Facebook Broadens Demos By Opening Up To All

Facebook Broadens Demos By Opening Up To All

by Tameka Kee, Friday, Jul 6, 2007 6:00 AM ET source: Media Post

SINCE COLLEGE SOCIAL NETWORKING SITE Facebook allowed anyone with a valid email address, mobile phone number, and college or work affiliation to join, it has seen a dramatic traffic increase - from an average of 14 million unique visitors last May to 26.6 million this May, comScore reports. Most significantly, some 39% of the May visitors were over the age of 35. With a little more than half of the May users (13.5 million) over the age of 25, marketers may start to view Facebook as a social medium that can target a broad base of consumers, not just the college demo. Both the adult (25-34) and tween (12-17) age segments saw triple-digit growth, with surges of 149% and 181% respectively. Facebook currently offers targeted banner ad, e-flyer, and forum sponsorship opportunities, and in late May, the social network opened up its platform code to developers and advertisers. Since then, some 65 companies including Microsoft, Amazon and Red Bull have created viral, user-beneficial applications like games and widgets that also serve ads and conduct transactions - without having to share any revenue with Facebook. Many industry analysts saw the move as a step toward making Facebook a more viable advertising channel, as banner ad click-through rates reportedly averaged 0.04% -- less than half of its rival MySpace's 0.10% -- according to the Valleywag tech blog. ComScore's traffic reports for the months to come will likely yield insight into whether the shift in user demographics and open-sourcing will be a boon or bust to Facebook's members and the advertisers seeking to reach them. According to a comScore analyst, "We're not in the business of making predictions, but marketers can see that there is clearly a marked increase in traffic and unique visitor growth to Facebook." Tameka Kee can be reached at tameka@mediapost.com

Attractive Demographics at Second Tier Video Sites

Attractive Demographics at Second Tier Video Sites

 

source: Media Post

 

comScore recently released a study from its comScore Video Metrix service of U.S. video streaming activity of up-and-coming video-sharing sites.  The study examined six video-sharing sites that did not make the top 10 U.S. video properties for the month, but reveals that French site Dailymotion.com had a particularly strong position in the U.S. video-sharing market in April 2007.

Erin Hunter, comScore's executive vice president of media and entertainment solutions, points out that "There's been a great deal of speculation in the marketplace about which site is the next YouTube, and each of these next-tier sites has a particular draw... Dailymotion.com is stating the strongest case at the moment, both domestically and internationally."

Dailymotion.com drew more than 4.7 million video streamers in April.  The average video streamer at Dailymotion.com viewed more than 10 videos and nearly one hour of video content in the month.  Metacafe.com also generated substantial activity, followed by Break.com. Finally, Veoh.com, attracted the smallest video-viewing audience of the group, but had the highest level of user engagement with more than 104 minutes per streamer, benefiting from the many full-length videos hosted on the site.

Selected Video-Sharing Sites (Total U.S. - Home/Work/University Locations April 2007)
Property	Unique Video Streamers (000)	Video Streams Initiated (000)	Minutes Per Streamer
Dailymotion.com	4,729	49,335	59.7
Metacafe.com	3,738	33,183	15.1
Break.com	3,138	32,164	16.8
Heavy Networks	2,619	5,964	3.2
Revver.com	2,607	8,719	5.4
Veoh.com	1,847	14,554	104.2
Source: comScore Video Metrix

 The demographic composition of video streamers at these sites, revealed some interesting differences in the age of the audience each site attracts.  The coveted 18-34 age segment represented 41 percent of Break.com's audience, followed by Dailymotion.com and Veoh.com (37 percent).  Heavy Networks drew the largest share of its video streamers from those younger than 18 years of age, while Revver.com and Metacafe.com drew the largest share among people age 35-44.

Demographic Profile of Selected Video-Sharing Sites Total U.S. - Home/Work/University Locations April 2007
	Percent Composition of Site's Unique Video Streamers By Age Segment
	2-17	18-24	25-34	35-44	45-54	55+
Dailymotion.com	17%	21%	16%	20%	17%	8%
Metacafe.com	15%	16%	19%	24%	17%	9%
Break.com	12%	21%	20%	21%	17%	10%
Heavy Networks	18%	15%	21%	21%	17%	8%
Revver.com	13%	11%	19%	24%	18%	16%
Veoh.com	18%	21%	16%	21%	17%	7%
Source: comScore Video Metrix

Ms. Hunter added "The challenge for these video-sharing sites, which rely quite a bit on user-generated content, is monetizing content over which advertisers have little control.  That these sites generate such a large share of activity from younger visitors, however, is probably very compelling to advertisers."

For more information about comScore Video Metrix and this report, please visit here.

Planning DTC for 2008

Planning DTC for 2008

by  Bob Ehrlich, Chairman
DTC Perspectives, Inc.

We are entering the beginning of the 2008 planning process for most drug and medical device companies. Most of these plans will be finished by November but initial strategies and objectives are usually done by August.

It appears that no major regulation changes will affect anything in 2008. Congress will not impose any new moratorium on advertising. Some risk disclosure changes may be coming but not likely for 2008. So what are the major considerations for 2008?

