A&E Viral Gets 'Freaky'

A&E Viral Gets 'Freaky'
May 17, 2007
By Brian Morrissey

NEW YORK When the grungy guy in the video gets the second letter of your name right, interest is piqued. When he gets the full name and follows up with your phone number, eeriness sets in.

While Criss Angel, the magician star of A&E's Mind Freak show, might not be truly clairvoyant, he has a viral video campaign that makes it seem like he is. The push, created by Omnicom digital agency EVB, uses hundreds of dynamically combined video shots to create the illusion of mind reading.Launched Tuesday, the viral push begins at www.freakyourmind.com, where visitors enter a friend's name and phone number. The site generates a Web address to forward, which hosts a video with the mind trick employing the recipient's name and number. Angel then follows up shortly afterwards with a pre-recorded, personalized call to say it was all a joke—along with a reminder to tune in to Mind Freak's premiere episode June 5.

Shop CEO Daniel Stein envisions the "Freak your mind" campaign, which targets 18-34-year-old males, approaching the viral success of EVB's "Elf yourself" push for OfficeMax, which generated for 35 million views in five weeks.

A key to both campaigns is that they require minimal effort, according to Stein. "That's one of our best practices," he said. "The time investment is next to nothing."

EVB spent a day filming Angel using 500 different names and a series of numbers. Once a user enters a name and number, a video file is automatically assembled to match the details.

"It's not like the 411 operator," he said. "We had to make sure everything would come across seamless."

To enhance the illusion, the user is not sent to a freakyourmind.com URL, but instead EVB uses a time4vids.com site that appears like a run-of-the-mill video sharing site.

EVB is tracking video views and visits to freakyourmind.com, but its goal is to lure viewers to the show.

"The measurement and tying viral to metrics is still probably the most difficult thing," Stein said. "There's no real benchmark yet."

 

What Do Casual Games And Pharmaceuticals Have In Common?

What Do Casual Games And Pharmaceuticals Have In Common?
by Justin Ehly , Tuesday, January 22, 2008 (Media Post Publications)

 I RECENTLY FLIPPED THROUGH AN issue of Time magazine and noticed that pharmaceutical companies not only push their latest sleep aids, cholesterol suppressors and erectile dysfunction meds, but they also compete for market share amongst themselves.

The issue I looked at had ads for Actonel, AdVair, Ambien, Cymbalta, Cypher Stent, Medco, Rozerem and Zetia. My first thought was, There is an awful lot of money used to advertise these well-known drug brands. At the same time, I thought about the value proposition of online video advertising:

• touches millions of consumers each month.
• has sophisticated consumer targeting and tracking with each ad served.

Out of curiosity I looked at Time's online rate card, and with simple math I calculated the combined monthly ad-spend of all the pharmaceutical companies to be in the neighborhood of $3 million  -- just one issue. I looked deeper into what Time offers advertisers and found that the magazine guarantees 19.5 million impressions per month, charges a hefty $48 CPM for black-and-white full-page ads and a whopping $74 CPM for full-page color ads.  I also noticed that each pharmaceutical ad was two full pages:

• Page one -- the actual full-color ad.
• Page two -- the full-page disclosure that generally appears on the back of the page of the color ad

This suggests each drug company buys two pages per month for an average cost per thousand of $61. WOW.

With my background primarily in radio and television advertising, I was initially shocked by these prices, but then I considered that Time is printed weekly and has great pass-along rate -- think about those old magazines you see in your dentist's office. So, I can possibly justify that CPMs for ad space in a prestigious magazine such as Time far outweight national television CPMs (range is generally $5 to $60 including cable and broadcast).

 

According to Time's online media kit, the audience's

• Median age is 48.
• It skews 54 percent male.
• Median household income is $68,500.

Time also offers advertisers the opportunity to appear adjacent to or wrapped around contextually relevant articles. I believe this is a pretty good place for the pharmaceutical companies to reach potential or existing customers.

 

Now let's take a look at how the pharmaceutical companies can take advantage of online video advertising. Assuming most of the pharmaceutical ads in Time have corresponding television creative:

• The initial hurdle of no video assets is eclipsed.
• Television ads can be repurposed.
• In most cases, videos and banners are clickable.
• In most cases, consumers can go directly from an ad to a landing page of the advertiser's choice (in this case the pharma companies can link directly to their product pages).

 

Online video advertising is as easy to buy as television, yet more accountable in terms of metrics, costs less per thousand impressions, and has the ability to link a consumer directly to an advertiser via ad click-thru capabilities. So what else? Different types of inventory fit a variety of advertiser and marketer needs, including in-game, in-stream, overlay and custom options.

Consider online casual gaming for a moment. Often video ads run while the game player loads and during natural breaks in game play, i.e. when the cards are shuffled or between game levels. According to an eMarketer study, 80 percent of online casual gamers are female, with a median age of 47, 33% have children under 18 in the home, and the worldwide casual gaming audience is estimated to be over 200 million unique players. Median age of 47 -- that sounds familiar, maybe because Time's median age is 48. So, if I am P&G Pharmaceuticals and marketing Actonel to women suffering from osteoporosis, this is a prime place to target the demographic. Casual games are time wasters, and while traffic is highest from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. during the week, there are lots of people logged on to play late at night because they are up and cannot sleep; this creates a natural environment for this brand to reach the night owls.

Overall the Internet is a vast space of content. While many advertisers are weary of going from traditional media outlets to the cyber world, online video advertising offers access to the Web's hottest ad space while keeping advertisers in their comfort zone by executing media buys like television buys. Add in the engaged audience factor and the clickable videos, and the potential is astounding.

