Manhattan Research: Search Engines Used At More Points Along the Treatment Continuum

Search Engines Used At More Points Along the Treatment Continuum, Especially When Consumer Has Symptoms for a Condition

NEW YORK, NY – February 11, 2009 – Consumers are performing pharma-related searches at more points along the treatment continuum, according to pharmaceutical and healthcare market research company Manhattan Research. Consumers are most likely to use search engines for pharma information when they have symptoms for a condition, after receiving a diagnosis from a physician, and before beginning to take a new prescription. The findings come from ePharma Consumer® v8.0, the company’s latest market research and strategic advisory service focused on how consumers find and use pharmaceutical resources online. 

The study also looks at search behaviors for a variety of demographic and condition groups. While Google is the most popular search engine among those online for pharma information as a whole, use of and behavior on Google, Yahoo! Search, MSN Search, AOL Search, and other search engines vary by age, patient condition, and other factors.

“Today's savvy health consumers rely on search engines in a wide variety of situations,” said Meredith Abreu Ressi, Vice President of Research at Manhattan Research. “Companies should tailor keywords, landing pages, and conversion points to be relevant to a variety of stages along the disease continuum. It’s also important for brand teams to take note of search behavior variations between demographic and condition groups when creating a targeted pharma search engine marketing campaign.”

In addition to an analysis of situations in which consumers use search engines, the study looks at search terms used by consumers, factors contributing to perceived trust of search results, and consumer use of paid versus organic search results.
 
About ePharma Consumer® v8.0 
  
ePharma Consumer® v8.0 is Manhattan Research’s consumer market research and strategic advisory service focused on consumers online for pharmaceutical information. In addition to the use of search engines for health and pharma information, ePharma Consumer® covers the impact of social networking/Web 2.0 and tracks consumer interaction with more than 250 branded and unbranded pharmaceutical sites, including in-depth data on the effect of DTC advertising, visitation, site search rationales, desired site tools and features, and actions taken off-site.

ePharma Consumer® v8.0 was conducted via online survey in Q4 2008 among 6,566 adults (age 18+). The study is focused on consumers online for pharmaceutical information. For additional product and subscription information, please visit http://www.manhattanresearch.com/products/Strategic_Advisory/ePC/
 
Some of the product sites covered in ePharma Consumer® include Abilify, Aciphex, Actonel, Advair, Ambien/Ambien CR,  Aranesp, Aricept, Boniva, Botox, Caduet, Chantix, Cialis, Concerta, Crestor, Cymbalta, Depakote, Depo-Provera, Detrol LA, Effexor XR, Enbrel, Flomax, Flonase, Flovent, Fosamax, Gardasil, Humira, Imitrex, Lamisil, Lantus, Lexapro, Levitra, Lipitor, Lunesta, Nasacort, Nasonex, Neulasta, Neurontin, Nexium, Norvasc, NuvaRing, Ortho Evra, Ortho Tri-Cyclen Lo, Paxil, Plavix, Pravachol, Prevacid, Protonix, Provigil, Pulmicort, Restasis, Risperdal, Rozerem, Seasonale, Seroquel, Singulair, Strattera, Tamiflu, Topamax, Toprol XL, TriCor, Valtrex, Viagra, Vytorin, Wellbutrin XL, Yasmin, Yaz, Zocor, Zoloft, Zomig, and Zyprexa.
 
About Manhattan Research
 
Manhattan Research, a Decision Resources, Inc. company, is a leading market research and advisory services firm for global pharmaceutical and healthcare companies. For more information, visit http://www.manhattanresearch.com/, email sales@manhattanresearch.com or call 1.888.680.0800.
 
About Decision Resources, Inc.
 
Decision Resources, Inc. is a cohesive portfolio of companies that offers best-in-class, high-value information and insights on important sectors of the healthcare industry. Clients rely on this analysis and data to make informed decisions. Please visit Decision Resources, Inc. at http://www.decisionresourcesinc.com/. 
 

 

AZ launches branded YouTube channel AND solicits User-Generated Content

AZ Launches Symbicort YouTube Channel

Check it out at www.MyAsthmaStory.com. I think it's the first example I've seen where a pharma company launches a channel that is specifically related to a brand as well as requests patient stories. They also do a good job of clearly outlining some of the "rules" in terms of adverse event reporting so that they don't get in trouble. You can also go there directly: http://www.youtube.com/myasthmastory.

Congrats AZ -- thank you for pushing the envelope and raising the bar!