I would encourage brand managers to look to experiment as much as possible with media selection and evaluation. While television will likely still dominate most plans, I would like to see more reviews on program selection and day part based upon effectiveness rather than on just reach and frequency. We have a lot of data available that can lead us to more detailed assessments on where television can have the greatest impact. For example, we should be looking at where viewers will most likely pay attention to a DTC ad. Is this in a medical show, news, drama, comedy, sports or other? Ratings alone do not give that.

For print, the same considerations apply. Not all magazines are read the same way. Some are quickly read; others are perused slowly and re-read. Mere demographics do not tell us that. I read my golf magazines over and over and see the same ads 5 or 6 times. I do not read other sports magazines the same way. Therefore it is worth asking your agencies to consider these factors in picking specific publications.

I also urge much greater experimentation in new media. We can argue about the speed of change in adopting new media but not that it will eventually be widespread. Drug companies are dealing largely with older, more traditional age groups, but they too are changing, albeit slower. Use of the Internet and other one on one media vehicles are here and DTC plans should reflect their growing impact.

It is also critical that DTC plans have one master. Gone are the days where we can split off planning by media type used. The use of different agencies and internal departments to plan television/print Internet, direct and Public Relations is not efficient. All media types need one decision maker to analyze the trade-offs and determine how to evaluate effectiveness. Too often no one person takes final responsibility for full integration of media strategies, objectives and evaluation of success. This one master must be fully conversant in all available media rather than be a mere coordinator of departmental inputs. This takes an experienced marketer who is not afraid to challenge agencies and internal managers on why they deserve budgets.

I fully expect 2008 to be another year of DTC budget increases. I also expect management will expect better analysis on success on media investment in these profit squeezed times for the drug industry.

Bob Ehrlich, Chairman
DTC Perspectives, Inc.

WPP's G2 Grabs Refinery

WPP's G2 Grabs Refinery

by Gavin O'Malley, Friday, Jul 6, 2007 6:00 AM ET source: Media Post

IN AN IRONIC TWIST ON this week's theme of American independence, WPP Group's G2 Worldwide has acquired Refinery -- one of the few remaining independent digital agencies in North America. Headquartered near that most "liberated" of U.S. cities, Philadelphia, the 12-year-old Refinery generated revenue of $21 million last year. With a staff of 79, its clients include Merck, Campbell's, Merrill Lynch and Amgen. The shop will now be integrated with G2's North American business unit, G2 Interactive, operating under the leadership of president John Paulson. Refinery is the latest in a string of acquisitions for G2, which specializes in digital communications, direct marketing, shopper marketing and design. Last month, it acquired Star Echo, a China-based agency offering activation marketing throughout that region. Other recent grabs include MDS Boole, a data and metrics consultancy in Spain. Rather than expanding for expansion's sake, however, Refinery offers G2 specific technical expertise, particularly in the area of search engine marketing. (Refinery owes its strength in SEM to its acquisition of Philadelphia-based search engine marketing firm directMASS in 2005.) "In today's market, it is not enough to excel at strategy and creative....We have to be able to deliver the goods in technology, analytics and operational excellence too," Joe Celia, chairman and CEO, G2 Worldwide, said in a statement. Industrywide, independent ad agencies have become a rare breed. Publicis Groupe arguably sounded the death knell in December with its agreement to buy online and direct marketing shop Digitas. And this year, in response to Google's plan to buy DoubleClick, Microsoft agreed to take Avenue A/Razorfish off the market with its planned acquisition of aQuantive. Remaining heavies include AKQA, Wieden+Kennedy and imc2 -- all privately held --along with the publicly traded Sapient, followed by a slew of smaller shops, including Glow Interactive, IQ Interactive, i33 Communications, Slingshot, and Greater Than One. In this increasingly digital age, interactive agencies have also attracted non-traditional suitors. Earlier this year, for example, magazine publisher Meredith acquired Genex, a top 50 interactive shop, along with New Media Strategies, a firm specializing in online social media and word-of-mouth marketing strategies. This year, G2 has expanded its client roster with digital wins in North America from Campbell's and Canon; Visa for the Olympics in Asia; and additional assignments in Europe and Latin America from longtime client The Coca-Cola Company. With 86 offices in 42 countries around the world, G2's other clients include The Absolut Spirits Company, Adobe, The Coca-Cola Company, GlaxoSmithKline, Kodak, Kraft, Mars, Nokia, Pfizer, Procter & Gamble and Volkswagen. Behind only Aegis Group, WPP's GroupM Interaction is the second-largest digital network holding company--with 1,224 digital staffers worldwide, 619 of whom are stationed stateside--according to agency billings researcher RECMA. Gavin O'Malley can be reached at gavin@mediapost.com

Dynamic Video Campaign Promotes Illusionist TV Show

Dynamic Video Campaign Promotes Illusionist TV Show
› › › ClickZ News

By Enid Burns | May 18, 2007

Cable network A&E is readying the third season premier of its show "MindFreak" hosted by illusionist Criss Angel. The cable channel went to creative agency EVB to develop a promotion to raise awareness of the show before its June 5 launch.

