Accenture Prepares To Ingest Boomerang Pharmaceutical Communications

Accenture has been ingesting new specialist capabilities at a phenomenal rate of late.  The latest acquisition of Boomerang Pharmaceutical Communications brings capabilities in digital marketing to address pharmaceuticals, biotech, and medical devices to Accenture Digital. Marketing in pharma is undergoing a massive transformation towards consumers versus providers, covering specialist medicines with digital campaigns, differentiating versus fast moving generic alternatives to blockbusters while supporting simultaneous launches in multiple geographies. In doing all of this, in-house and even traditional agency teams marketing teams are stretched to take full advantage of the digital channel that is creating opportunities for new market players.

Boomerang Pharmaceutical Communications brings about 80 professionals to Accenture, including scientists, designers, developers, and digital experts, with project credentials from top pharma companies including Abbott, GlaxoSmithKline, Merck, Novartis, NovoNordisk, Pfizer, Takeda, and Unilever.  This is relevant because of the level of industry context the company brings to the Accenture team. The context is valuable in an industry governed by changing regulations and pivoting from a focus on pushing prescriptions to pulling patient and physician attention.  HfS is also interested in how Accenture may leverage the approach that Boomerang takes with its clients, the “BD5”: Discover-Define-Design-Develop-Deliver, a creative driven, design thinking approach to problem solving. It’s likely that other digital agencies acquired brought something similar into the fold.

Boomerang moves into Accenture Consulting because of its strong connections in the Life Sciences industry, but also brings a model for on-site outsourcing, or staff augmentation. This model could partner nicely with Accenture Operations (the business process outsourcing unit within Accenture). The Boomerang BD5 approach and expertise could inject some fresh energy into existing Accenture Operations, partnering the consultative and design thinking oriented approach with the established delivery capability. The capability will also need to be coordinated with Accenture Digital which houses previous digital marketing agency acquisitions.

While Accenture builds its mini-marketing empire within, the key challenge will be networking the growing digital marketing capability into maneuverable exercises.  One way that Accenture has started along these lines is with Accenture Intelligent Commercial Solutions, designed to bridge across all the Accenture business units and coordinate to help life sciences clients drive customer engagement, brand performance, and patient outcomes. 

At a high level, the Boomerang Pharmaceuticals acquisition seems to be easily ingestible by Accenture Consulting. It adds relevant and complementary expertise with digital marketing, web site development, and site promotion at top Pharma companies that overlap with Accenture’s client base, and opportunities to tap into new ones. As usual, the devil is in the details, with the real value in fusing the pharma knowledge and creative capability with the other Accenture entities focused on creating a patient and consumer experience for life sciences companies.