The Doctor's Channel adding videos based on physician newsletter

The Doctor's Channel adding videos based on physician newsletter

Streaming videos are adding another layer to medical news and information coverage for physicians. Online physician video site The Doctor's Channel and medical information provider VerusMed are teaming to produce one- to two-minute videos based on articles from the weekly publication VerusMed Neurology Update. The Doctor's Channel will create short videos summarizing key briefs from the newsletter, which will be viewable online at The Doctor's Channel and VerusMed Web sites. The Doctor's Channel allows physicians to personalize the site with groups, messages, and storing their favorite videos. When viewing certain pharma-sponsored videos, doctors can instantly request additional information or samples from a sales representative.

Manhattan Research: Type 2 diabetes patients searching more online

Manhattan Research: Type 2 diabetes patients searching more online

More than 24 million consumers researched diabetes online in 2007, more than double the number who researched the condition online in 2003. With diabetes medications in the news last year, the increased online interest in the disease is no surprise to Manhattan Research, which just completed its newest study, ePharma Consumer v7.0. According to the research, more than half of surveyed type 2 diabetes patients were online in 2007, and of those, almost half are online for health information. The research also showed which pharma sites got visitors to act. Visitors to Actos.com were most likely to fill a prescription after visiting the Web site, whereas visitors to the Byetta site were the most likely to go on to request a prescription for this treatment from their physician.

Go to the Manhattan Research Web site <http://www.manhattanresearch.com/>  for more information.

Burst Media Launches Ad Network for Online Mommies

Burst Media Launches Ad Network for Online Mommies

Burst Media marks the latest company to target 'net-savvy moms with an
ad network.

The Burst Moms Network includes 150 sites identified by Burst as
influential and high-quality. The sites reportedly accumulate 197
million impressions monthly. Standard ad units and rich-media and video
spots will be offered on the sites. Custom sponsorship opportunities are
also available.

'Big Think' Positioned as YouTube for Thinkers

'Big Think' Positioned as YouTube for Thinkers

Thought up by a Harvard grad, video site Big Think aspires to do for
thinkers what YouTube did for "bulldogs on skateboards."

According to a post on Reuters, the site includes interviews with
"public intellectuals" from a range of disciplines. Cerebrals fielding
questions include Bill McCain, Richard Branson and Moby. In addition to
celebrity thinkers, the site has a network of experts that chime in on a
variety of fields via webcam. Users can get involved by joining
discussions and posting thoughts.

http://www.BigThink.com

Vertex Pharmaceuticals Brings Transparency Online

Vertex Pharmaceuticals Brings Transparency Online

Dec 18, 2007

By:George Koroneos
<http://pharmexec.findpharma.com/pharmexec/author/authorInfo.jsp?id=3356
2>

PharmExec Direct Marketing Edition

Vertex Pharmaceuticals, last week, reinvented itself on the World Wide
Web with the relaunch of its corporate site, www.vrtx.com. Not content
to look like most run-of-the-mill pharma sites, Vertex had design firm
Dotglu build a virtual home that allows patients, physicians, and other
visitors to easily peer into the company's pipeline and find out what
drugs are coming down the pike as well as see the faces behind the
company.

"It's a sea of sameness when you look at pharma," Tomas Mendez,
cocreative director at Dotglu told Pharm Exec. "[Other companies] just
show puppies and old people waltzing and say that everything will be OK.
The tag line for Vertex includes the word maybe. It's a lot less
confident, but it gives you goose bumps. There's a humility to it, and
that's about the honesty."

Concept to Creation
Vertex executives never felt the need to have more than a simple online
presence since all drugs developed were in collaboration with other
pharma manufacturers. But with a hepatitis C drug inching towards
completion, the powers that be decided that the company needed to
redefine its presence on the World Wide Web, and it was going to come
out with a site that eschews every concept of a corporate pharmaceutical
Web site.

The site sports a ton of flash, an intuitive navigation system, and an
easy-to-follow description of what the company is working on and how far
along its products are. Although many of the site's individual elements
have been included in other sites, most pharma company sites have a lot
of marketing-oriented material and images on the home page, whereas this
one really favors access to information, putting it in the spot where
you expect promo.

"This is a way of showing who we are, almost separate from having a
product on the market," said Vertex Senior Director of Strategic
Communications Michael Partridge. "This is a good time to introduce the
Vertex brand to people and have that brand positioning grow as we get
closer to market."

The company wanted to push the envelope in terms of how it communicates
through the Web, so it turned to Dotglu for creative direction and
basically let the Web designers have free reign to build the site as
they pleased.

The result is an intuitive site that maps out all navigation using a
timeline chart (designed to look like a sound wave) that runs along the
top of every page. It serves as a navigational tool and guides the user
through the site. Vertex's pipeline stands center stage in the timeline
and jumps to an page that lists all the working products, give the
phases of development, and-if you hover over a point in the
pipeline-displays a pop-up text box that describes what the drug does.

"A lot of companies will bury where their products are in the pipeline,"
Mendez said. "If you are left on the pipeline, there are years ahead of
you and you won't see return on investment for a while and the drug may
tank. Usually, when you are looking around for the inventory of a drug
company, they obfuscate it. And we don't."

Searching through the section about the executive team, visitors will
find multiple images of different team members. As viewers click on
different images, the executive's outfit changes, which is intended to
show the different hats an executive at Vertex wears.

"There's a level of irreverence that completely counters what pharma
does, but it is not irreverence that disrespects the gravity of
pharmaceuticals," Mendez said. "If it's done properly, it won't alienate
anyone and it will seem honest. It will also appeal to different
constituents."

Mendez shares some advice for other pharma companies looking to overhaul
their Web presence: "Pharma companies need to think of their Web sites
almost as an advertising campaign that really needs a strong point of
view, and not a million mini points of view."

Congress Questions Jarvik's Lipitor Ads

Congress Questions Jarvik's Lipitor Ads

Source: Pharma Live

House Democrats are investigating whether consumers are being misled by advertisements for Pfizer's Lipitor, featuring Dr. Robert Jarvik , the inventor of an artificial heart. Members of the House Energy Committee, Reps. John Dingell and Bart Stupak, sent a letter to Pfizer yesterday, questioning Jarvik's credibility. "In the ads, Dr. Jarvik appears to be giving medical advice, but apparently, he has never obtained a license to practice or prescribe medicine," the lawmakers said.