General Rules Governing Video Submission:

• You must have uncontrolled asthma
• You must be 18 years or older
• Your video should capture your personal stories/experiences about controlling your asthma. You cannot mention any medications you have used by name, or talk about any side effects you may have experienced. (You are encouraged to report negative side effects of prescription drugs to the FDA by visiting FDA.gov/medwatch or calling 800-FDA-1088.)
• Do not show any brand names or trademarks in your video (for example, a logo on a t-shirt)
• Refrain from the use of profanity
• Selected submissions will be posted on the "My Asthma Story" channel within 8-12 weeks of submission
• Selected submissions may be edited by Sponsor prior to posting on the "My Asthma Story" channel due to Pharmaceutical Industry guidelines and Food and Drug Administration regulations. Selected submissions may also be used for other purposes
• Limit one submission per person
• Videos that do not comply with the video specifications or any other requirements stated herein will not be accepted
• All videos submitted will become the property of Sponsor and will not be returned

Health 2.0 "User-Generated Health" Best in Show

Without further ado, Health 2.0 "User-Generated Health" Best in Show (in
no particular order):

1. HealthLibrarian <http://www.healthlibrarian.net/> . User interface,
bad. Search capabilities, goooood. One to watch. These guys are
brilliant and need a user-design friendly developer to slap some nice
facepaint on this one. However, they do the backend design work for
other companies/associations/clients, so pretty is as pretty does here.

2. Voxiva. <http://www.voxiva.com/> International track record for
mobile health applications that drive clinical results. Call CEO Paul
and ask him to tell you about Mexico and Rwanda. Awesome. Lessons to be
learned here abound.

3. ZumeLife <http://www.zumelife.com/> . A pager for health,
essentially, with the Zuri. Disclosure: I am a beta tester of the Zuri.
This is an unpaid gig. I like HIT toys and ZumeLife has been kind enough
to connect me with one that daily monitors metrics I want to track. More
on this later, but this kind of tech is up and coming. See also FitBit
<http://www.fitbit.com/> .

4. iMedix <http://www.imedix.com/> . The app, meh. Decent. The semantic
search tech behind it - whoa. If you watch their demo you'll learn all
you need to know to understand why semantic search is vital for the next
generation of health 2.0 applications and networks. I won't go into gory
details, but this team is patient, hard-working, and cuts through crap
with a knife (including mine) to get things done under pressure. Ask to
see the movie...Also watch the team. These guys are repeat entrepreneurs
with sharp smarts and a great tech development team. Consider the
package deal. A note on international Health 2.0 - watch the Netherlands
<http://www.nexthealth.nl> for patient movements, innovation, and
adoption of EHRs, but watch Israel's Silicon Valley for pure development
power. Also irish eyes are smilin'. Check in with Enda Madden
<http://twitter.com/endamadden> to learn about fascinating developments
on the Emerald Isle.

5. ADAMs Health Navigator. <http://www.adam.com/iphonesn/> For the
iPhone. Drool. If you have an iPhone, it gets five out of five "buy it
now what the hell are you waiting for" stars.

6. Rise of the Caregiver Sites: Careflash.com
<http://www.careflash.com/> is looking like the pretty cousin of the
poor relation it showed last show. Great updates, better UI, and really
useful calendar function. Disclosure: I am considering an advisory board
position (unpaid) with Careflash. Newcomer (to Health 2.0 Conferences
anyway) ENURGI <http://www.enurgi.com/> (pronounced energy) one to
watch. Social network blah but searching for, corresponding with, and
paying caregiver online is, finally, an app that makes sense and is
useful TODAY in real-life scenarios that have highly relevant health
meaning. CEO one to watch with deep experience in her industry, wit, and
verve. Anyone who can rock a demo after a domestic comestible crisis
rocks hardcore.

7. Change:Healthcare <https://www.changehealthcare.com/> . Team. Rockin.
Financial tools for managing and comparing healthcare expenses
regionally is brilliant. Decision support, I likes it. A bit of design
tweaking to come I hope, but this has potential to be online banking for
health. A bit schizophrenic at the moment with where they want to go,
and there are many roads yet to be considered. As with Organized Wisdom
<http://organizedwisdom.com/Home> , another great team (sometimes these
three swooping through the aisles remind me of the male Charlies Angels)
with solid primary product and many miles to go before they sleep.
Here's a cautionary note: Expand where it makes sense. Where can I print
and share and take your recipe cards for health? Who are logical
partners? Don't be Starbucks. Don't carry the puffy, bland, terrible
tasting breakfast sandwiches. Stick to brewing great coffee before brand
and identity dilution kills you. Are you the tree trunk or a mushroom?
Disclosure: The Organized Wisdom crew gifted me with a great kelly green
Organized Wisdom tee. I'm not worthy.

