[Case Study] How CMI Media Group Drove an Uptick in New Patient Starts by Bridging the Gap Between Patients and Providers

Point of Care (POC) marketing is no longer limited to static touchpoints in a doctor's waiting room—it’s evolved into a highly dynamic, interconnected series of placements that shape crucial healthcare decisions. That’s why today’s most effective POC campaigns do more than just build awareness; they actively prompt dialogue, reduce friction, and align the interests of both patients and healthcare providers (HCPs) at the exact moment clinical decisions are made.

At the 2026 POC Now Summit, the industry honored the campaigns and teams doing just this. And taking home the Best Branded Campaign award was CMI Media Group for its groundbreaking work on behalf of Orgovyx, a drug used to treat advanced prostate cancer.

The Orgovyx campaign, titled “Ask Your Doctor About Orgovyx,” was recognized for its tactful activation across the Point of Care journey. By targeting both patients and physicians simultaneously, the campaign drove an uptick in incremental new patient starts and around 70% increase in new-to-brand prescriptions.

To peel back the layers of the award-winning strategy behind the campaign, we sat down for an interview with Deborah (Deb) Jakubicki, CMI’s Vice President of Engagement Strategy. In our conversation, Deb unpacked the insights and executions that informed the team’s approach and led to such impressive results.

Why Point of Care: Changing Patient & Provider Habits

The success of any sophisticated marketing campaign rests in the hands of the strategic team behind it. Deb has spent years honing her expertise across the pharmaceutical marketing landscape, navigating complex drug profiles and intricate patient journeys.

But her focus on POC has intensified as she recognized the unique challenges faced by today’s pharmaceutical brands, particularly those trying to disrupt entrenched prescribing habits.

"[Over the past few years,] I’ve grown my POC knowledge and activation. [And] in the past two to three years, [POC has] become more and more of a focus, especially in some of my brands that have patients that are harder to reach and HCPs that are stuck in a prescribing loop. Trying to get them to change their minds and introduce new drugs can be a challenge.”

“[Point of Care works well to] facilitate a dialogue between [patients and providers]. There's not any other environment that gets in front of both audiences directly when they're in [a decision-making] mindset," she shared.

For marketers looking to influence deeply ingrained medical routines, Deb asserts that the clinical environment offers unparalleled access to decision-makers. She noted, "[POC] is the perfect place to have your brand message".

The Brand Challenge: Navigating the Complexities of Advanced Prostate Cancer

To fully appreciate the strategy of the Orgovyx campaign, we should first understand the clinical and market landscape the team was operating in, as well as the audience they were looking to reach. Orgovyx is not a mass-market pharmaceutical; it’s a highly specialized therapy operating in a delicate and critically important therapeutic area.

Noting the specific profile of the drug, Deb shared, "[For Orgovyx, we] don't want to just be in the general prostate cancer space. We want to [reach] a very niche number of patients that have this specific type of advancement in their progression of the illness. [There’s] only about 350,000 patients that are actually on an androgen deprivation therapy (ADT)."

Beyond the challenge of reaching a niche patient audience, the Orgovyx team faced a significant hurdle regarding the administration of the drug itself and perception among HCPs. The standard of care in ADT therapy has long been dominated by injectable treatments, creating a deeply entrenched behavioral loop among another key audience for this campaign - urologists and oncologists.

"Orgovyx is the only pill option within its category. All the other options are injectables and doctors have been prescribing them and using injections for a really long time. Doctors also feel like they can control adherence a bit better with injectables," Deb elaborated.

This preference for control is a common barrier in pharmaceutical marketing. HCPs are naturally risk-averse when treating advanced, life-threatening illnesses. They prefer protocols that guarantee patient compliance, and historically, in-office injections provided that assurance. Overcoming this physician bias required more than just standard educational materials; it required a shift in how the clinical dialogue was initiated.

The Insight: Uncovering the Dichotomy Between Perception and Preference

Great marketing campaigns are almost always built on a key audience insight. CMI Media Group and Orgovyx discovered their key insight by looking closely at the disconnect between what HCPs preferred and what patients actually wanted.

Addressing how they developed their approach, Deb explained that they looked at both provider and patient preferences.