Read more...

<http://mailcontent.pharmalive.com/c.asp?E6a1OUX0X0TlG1crhX5KaQYiQ4dQuQIFzObe2i9dKR0Q> 

What's a Widget Worth?

What's a Widget Worth?

Software developers say their impact is being underrepresented; comScore hopes a new measurement tool will paint a clearer picture

by Aaron Ricadela <http://www.businessweek.com/print/bios/Aaron_Ricadela.htm>

Online social networks will continue to grab the attention of Web users and the advertisers who want to reach them in 2008, but some software developers who help make the networks popular say they're missing out on the spoils.

Social sites such as MySpace, Facebook, and Google's (GOOG <http://investing.businessweek.com/research/stocks/snapshot/snapshot.asp?symbol=GOOG> ) Orkut could crack $1 billion in ad sales by year's end. Yet makers of the so-called "widget" software, whose programs have helped propel the networks' growth, have yet to see much of that revenue, in part because of a lack of reliable data about how many people use their products. "There are a huge amount of page views in social networking, but no one's figured out how to monetize them properly," says Duncan Davidson, a venture partner at VantagePoint Venture Partners <http://investing.businessweek.com/research/stocks/snapshot/snapshot.asp?capId=23687> , which invests in News Corp.'s (NWS <http://investing.businessweek.com/research/stocks/snapshot/snapshot.asp?symbol=NWS> ) MySpace and smaller social networks Multiply <http://investing.businessweek.com/research/stocks/snapshot/snapshot.asp?capId=22175544> , FanIQ <http://investing.businessweek.com/research/stocks/snapshot/snapshot.asp?capId=36692781> , and Bluepulse <http://investing.businessweek.com/research/stocks/snapshot/snapshot.asp?capId=36546047> . "It's still an experiment."

Who's Using What Widgets?

Market researcher comScore (SCOR <http://investing.businessweek.com/research/stocks/snapshot/snapshot.asp?symbol=SCOR> ) wants to end the mystery. Considered by many to be the industry standard for audience tracking on the Web, comScore will use a revamped yardstick that could give advertisers, software makers, and investors a better handle on just how many people are using the programs. Under the new method of calculating, almost 586 million individual Internet users viewed a piece of widget software in November, 2007, according to an exclusive look at the data comScore provided to BusinessWeek.com. That's nearly double comScore's estimate in July, the last month it measured using an old system. ComScore plans to release the new widget usage data in mid-January.

What's different? For starters, comScore will now include activity on Facebook <http://investing.businessweek.com/research/stocks/snapshot/snapshot.asp?capId=20765463> , one of the fastest growing social networks. The new method can do that because it records how many Web users click on a given widget. ComScore's previous method only tracked the presence of Adobe Systems' (ADBE <http://investing.businessweek.com/research/stocks/snapshot/snapshot.asp?symbol=ADBE> ) Flash software. That's useful since Flash is used to create many of the widgets used today. But the method didn't work for Facebook, which bars the automatic loading of Flash animations.

The new version of comScore's tool will also account for widgets built with JavaScript, a Web programming language, in addition to those based on Flash. ComScore also plans to measure usage of Google's Gadgets software in future surveys. Linda Abraham, an executive vice-president at comScore, says the new data could give software developers, and companies that want to advertise through their applications, a truer picture of who's using what widgets, and how often. "Widgets are looked on as not yet proven," she says. "We talk to widget companies all the time, and it comes up in every conversation."

"Lumpy" Revenue

Two of the biggest agitators are Silicon Valley startups Slide <http://investing.businessweek.com/research/stocks/snapshot/snapshot.asp?capId=24883471> and RockYou <http://investing.businessweek.com/research/stocks/snapshot/snapshot.asp?capId=27691317> . The competing companies make lighthearted software that lets users add pizzazz to profiles on Facebook, MySpace <http://investing.businessweek.com/research/stocks/snapshot/snapshot.asp?capId=120412> , and other sites by creating slide shows, comparing friends, or scrawling messages on each others' home pages. The startups are waging a programming and PR battle for users and advertisers. "It's like Coke and Pepsi," says Jeremy Liew, a general partner at Lightspeed Venture Partners <http://investing.businessweek.com/research/stocks/snapshot/snapshot.asp?capId=471694> , which invests in RockYou.

But both companies say their popularity has been vastly undercounted, holding back their ability to sell advertising. Other executives and investors in social networking and widget software companies say the absence of accurate usage data for widgets has capped growth in the market: Widget ad revenue was estimated at about $20 million in 2007, or about one-thousandth of Internet advertising as a whole. According to the new comScore data for November, Slide claimed almost 144 million unique viewers, for a 16% market share, and RockYou claimed a 11.7% share, with 104 million individual viewers. In July, Slide had 130 million individual users, or a 15% share, while RockYou boasted 96 million users, or 11.1% of the total.

Improved measurement tools are only one of the ingredients software companies will need in order to build lasting businesses on the backs of Facebook, MySpace, and other networks. Widgets present an attractive new market for advertisers-usage of the software has exploded since Facebook began allowing third-party software on its site in May, 2007, and MySpace is developing an advertising system <http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/07_45/b4057047.htm> (BusinessWeek.com, 11/5/07) for independent software vendors as well.

Yet competition among different networking sites means it's harder for advertisers to reach a large audience using the medium. Then there's the lack of a standardized widget ad unit: Should you run a "banner" ad across the top of the page rather than a long, narrow "skyscraper" ad along its side? Factor in advertisers' unease with risqué material on users' profile pages, and it's not surprising revenues have been low. "Current revenue is going to be lumpy," says Lightspeed partner Liew.

Other Obstacles to Ad Sales

Not counting Facebook activity "was absolutely a gross omission" by comScore, says Liew, but Web companies' lack of agreement about whether they're selling widget views, clicks, or installations is a larger barrier to ad sales. "This is a great step forward," he says of comScore's revised numbers, "but it's not enough."