The result is a viral execution on the ”Freak Your Mind” microsite, prompting users to play a trick on their friends. Users type in their friend’s name and phone number, creating a unique URL to pass along. The URL directs recipients to the mock video-sharing site time4vids.com which displays a video of Criss Angel. The trick occurs when the illusionist calls the viewer by his name, and flips playing cards over in the order of his phone number. Soon afterwards, the viewer receives a call from Criss Angel divulging the participation of his friend, and urging viewers to watch the premier of the show.

When EVB introduced the concept to the client to raise awareness of the show and its upcoming premier, "Everybody got it immediately," said Daniel Stein, founder and CEO of EVB. "Criss got it, embraced it, and helped make the idea better. His performance is stellar."

EVB used a mock video-sharing site instead of a site like YouTube because of technology requirements needed to play dynamic video for each visitor. Video was shot in little clips, then when a user types in a friend's name and phone number, those clips are stitched back together. Production involved filming Angel saying over 500 names, and flipping over several playing cards to represent digits in a phone number.

"The visual quality of the experience matters, the seamlessness," said EVB co-founder and Creative Director Jason Zada. "We've seen versions of stuff like this, but nothing as seamless."

A&E is running banner ads to drive traffic to the microsite, but Stein said most of the traffic is likely to happen virally. "Even when there is a media plan around something, by far the majority of traffic comes through word of mouth or through the blogs," said Stein.

The video can only be viewed once, but users are likely to play the same trick on more of their friends. Once someone is sent the video "they go freak 10 of their friends' minds," said Zada.

 

Widgets And The Notion Of Citizen Networks

Thursday, July 5, 2007
Widgets And The Notion Of Citizen Networks
By Dave Morgan

 

Widgets are getting a lot of attention these days, and for good reason. Not only can you do lots of cool things with highly distributable Web objects, but all of the major Web platforms, from Google to Yahoo to content publishers like Weather.com and NYTimes.com, are embracing them. Finally, the Web is permitting consumers to personalize their Web experiences in ways beyond just the historical "check-box personalization" -- where personal pages were just modified versions of home pages with localized weather and filtered news. Now, users can not only fill their personal browsing pages with widgets of every favorite type of content or application, but they can open those pages to their friends, or the Web at large, and share that same browsing experience with many, many others.

This notion, that Web users are not only personalizing their own browsing experience, but that they can proactively share it with others, is likely to bring some very significant changes to the online advertising industry. How so?

Just as Web blogs and blogging gave rise to citizen journalism, widgets will give rise to citizen publishers, citizen syndicators and, most important, citizen networks. Citizen journalism has been in vogue for some time now. The notion of every and any user becoming a journalist and offering up their own content for the masses was enabled by introduction of free, easy-to-use blogging tools. Today, there are millions and millions of such "journalists" around the world, writing and opining on everything from news events to cooking to their nightmare from last night. This form of journalism has taken off and is thriving and, with the introduction of easy-to-use advertising programs like Google's AdSense and Yahoo's Publisher Network, these activities have become much more than just vanity plays.

People are making real money on these little sites. These citizen journalists aren't all amateurs any more. They're earning income. It may be small today, but it is real money nevertheless, and it is certain to become much more significant over time.

So, where do widgets fit in? Now, people can import much more content and functionality into their Web pages, whether they are personal pages on MySpace or blog pages. They are assembling more complete consumer media solutions. They are becoming not just writers, but citizen publishers. Since there are many commercial widgets, they now can get paid from sources beyond text ads from AdSense; they can even receive payments from movie studios for putting movie trailers on their pages. Further, they can redistribute these widgets, including the commercial ones, to other citizen publishers for placement on their sites. Thus, they become syndicators.

The speed and power of this viral distribution is already putting to shame similar centralized "professional" efforts. These "citizens" are creating their own "networks" -- their own groups of sites, publishers, journalists and users that they connect with regularly and interact with constantly, distributing and redistributing items among themselves. Over time, I think, these will become commercial ad networks that will rival the professional media-driven ones. They will become direct distributors of large blocks of online advertising. When? Maybe in two years. What do you think?

 

ONLINE TOOL FOR WATCHING PATIENT COMPLIANCE GETS MIXED REVIEWS

ONLINE TOOL FOR WATCHING PATIENT COMPLIANCE GETS MIXED REVIEWS

FDA Week via NewsEdge Corporation :

Groups debated this week the usefulness of recently FDA-approved software that lets health care professionals use the Internet to see if patients are taking medications properly. A former member of an Institute of Medicine panel on reducing medication errors does not think the system is the best way to reduce drug identification and dosing errors. But another group that collaborated with IOM on its study gives the Electronic Medication Management Assistant (EMMA) a more favorable review.

EMMA lets health care professionals monitor patient regimens online. A pharmacist, doctor or nurse enters the medication schedule into a Web-based application; EMMA downloads the regimen.

The system also gives the programmer a history of each time a patient accesses their medicines.

EMMA holds up to 10 prescriptions, which are bar-coded and individually labeled, says Mark Drummey, the executive vice president of the device manufacturer INRange Systems in Pennsylvania. Patients receive the prescriptions through mail-order and load them into the bread box-sized device.

EMMA's screen will flash and beep at the time a prescription should be taken. Patients touch the screen and the prescription is dispensed.