By listening to the audience, the team uncovered a hidden friction point in the treatment journey. "In our studies, what we've seen is [that] although the HCP prefers the injection, when you ask patients their preference, they actually prefer [a pill]. But the problem is a lot of patients don't know that oral [administration] is an option. They rely on their HCP for their expertise. And they don't know what they don't know. So that was a really big light bulb moment for our brand - if we can get our patients to ask for a pill option or to say Orgovyx by name, HCPs are much more likely to write our brand if they do get that patient ask. So what we're really trying to do is prompt that dialogue in-office."

This discovery was monumental. It revealed that if patients were empowered to self-advocate, physicians were receptive to fulfilling those requests. The campaign’s entire mechanism of action hinged on this dynamic. "If [patients] ask for it, doctors are likely to prescribe it. So that can really be powerful and increase scripts for Orgovyx," Deb stated.

To source these insights, the brand used Attitude, Trial and Usage studies (ATUs). "The brand does ATUs pretty often," Deb shared. Through these regular studies, the team validated their approach. "[The brand was] asking a bunch of questions within their own ATUs to get at that root issue of the dichotomy between HCP perception versus patient preference. So we got a lot of [our] data directly from the brand team."

The Necessity of a Trusted Environment

Once the insight was locked in, the question became: where is the most effective place to deliver this message? For an advanced cancer drug, traditional digital marketing channels often fall short. Patients facing severe diagnoses are not casually browsing the internet for a cure; they are seeking clinical validation and profound emotional reassurance.

"For advanced prostate cancer there is a lot of reliance on physician expertise. When you get a diagnosis like that, there's a lot of very clinical information out there. There's a lot of nuances with oncology. So patients don't always understand all of that. They can be a little bit overwhelmed with all the information [and] scared if they're facing a life-threatening disease, so there is a lot of trust between the HCP and the patient. So trying to change a patient's mind with just traditional marketing online through banners or even through things like search [isn’t as effective]," she explained.

In these moments of vulnerability, context is everything. The physical environment of the doctor's office provides an unparalleled level of credibility.

"[Patients] want to have a discussion with their doctor, because [their condition] is very serious. They’re not going [online] to get treatment options for cancer. So finding the right place to engage and being in an office location was really critical [for us],” Deb shared.

In terms of execution, Deb and team reached patients directly in the exam room in the moments before they consulted with their HCPs on treatment options.

“We [leveraged] exam room wall boards, and [patients] can trust that information because they're in a trusted environment. They're also in the right mindset - they're thinking about their options as they're waiting for their doctor to come in. We prompted [patients] to talk to their doctor. Having a strong call to action within your POC messaging is important," Deb emphasized.

Crucially, this approach respected the physician's authority. "We're not taking the doctor out of the equation, but we're prompting that dialogue between the [patient and provider]," she added.

Equipping the HCP: The Other Side of the Equation

While activating the patient was central to the strategy, the team knew that prompting a conversation would only be successful if the HCP was adequately prepared to answer the patient's questions. The campaign required a synchronous push to HCPs to ensure they were educated on the drug's benefits, efficacy, and accessibility.

"That synergy was really key for us. In addition to [exam room placements], we also had EHR messaging to the doctors. So, as they're going in to see their patients or even after they see their patients, we had that messaging to doctors [that shared], "Hey, we have a pill option, learn more about our efficacy. Learn more about our coverage because we also had some really strong coverage wins in the last two years that doctors aren't always as aware of [and Orgovyx might] not [be] as expensive as they might think for their patients," Deb detailed.

By leveraging Electronic Health Records (EHR) placements, the campaign reached doctors when they were actively managing patient cases. "Having that education in trusted environments [where] the doctors and patients are in the right mindset is really critical."

Precision Targeting: Mapping the Medical Landscape

To maximize the campaign’s return on investment, the team needed to embrace a highly targeted deployment. Marketing an advanced prostate cancer drug means that broad strokes will lead to wasted spend. The team needed to pinpoint exactly which offices were treating the relevant patient populations and target them with precision.

"We [started] with our physician target list - urologists and oncologists that typically treat [advanced prostate cancer]. We have a pretty detailed list that's segmented by loyal writers [and] people that are more in the consideration phase. We mapped those writers back to physical locations," Deb shared.

This mapping strategy ensured the physical collateral was placed where it would generate the most impact. "[We worked] with our supplier partners to [identify] where our core doctors [are] working out of so they're seeing the relevant patients, and let's be in the office locations of doctors that need that little bit more convincing to prescribe," she explained.