Disney (DIS <http://investing.businessweek.com/research/stocks/snapshot/snapshot.asp?symbol=DIS> ), for one, has opted not to advertise on pages associated with widgets for such reasons, according to people familiar with the company's thinking. Coca-Cola (KO <http://investing.businessweek.com/research/stocks/snapshot/snapshot.asp?symbol=KO> ) has held off on advertising through Facebook's Beacon feature, a controversial program <http://www.businessweek.com/technology/content/nov2007/tc20071130_977788.htm> (BusinessWeek.com, 11/30/07) that broadcasts users' online purchases to people in their networks. And while social networks' popularity has attracted sizable investments by some of the computer industry's biggest players-Google spent $900 million in 2006 to place ads on MySpace, and Microsoft (MSFT <http://investing.businessweek.com/research/stocks/snapshot/snapshot.asp?symbol=MSFT> ) in October, 2007, took a $240 million stake in Facebook that valued the company at $15 billion-more serious money from those companies may wait until the networks and widget companies iron out the advertising kinks.

The numbers for social networks are still heady. Traffic is expected to climb 31% in 2008, to 489 million broadband Internet users, according to research company eMarketer <http://investing.businessweek.com/research/stocks/snapshot/snapshot.asp?capId=736862> . Advertisers are expected to spend $1.56 billion on social networks in 2008, up 69% from $920 million in 2007. But that's still less than 6% of all online ad spending, which eMarketer pegs at $27.5 billion for 2008. And only a tiny fraction is likely flowing through widget software. Will Price, a managing director at Hummer Winblad Venture Partners <http://investing.businessweek.com/research/stocks/snapshot/snapshot.asp?capId=21015> , which invests in a widget software exchange site called Widgetbox, estimates advertisers will spend just $20 million to $40 million on advertisements linked to widget software in 2008. Others have put the number even lower <http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/07_43/b4055055.htm> (BusinessWeek.com, 10/27/07). "No one knows what a Facebook user is worth," says Price.

House of Cards?

In the interim, widget publishers are looking for creative ways to generate revenue. Slide, which makes applications like FunWall, Top Friends, and SuperPoke, has tried offering users branded slide shows with characters from movies Bratz and Bee Movie. The company also sells online photo frames that look like magazine covers.

RockYou, which publishes widgets including Superwall, Likeness, and X Me, has struck deals to promote other widget software makers, collecting 50¢ each time a user installs one of those applications based on an ad on a RockYou page. The company stopped embedding ads in its slide shows after finding that click-through rates ranged between one-fifth of one percent to a little more than 1%, says founder and CEO Lance Tokuda.

But widget software companies need to be wary of foisting too many ads on their users and of building a house of cards based on promoting lots of small companies that, if history is any guide, will eventually go out of business. Says VantagePoint's Davidson: "Widgets live on Facebook, and can also die from it."

Ricadela <mailto:aaron_ricadela@businessweek.com> is a writer for BusinessWeek.com in Silicon Valley .

Wall Street Journal: Ad Houses Will Need to Be More Nimble

Ad Houses Will Need to Be More Nimble

Clients Are Demanding
More and Better Use
Of Consumer Data, Web

By SUZANNE VRANICA
January 2, 2008; Page B3

The Web's emergence is forcing ad executives to succumb to marketers'
demands that agencies reinvent how ads are created, and forgo their
TV-centric approach. Clients are even calling for changes in the way ad
firms are structured. But until now, few advertisers have spent more
than 5% to 10% of their marketing budgets online. With the growth of
online video and social networking, ad experts expect that percentage to
jump significantly this year.

Softness in the economy also will likely drive more money to the
Internet, which can be cheaper than other media and has a reach that is
easier to measure, which is attractive to advertisers in slower times.
Merrill Lynch predicts overall ad spending in the U.S. for 2008 will
grow 2.3%, while the portion of that spending on the Web will increase
18%. Publicis Groupe's ZenithOptimedia says it expects the amount spent
on Internet advertising to overtake spending on radio in 2008, and
spending on magazines in 2010.

Amid this transformation of the ad industry, here are five trends to
watch in 2008:

* New structure: The Web has fueled marketers' frustration with the lack
of collaboration inside the ad holding companies that dominate the
industry. Specifically, marketers want more cooperation between the
executives who create ads for TV and newspapers and those who craft Web
ads or perform less glamorous tasks such as researching consumer
behavior.

Many advertisers complain that ad executives too often push agendas that
will most help their own bottom lines and tend to favor certain types of
media, such as TV. Advertisers want a "media-agnostic" approach, one
that picks whatever medium is best for the ad campaign.

Some bigger marketers have taken matters into their own hands during the
past year. Procter & Gamble
<http://online.wsj.com/quotes/main.html?type=djn&symbol=PG> , Dell
<http://online.wsj.com/quotes/main.html?type=djn&symbol=DELL> and
Johnson & Johnson
<http://online.wsj.com/quotes/main.html?type=djn&symbol=JNJ> each have
tried -- working with ad holding companies -- to create new types of ad
groups that blend different functions. In 2008, pressure from marketers
on this issue is likely to intensify, forcing even more change in the
way ad firms are structured.

* Screen wars: As advertisers find it harder to reach consumers in a
fragmented media world, some are turning more often to the outdoors.
Television screens are increasingly popping up in grocery and
department-store aisles, elevators and even gas pumps -- all blaring
clips of TV programs, accompanied by ads. Walt Disney
<http://online.wsj.com/quotes/main.html?type=djn&symbol=dis> 's ESPN and
CBS Corp. each have programming running on 20-inch liquid-crystal
displays at pumps at gas stations around the country. Gas Station TV,
which operates about 5,000 such screens in 300 cities, offers ads from
marketers such as General Motors
<http://online.wsj.com/quotes/main.html?type=djn&symbol=gm> ' Chevrolet
and Sony <http://online.wsj.com/quotes/main.html?type=djn&symbol=sne> .
Last year, CBS inked a deal to have its programming also air in the
waiting rooms of doctors' offices.