IOM said Web-based medication boxes could be a tool for patient populations that have compliance issues, such as the elderly, but did not look at the devices as the ultimate safeguard against medication errors, says former committee member Wilson Pace.

Pace also worries the box could contribute to the erosion of the relationship between home-health care providers and patients. The box may only be available to only few patients because of its cost. Doctors may not want the extra work. And insurance companies may become less likely to reimburse home-health care visits if EMMA becomes available in many homes.

The 2006 report by IOM "Preventing Medication Errors" estimated the average hospital patient is subject to at least one medication error per day. The report urged FDA to meet with other stakeholders to minimize errors and develop guidance documents on drug naming and another for labeling and packaging.

FDA has since addressed naming and labeling and packaging concerns.

The report followed a 1999 IOM study that reported 7,000 deaths occur yearly due to medication errors.

Judy Smetzer, vice president at the Institute of Safe Medicine Practices, which collaborated with IOM on their 2006 report, says EMMA could help practitioners link adverse events in patient to medication non-compliance at home. But she also worries patients could load blister packs incorrectly and she is unsure how the system would work if a patient's regimen is unexpectedly interrupted.

"We need to have more information to see how it's going to work," she says. "Any time you introduce new technology there is a new source of error you may not suspect ahead of time."

But a public health group says the device seems to be a good way to track patient prescription compliance.

Georges Benjamin, executive director of the American Public Health Association, says EMMA would be useful in households where multiple people are taking multiple medications or for medical practices that have older patients taking numerous medications.

Drummey says the product will be available next year. Right now the company is in pilot trials with the Veterans Administration and the Department of Defense. The pilot uses EMMA with patients who have severe brain injuries and take several medications. The company is working with insurance companies on coverage.

 

New AOL Video Portal Features More than 20 Million Videos From Across the Web

New AOL Video Portal Features More than 20 Million Videos From Across the Web

Business Wire via NewsEdge Corporation :

DULLES, Va.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--July 2, 2007--AOL today launched an update to its AOL Video portal (http://video.aol.com) with enhancements designed to make it even easier for consumers to find, watch and share more than 20 million videos from across the Web without having to visit multiple websites. New features of the updated AOL(R) Video portal include:

** A redesigned main page that makes it easier for consumers to discover, search for and find millions of videos from across the Web;

** A redesigned video search experience that leverages industry-leading Truveo(TM) video search technology and features better presentation of Web search results to help users more easily find what they are looking for and;

** A new embedded playback experience where consumers can find and watch videos from other popular video sites on the AOL Video site.

"Online video consumption is likely the fastest growing behavior in the history of the Internet and AOL was one of the first to bring video content to the online masses," said Fred McIntyre, Senior Vice President, AOL Video. "Consumers want just one place where they can go to find and watch all of the videos they're looking for and our new AOL Video portal gives them just that: a single website that brings together millions of videos from across the Web."

By combining industry-leading technology with a unique, easy-to-use user experience, the AOL Video portal has become one of the fastest-growing sites on the Internet. Over the past nine months, skyrocketing consumer demand for online video has propelled the number of unique visitors (UVs) on AOL Video to grow by 300% to eight million UVs per month. In the same period, page views have grown by more than 1200% to 76 million.(1)

The new AOL Video portal is available now at http://video.aol.com.

In addition, AOL also announced today the availability of a new Windows Vista(TM)-ready sidebar gadget which enables consumers to watch popular AOL Video content while using other applications. The AOL Video Gadget features five channels - News, Music, Movies, Comedy and Business - each showcasing 10 of the most recent or most popular videos in each channel. The Gadget features 12 "skins" in various colors and patterns, as well as a real-time ticker that highlights relevant videos as they are added to the Truveo search index of videos from all across the Web.

A preview version of the AOL(R) Video Gadget is available now as a free download from the AOL Developer Network website: http://dev.aol.com/video_gadget.

About AOL

AOL(R) is a global Web services company that operates some of the most popular Web destinations, offers a comprehensive suite of free software and services, runs one of the country's largest Internet access businesses, and provides a full set of advertising solutions. A majority-owned subsidiary of Time Warner Inc., AOL LLC is based in Dulles, Virginia. AOL and its subsidiaries also have operations in Europe, Canada and Asia. Learn more at AOL.com.

Editor's Note: For b-roll of the new AOL Video portal and the AOL Video Gadget, log onto http://www.thenewsmarket.com/aol. Registration is free to the media.

1. comScore Media Metrix, August 2006 to April 2007 Custom Run

 

Unbound Medicine Delivers Medical Knowledge to the New iPhone

Unbound Medicine Delivers Medical Knowledge to the New iPhone

PR Newswire via NewsEdge Corporation :

CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va., July 2 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Today, Unbound Medicine, a leader in knowledge management solutions and mobile information resources for healthcare, announced the delivery of leading medical content to the new iPhone(TM) from Apple, Inc. Now physicians and nurses can use the iPhone to quickly consult a wealth of continually updated information on diseases, drugs, and tests and to keep up with medical journals. For a limited time, a live demo of Unbound's iPhone interface is available at http://www.unboundmedicine.com/iphone.

