Healthcare and pharms is probably one of the least represented major industry in my branded podcast reviews, so it’s exciting that I have a long list of great attributes to highlight from a show from Pfizer:

Women’s Health: Tales from the Uterus

• Let’s start with obvious, it’s not easy to do a show that covers sensitive but important topics like women’s health. That can turn off some listeners, but I appreciate that Pfizer didn’t pull any punches in making that the focus of the series across five seasons and almost 30 episodes
• The show is also proactive in tackling societal stigmas. In their case for women’s health - the show talks frankly about periods and menstruation and how we often shy away from the topic - but that can go for lots of topics that other brands want to talk about
• They have a host, Dr. Mary Jane Minkin, who brings a warmth and encouragement for the audience to learn about the topic along the way
• On that note, they do a good job of defining and explaining acronyms and technical terms that come up, which can be a key element to retaining new listeners who aren’t experts in the topic area
• Pfizer, perhaps unsurprisingly, has a robust disclaimer for the show to make sure it is not overly relied on for medical advice. They go through it quickly, so it doesn’t take too much away from the listening experience. An interesting nuance that I hadn’t hear before, even on financial services podcasts, is that the information is only intended for a “United States-based audience”
• When a brand can make it work, it can be helpful to bring on a co-sponsor or brand for the show, which it looks like Pfizer did, with Sumitomo Pharma, for this season specifically
• The show uses a tactic that I’m seeing more now of changing the actual title of the show season by season to reflect the current state focus. I’m torn a bit, since I think that can sometimes confuse listeners coming back to a show, but it definitely does help reinforce the new topic for shows that have a strong season-level theme
• And lastly, I want to give credit to Pfizer’s work building an overall network of branded shows. I actually first listened to “The Antigen”, about the timely topic of vaccine development, and they have another show about healthcare R&D called “Science Will Win”