8. American Well <http://www.americanwell.com/> . If they overcome
issues with rollout in island paradise test case Hawaii look for even
bigger things. One issue - where is their physician outreach program?
How will they induce/incite docs to log on to the system and choose
patients with whom they'd like to work? Nice setup with BCBS of Hawaii
because docs they'll use are docs in network, who are compensated for
using the system. Brilliant play within existing payor structure. See
tons of work on other areas (visible in demo, Deep Dive), this portion
of strategy not well illuminated. May be intentional knowing these guys,
who have been go big or go home from the beginning. Repeat team with
proven exits.

9. Disaboom. <http://www.disaboom.com/> Pick for social networking site
worth a damn. Seriously. Take a look. Amen to this being THE ONLY
company who's paid attention to regulations for making websites
accessible to those with hearing/visual impairments. Does what a social
network does when it's working right - becomes integral part of daily
life and ads value, connection, empathic support. Team rocks.

10. MyPacs.Net. <http://www.disaboom.com/> YouTube of radiology.
Awesome. Practical applications with expansion potential like whoa.
Acquired by McKesson. Follow the founder.

11. Ozmosis.com. <https://www.ozmosis.com/home> Social networking for
docs. Invite only. Credentials checked. Team composed of practicing
physicians, who MAINTAIN clinical practice. Plus 20. Functionality blows
Sermo out of the water. And these guys tweet, thank the heavens.

12. EmphasisSearch. <http://www.emphasissearch.com/> Navigating murky
waters of specialist referral at academic medical centers, tertiary care
centers. You're dxd with a zebra. Your PCP has no clue where to send
you. Enter EmphasisSearch. Again, another service that isn't 'sexy' in
terms of design but far more vital solves a REAL, current need. Another
potential acquisition target.

13. FitBrains. <http://www.fitbrains.com/> Several faves on the Gaming
for Health panel, moderated with verve (and interesting door prizes) by
Doug Goldstein. This one's better than Scrabble or Yahoo!Chess. An
online gaming site for the brain gain company with multiple games, ways
to compete against coworkers, etc. And yes, I've, ahem, spent some time
checking it out. Games based on five 'major muscle groups' for the brain
designed around in-depth neuro-clinical studies. Surface AND substance -
warms my heart. Warning - may be more addictive than Fantasy Football in
group settings. Exec points here too. Michael, will you partner with
AARP already?

14. Special Prize: HopeLab. <http://www.hopelab.org/> This is a do good
works, game well company. Disclosure: I participated in HopeLab's
RuckusNation Challenge last year (online judge of plans submitted) -
volunteer, unpaid activity. ReMission
<http://www.hopelab.org/innovative-solutions/re-mission%E2%84%A2/> , a
game HopeLab developed for kids with cancer distributed FREE and based
on an amazing depth of medical and behavioral research, is THE ONLY APP
I downloaded and continued to use at will when it was no longer strictly
necessary for demo purposes. Being Roxy, the nanobot who zaps cancer, is
quite simply addictive. As is the sense of victory that comes with
'adhering' to therapy and using chemo to outwit those nasty blobs of
unruly cell growth. Get a presentation from Richard Tate, who, other
presenters take note - ACTUALLY GAMED FOR MORE THAN A MINUTE while
concurrently navigating his demo. Well worth your time.

15. HealthTalker <http://www.healthtalker.com/> . Fascinating model for
social networking, activities, learning, activism that is condition
centric, paid for by sponsors. Participants get sweet kit in the mail.
Design-oriented and fantastically marketed; thank God for someone that
gets the importance of UI. One to watch. Doing some VERY neat things.
Acquisition target perhaps...

16. Limeade <https://limeade.com/SecureLogin.aspx> . CEO is a force of
vertical nature at work. Henry could sell you a pet rock and make you
feel shiny and happy laying out cash for the purchase. Employer wellness
programs are nothing new, but employee-centric, fun, elegantly designed,
and intensely private programs are. This company is begging for
partnerships with innovative firms like Safeway (yeah, the grocery
chain). Can't take plan with you if you change employers - YET. But
feels trustworthy, like they're one of the only players in the space
looking out for my interests a la regulations
<http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5hCZ7k11w_wfkKNZSynh3plfG0ISwD943M1N0
0> governing employer use of employee wellness info. I'd pay to get,
pay to transfer, carry with me along my Brownian career path (thanks
Carlos Rizo <http://www.linkedin.com/pub/3/824/b75> ) like I do with my
401k vendor. Keep an eye out. This is a big mushroom that would only
benefit from a Sequoia sized tree trunk.

