Merkle (www.merkle.com), a leading customer relationship marketing (CRM) firm and the nation’s largest privately-held agency, announces that Pete Mehr, PhD,  chief strategy officer for Merkle’s  life sciences division, will speak  at the 11^th annual Institute for International Research’s ePharma Summit. The summit, being held February 6-8, 2012 at the Sheraton New York Hotel and Towers, is the longest running and largest digital marketing event for the life sciences industry, attracting a senior level audience from hundreds of companies each year.

 Mehr’s session, entitled “Jumpstarting Digital Capabilities in Pharma: Learning from Other Industries,” will take place Tuesday, February 7, 2012 at 2:30 p.m. Attendees will gain knowledge in three key areas: assessing their marketing promotions against the digital capabilities available in pharma today; leveraging digital promotion to launch customer-centric promotion campaigns; and identifying best practices from outside the pharma industry that are applicable to their businesses.

 “The pharmaceutical industry has developed its digital promotion channels at a slower pace than many other industries, largely due to the limited number of opt-ins that pharma companies receive,” said Mehr. “The good news is that we can jumpstart digital CRM practices in our industry by learning from the successes of other industries. I am excited for the opportunity to share some of this practical thought leadership from Merkle and look forward to gaining insights from interaction with other participants of this most respected digital marketing event.”