Product launch strategy: Boost pharma sales with microlearning and gamification

The pharmaceutical industry in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic has faced one of the most challenging years globally in terms of operations, scope and budget in all business areas.

One of the vital elements for companies in the healthcare sector is the successful launch of new products, but achieving sales targets is a difficult task. According to a study by McKinsey & Company, approximately 66% of launches fail to meet sales expectations.

The outbreak of Covid-19 has also had a positive impact on pharmaceutical companies by giving them the opportunity to accelerate their digital transformation processes, adopting the use of digital tools in their processes and creating new channels of communication with HCPs. Now is the time to leverage these channels to prepare for the launch of new drugs that were disrupted by the pandemic.

What elements should we keep in mind? Nowadays, product launches cannot be as they used to be, so the main areas to focus on in the "new normal" are:

•100% digital product launch, applying a hybrid sales model.

•Mobile first strategy to reach stakeholders anytime, anywhere.

•Impact through unique, interactive and summarised content.

•Increase the frequency of impacts in a non-intrusive way.

At Compettia we have experience working with the TOP 10 most relevant pharmaceutical companies in the world and we have developed with them specialized pharma sales training programs designed to guarantee product launch success. For this reason, we have collected the main considerations to achieve the best results throughout the product life cycle. Let’s get started!

_{#1 - Pre-launch: get ready for success!}

The success of your next product launch starts before the big day and depends on organisation, planning and execution throughout the process. Accompanying the medical area, marketing and sales force with specialised and immediate training is key. How can you achieve this? You'll want to avoid dense content that bores and disengages the audience.

Both sales reps and doctors themselves need "easy" material to absorb in order to adopt it quickly and in a hybrid way (remote and F2F). A survey conducted by McKinsey in Europe shows that the average number of face-to-face contacts between HCPs and pharmaceutical sales representatives is 70% lower than before the pandemic.

This underlines the importance of frontline enablement—ensuring your reps are continuously updated with valuable content and empowered to engage effectively with HCPs.

In addition, 85% of physicians and healthcare professionals expect the most common sales role to be hybrid over the next three years. Through Atrivity's gamified training for pharma reps, you can reach key roles such as pharmacy staff, healthcare professionals and logistics professionals directly via their mobile devices.

Thanks to micro-content challenges, these professionals learn all the critical product knowledge in a dynamic, fun and engaging way — and most importantly, they retain it. Atrivity’s AI-powered microlearning adapts to each learner’s gaps, reinforcing the most missed questions through intelligent repetition.

_{#2 - Product launch: it's time to break it down}

Once all the preparation and internal alignment has taken place, the launch moment requires a strong omnichannel strategy. In the past, training and product presentations took place during in-person congresses or symposiums. Today, time constraints make this format obsolete.

The new approach relies on mobile learning LMS capabilities and the ability to push bite-sized updates frequently, increasing impact without overwhelming your audience.

How can you do it? According to a study, 51% of the time HCPs spend online is on mobile, and 4 out of 5 use their smartphones daily. Webinars or long video calls are not realistic given their workload.

The key? Converting your launch communications into a mobile app for employee knowledge retention, like Atrivity's platform. With just 5 minutes per day, HCPs and sales reps can consume microlearning for sales and complete short knowledge challenges that reinforce what they just learned.

Your internal teams benefit too — by turning product content into engaging, mobile-first learning experiences, you not only maximize retention but also speed up time-to-performance.

_{#3 - Maturation: reach your product's sales peak}

Don't stop training once the product is launched. Over time, people forget — and that means knowledge gaps grow. Leveraging knowledge retention strategies becomes essential to maintain sales excellence.

Through Atrivity's intelligent repetition algorithm, sales reps revisit the most challenging topics. This helps reinforce prior knowledge and even relaunch the product with updated information.

Moreover, thanks to training analytics for pharma, you can detect specific knowledge gaps at an individual level and take action. Atrivity enables personalized learning journeys that directly reduce critical knowledge gaps — often by more than 50%.

Want your HCPs to stay engaged long-term? Use game mechanics like challenges between peers, rankings, and team competitions. It’s not just about fun — it’s about performance. With gamified engagement, learning and development KPIs become trackable, relevant, and actionable.

_{#4 - During the decline... stay competitive!}

Even in the decline phase, there’s room to reinforce key differentiators and stay top-of-mind. Use this time to refresh sales arguments and leverage interactive tools that keep your reps motivated.

Gamifying post-launch materials with Atrivity provides real-time data on product awareness and allows you to correlate it directly with sales outcomes.

And the best part? Every learner retains permanent access to the content through the Atrivity digital library, transforming your training into a searchable knowledge hub.

This approach not only supports training with AI, but also delivers measurable ROI while adapting to the evolving needs of the life sciences sector.

_{Atrivity team’s conclusions}

Recent drug launches have underperformed and failed to meet expectations. We can’t launch products like we used to. Today’s strategies must be hybrid, intelligent and digital — powered by AI, gamification, and real-time analytics.

New launches must:

• Overcome restrictions with new communication channels.

• Adapt digital content to multiple stakeholders and learning styles.

• Educate the audience on omnichannel use and mobile-first preferences.

• Drive differentiation through digital engagement and gamification.

• Enable personalized training with AI to maximize learning impact.

• Track knowledge and engagement metrics to optimize launch effectiveness.

Posted by Roger Martínez

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