* House guest: Over the years, ad makers have tried various methods to
learn about consumers, from focus groups to online polls. But many on
Madison Avenue are skeptical of these methods, believing consumers don't
always share their true feelings in those types of traditional settings.
So a growing number of ad agencies are expected to try a different
approach: having researchers spend long periods of time with consumers
to find out more about how they live.

Some have already tried this. When devising a new ad for J.C. Penney
<http://online.wsj.com/quotes/main.html?type=djn&symbol=jcp> last year,
Saatchi & Saatchi sent staffers to hang out with more than 50 women for
several days. They helped the women clean their houses, carpool, cook
dinner and shop. Rather than pepper them with questions, the agency
employees simply observed the women's behavior and emotions. Their
research became the basis of a new ad campaign; the commercials have won
praise from Madison Avenue's creative community.

"If you want to understand how a lion hunts, you don't go to the zoo --
you go to the jungle," said Sandy Thompson, global head of strategic
planning for Saatchi, which is owned by Publicis Groupe
<http://online.wsj.com/quotes/main.html?type=djn&symbol=13057.FR> .

* Green backlash: Corporate America latched onto environmental marketing
last year, as big companies spent millions of ad dollars promoting their
products and services as eco-friendly. Some people in the ad business
are predicting a backlash this year from consumers who question whether
companies are living up to their promises. "Marketers will be more
intensely scrutinized for their green efforts -- those that don't hold
up will be called out via blogs and elsewhere online, ultimately leading
to consumer skepticism," said Greg Stern, chief executive of the ad firm
Butler, Shine, Stern & Partners.

* The antisocial movement: Privacy issues, combined with the fact that
consumers have only so much free time, could damp the boom in social
networking on the Web. "Nobody has 5,000 real friends," says Tim Hanlon,
senior vice president of Denuo Group, a media and advertising consulting
firm owned by Publicis. "At the end of the day it just becomes one big
cauldron of noise." For marketers, he says, that will mean the sites
will be much more effective as a consumer-research tool than as a venue
to peddle products.

Human Slinky

This has nothing to do with healthcare, technology, or anything else... but it's so damn cool.  Thought I would share.

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=skcvxTyJWVs

Most older adults have brain disease: study

Most older adults have brain disease: study

By Megan Rauscher
Fri Dec 28, 3:34 PM ET

Results of a brain autopsy study indicate that most older adults have significant brain pathology (disease), regardless of the presence or absence of outward signs of dementia.

 

As part of the long-term Rush Memory and Aging Project, researchers evaluated the spectrum of abnormalities found in the brains of 141 older adults, with and without clinically evident dementia.

 

At the time of death, only 20 persons (14.2 percent) were free of brain disease, Dr. Julie A. Schneider, from Rush University Medical Center, Chicago, and colleagues found.

 

Most older persons with dementia (i.e., memory and other cognitive impairments) had more than one type of pathology in their brain causing the impairment, Schneider told Reuters Health.

 

"This most commonly was Alzheimer's disease pathology and cerebral infarcts (strokes), followed by Alzheimer's disease and Lewy body disease, a disease related to Parkinson's disease," she said.

 

Older persons without dementia also frequently had brain disease, most commonly Alzheimer's-like disease, but also multiple other abnormalities, Schneider noted. Having more than one disease in the brain significantly increased the likelihood that symptoms of dementia will be present.

 

"Older persons can often handle one pathology in their brain, but the burden of more than one pathology may tip them over the threshold of clinical dementia," Schneider said.

 

Therefore, prevention of not only Alzheimer's disease but these other pathologies, particularly stroke and those

things that may increase the risk of stroke, like high blood pressure, high cholesterol, cigarette smoking, obesity, "are likely to significantly decrease the prevalence of dementia," Schneider added.

 

The findings are published in the journal Neurology.

 

Based on this study, write two neurologists in an accompanying editorial, "we may wish to maximize medical management of vascular risk factors in the growing elderly population, regardless of whether cognition is still normal or there are signs of overt dementia."

 

SOURCE: Neurology, December 11, 2007.

 

Six in 10 Broadband Users Watch Online Video Weekly, Up 36% YOY

Six in 10 Broadband Users Watch Online Video Weekly, Up 36% YOY
 
Online video consumption is growing rapidly among adult broadband internet users — most now watch video weekly — according to a recently released report, Broadband Content and Services 2007, from Horowitz Associates, reports MarketingCharts (via Micro Persuasion).

Six out of 10 (61 percent) high-speed internet users watch or download online video content at least once a week, and 86 percent do so monthly, compared with the respectively 45 percent and 71 percent who reported doing so in 2006.

News and user-generated/non-professional content are the genres reported viewed most often, followed by movie previews/trailers, music videos, and previews/segments of TV shows:

• Weekly viewing of full episodes of television shows doubled from last year, with 16 percent of high-speed internet users now watching TV online on a weekly basis.
• Some 36 percent watch news video at least weekly, up from 22 percent in 2006.
• Non-professional videos are watched by 30 percent in 2007 - double the 15 percent in 2006.

Television Online

NBC and ABC are the networks that internet users mention most frequently for watching online TV content, with Grey's Anatomy the most-mentioned TV program viewed online.

While consumption of broadband video has grown, the study shows that television is still the preferred platform for traditional TV content: The vast majority (70 percent) of internet users who watch TV online say do so because they missed the episode on TV.

For more findings related to TV and portable video devices, see the MarketingCharts coverage.
 

Social Network Spending to Hit $2.2B in '08

Social Network Spending to Hit $2.2B in '08

Source: http://www.marketingvox.com

Advertiser spending on social networks will reach $2.2 billion in 2008, reports MediaPost.

That number comes from a new study by eMarketer, which sees spending almost doubling from this year's $1.2 billion. Facebook and MySpace, it says, are poised to pull in 70 percent of those dollars.