17. Hello Health <https://www.hellohealth.com/main/index.html> /Myca
<http://www.myca.com/> . Jay Parkinson was off rockin' the audience at
Pop!Tech, <http://www.myca.com/pages_eng/videos/poptech2008.html> but
Doc Sean Khozin <http://blog.seankhozin.com/> was onsite doing what he
does best, caring for patients (myself included after some tachycardia
on the morning of day II - scary but inconsequential - thank you Sean,
send me a bill!) and talking about the platform Myca has built that lets
him do that. Key words: caring, lets, platform. What it's all about
people. Size, scalability, future competition in the space are biggest
issues here, but oh, yes, keep watching.

18. MedicalPlexus. <http://www.medicalplexus.com/> Design, UI icky but
neat FaceBook for doc groups. Team is young, well-educated. Sermo group
fools if they don't buy this company and these guys while they're still
accessible. Ozmosis team take a look too.

19. KwikMed. <http://kwikmed.com/> "Only" for a lot of online pharmacy
stuff, including licensed to prescribe online (betcha didn't know that
was out there, did ya? Join the club). Ask founder/CEO to tell you the
story of how and why he started company. Hint: It involves the little
blue pill. Again, exec team huge plus. Got their stuff together. Going
after existing market. If I was Target or Safeway I'd buy them, roll
them in, become part of 2 prong strategy including onsite minute/retail
clinic partner.

18. Plus3Network. <http://plus3network.com/> The fitness user's friend.
Huge growth potential with Outside-reading, urban-biking, occasional 5k
running crowd. Right now more 'serious' fitness users (triathletes,
people who bike to work, etc) than weekend warriors, but an awesome site
with a do-good be-well model. Can organize group activities, see what
other people around the world are setting up (great to set up, say,
international health group meeting to be conducted during a bike tour of
The Netherlands...rubbing chin....). You choose a corporate sponsor,
work towards nifty prizes, and help them raise funds. Awesome model.
Talk to the CEO. Great guy, got his head on straight.

19. ZocDoc.com <http://www.zocdoc.com/> . 3M in funding from Khosla
Ventures. Former McKinsey team that picks their people carefully. Wore
orange scrubs at previous demo gig. Verve for presenting, and
substantive bedrock of kick-ass, specialist doc and dentist booking
software beneath it all. Wish they'd been on mainstage. They need to
expand outside the Big Apple, and Ted Eytan we better hope they pick DC
next. Put it this way. If they called, and I was on the other line with
someone, I'd hang up to talk to them. Pronto.

20. <http://www.qtrait.com/> QTrait <http://www.qtrait.com/> . Opposites
attract, genetic profile dating. Craziness. Actually some nifty genetic
stuff (a la carte genotyping?) I'll probably buy this year, or ask to
receive for Christmas. Founder bench strength and background like whoa.
One to watch. Best of breed for consumer-friendly design. Others take
note. Lose the circa 1999 interfaces. Probably will be all over
press/media this year. If you're interested in the genetics stuff (and
with Sarah Palin's assertion this week about pet projects like 'fruit
fly testing in Paris France, I kid you not!' being a waste of funds
<http://nl.youtube.com/watch?v=PUe4pzIhlDw#t=1m19s> , you should be) -
take a look that the discussion on this beta tester's blog:
http://bustermcleod.livejournal.com/196345.html.
<http://bustermcleod.livejournal.com/196345.html>

21. PrivateAccess: <https://www.privateaccess.info/> Most complete
trial platform I've seen. Helps take what is a VERY acutely subjective
phase of healthcare decision making for consumer and provider and put it
into objective steps, easy to follow and understand terminology. Team
worked like dervishes to pull this off in time and is drum tight. A top
5 must-follow for next year.

22. USPreventiveMedicine
<http://www.uspreventivemedicine.com/?gclid=CPPX172xzZYCFRMvHgodAxkozA>
. Wellness and disease management platform. Bigger, sexier, better
designed DM. For a 'Health 2.0 company' really deep founder, exec team,
and advisory board strength. Also tiptoeing towards policy recs and
advocacy.

Source:
http://healthmgmtrx.blogspot.com/2008/10/health-20-review-smoke-fires-an
d.html

Autor: Jen McCabe Gorman (blogger profile:
http://www.blogger.com/profile/12280837167883024960)

Clients Unimpressed by Their Agencies - Still Won't Switch

Clients Unimpressed by Their Agencies - Still Won't Switch

January 19, 2009 // Marketing VOX

Only 41% of marketing executives rate their current happiness with their
ad agency an 8+ on a 1-10 scale.

Still, 62% say they still would likely use their agency again, according
to a survey from by Reardon Smith Whittaker <http://www.rswus.com>
(RSW).

These results suggest that willingness to hold on to an agency is most
likely driven by a feeling among clients that their agency's performance
isn't bad enough to justify termination - especially in light of the
large amounts of time, effort, and energy involved in changing agencies,
MarketingCharts writes
<http://www.marketingcharts.com/topics/creative-issues/clients-lukewarm-
on-agency-performance-but-still-wont-switch-7554/> .

