CTV Democratizes Big-Screen Moments for Niche Healthcare Brands, DeepIntent CEO Says

Why It Matters

By unlocking big‑screen exposure for niche drugs, CTV expands patient‑provider engagement and accelerates ROI, reshaping competitive dynamics in pharmaceutical advertising.

Key Takeaways

• Programmatic DSPs need redesign for dual patient‑provider targeting.
• CTV enables niche pharma brands to access big‑screen inventory affordably.
• Privacy‑safe identity graph underpins audience building and optimization.
• AI accelerates planning‑to‑activation cycle from months to days.
• Precision‑focused drugs benefit from CTV’s broad‑reach, targeted moments.

Summary

DeepIntent CEO Chris explains how connected‑TV (CTV) is reshaping advertising for healthcare brands, allowing niche pharmaceutical products to secure premium big‑screen placements previously reserved for mass‑market giants.

He notes that traditional programmatic DSPs target a single consumer, whereas healthcare campaigns must engage both patients and providers. DeepIntent rebuilt its platform from first principles, creating a privacy‑compliant identity graph that powers audience building, planning, and real‑time optimization. The company also leverages fast‑channel inventory and audience‑based buying to reach specific health‑condition audiences.

Chris cites the World Cup and Olympics as examples of high‑impact moments now accessible to small‑budget drugs via CTV. He adds that AI integration has collapsed the campaign lifecycle, enabling planning, activation, and optimization within days rather than months.

The shift democratizes premium video inventory, giving precision‑medicine brands the reach to influence patient journeys across fragmented touchpoints, while AI‑driven efficiency promises faster, more measurable outcomes for healthcare marketers.

Original Description

The pharmaceutical industry has long dominated television advertising with blockbuster drugs and massive budgets. But connected TV is rewriting those rules, potentially giving smaller, precision medicine brands access to premium inventory they could never previously afford.

It’s a change in how healthcare marketers can reach specific patient populations during high-impact viewing moments. A niche oncology drug, for instance, might now find its audience during the Olympics – something previously unthinkable for brands without nine-figure ad budgets.

“Being able to have a small brand that maybe doesn’t necessarily have the budget that a large, big brand does, we’re now actually able to somewhat democratize that inventory and allow these small brands that still have highly important patient populations to connect with those brands in those important moments,” said Chris Paquette, founder and CEO of DeepIntent, in this video interview with Beet.TV at POSSIBLE 2026.

Healthcare programmatic requires different thinking

Generalist demand-side platforms have served marketers well across most industries, but healthcare presents challenges that require specialized solutions.

“You’re not marketing to just one audience, you’re not marketing to the consumer,” Paquette said. “You’re actually marketing to both the patient and the provider.”

This dual-audience dynamic means platforms need intelligence capable of promoting interactions between patients and healthcare providers rather than simply driving awareness or conversions. The programmatic healthcare advertising market reflects this complexity, with industry analysts projecting continued double-digit growth as marketers seek more sophisticated targeting capabilities.

Privacy requires ground-up engineering

DeepIntent is a specialized, privacy-safe healthcare advertising technology platform designed for pharmaceutical brands, providers, and agencies to plan, activate, and measure digital campaigns.

Healthcare data carries regulatory weight that consumer packaged goods or automotive brands never face. HIPAA compliance isn’t optional, and the shifting landscape of state privacy laws adds further complexity to an already challenging environment.

Paquette Said DeepIntent approached this challenge by rebuilding its data infrastructure from first principles rather than retrofitting existing technology. “We had to completely re-engineer and rethink how we bring data into the programmatic ecosystem,” Paquette said.

“We built effectively an identity graph underneath the hood that was privacy-safe, HIPAA-compliant built-in,” he said. “From that foundation, we then built up our applications like our planning capabilities, our audience building capabilities, our DSP activation, optimization capabilities.” The company recently launched Helix, a healthcare marketing cloud designed to provide HIPAA-compliant data infrastructure for advanced marketing solutions.

Audience-based buying gains momentum

Pharma marketers have deep expertise in linear television, but CTV offers something broadcast never could: genuine personalization at scale.

“CTV has long been kind of a transformation opportunity as a way to personalize that big screen experience,” Paquette said. “Pharma marketers are now waking up to the opportunity to really lean into audience-based buying.”

Free ad-supported streaming television has emerged as a particularly strong growth channel. “New channel types like FAST has been on the rise, especially on our platform,” Paquette said. “We’re finding new ways to bring these what were fragmented type experiences, unify them onto our platform, make it easier for our clients to access those audiences when they need to.”