The growth in usage of social networks drives the growth in ad dollars being funneled toward them. eMarketer says 37 percent of adults have visited a social network at least once a month in 2007.

It's also predicted that half the US adult population will be on a social network by 2011. For teens, that number will be 84 percent.

Both Facebook and MySpace have taken steps to cater to the needs and desires of advertisers. They've built out their offerings significantly, including options that use the vast amounts of data provided by users, and compiled by analysis of user behavior.
 

Top Spots in Search and Paid Listings Prove Key for Branding

Top Spots in Search and Paid Listings Prove Key for Branding

 

source:  http://www.marketingcharts.com/interactive/top-spots-in-search-and-paid-listings-prove-key-for-branding-2675/

 

There is significant correlation between brands’ appearing in the top organic search and sponsored placements and consumer brand affinity, recall and purchase intent, according to results from a Google-sponsored eye-tracking study published in a whitepaper. 

The study by eye-tracking firm Enquiro sought to determine how the placement of search listings and sponsored search ads affect consumer brand perceptions.

Using Honda as a test brand and “fuel-efficiency” as a brand attribute, the study focused on consumers early in the purchase process who had not yet selected a particular car model.

Among the key findings of the study:

• Lift in brand affinity: Online consumers who saw Honda in the top ad placement and the top organic search result were 16% more likely to think of Honda as a fuel efficient car than when the automaker’s brand didn’t appear on the page at all.
• Lift in brand recall: Online consumers were 42% more likely to recall Honda if the company appeared in both the top ad placement and the top organic search result, rather than just the top organic listing.
• Lift in purchase intent: When Honda was featured in both the top ad and top organic listings, purchase intent for Honda increased 8%. However, other automaker brands absent from the page suffered a significant decrease in purchase intent - 16%.

Additional insights are available from the Enquiro whitepaper, “The Brand Lift of Search”:

http://www.ignitelabs.com/whitepaper/TheBrandLiftofSearch.pdf 

About the study: Using Honda as a test brand, the study sought to quantify the branding impact of differing Honda listing placements on the search results page. The experiment was conducted using subjects 25 years and older who were considering the purchase of a new car within the next year. Users performed a search for “fuel efficient car” and the search results appeared in five different variations: a Honda-branded listing in top ad position only, top organic position only, both the top organic and ad positions, side ad position only, and not at all (control group). Enquiro measured eye fixation on the Google page and also surveyed participants to evaluate the search experience’s branding effect on each of the five consumer test groups.

Top 10 U.S. Social-Network and Blog Site Rankings Issued for Nov.

source: http://www.marketingvox.com/archives/2007/12/17/top-10-us-social-network-and-blog-site-rankings-issued-for-nov/

 

MySpace.com yet again tops the rankings of top U.S. social-networking sites, with nearly 57.4 million unique visitors in Nov., down from October's 58.8 million, according to custom lists of top U.S. social-networking sites and blogs compiled by Nielsen Online, reports MarketingCharts.

Google's Blogger remains atop blog site rankings with 33.6 million visitors, down from October's 34.1 million.

Ranked second among social-networking sites, Facebook increased the number of visitors to nearly 22.0 million, up from October's 19.5 million - and up 89 percent vs. Nov. 2006, whereas MySpace visitors increased just 7 percent year over year.

[See full chart: http://www.marketingcharts.com/wp-content/uploads/2007/12/nielsen-online-nov-top-10-social-networking-sites-us.jpg]

Among blog sites, top-ranked Blogger increased its visitors a significant 49 percent from the year-earlier period, accounting for 33.6 million visitors in Nov., albeit that was down from this October's 34.1 million.

More impressively, however, WordPress, which maintained the No. 2 rank it first achieved in Oct., grew 310 percent from the year-earlier period. In Nov. it accounted for 12.0 million visitors, up from 11.4 million in Oct. - and up from 2.9 million last year.

Six Apart Type Pad, now No. 3, also grew - 22 percent from last year - to more than 11.0 million in Nov., up from nearly 10.6 million visitors in Oct.

This is HUGE: Google Announces New Project "KNOWLS" -- takes on Wikipedia

ENCOURAGING PEOPLE TO CONTRIBUTE KNOWLEDGE

Example Screenshot: http://www.google.com/help/knol_screenshot.html

12/13/2007 06:01:00 PM

Posted by Udi Manber, VP Engineering

The web contains an enormous amount of information, and Google has helped to make that information more easily accessible by providing pretty good search facilities. But not everything is written nor is everything well organized to make it easily discoverable. There are millions of people who possess useful knowledge that they would love to share, and there are billions of people who can benefit from it. We believe that many do not share that knowledge today simply because it is not easy enough to do that. The challenge posed to us by Larry, Sergey and Eric was to find a way to help people share their knowledge. This is our main goal.

Earlier this week, we started inviting a selected group of people to try a new, free tool that we are calling "knol", which stands for a unit of knowledge. Our goal is to encourage people who know a particular subject to write an authoritative article about it. The tool is still in development and this is just the first phase of testing. For now, using it is by invitation only. But we wanted to share with everyone the basic premises and goals behind this project.

The key idea behind the knol project is to highlight authors. Books have authors' names right on the cover, news articles have bylines, scientific articles always have authors -- but somehow the web evolved without a strong standard to keep authors names highlighted. We believe that knowing who wrote what will significantly help users make better use of web content. At the heart, a knol is just a web page; we use the word "knol" as the name of the project and as an instance of an article interchangeably. It is well-organized, nicely presented, and has a distinct look and feel, but it is still just a web page. Google will provide easy-to-use tools for writing, editing, and so on, and it will provide free hosting of the content. Writers only need to write; we'll do the rest.