The survey, undertaken to determine the overall level of satisfaction
with agencies and trends in the industry, found that a key challenge for
agencies in maintaining client happiness is keeping the "fire burning
bright" - after the initial win. Only half (50%) of clients say their
agency's performance actually matched up with their expectations when
the agency was first hired. These low ratings are a function of a lot of
over-promising during the pitch phase or just general waning enthusiasm
on the part of the agency and marketer after the "marriage," RSW
reported.

Additional survey findings:

* The overall tenure of agencies has remained flat since 2006.
* Marketers are not afraid to make changes if things aren't going
their way and many seem to enjoy it. A significant number of respondents
say they either "look forward to it" or "find it exciting" when looking
for a new agency.
* Skepticism about what marketers feel they can expect from
agencies appears to be a growing trend, RSW said. Over the past three
years, there has been a steady increase in the number of marketing
clients who feel uneasy with the agency world.
* Only 18% of clients say they have some kind of pay for
performance program in place (as compared with 23% in 2006). However,
while this type of model may not be taking hold, marketing clients are
shifting to digital mediums where success can more easily be tracked
(e.g. click-through rates, acquisition rates for e-campaigns).
* Issues related to "strategy," "creative," and "being proactive"
were all top areas that marketing clients said were key deficiencies
that trigger reviews.
* 61% of clients say three to four is typically the number of
agencies they consider when conducting a review.
* There is a decline in the percentage of companies stating that
they have an approved list of agencies from which they can choose. Only
18% of marketing clients state that this is a process that their company
follows. This compares with 23% stating they had an official roster
policy in 2007 and 22% in 2006.
* 24% of marketers said they had a procurement specialist involved
in the review process. Though this is not significant growth over last
year (21%), this number might increase in light of mounting ecomomic
pressures.The aspects of new business pitches that are most critical to
clients in deciding whether to hire an agency are an understanding of
the company and the market, and the quality of the creative:
* More clients are seeking specialized services to address their
needs. This is consistent with the three year trend - where there is an
apparent decrease in the number of "full service agencies" being
assigned business among the clients sampled since 2006.
* In terms of types of specialized services, the majority of
clients are particularly interested in digital.

About the research: The 2008 Client's Perspective on Agencies
<http://www.rswus.com/surveyform.htm> was completed by 184 key
marketing decision makers from across the US during November, 2008. This
study was commissioned by RSW. The sample came from RSW's database of
decision makers each with marketing budgets estimated to be in excess of
$1M per year. Some of the larger companies represented include Citibank,
General Mills, Hoovers, Abbott, IBM, Alberto, Bell South, Heinz, Bayer,
Dunkin Donuts, GE, Rubbermaid, ESPN and others.

Source:
http://www.marketingvox.com/clients-unimpressed-by-their-agencies-still-
wont-switch-042806/

Worth a look: Roche Web site lets users spice up blood glucose meters

Roche Web site lets users spice up blood glucose meters

A new Roche Web site is making blood glucose meters funky through cell
phone-esque personalization. The site allows visitors to create their
own mini music video featuring an ACCU-CHEK Aviva blood glucose meter.
The site, www.rockmymeter.com, lets visitors personalize the look and
feel of the meter by designing a virtual meter skin, picking or creating
original music, and having it dance. The finished creation displays on a
video billboard and others can vote on it. Visitors can send their
creation to friends via e-mail or post it on MySpace, Facebook, and
other sites.

Fg opinon: Great idea. Clunky flash file despite a rip-roaring
high-speed connection. Some neat programming. Awful creative
presentation -- something you would expect to see on a CD-ROM in the
late 90s.

Plan B banner ad on MTV.com raises eyebrows

Plan B banner ad on MTV.com raises eyebrows

The emergency contraceptive pill Plan B is running a banner ad on MTV.com. According to Advertising Age, the placement is raising eyebrows because of MTV's young users. Although Quantcast data show that almost one-third of MTV.com users are under 18, Duramed cited ComScore data when it told Ad Age that the average age of MTV.com visitors is 24.7 and 15% of the site's users are younger than 17. The drug is stocked behind the counter and is available without a prescription for women 18 and older. The banner ad drives users to the Web site go2planb.com, "because the unexpected happens," reports Ad Age.

 

Site helps marketers keep an eye on social media, their brands

Site helps marketers keep an eye on social media, their brands

Ogilvy Public Relations has launched a social media RSS dashboard for PR and marketing professionals. The site, www.thedailyinfluence.com, delivers social media, word-of-mouth, PR, and marketing news and information. Marketers can customize one view to serve as a simple "listening post-lite" for their brand or their client to know what people are saying in consumer-generated media. Ogilvy is teaming with Netvibes, an RSS reader and widget platform, for the site.