(Photo: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20070702/DCM010 )

Unbound Medicine offers a wide choice of medical products for the iPhone, placing emphasis on well-known, regularly updated references. Among the popular titles available are Harrison's Manual of Medicine and Pocket Guide to Diagnostic Tests from McGraw-Hill, 5-Minute Clinical Consult from Lippincott Williams & Wilkins, Red Book(R) from the American Academy of Pediatrics, and Davis's Drug Guide and Taber's Cyclopedic Medical Dictionary from F.A. Davis. Unbound MEDLINE rounds out the offering, allowing clinicians to track favorite medical journals and quickly search more than 15 million journal articles.

Unbound Medicine's customized iPhone interface takes full advantage of the built-in Safari(TM) web browser to give health professionals quick answers over cellular and WiFi networks. Users navigate intuitively by tapping on index terms or by entering searches into clinician-friendly forms. Cross-links and lists of related content instantly take a clinician from a disease management discussion to a drug monograph for the correct dose, possible interactions, and adverse effects of a recommended medication.

"Typically 70% of clinical questions go unanswered. Now, with pocket-sized internet devices we can now bring medical knowledge to the point of need, thereby improving patient care and reducing medical errors," said Bill Detmer, MD, President and CEO of Unbound Medicine. "By adding the iPhone to the long list of devices supported by the Unbound(TM) Platform we can help busy doctors and nurses stay abreast of the latest developments in their fields."

Since its inception in 2000, Unbound Medicine has helped more than 500,000 healthcare professionals find answers to patient care questions wherever they arise. The company's unique approach is to combine expertise in medical informatics with sophisticated software that optimizes search and display on the Web and the small screens of personal digital assistants (PDAs), smartphones and wireless devices. Any of Unbound Medicine's products formulated for PDA, Web, and wireless delivery can be accessed by iPhone. In addition to those listed above, these include Medicine Central, Nursing Central, Emergency Central, and the institutional gateway product, uCentral.

About Unbound Medicine

Unbound Medicine, Inc. (http://www.unboundmedicine.com) develops next-generation knowledge management systems for healthcare. The company's handheld, wireless and Web-based technology platform and its information architecture services provide healthcare professionals with advanced systems for acquiring, managing and sharing knowledge.

 

Marketers Collaborate With Millions of Moms Online to Identify Trends and Develop Innovative Products Using MarketTools(R) Moms Insight Network

Jul 02, 2007 09:00 ET

Marketers Collaborate With Millions of Moms Online to Identify Trends and Develop Innovative Products Using MarketTools(R) Moms Insight Network

Del Monte Foods Discovers Why Moms Buy Certain Foods for Families

 

SAN FRANCISCO, CA--(Marketwire - July 2, 2007) - MarketTools, Inc. today announced a dynamic, new market research solution, called Moms Insight Network, for marketers to better understand one of the most highly influential consumer groups -- moms. The Moms Insight Network is the first research solution that synthesizes input from millions of moms' online conversations, lets marketers engage directly in ongoing conversations with moms to uncover pressing needs and new ideas, and helps to turn those findings into innovative products and services. The solution's hosted proprietary community, ZoomPanel Moms, is the only online community formed exclusively to allow marketers and moms to exchange ideas and perspectives.

MarketTools' unique methodology provides a deep and authentic understanding of this important market segment that has never before been available. By listening into and actively participating in the conversations that moms are having with each other -- on everything from brands of diapers to the role of spirituality in their lives -- marketers can get a clearer picture of what moms really want and why. In addition, Moms Insight Network helps marketers identify new issues to explore, fill in the white space of unmet needs, and collaborate with moms on ideal solutions.

Identify issues to explore. By tuning into conversations that moms are already having, the Moms Insight Network allows marketers to ask questions they wouldn't have thought to ask, or identify hot buttons and issues they may not have otherwise thought to explore. For example, observing moms' conversations on a wide array of topics including school policies, diet and nutrition, vaccinations, seat belt and car seat laws, revealed that moms believe strongly that they are best equipped to make decisions about what is suitable for their children. They express resentment toward and distrust of rules and regulations -- especially those made by public entities. This over-arching sentiment greatly impacts moms' perceptions of marketing and advertising. Marketers should keep in mind that moms will respond more positively to messages that position them as the experts and empower them to make their own decisions:

 

--  "Public schools and public libraries should not be allowed to censor.

    It is up to the reader or guardian to censor. I am intelligent enough to

    decide if a book is offensive. As for my children, I don't need someone

    else to make my parenting decisions."

--  "I don't know about anybody else, but I've had more than enough of a

    governmental entity telling me what we should & should not eat."

--  "I also think that parents should be able to make their own decisions

    about how they are going to discipline their children."

   

Fill the White Space. As moms share their solutions and workarounds for every day problems, they provide a blueprint for marketers to solve their unmet needs. MarketTools' analysis of moms' conversations revealed several creative workarounds for getting children to eat vegetables -- workarounds that foods companies could consider in their packaging and product plans:

--  Blended up - "I shred carrots, onions, peppers and broccoli so tiny,

    into casseroles and meatloaves and they never know!"

--  Dipped in something - "My sons love ranch dressing on their salads.

