticed and start inviting yourself to the table
What organizations need to do beyond assigning titles: real authority, intentional time, and passing the mic
Why leadership isn't just about managing people, it's how you show up in every small moment, every single day
How to tighten your story and project confidence, even when you don't have all the answers
Why standing up for yourself requires leading with facts, not emotion, and the importance of addressing conflict fast
Links
Supreme Group: https://supremegroup.ai
Timestamps
00:00 Episode summary sizzle
00:41 Welcome and introductions (Nicky Battle, Liz Kanter, Shannon Carlson, Elizabeth Yi)
02:20 What most enabled your career growth?
02:53 Shannon on culture, authenticity, and finding the right environment
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→ Lab influencers are the next big arbitrage opportunity. Grad students and post-docs with growing audiences influence every purchase in the lab, and almost no life science brand is tapping them yet.
→ Upper-funnel attribution is still unsolved, and that's okay. The danger is tunnel vision. If you optimize only for what you can track and starve awareness spend, you'll eventually damage your bottom-of-funnel results.
→ Programmatic isn't just a buzzword. Modern DSPs like StackAdapt have no minimums, offer LinkedIn-level ABM targeting, and reach across CTV, OOH, and premium web, including NPI-free physician targeting.
Chapters:
(0:00) — Intro & guest introductions
(5:00) — Matching channel strategy to company type: reagents vs. microscopes vs. CDMOs
(8:00) — "We can't run paid search — our market's too small." Is that true?
(11:00) — Are Google Ads really too expensive? The real reason CPCs go up
(13:00) — The case for Bing: Half the CPC, and your ads run in Microsoft Copilot
(18:00) — Auditing a new client: What to look at before picking a platform
(22:00) — LinkedIn vs. trade shows: The real awareness comparison
(26:00) — Solving the awareness problem: Why video is still the answer
(27:00) — Case study: 10X followers in 4 months using AI voice cloning
(31:00) — Attribution in 2026: What we can and can't measure
(33:00) — The tunnel vision problem: Why bottom-funnel ROI hides upper-funnel decay
(36:00) — How to help your internal champion defend the spend
(41:00) — Thought leadership as a channel: The Supreme Pod origin story
(42:00) — Why thought leadership works — and why finding the face is the hard part
(46:00) — Programmatic demystified: What it is and when to use it
(50:00) — Is programmatic right for every life science company?
(56:00) — Trends prediction: Where paid media in life science is headed
Subscribe for more content on life science and healthcare marketing strategy from The Supreme Pod.
Supreme Optimization is a life science and healthcare digital marketing agency.
00:00 Welcome and introduction (Olly Johnston, EVP Growth and Transformation, Supreme Group, and Kelli Gaus, Director of Marketing and Growth, Pivot Design)
01:24 Sprinting toward omnichannel and creating new silos on the way
02:27 Doing more with less, and pressure to use AI without knowing how
04:39 Managing the AI fog, and why small AI pilots can defeat the purpose of innovation
07:17 Untitled letters, and using compliance limits to push creative strategy
08:12 Atomizing approved creative into Lego pieces
09:21 Starting with what the patient actually needs
11:51 Four things to get right before omnichannel is realistic
14:34 The Super Bowl AI ads and content with no soul
15:45 Moving DTC toward end-to-end care coordination
17:53 Marketing into the patent cliff as categories commoditize
19:56 Data strategy for HCP targeting as rep access declines and the rise of synthetic AI reps
20:54 Digital-first strategy to drive patient demand
23:49 The value of in-person connection and clients asking to meet the team before they sign
02:50 The old playbook: Fractured frameworks and rigid, milestone-driven annual plans that create volume without breakthrough
04:05 From 7 touches to 7,000: why fragmented attention means brands must repeat themselves consistently everywhere
05:45 The point of care as pharma's most vulnerable moment, and the mistrust pharma faces
07:10 What Netflix's unapologetic price hike and Nike losing its "share of cool" teach pharma about brand complacency
10:00 Why "Big Pharma" became a negative term despite undeniable innovation, and the cost of skipping community-level trust work
12:10 Listening sessions, ad boards, and a Reddit-scraping example of mirroring a community's own language back to them
14:25 Why AI slop is part of pharma's trust problems, and the case for showing real, reflected life instead of a sanitized "polo shirt and khakis" image
17:10 Real regulatory guardrails in pharma, and finding the "Goldilocks zone" between compliance and authentic engagement
17:40 Radical transparency: giving physicians open access to full data sets
21:45 Coaching risk-averse clients, and why the best comms work happens when clients are willing to be "gladiators" for a tested message
22:45 The power of chopping the rigid annual plan into quarters