What Is Transparency?

Friday, January 9, 2009
What Is Transparency?
By Max Kalehoff

Wired editor and "The Long Tail" author Chris Anderson introduces  the Conservation Law of Transparency -- meaning you can't be open in all things all the time. While that may be true, his argument subtly implies that transparency is an absolute. I'm not sure if that was intended, but it's a false and important assumption to address within an otherwise interesting concept.

Chris's explanation of the Law includes descriptions such as "truly transparent" and "true transparency." Even his phrase "can't be transparent about everything all the time" suggests one either IS or IS NOT absolutely transparent about certain things and not about others.

Here's the problem: unless your context is physics (i.e., the ability of light to travel through an object), transparency is largely subjective, and varies across groups and individuals. Social norms rarely exist that allow agreement on whether something is transparent or not. Sorry, life's messy.

Transparency has problems similar to its cousin, full disclosure, which was born in the halls of the SEC. It was intended as a regulatory guarantee that a company's material news reached all stakeholders equitably, says my PR guru friend,  Peter Himler. When applied liberally -- beyond a narrow, technical circumstance -- full disclosure and transparency fall victim to subjectivity, becoming nothing more than aspirations. Aspirations are noble, but NOT absolutes. I suppose you could be absolute in your commitment to an aspiration, though.

Also, Chris is wise to acknowledge the cost of transparency: "Transparency is hard work. Constantly updating the world on your status can become a job all by itself." Indeed, a full, absolute commitment to transparency in every aspect of one's life would be inefficient, and probably shut life down.

There's also a cost -- if not conflict -- associated with ethics and standards. For example, would it be wise for a returning soldier from Iraq to be completely transparent with his four-year-old son about what it's like to kill another man? Certainly not immediately, but perhaps when the child is older. Or, should a dinner guest be completely transparent about how disgusting the host's cooking is? I would argue no.

So, what is transparency, anyway? What do you think? In the circumstance, you have license to be brutally honest -- er, transparent -- with me.

Post your response to the public Online SPIN blog.

See what others are saying on the Online SPIN blog.

Max Kalehoff is vice president of marketing for Clickable, a search-marketing solution for small and mid-size businesses. He also writes AttentionMax.com

Skyscape's iPhone App drives network to 925,000 healthcare pros

Skyscape's iPhone App drives network to 925,000 healthcare pros

Skyscape's iPhone App downloads have driven the Skyscape user network to more than 925,000 healthcare professionals, the company said. Skyscape reports that more than 100,000 healthcare professionals have installed the software. iPhone software by Skyscape includes access to drug information, drug interactions, clinical and evidence-based information, and guidelines. It also features the MedAlert service, which provides medical news, research and clinical trials updates, and journal summaries by specialty.

CIGNA program rewards members for healthy activities

CIGNA program rewards members for healthy activities

CIGNA has launched a new Incentive Points Program, which allows covered patients to earn points for participating in health-related activities. The points are redeemable for gift cards, merchandise, and other rewards, such as travel packages. The program is available to employer customers who choose to offer it to their employees. Enrollees can earn points for participating in activities such as completing health assessments or biometric screenings; reaching milestones in any of CIGNA's eight disease management programs; or actively participating in a lifestyle management program. Users can monitor their points through myCigna.com.

America's Pharmaceutical Research Companies Enhance Voluntary Guidelines on Direct-to-Consumer Advertising

America's Pharmaceutical Research Companies Enhance Voluntary Guidelines
on Direct-to-Consumer Advertising

Washington, D.C. (December 10, 2008) - Affirming its commitment to
responsible direct-to-consumer (DTC) advertising that benefits public
health, the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA)
Board of Directors has adopted measures to strengthen the PhRMA Guiding
Principles on Direct to Consumer Advertisements about Prescription
Medicines.

PhRMA's voluntary Guiding Principles, which originally went into effect
in January 2006, provide guidance to pharmaceutical research and
biotechnology companies on ways to ensure that DTC communications
provide accurate, accessible and useful information to patients and
consumers.

In numerous studies and surveys, DTC advertising has been shown to play
a key role in educating and empowering patients, improving patient
understanding of disease and available treatments, and fostering strong
relationships between patients and their healthcare providers. By
facilitating patient-physician interactions, DTC advertising helps
reduce undiagnosed and under-treated serious conditions such as
diabetes, hypertension and depression, benefiting not only individual
patients but the entire healthcare system.