    And they have decided that Ranch dressing is more than for a salad. They

    dip fresh veggies of all kinds in ranch dressing! They never complain about

    eating enough veggies!"

--  Cut into shapes - "I love to cut them in fun shapes and make them into

    faces on a plate so the kids will think they're fun to eat."

   

Collaborate on ideal solutions. By collaborating with moms as they chat about solutions to the problems they face each day, subscribing clients can integrate consumer feedback into the ideation process. For example, discussions about packaging revealed a common desire for smaller, more concentrated cleaning products:

"I wish they made more cleaning products ultra concentrated. It's great that laundry detergents are going that route. I buy a lot of things at warehouse club stores and some of those bulk packages can get, well, bulky. The ultra concentrated cleaners are usually still small though, even in bulk."

 

Del Monte Foods uses the Moms Insight Network to listen into moms' discussions about food and cooking. "We subscribed to Moms Insight Network to improve our understanding of why moms buy certain foods for their families, and the values they attribute to those foods," said Gala Amoroso, Senior Market Research Manager, Del Monte Foods. "By tapping into thousands of moms' real conversations, we're looking forward to getting an inside perspective on what they're really doing when they cook and eat at home. With this window into their lives, we can then identify the unmet needs in the market and can explore issues and opportunities we wouldn't have thought to explore previously."

 

At the core of this solution is MarketTools' integrated research service, MarketTools Insight Networks™, which allows researchers and marketers to capture the universe of voices from a variety of online resources. The Moms Insight Network offers:

 

--  Broad understanding of a key market demographic - The Moms Insight

    Network synthesizes information from more than 50 million blogs, message

    boards and media sites, capturing and distilling the key trends.

--  Platform for exploring ideas and stirring discussions - MarketTools

    created an online community called ZoomPanel Moms where more than 10,000

    mothers participate in discussions.  The forum's moderator can post polls,

    activities and questions on behalf of companies that subscribe.

--  Method for validating concepts and ideas - Each subscribing client

    also has a quarterly survey with 500 moms from a nationally representative

    sample so that they can validate and quantify what they learn in the

    community.

--  Fresh and actionable insights - Moms Insight Networks includes a

    quarterly analysis of the trends and issues raised in both the broad

    internet text-analysis and in the ZoomPanel Moms community, along with

    recommendations and implications.

   

"Moms Insight Network is about helping marketers find innovation through collaboration directly with the end consumer," said Emily Morris, MarketTools' Director of Product Marketing, Panels & Communities. "Moms can be distrustful of marketers and often turn to one another for advice and product suggestions rather than blindly believing advertising and marketing messages. By providing a natural forum for moms' conversations, and letting marketers interact with them, we're helping companies get smarter about moms to provide more targeted products and services."

Availability

 

Moms Insight Network subscriptions are available now. For more information, visit: http://www.markettools.com/resources/files/DS_Moms.pdf.

About MarketTools

 

MarketTools is the defining provider of on-demand market research, giving companies and individuals the ability to continuously understand their target customers through innovative approaches based on advanced technology, research expertise, global market reach and an online panel community of over 2.5 million individuals worldwide. MarketTools' full-range of research applications and services provide organizations from Fortune 500 companies to small businesses and non-profits with unique access to their target markets to uncover unmet needs, reduce time to market and capture market share. Further information: www.markettools.com

 

J&J Finds New Homes for Five Brands

J&J Finds New Homes for Five Brands

JWT, Mother and BBDO Pick Up Business Once Handled by McCann ByBrooke Capps Published:

July 03, 2007 NEW YORK (Adage.com) -- Johnson & Johnson has confirmed where brands previously held by Interpublic Group of Cos.' McCann Erickson Worldwide have been landed among the marketer's roster agencies. Related Stories: Johnson & Johnson Seeks Savings With $3 Billion Review Current Agency Arrangements Haven't Yielded Desired Buying Efficiencies As expected, WPP Group's JWT has taken the Reach account and will also service the Band-Aid brand. Omnicom Group's BBDO, which won the Splenda account last week, will also take on below-the-waist brands Monistat and StayFree. The K-Y sexual health brand will land with independent Mother, which currently handles J&J's Rembrant oral-care brand. J&J's global media review, in which Interpublic's Initiative and Universal McCann, Omnicom's OMD and Aegis Group's Carat all stand to receive some business, is expected to be decided soon. BBDO and Mother referred calls to the client. JWT did not return calls seeking comment. J&J pulled the five brands with total 2006 U.S. media spending of $92 million out of McCann Erickson in a roster shakeup stemming from the marketer's acquisition of Pfizer consumer brands late last year. 

New advisory group on health

New advisory group on health

Source: http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2007/06/new-advisory-group-on-health.html

 

6/27/2007 09:50:00 AM

Posted by Missy Krasner, Product Marketing Manager

Every day, people use Google to learn more about an illness, drug, or treatment, or simply to research a condition or diagnosis. We want to help users make more empowered and informed healthcare decisions, and have been steadily developing our ability to make our search results more medically relevant and more helpful to users.