A knol on a particular topic is meant to be the first thing someone who searches for this topic for the first time will want to read. The goal is for knols to cover all topics, from scientific concepts, to medical information, from geographical and historical, to entertainment, from product information, to how-to-fix-it instructions. Google will not serve as an editor in any way, and will not bless any content. All editorial responsibilities and control will rest with the authors. We hope that knols will include the opinions and points of view of the authors who will put their reputation on the line. Anyone will be free to write. For many topics, there will likely be competing knols on the same subject. Competition of ideas is a good thing.

Knols will include strong community tools. People will be able to submit comments, questions, edits, additional content, and so on. Anyone will be able to rate a knol or write a review of it. Knols will also include references and links to additional information. At the discretion of the author, a knol may include ads. If an author chooses to include ads, Google will provide the author with substantial revenue share from the proceeds of those ads.

Once testing is completed, participation in knols will be completely open, and we cannot expect that all of them will be of high quality. Our job in Search Quality will be to rank the knols appropriately when they appear in Google search results. We are quite experienced with ranking web pages, and we feel confident that we will be up to the challenge. We are very excited by the potential to substantially increase the dissemination of knowledge.

We do not want to build a walled garden of content; we want to disseminate it as widely as possible. Google will not ask for any exclusivity on any of this content and will make that content available to any other search engine.

As always, a picture is worth a thousands words, so an example of a knol is below (click on the image twice to see the page in full). The main content is real, and we encourage you to read it (you may sleep better afterwards!), but most of the meta-data -- like reviews, ratings, and comments -- are not real, because, of course, this has not been in the public eye as yet. Again, this is a preliminary version.

 

http://www.google.com/help/knol_screenshot.html

 

Drug Promotion Takes to the Web

Drug Promotion Takes to the Web

AP Online - Dec. 04, 2007

WASHINGTON_Patients today are less likely to bump into drug sales
representatives at a doctor's office as pharmaceutical companies adopt
cheaper technologies and more discreet ways to pitch drugs.

The changes are partly in response to a backlash against overly
aggressive marketing of the past decade, when many executives believed
the company with the biggest sales force would have the highest sales.
From 1999 to 2001, U.S. drug companies expanded their sales staffs, on
average, by 42 percent, according to the most recent research available
from Datamonitor.

Back then, many physicians dealt with half a dozen or more people from
each major drug company as ever-larger armies of sample-toting
salespeople were mobilized. But the marketing blitz took a toll on
doctors.

"A lot of practices across the U.S. basically said 'we don't want to see
you anymore because it's too much of an interruption,'" said Dr. Dave
Switzer, a family doctor based in northern Virginia who gives
unannounced salespeople a minute of his time.

He may be on the generous side. Seventy-five percent of sales calls
these days don't involve a face-to-face meeting with a doctor, according
to research by Leerink Swann & Co. Industry executives acknowledge
increased demands on physician's time, including paperwork required by
health insurers.

However, the marketing shift goes beyond a time crunch. In recent years,
media companies have increasingly scrutinized how drug companies court
physicians, from handing out branded pens to funding lavish conferences
at exotic locations.

"Patients are watching, medical students are watching and it's just
become harder and harder to justify these interactions," said David
Kramer, chief executive of Digitas Health, a company that specializes in
online pharmaceutical marketing.

Perhaps the most important driver in the effort to improve selling
techniques is the bottom line. Revenues are shrinking industrywide as
many blockbuster drugs from the past decade lose patent protection.
Dwindling sales recently led the industry's biggest player, Pfizer Inc.,
to cut its U.S. sales force by 20 percent or about 2,500 salespeople.
Rivals such as AstraZeneca and Bristol-Myers Squibb have also reduced
U.S. sales staff in recent years.

"We've made sure we have fewer representatives calling on any one
physician and made those representatives more accountable for each of
their relationships," said David Snow, an AstraZeneca vice president.
"And the technology actually enhances that by giving them more
information and more ways to present it."

AstraZeneca and other companies are focusing on Web-based visits between
doctors and salespeople. The appointments are made for the evening or
weekends, and a sales representative gives a presentation through an
online video link or over the telephone while directing the physician to
Web pages. Executives say it is becoming one of their most effective
selling techniques.

According to Merck & Co. Inc., the average online appointment with a
physician lasts 10 minutes, compared with 4 minutes for an in-person
meeting.

Technology is changing how companies do sales calls in other ways.
Representatives used to carry pages of company studies and medical
journal articles. Using tablet PCs, sales people can present their
information faster and direct the doctor to company Web pages.

Meanwhile, the tablet PC automatically records information about what
was presented and how it was received and sends it back to the marketing
department. This feedback can be used to judge the quality of the
company's message _ and sometimes the skill of the person presenting it.

Consulting firm Exploria SPA says more than 70 percent of drug
salespeople carry a tablet PC even though some representatives complain
the devices allow managers to peer over their shoulders too much.

Industry executives say in-person selling will remain the core of their
sales strategy although the past two years have seen an increase in
online promotions that eliminate salespeople. According to one industry
survey, nearly half of physicians prefer to learn about new medications
through the Internet, instead of through a salesperson.

People that design these online promotions say doctors are simply
displaying the same consumer preferences that have made businesses like
Amazon.com and eBay so successful.

"I shop online, I consume information online and I don't have to wait
for the newspaper to hit the driveway," said Bruce Grant, an executive
with Digitas Health. "Doctors are just doing the same thing you and I
are as consumers: they're taking advantage of the full power and
convenience these new media give you."

So-called e-details include Web sites set up specifically for doctors
and video presentations sent via e-mail. Increasingly, e-details amount
to mini-movies, using high production values and medical experts, urging
doctors to prescribe the company's latest product.

"The traditional model that served us very well for many years is
broken," said Gary Pond, a marketing executive at Merck. "We're going to
have to evolve to a different way of doing business, and technology is
one tool to help get us there."