Reflecting feedback from physician groups, policymakers and other
stakeholders, the revised Guiding Principles are part of an ongoing
effort to enhance the educational potential of DTC communications, while
maintaining respect for the patient-provider relationship. Generally,
the revised Principles address aspects of DTC ranging from healthcare
professionals and celebrities featured in advertisements, to
presentation of balanced benefit and risk information, to the
appropriate timing and placement of advertisements with adult-oriented
content.

"Pharmaceutical research companies for years have voluntarily exceeded
regulatory requirements for direct-to-consumer advertising of
prescription medicines," said PhRMA President and CEO Billy Tauzin. "Our
Guiding Principles help ensure that DTC advertising appropriately and
accurately conveys important information about medical conditions,
medicines and other treatment options."

"Through these strengthened Principles, we renew our commitment to work
with the Food and Drug Administration and healthcare professionals to
further enhance the value of balanced DTC education for consumers and
patients," added Tauzin.

The revised Principles, which take effect March 2, 2009, include the
following enhancements:

A new principle states that DTC product advertisements featuring actors
in the roles of healthcare professionals should identify that actors are
being used. If actual healthcare professionals are featured and are
compensated for their appearance, the advertisement should acknowledge
the compensation.

An added principle provides that DTC television or print advertisements
featuring a celebrity endorser should accurately reflect the opinions,
findings, beliefs or experience of the endorser. Companies should
maintain verification of the basis of any actual or implied endorsement,
including whether the endorser is or has been a user of the product.

A new principle highlights the legal requirement that DTC print
advertisements should include FDA's MedWatch number for reporting of
potential adverse events and DTC television advertisements should
include the company's toll-free number or refer patients to a print
advertisement that contains the MedWatch number.

An existing principle regarding education of health professionals prior
to a DTC campaign for a new medicine or indication is expanded to add
that companies should consider individually setting specific periods of
time for education before launching a branded DTC campaign.

A revised principle includes language strengthening guidance related to
the content and placement of DTC advertisements with adult-oriented
content. Specifically, the new version states that DTC television or
print advertisements "containing content that may be inappropriate for
children" should be placed in programs or publications "reasonably
expected to draw an audience of approximately 90 percent adults (18
years or older)."

An existing requirement addressing risk-benefit balance in DTC
advertising is strengthened to specify that risks and safety
information, including the substance of relevant boxed warnings, should
be "presented with reasonably comparable prominence to the benefit
information, in a clear, conspicuous and neutral manner, and without
distraction from the content."

Other revisions to the Guiding Principles include: a clarification that
companies should "not promote medicines for off-label uses, including in
DTC advertisements"; a revised principle requiring companies to seek and
consider feedback from healthcare professionals and consumers during the
development of new DTC ad campaigns "to gauge the educational impact for
patients and consumers"; a revised principle stating that in light of
inherent limits on the amount of information that can be conveyed in a
DTC television communications, television advertisements should direct
consumers to print advertisements and/or web sites where they can find
additional benefit and risk information; and strengthened language
calling for companies to include messages about help for the uninsured
and underinsured in DTC communications.

As with the original version, the revised Principles envision that
PhRMA's Office of Accountability will collect comments about DTC
advertisements and issue periodic reports to the public and FDA. In
addition, recognizing that there is room for enhanced public
accountability for DTC advertising, the new Guiding Principles provide
that company CEOs and Compliance Officers will certify each year that
they have processes in place to comply with the Principles. PhRMA will
post on its web site a list of all companies that announce their pledge
to follow the Principles and information about the status of companies'
annual certifications.

How Obama Tapped Into Social Networks' Power

November 10, 2008

The Media Equation

How Obama Tapped Into Social Networks’ Power (New York Times)

By DAVID CARR

In February 2007, a friend called Marc Andreessen, a founder of Netscape and a board member of Facebook, and asked if he wanted to meet with a man with an idea that sounded preposterous on its face.

Always game for something new, Mr. Andreessen headed to the San Francisco airport late one night to hear the guy out. A junior member of a large and powerful organization with a thin, but impressive, résumé, he was about to take on far more powerful forces in a battle for leadership.

He wondered if social networking, with its tremendous communication capabilities and aggressive database development, might help him beat the overwhelming odds facing him.

“It was like a guy in a garage who was thinking of taking on the biggest names in the business,” Mr. Andreessen recalled. “What he was doing shouldn’t have been possible, but we see a lot of that out here and then something clicks. He was clearly supersmart and very entrepreneurial, a person who saw the world and the status quo as malleable.”

And as it turned out, President-elect Barack Obama was right.

Like a lot of Web innovators, the Obama campaign did not invent anything completely new. Instead, by bolting together social networking applications under the banner of a movement, they created an unforeseen force to raise money, organize locally, fight smear campaigns and get out the vote that helped them topple the Clinton machine and then John McCain and the Republicans.