Although we have some talented people here with extensive backgrounds in health policy and technology, this is an especially complex area. We often seek expertise from outside the company, and health is no exception. We have formed an advisory council, made up of healthcare experts from provider organizations, consumer and disease-based groups, physician organizations, research institutions, policy foundations, and other fields. The mission of the Google Health Advisory Council is broadly to help us better understand the problems consumers and providers face every day and offer feedback on product ideas and development. It's a great privilege for us to work with this esteemed group

Google Health Advisory Council
(Institutions or affiliations are listed for identification purposes only.)

Chairman
Dean Ornish, M.D., Founder and President, Preventive Medicine Research Institute, Clinical Professor of Medicine, University of California, San Francisco

Douglas Bell, M.D., Ph.D., Research Scientist, RAND Health, RAND Corporation

Delos M. Cosgrove, M.D., Chief Executive Officer, The Cleveland Clinic

Molly Coye, M.D., M.P.H., Chief Executive Officer, HealthTech

Dan Crippen, Former Congressional Budget Office Director & Reagan White House Assistant

Linda M. Dillman, Executive Vice President, Risk Management, Benefits and Sustainability, Wal-Mart

John Halamka M.D., M.S., Chief Information Officer, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center & Harvard Medical School and Chairman, Healthcare Information Technology Standards Panel (HITSP)

Bernadine Healy M.D., Former head of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), Health Editor & Columnist, U.S. News & World Report

Bernie Hengesbaugh, Chief Operating Officer, The American Medical Association (AMA)

Douglas E. Henley, M.D., F.A.A.F.P., Executive Vice President, American Academy of Family Physicians (AAFP)

David Kessler, M.D.,Former FDA Commissioner, Vice Chancellor-Medical Affairs & Dean, School of Medicine, UCSF

John Lumpkin M.D, Senior Vice President, Director of Health Care Group, Robert Wood Johnson Foundation

John Rother, Group Executive Officer of Policy & Strategy, AARP

Anna-Lisa Silvestre, Vice President, Online Services, Kaiser Foundation Health Plan, Inc.

Greg Simon, J.D., President, FasterCures

Mark D. Smith, M.D., MBA, President & Chief Executive Officer, The California HealthCare Foundation

Paul Tang, M.D., Internist & Vice President, Chief Medical Information Officer, Palo Alto Medical Foundation (PAMF) & Chairman, Board of Directors, American Medical Informatics Association (AMIA)

Sharon Terry, M.A., President & Chief Executive Officer, Genetic Alliance

John Tooker, M.D., MBA, F.A.C.P., Executive Vice President & Chief Executive Officer, American College of Physicians (ACP)

Doug Ulman, President, Lance Armstrong Foundation

Robert M. Wachter, M.D., Professor of Medicine, University of California-San Francisco (UCSF); Associate Chairman, UCSF Department of Medicine; Chief of the Medical Service, UCSF Medical Center

Matthew Zachary, Cancer Patient Advocate, Founder & Executive Director, The I'm Too Young for This! Cancer Foundation for Young Adults

 

The Beryl Companies Partners with CarePages to Enrich Healthcare Consumers' Experience

The Beryl Companies Partners with CarePages to Enrich Healthcare Consumers' Experience

PR Newswire via NewsEdge Corporation :

DALLAS, July 2 /PRNewswire/ -- A newly formed partnership between The Beryl Companies and CarePages, Inc. will offer healthcare consumers greater access to communication resources at a critical time in their lives. Beryl is a leading provider of outsourced call center services, such as physician referral and class/event registrations online and over the phone. CarePages, Inc. is the provider of CarePages.com, the leading online community for people facing illness and recovery. CarePages are free Web pages that help families and friends communicate when a loved one is receiving medical treatment. Together, Beryl and CarePages, Inc. will provide consumers with the opportunity and support to create a CarePage easily and conveniently. This technology and service integration will further support a hospital's acquisition strategies by generating additional call center and Web volume.

Beryl call advisors will assist eligible callers with creating a CarePage for themselves or a loved one. "It takes only a few minutes to set up a CarePage, which can bring immense relief to anyone who is receiving care and their families," said Eric Langshur, CEO, CarePages, Inc. "With the help of Beryl's call advisors, we can let people know about this resource when they call the hospital for a physician or service referral."

As leaders in healthcare customer service, both Beryl and CarePages, Inc. are trusted by hundreds of hospitals to provide consumers with guidance, information and support. "We know that time is precious for our callers -- especially when someone is sick or injured," said Paul Spiegelman, Beryl's founder and CEO. "Our partnership with CarePages is one more way that we can compassionately assist people when they need it most."

About Beryl

Beryl helps organizations grow revenue and build lasting customer relationships by connecting people to healthcare. As a leading provider of outsourced telephone and Web-based communications, Beryl delivers 24/7 exemplary customer service to more than three million consumers each year. Since 1985, hundreds of healthcare organizations have relied on Beryl for best-practices insight and data they can use to make more informed decisions about customer acquisition and retention. For more information about Beryl and its educational arm, The Beryl Institute, visit www.beryl.net.

About CarePages, Inc.

CarePages.com is the nation's leading patient website service and is provided by CarePages, Inc., a Revolution Health Group company. Available free to any family needing care and support, CarePages has over 2 million members, and more than 550 healthcare facilities across the United States and Canada offer their own customized versions of CarePages. For more information, please visit www.carepagesinc.com.