26:50 The four operating systems of modern PR
29:40 Inside the SG thought leadership mapping tool that matches message, messenger, and medium, and drafts the pitch itself
32:05 What excites Nicky most about the future of earning trust in pharma communications
00:00 Opening and lead-in 00:37 Welcome and intro (Sheldon Zhai, Founder and Chief AI Officer, Supreme Group) 01:00 What is Supreme Intelligence FDE+? 03:30 Why model agnosticism matters: the Trojan horse problem with vendor-deployed AI engineers 07:00 The five-day website: three months and six figures vs five days at thirty percent less 10:00 Personalization at scale: AI-powered campaigns for 30 personas, and what the performance data showed 13:00 Why consultative depth matters: clients don't know what's possible 17:00 What IT and procurement actually ask: AI councils, SOC 2, and why the conversations go better than expected 20:00 Pitching by prototype: showing AI-native competency before the conversation starts 25:00 Supreme Intelligence: the infrastructure layer that powers FDE 29:00 The human's role in an AI-native world: the 20/60/20 model 35:00 Custom at scale: AI-native workflows vs templatized shortcuts 38:00 What makes FDE+ unique: 70 PhDs and hands-on pharma backgrounds 39:00 Wrap and where to learn more
00:00 Sizzle intro 00:40 Welcome and guest intros (Liz, Doug, Meredith from Broth) 03:00 What it means to give a new pharma brand its first breath 07:00 Finding what's "ownable" in the science before clinical data lands 10:30 Why market prep takes years, and why humans don't realize they have a pain point 13:00 Phase 3, target product profiles, and the right moment to start brand work 16:30 Translating deep science for every audience, from KOL to child 22:30 Crafting the one core idea and message-mapping each audience 26:30 Why getting everyone's opinion makes it generic, and "to evoke, you have to provoke" 28:00 When brand isn't first: experience, pre-mortems, and the long view 30:30 Selling polarizing work to the client: 2% vs 50% of the market 36:30 Educating a competitive market vs a market with no treatment 44:00 The antifungal aha: seeing the patient's whole life, not just the infection 46:30 The mistakes early-stage biotechs make: silos and fractured CRM 53:00 How AI native agency work is reshaping early commercialization at Supreme Group 58:00 What separates launches that work from those that don't 1:00:00 Turning the biggest patient barrier into something patients fell in love with 1:02:30 Four moments when a brand truly comes to life 1:04:00 Wrap
00:11 Welcome to the Supreme Pod and episode intro 03:58 The case for LinkedIn: quality over quantity, real profiles, and brand safety 09:22 Why Eric shifted 75% of Supreme's ad budget from Google to LinkedIn 10:49 How to find competitor ads using the LinkedIn Ad Library 11:14 MilliporeSigma ad analysis: gorgeous creative, unclear funnel stage 14:25 The disconnect between "Learn More" and a free sample landing page 17:30 Hidden treasure: great video and rich content buried behind the wrong ad 19:59 Rebuilding MilliporeSigma's campaign as a three-stage funnel 24:19 Roche ad analysis: thought leadership ads and real scientists on camera 25:14 Why thought leadership ads get 10x the click-through rate 27:19 The live webinar exception for lead gen forms 30:34 Creative noise messaging vs. actual product benefits 36:36 The pattern: great content, broken strategy 41:58 Audience layering: geography, industry, job function, seniority, and member skills 50:34 Optimization: weekly check-ins, A/B testing, and lead quality reviews 53:54 Biggest mistake: underutilizing LinkedIn lead gen forms 54:52 Magic wand: you already have enough content for LinkedIn 57:23 Wrap-up
04:06 Advice for those who don't feel supported at work
05:22 Liz on relationships, trust, and the mentor who changed everything
07:46 The power of mentors vs sponsors
08:57 Shannon on how you show up and the small moments that build trust
10:08 Elizabeth on advocates who played both roles
11:14 What if you don't have a mentor? How to find one
14:04 Nicky on finding "expanders" early in your career
14:44 Shannon on carving out time for yourself
16:08 Elizabeth on the challenge of speaking up and projecting confidence
17:16 Nicky on inviting yourself to the table
19:08 What organizations can do to support women in leadership
21:39 Elizabeth on redirecting the room and passing the mic
22:20 Nicky on allyship and giving credit in meetings
24:02 Advice for women early in their careers
24:45 Shannon on proactive feedback and leading without a title
26:49 Liz on stretching beyond your comfort zone and choosing your circle
28:46 Communication and standing up for yourself with confidence
31:48 Closing wisdom: don't be scared of this space, be intentional, embrace discomfort
Keywords
International Women's Day, women in leadership, life sciences marketing, healthcare marketing, mentorship, sponsorship, career growth, leadership development, women in pharma, women in healthcare, professional development, executive presence, allyship, career advice
