Her Story
About Hemai
I've been in my field for over 20 years, starting when I was young right out of college. I began in pharmaceutical marketing at a small agency that grew significantly over time. Early in my career, I was still figuring out what category I wanted to be in, so I expanded into general market work at OMD, doing task-oriented media planning for brands like Visa and CPG products. That's where I started learning what brands stand for and coming up with innovative, creative ideas during the emergence of social media - I remember being the cool kid asking 'what about this thing called Facebook?' when we were doing heavy print advertising. I continued in the retail space for a while, but about 12 years ago, I came back to life sciences because it was much more meaningful communications work for me. Being able to work in the healthcare space and launch campaigns that have real-world impact and are beneficial to society just resonated with me. Since coming back to this vertical, I've been learning about different drugs, drug marketing, and the rules associated with it - learning how to be innovative in a highly regulated environment, which is an art in itself because there's so much safety around every word stated about a brand. I moved into more of a strategy and planning role, which I feel was the turning point for me in realizing who I am: a brand strategist. I focus on the stance and meaning of brands and how to take media and messaging to ensure it hits the right customer at the right time. I had a short stint at IPG, and I've been with CMI now for almost 6 years under the WPP umbrella. I'm still a media planner at heart, but we do a lot of work bringing brands to life and launching them, taking brands from priming the market through education to helping launch campaigns. I oversee strategy and development work across the business with my team of 15 engagement strategists. My responsibilities can range from getting hit with a new drug launch on an hourly basis to ensuring flawless execution, helping clients understand how AI is driving real-time insights at the speed of light, and balancing business management responsibilities. I also do business development work for the company and participate in forums to bring the life sciences space to the forefront of understanding AI and innovation.
Her Interview
Ten minutes with Hemai
01What advice would you give to young women entering your industry?
Be passionate and truly understand if this is what you want to do. I know that sounds cliche, but I've seen people in other fields do it just for money for 10 years and then they're lost. What we do here is fueled by people's desire to want to do better for society. Pharma marketing isn't the most sexy - you could go into fashion or retail, which pays better and is cooler. But the people who end up in this space are actually passionate about wanting to change the smallest of things that society doesn't even realize. That one legal thing or movement we made was a game changer that broke through, and now people are getting the care they need. Young people have to understand that they have the drive for that, and they want to do this versus it being a task. If it's a job and a task, you burn out in 2 years. I see it all day long - half my team is under a certain age, and I see it constantly. You also need to get out there and make others feel like they can achieve too. During COVID, I saw so many of my female 30-year-olds have to quit because they couldn't handle it and had no support. There was a loss of women in the industry. Some are starting to come back, but I want to be out there showing that you can be a mom of three and succeed, because so many young women can't see past having one role or the other, even though we've gotten light years ahead of where our mom's generation was.
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