How a Pharma Enterprise Gained a Digital Opinion Leaders Engagement Program 

Obesity is one of the most visible, and most polarizing, healthcare topics on social media. Conversations scurry quickly across platforms, often shaped by influencers, fragmentary opinions, and misleading claims rather than evidence-based medical expertise. For pharma organizations who operate across several markets, responding effectively to all of that has become a major operational challenge.

Affiliates manage communication differently, local regulations vary, and Digital Opinion Leaders (DOLs) often publish inconsistently because they don’t have a framework for engagement, governance, or performance measurement.

Our client, a global pharmaceutical company focused on obesity and chronic disease management, wanted to create a sustainable way to align seven of their Central & Eastern European markets around consistent, compliant, and measurable communication while also building a structure that then could expand globally.

The Challenge Behind Multi-Market DOL Engagement

The client set out to strengthen brand loyalty in a space where trust is fragile, and consistency is hard to maintain. While Digital Opinion Leaders had the credibility to influence conversations, their activity was often irregular, and messaging varied across markets. At the same time, aligning regional Medical Affairs (MA) with local affiliates proved complex, with different regulations and platform requirements creating uncertainty.

Building a Data-Driven DOL Engagement Engine

The client’s goal required developing a structured DOL engagement model that could combine market intelligence, compliant activation, and long-term operational support into one model.

We knew that DOL engagement couldn’t be approached as one-time campaigns. That’s why the program focused on building a maintainable system that could join Medical Affairs teams, affiliates, and digital opinion leaders together around shared communication principles while still adjusting to each market. Here’s how we structured the process.

Cross-market narrative intelligence

We began with social listening and narrative analysis across the seven target markets. Viseven monitored obesity-related conversations across social media platforms, forums, healthcare websites, and news portals to identify misinformation trends, audience behaviors, sentiment patterns, and platform-specific engagement dynamics. This also made us aware of which topics, narratives, and voices were impacting obesity discussions.

DOL segmentation and activation strategy

Based on the research findings, our team identified and segmented 23 Digital Opinion Leaders according to audience relevance, communication style, platform activity, and market-specific influence. We then developed a six-month regional engagement plan for compliant, consistent, and locally relevant communication across Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok.

Because a single model wouldn’t fit across all markets, our framework balanced centralized governance with localized adaptation. This allowed affiliates and DOLs to address country-specific conversations while staying in line with broader communication objectives.

Enablement and governance

One of the most crucial things to make such frameworks stick is to get to the practical part as fast as possible. That’s why Viseven organized two interactive workshops for DOL enablement where we talked through the fundamentals and briefing as well as discussed best-in-class posts. Between the first and the second session, our participants were given real tasks to execute which we later reviewed together and polished for final posting.

To put all of the essential knowledge in one place for support, we created a Social Media Playbook which describes narrative guardrails, engagement recommendations, publishing principles, and dos and don’ts for online communication.

Continuous content operations

To help maintain publishing cadence, we created personal content plans for each DOL’s audience, communication preferences, platform behavior, and local market needs for half a year. These plans come with ready-made content themes, content support packages, and localization guides.

Our delivery team comprised in-house specialists with medical education that upheld the medical accuracy and compliance of communication, while also ensuring that it matches the industry expectations.

Monitoring and performance tracking

Viseven tracked DOL posting consistency, audience reactions, sentiment, topic visibility, competitor activity, and brand mentions across participating markets. These insights helped the team see what was working, where communication needed adjustment, and which content directions could be improved for the next publishing cycle.

What Changed After Six Months of DOL Activation

Before the program, digital opinion leaders‘ activity varied from market to market. Some experts posted more consistently than others, communication topics were not always aligned, and the client had limited visibility into how obesity-related conversations were developing across countries.

After the program, the client had a clearer way to guide DOL communication, support regular posting, track performance, and understand which topics were gaining attention across markets.

• 15–20% increase in monthly brand and topic mentions. Brand and obesity-related topic mentions grew month over month, giving the client greater visibility in the digital conversations they wanted to influence.
• 2.7 posts a week per topic vs. 1.1 before the program. Most participating DOLs followed the agreed posting schedule, helping the client maintain a steady presence in obesity-related discussions across markets.
• Overall audience reach increased by 3.1x. The reach of posts on the topic and the brand tripled, helping keep obesity-related discussions more balanced and less dominated by misinformation or negative narratives.

Tools Behind the Intelligence Layer

The program focused on the platforms where DOLs were expected to communicate with their audiences: Instagram, Facebook, and TikTok.

To understand how obesity-related conversations were developing across markets, Viseven used a social and open media analytics platform that monitored discussions across social networks, forums, news portals, and healthcare websites. The tool allowed us to track:

• social media posts and comments related to obesity topics
• audience sentiment
• recurring hashtags and discussion themes
• DOL and influencer activity
• competitor mentions
• and brand/topic visibility

This gave the client a clearer view of what was happening in each market: which topics were gaining attention, how audiences were reacting, where competitor activity appeared, and how consistently DOLs were contributing to the conversation.

Turning Regional Validation into Global Readiness

The CEE pilot proved that DOL engagement could be managed consistently across different markets when teams had clear communication rules, tailored content plans, and regular performance tracking. Across seven markets, the program supported 23 DOLs, improved posting consistency, and gave affiliates a practical way to guide expert-led communication.

Building on those results, Viseven is now supporting a broader global initiative across 10 countries. The work focuses on turning the regional learnings into a DOL Engagement Guide and affiliate-ready toolkit, including governance guidance, KPI recommendations, and practical steps for planning, activating, and measuring DOL engagement.

What the next stage will focus on

The next phase is to help the client scale the approach across more markets while keeping the program manageable for local teams.

This includes expanding DOL selection, moving from fixed six-month plans to rolling content cycles, embedding playbook rules into affiliate onboarding, and improving reporting so teams can see which DOL activities, topics, and formats are driving stronger visibility and trust.

Longer term, the goal is to support DOL engagement across more than 20 markets, activate a larger group of tiered DOLs, and improve consistency in how markets plan, publish, measure, and optimize expert-led communication.

Create a DOL Engagement Program That Keeps Credible Voices Active Around Your Brand

Working with DOLs across several markets is difficult when every affiliate uses different rules, content strategies, and reporting habits. Viseven helps pharma teams organize that work into a clear process: identify the right experts, give them practical communication guidance, prepare content plans, support localization, and track what works in each market.

We can help your teams move from scattered DOL activity to a program where experts know what to post, affiliates know how to support them, and regional teams can see whether the work is improving consistency, visibility, and trust.