Revolution Health Acquires HealthTalk

Revolution Health Acquires HealthTalk

WASHINGTON & SEATTLE--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Dec 5, 2007 - Revolution Health,
a leading health company founded by AOL co-founder Steve Case to
transform how people approach their overall health and wellness, today
announced the acquisition of HealthTalk, a leading online provider of
chronic care information and programming. HealthTalk will operate as
part of Revolution Health Network, which encompasses
RevolutionHealth.com, CarePages.com and the company's affiliations with
drugstore.com and SparkPeople.com.

HealthTalk.com provides in-depth, original multi-media health content to
more than 1 million unique visitors per month. Additionally, the company
has amassed more than 500,000 members who receive targeted health
information that covers all aspects of patient needs - from treatment to
quality of life. HealthTalk members are able to participate in forums
that allow patients from all over to interact with world-class experts-
no matter where they are located.

Revolution Health Network is the definitive online health community for
people at all stages of health - from people seeking to improve everyday
health and fitness to people managing acute conditions to people
receiving care.

"The acquisition of HealthTalk advances our position as the leading
health community on the Internet and adds yet another dimension to the
Revolution Health Network family of offerings," said Steve Case,
chairman and CEO of Revolution Health Group. "HealthTalk brings to
Revolution Health Network an array of unique, deep content and
interactive programming that covers the most prevalent acute conditions
facing Americans today."

HealthTalk's strength with chronic conditions complements Revolution
Health's strength in the health and wellness category. The combination
enables Revolution Health Networks to broaden its audience and provide
health-involved consumers with a robust offering of content and services
for every stage of their lives and the lives of their loved ones.

The expanded reach of the Revolution Health Network combined with the
depth of HealthTalk's proprietary content also provides pharmaceutical
and biotechnology customers with a unique opportunity to target their
audiences in a more meaningful way. With the HealthTalk.com acquisition,
Revolution Health Network now reaches more than 12 million unique
visitors per month, making it the second largest health information
destination on the Internet.

The HealthTalk.com acquisition brings with it a veteran management team
with extensive experience at many of the industry's leading properties,
including WebMD, Discovery, Everyday Health and Oxygen Media.

"We are very excited about becoming part of Revolution Health," said
Mike Cunnion, president of HealthTalk. "We are philosophically aligned
in our mission to provide the best and most useful health information to
consumers and to provide valuable new opportunities to our advertisers."

About Revolution Health

Revolution Health Group LLC was created by AOL Co-Founder Steve Case to
create products and services that empower people by putting them at the
center of the health system. The cornerstone of the company is
RevolutionHealth.com, which was recently named the Best Overall Internet
Health Site by the eHealthcare Leadership Awards. The free consumer
health and medical web site marries expert content and online tools with
the power of social networking. Revolution Health also offers premium
services that enable companies to provide health content and customized
online tools to their employees, an insurance marketplace and CarePages
(www.carepages.com), the leading service that enables communication
among family and friends when someone is receiving care. For more
information go to http://www.RevolutionHealth.com.

About HealthTalk

HealthTalk is a leading Internet-based health information network for
patients and caregivers living with a chronic condition. HealthTalk
reaches over 500,000 community members each month. The mission of
HealthTalk is to inform and empower the nation's growing chronic care
population by providing indispensable, hyper-relevant information and
support through active communities, multimedia programming and advice
from the nation's leading medical experts. http://www.HealthTalk.com

ReachMD.com and Sermo Partnership

http://www.reachmd.com/

ReachMD XM Channel 157 and Sermo Partner to Directly Involve Physicians
in News and Information That Affects Medicine

November 16, 2007 - Chicago, IL - ReachMD XM Satellite Radio (Channel
157) and Cambridge, MA based Sermo today announced a partnership in
which ReachMD's innovative broadcast medical programming will be linked
to Sermo's online physician community. This unique partnership will
enable physicians from across the country to access selected segments of
ReachMD's medical programming directly from Sermo and discuss them in
real-time. Also, ReachMD XM 157 will broadcast ongoing reports on
physician opinions and attitudes about the content that is "discussed"
within the Sermo online community. These physician insights will help
deliver on the mutual interest of both Sermo and ReachMD to inform,
educate and stimulate dialogue with America's physician community.

"By combining the real-time discussion and engagement that takes place
in the Sermo physician community with the innovative programming and
broadcast network of ReachMD, the two organizations will amplify the
voices and opinions of the nation's physicians in a powerful new way
that directly influences healthcare," said Alex Frost, VP of Research
Initiatives at Sermo.

As part of this unique partnership, ReachMD listeners and the nearly
40,000 physicians on Sermo will be able to discuss ReachMD programs
within the Sermo community. The partnership with ReachMD is an early
alliance in Sermo's "Discuss on Sermo" initiative, which enables
physicians to share opinions about medical news in real-time and to
collectively interpret research advances with thousands of colleagues.
The partnership also allows ReachMD to report on the kinds of
discussions happening in the Sermo community about its content.

"Both of our companies offer new and innovative ways for physicians to
engage one another and to be heard," said Dr. David Preskill, Founder
and Chief Medical Officer of ReachMD. "By combining broadcast media with
the Sermo community, physicians can now listen to a segment on ReachMD,
then immediately discuss the content with colleagues. This allows for
never-before-possible interpretations."

About Sermo:
Launched in September 2006, Sermo is already the largest online
physician community in the US, with nearly 40,000 physician members. On
Sermo, physicians exchange knowledge with each other and gain
potentially life saving insights directly from colleagues. Sermo
harnesses the power of collective wisdom and enables physicians to
discuss new clinical findings, report unusual events, and work together
to improve patient care. Through its unique business model, Sermo is
free to physicians and has no advertising or promotion. For more
information, visit www.sermo.com.

About ReachMD:
ReachMD, headquartered in Highland Park, Illinois, is a leading provider
of advanced healthcare information and education for medical
professionals. The company's proprietary technology provides the most up
to date healthcare information in the field through cellular phone,
satellite radio and on-line programs. This technology allows healthcare
professionals access to the latest information in best practices and new
advances in treatment and delivers this information through convenient
and accessible technologies. For more information, visit
www.reachmd.com.