Moderna’s Take: Adopting a Modular Mindset for Content’s Digital Awakening

The volume of life sciences content is growing like it never has before— the industry is generating 3.5 times more digital content than print assets, whether that’s in the form of websites, web banners, social, and video, to emails and sales materials. And as digital grows its roots in the content ecosystem, emerging companies need to think quickly and more resourcefully about how they manage their content.

From launching a vaccine for the first time to delivering it to millions of people globally in the span of a few months, our story at Moderna is one we hope can shed light on the challenges and opportunities of rapid commercialization. Here’s what we’ve learned from developing a vaccine during the pandemic and how a modular content strategy can help maximize the value of your content in the digital age.

The pandemic’s unprecedented need for speed
Producing content for a vaccine under emergency use authorization (EUA) and other global market authorizations meant materials needed to be approved and fast-tracked to market within minutes of their creation. Yet, without the luxuries of big pharma, the challenge was producing content quickly while remaining compliant across different regulatory systems and market needs.

We weren’t just launching a new product. We were introducing a new technology to the masses that carried high expectations. We had to prioritize educating those who would be administering vaccinations and handling storage, dosage, and administration. Distributing this information as consistently and quickly as possible required creative solutions and led us to adopt a mindset where we could reuse existing materials as often as possible.

Instead of creating new websites for each country, we used modular principles alongside a core landing page. Each site had customizable content blocks, or modules, offering local regulators a choice in what resources could be made available. This made it easier internally to get things approved for different medical, legal, and regulatory (MLR) review workflows and to make updates to existing assets in the future.

Setting a new content standard with a modular approach
While modular content wasn’t a strategy we set upon at the start, it quickly became a means to adapt. Nearly 6 months later, we’re beginning to formalize modular content as the standard for the way we think and work— not just for Moderna, but for an increasing number of companies across the industry.

In a traditional content workflow, global teams had to review core content that either never made it to market or was too country-specific to be repurposed easily. Modular content is reimagining that process and streamlining global MLR reviews. Teams can approve smaller assets such as various text and visual elements of different pieces of content, as well as how they will be used in each market, so local teams can recreate a unique format compliantly.

It is also enabling companies to create more flexible, and personalized content experiences. By enabling teams to curate resources tailored for a specific audience, they can consistently deliver the most relevant information. As a result, modular content can help quickly repurpose relevant content from global to local, vice versa, or both to deliver exceptional experiences across the board.

Tips for maximizing your modular content strategy
Moving forward, teams need to be prepared for a modular norm with clear goals for what they hope to achieve using this approach. Is it to edit and repurpose core assets for local use? Or is it to push content through new channels faster? Here are three tips to set a successful modular content foundation.

1. Find leaders who will advocate for modular content within the organization and empower people to use the tools at their disposal. At Moderna, we noticed our existing solution could also serve as a digital asset management system and leveraged things as simple as campaign toolkits to create our own modular repository. Traditionally overlooked or underutilized, these toolkits became essential to our global content sharing strategy.
2. Establish roles and responsibilities for each area of the content journey. Who is the designated MLR person? Who has responsibility for assets in each country? Setting clear governance models is critical. It will prevent costly delays and transform your small team into a mighty content factory.
3. Identify real-world examples of how you will leverage a modular content approach. Every company has different priorities and target markets. Remain agile in the evolving content ecosystem by experimenting and measuring, then adjusting tactics as you go.

Fuel marketing success in the digital age
To sustain field success beyond the pandemic, place greater value and use on the digital channels you’ve adopted during the pandemic. More importantly, invest in a modular foundation as the engine that will power successful content strategies in the new marketing landscape.

From reimagining MLR review processes across borders to driving more personalized content experiences, this new mindset will build speed, compliance, and agility into your marketing plan. Those who embrace the pace of digital innovation with modular content will see their marketing activities thrive at launch and beyond.

For more on Moderna’s modular content journey, read highlights from a Q&A with Parker Richardson.