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, a free consumer health and medical website that 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 www.RevolutionHealth.com.

SOURCE The Beryl Companies

 

Wellness community and Web site connects users to local resources

Wellness community and Web site connects users to local resources

Targeted advertising and sponsorship opportunities are available on a new Web site called www.Wellsphere.com . The site is a free online community that aims to help its members find local wellness resources, get answers and advice, and connect with others about health. In addition to consumers, healthcare professionals can also be members, and their profiles are identified as such. Users can ask for advice, answers, or tips and get feedback from the community. Wellsphere.com has a searchable directory of healthcare "Pros," and users can review their services. Videos channels on the site include fitness, nutrition, stress, and wellness, and feature videos about topics ranging from yoga tips to the best way to brush your teeth.

 

Yahoo!'s New 'SmartAds' Meld Brand and Direct Response Advertising

Yahoo!'s New 'SmartAds' Meld Brand and Direct Response Advertising

Business Wire via NewsEdge Corporation :

to Present Highly Targeted Online Display Ads in Real Time to Match a User's Distinctive, Expressed Interests Business Editors/Advertising Editors/High-Tech Editors SUNNYVALE, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--July 2, 2007--Yahoo! Inc. (Nasdaq:YHOO), a leading global Internet company, today announced the launch of Yahoo! SmartAds, a new, innovative advertising platform that allows marketers to deliver powerful, tailored display ads to highly targeted audiences. SmartAds combines Yahoo!'s leading consumer insights and rich media capabilities with new ad serving technology that automatically converts marketers' creative campaign elements and targeted offerings into highly-customized and relevant display ads.

"Yahoo!'s SmartAds gives marketers what they want from online advertising: the ability to deliver customized marketing messages to consumers, and still engage very large audiences with their brand," said Todd Teresi, Yahoo!'s senior vice president of display marketplaces. "By enabling marketers to reach consumers on a more tailored basis and helping creative agencies support those customized campaigns, we can provide an even more engaging, relevant online experience to the more than 500 million users of Yahoo! branded products and services."

Yahoo! SmartAds is powered by Yahoo!'s leading behavioral, demographic and geographic targeting capabilities and aim to connect users with what they are looking for based on their distinctive, expressed interests. For example, if a user is browsing for hybrid cars in Yahoo! Autos and has selected San Francisco as their default location in Yahoo! Weather, Yahoo!'s SmartAds platform can assemble and deliver a display ad in real time that showcases a hybrid vehicle from a major auto brand, as well as local dealer information and current lease rates. This provides a relevant experience to the user and allows the marketer to reach a user who is likely to become a customer.

In addition, Yahoo!'s patent-pending SmartAds platform allows advertisers and agencies to design a single set of individual creative components, provide Yahoo! with that artwork and a feed to their entire database of offers, then allow Yahoo!'s SmartAds technology to automatically generate the hundreds - if not thousands - of unique ad combinations based on those components. This helps advertisers and agencies scale to take full advantage of all of Yahoo!'s audience targeting capabilities while maintaining control over how their brand is presented.

"Yahoo!'s SmartAds is the breakthrough marriage of brand and direct marketing that advertisers have been waiting for," said David Kenny, Chairman, Digitas and Publicis Groupe Digital. "By combining its huge audience, dynamic ad creation capabilities and deep knowledge of user interests, Yahoo! has developed a true innovation that will benefit agencies and its clients, especially companies with a large number of offers to present to many audience segments."

Yahoo! is taking a phased approach to the SmartAds platform, making it available first on its owned and operated properties to travel industry advertisers in the U.S. The company has plans to expand it to additional vertical industries over the coming months and, in the future, deliver Smart Ads on its broader network of sites. In testing conducted on Yahoo! FareChase, SmartAds generally resulted in click through rates of two to three times higher than static, non-customized display ads using the same targeting and placement.

Yahoo! SmartAds furthers the company's long-term advertising and publishing vision: To build the industry's leading advertising and publishing ecosystem - both on and off Yahoo!'s network - and transform how advertisers connect to and engage with their customers. For more information about SmartAds or to view an online demonstration, visit: http://advertising/yahoo.com/smartads.

 

Grand Central acquired by Google for $50 million?

Grand Central acquired by Google for $50 million?

Posted by Garett Rogers @ 2:28 pm

Michael Arrington was right when he heard GrandCentral was either in talks, or has already been acquired by Google. Today Google announced the acquisition on their official blog, though the terms have not yet been disclosed. If Arrington was correct, it’s safe to presume it was around the $50 million dollar mark.

What does this mean? Well, we can only speculate, but it could have a huge impact in several areas for Google. First, imagine having a single, always-on, always-ready, forever available, telephone number that is tied to every phone number you currently have. By signing up, you will have simplified your life and that of anybody else who tries to contact you.

Now imagine having that single phone number tied to your Google Talk instant messenger and Gmail. You can receive phone calls directly on your computer from anyone and listen to voicemail right in Gmail — the latter of which, interestingly enough, can already be used today.

The service is currently now in private beta — you will need an invitation to set up a new account now. You will also find that it only works for American phone numbers so far. There is no word on upcoming features or plans to expand to other countries at this time.