To create omnichannel synergy, they integrated this geographical data with their sales force deployment. "[We married our media placements with] locations that have sales rep presence as well so [HCPs are] getting even more touch points from the brand."

Creative Execution: Simplicity and Clarity at the Forefront

In the exam room, creative messaging needs to be immediately comprehensible. Patients are often anxious, meaning marketers need to minimize cognitive load. The creative strategy for Orgovyx stripped away complexities to focus on its single most important differentiator: the form of the medication.

"[Orgovyx] is the only oral option within its class. [In our creative] we have an image of a pill to really highlight that because [patients are] typically used to seeing injections as their treatment option. We highlighted that they have a different choice that they probably aren't aware of. [And our] call to action is Ask your doctor about Orgovyx," Deb noted.

This simple, directive CTA was the linchpin of the strategy. It wasn't about educating the patient on the deep science of ADT; it was about giving them permission to ask a specific question. "When patients do ask for Orgovyx by name, it's like an 80 to 90% grant rate, so if we can prompt them to ask that really does help influence the prescribing behavior.”

Validating the Investment: Phenomenal ROI and Outcomes

Historically, one of the greatest challenges in POC marketing has been proving definitive ROI. So for Orgovyx, stepping into a large-scale POC investment was a leap of faith - 2024 was the first year that they invested significantly in the channel.

Given the novelty of the channel for the brand, the team needed robust measurement frameworks to secure internal buy-in.

"This [campaign] was kind of a test for [the brand] and they were a little bit nervous about what the results might be and the impact. So we worked with our partners to include ROI studies within our contract and we made sure that we had enough investment in order to get a good read on [metrics the brand cared about]. And we did see really strong return on investment."

The results were nothing short of spectacular. The campaign successfully shifted physician behavior, drawing in practitioners who had previously remained loyal to injectable therapies.

"We actually did see an increase in doctors who hadn't prescribed before. We had new writers that were writing the drug directly tied to the campaign," Deb stated.

The rigorous campaign measurement approach and subsequent results cemented the channel's value to the organization. "We saw true conversion and true behavior change [across third-party and brand-led measurement studies]. [And] of course monthly we do look at topline metrics [like] impressions for digital and engagement with wallboards. But I think really proving out the return on investment and conversion is what sold [POC] to the brand to continue investing in the future."

When analyzing what led to the success of the campaign, Deb highlighted the importance of a continuous patient journey. "I think that [POC media] does work together synergistically," she reflected. "Reaching patients before their visit, prepping them during their visit, a check-in and then post visit reminders [are all critical]. Having that connectivity through their entire appointment journey really had the strongest performance."

Key Takeaways for Healthcare Marketers

The success of this campaign offers lessons for pharma marketers navigating their own work. Chief among them is the necessity of creating a unified outreach strategy across patients and providers.

"[Don’t] look at HCP and patient marketing in a silo. Most brands have separate marketing teams and separate marketing budgets [for HCP and patient marketing]. But [you’ll be more successful] if you can strategically think about the experience across both the physician and the patient - how they're talking in office, how they're interacting - and really tailor that experience," Deb advised.

When teams collaborate, the outcomes scale dramatically. "I think being able to look across both [audiences] was really critical for us. Our team is lucky and we do work across both patients and physicians. But even if you are separate, I would encourage you to facilitate conversations between the two teams because when you're working together, you have much stronger targeting, much stronger activation and then ultimately performance."

Finally, Deb cautioned against lazy creative execution. The Point of Care is a unique environment that demands bespoke messaging designed specifically for the clinical mindset.

"Don't just take your banner ad and slap it on a wallboard in an exam room. Try to be a bit more thoughtful about [getting your message out there based on] what you're looking to achieve within that channel - if you want your patients to talk to their doctors, put that as a call to action. But with that said I wouldn't be afraid of not having enough creative to go into POC. There are creative solutions you can work with your partners on to help you get there."

The Orgovyx campaign stands as a masterclass in POC marketing. By identifying a critical gap between HCP perception and patient preference, mapping physical clinic locations, and deploying synergistic messaging across EHR platforms and patient-facing wallboards, CMI Media Group proved that Point of Care can drive far more than awareness—it can be an engine for definitive clinical action. The resulting uptick in new patient starts and around 70% increase in new-to-brand prescriptions underscore a clear takeaway: when you empower patients and equip providers in the exact moments decisions are made, the results can be transformative.