When Intouch was founded 20 years ago, CEO Faruk Capan had just a couple of employees and a home office in a Kansas City suburb. Today, we have offices in several major U.S. cities and nearly 200 open positions. If you’re into working with smart, talented people from all walks of life, but can’t quite imagine what it’s like to be in the pharma marketing business, this blog’s for you. Recently, we profiled a social media analyst, a creative, and a data analyst. For this Day in the Life installment, we talked with senior innovation associate Michael Stark, who works in the Kansas City office. What do we mean by innovation? Read on!
What field did you work in before you joined Intouch, and how long have you been in marketing?
I started at Intouch as an intern and never left. I have been with Intouch for three-and-a-half years.
How is working in pharma marketing different than you expected when you started here?
Pharma has such an amazing reach and tries to help every step of the process for patients, caregivers, and the health care professionals.
How would you describe your job to someone who isn’t in the marketing/advertising field?
I find and develop new technology to bring into the pharma world. Everything from using AI to deliver detailed and personalized content, to 3D interactive experiences.
What are your typical responsibilities and challenges — what’s your average day like?
My typical day is spent developing new features for our AI platform (Cognitive Core), programming conference tech, and building prototypes.
How often do you interact with clients, and in what capacity?
The main way I get to interact with clients is through Innovation Labs. During these labs, we show off our latest demos and upcoming technology that can include anything from AR/VR experiences to custom Alexa Skills.
What type of a personality/disposition or skill(s) do you think is best suited for your job?
I would say versatility would be a good quality to have. One moment, I could be working on a conference application then the next, I switch to training a machine learning model for an upcoming pitch.
What do you find most challenging about your position?
Keeping up with the rapid changes in technology and understanding them enough to figure out how our clients and patients can benefit from it.
Any advice for people interested in getting into a role like yours, or advertising/marketing in general?
Be ready for the unknown. Things can come up that I have never worked with, and I am tasked with figuring out how to make it work.
Interested in working for Intouch? Visit our jobs page to check out the opportunities!