As a result, when he arrives at 1600 Pennsylvania, Mr. Obama will have not just a political base, but a database, millions of names of supporters who can be engaged almost instantly. And there’s every reason to believe that he will use the network not just to campaign, but to govern. His e-mail message to supporters on Tuesday night included the line, “We have a lot of work to do to get our country back on track, and I’ll be in touch soon about what comes next.” The incoming administration is already open for business on the Web at Change.gov, a digital gateway for the transition.

The Bush campaign arrived at the White House with a conviction that it would continue a conservative revolution with the help of Karl Rove’s voter lists, phone banks and direct mail. But those tools were crude and expensive compared with what the Obama camp is bringing to the Oval Office.

“I think it is very significant that he was the first post-boomer candidate for president,” Mr. Andreessen said. “Other politicians I have met with are always impressed by the Web and surprised by what it could do, but their interest sort of ended in how much money you could raise. He was the first politician I dealt with who understood that the technology was a given and that it could be used in new ways.”

The juxtaposition of a networked, open-source campaign and a historically imperial office will have profound implications and raise significant questions. Special-interest groups and lobbyists will now contend with an environment of transparency and a president who owes them nothing. The news media will now contend with an administration that can take its case directly to its base without even booking time on the networks.

More profoundly, while many people think that President-elect Obama is a gift to the Democratic Party, he could actually hasten its demise. Political parties supply brand, ground troops, money and relationships, all things that Mr. Obama already owns.

And his relationships are not the just traditional ties of Democrats — teachers’ unions, party faithful and Hollywood moneybags — but a network of supporters who used a distributed model of phone banking to organize and get out the vote, helped raise a record-breaking $600 million, and created all manner of media clips that were viewed millions of times. It was an online movement that begot offline behavior, including producing youth voter turnout that may have supplied the margin of victory.

“Thomas Jefferson used newspapers to win the presidency, F.D.R. used radio to change the way he governed, J.F.K. was the first president to understand television, and Howard Dean saw the value of the Web for raising money,” said Ranjit Mathoda, a lawyer and money manager who blogs at Mathoda.com. “But Senator Barack Obama understood that you could use the Web to lower the cost of building a political brand, create a sense of connection and engagement, and dispense with the command and control method of governing to allow people to self-organize to do the work.”

All of the Obama supporters who traded their personal information for a ticket to a rally or an e-mail alert about the vice presidential choice, or opted in on Facebook or MyBarackObama can now be mass e-mailed at a cost of close to zero. And instead of the constant polling that has been a motor of presidential governance, an Obama White House can use the Web to measure voter attitudes.

“When you think about it, a campaign is a start-up business,” Mr. Mathoda said. “Other than his speech in 2004 at the convention and his two books, Mr. Obama had very little in terms of brand to begin with, and he was up against Senator Clinton, who had all the traditional sources of power, and then Senator McCain. But he had the right people and the right idea to take them on. When you think about it, it was like he was going up against Google and Yahoo. And he won.”

There is tremendous power in opening citizen access to government — think of how much good will and support Mayor Michael Bloomberg garnered by coming up with 311, a one-stop phone number for New Yorkers who had a problem.

But now Senator Obama’s 20-month conversation with the electorate enters a new phase. There is sense of ownership, a kind of possessive entitlement, on the part of the people who worked to elect him. The shorthand for his organizing Web site, “MyBO,” says it all.

“People will continue to expect a conversation, a two-way relationship that is a give and take,” said Thomas Gensemer, managing partner of Blue State Digital, which helped conceive and put into effect Obama’s digital outreach. “People who were part of the campaign will opt in to political or governing tracks and those relationships will continue in some form.”

The founders of America wanted a government that reflected its citizens, but would be at remove from the baser impulses of the mob. The mob, flush with victory, is at hand, but instead of pitchforks and lanterns, they have broadband and YouTube. Like every other presidency, the Obama administration will have its battles with the media, but that may seem like patty-cake if it runs afoul of the self-publishing, self-organizing democracy it helped create — say, by delaying health care legislation or breaking a promise on taxes.

That’s the thing about pipes today: they run both ways.

“It’s clear there has been a dramatic shift,” said Andrew Rasiej, the founder of the Personal Democracy Forum, an annual conference about the intersection of politics and technology. “Any politician who fails to recognize that we are in a post-party era with a new political ecology in which connecting like minds and forming a movement is so much easier will not be around long.

“Yes, we have met Big Brother, the one who is always watching. And Big Brother is us.”

E-mail: carr@nytimes.com

 

KPR to fold after losing out in J&J consolidation

by Matthew Arnold / Medical Marketing & Media

November 25, 2008

One of medical advertising's oldest shops - KPR, founded in 1962 - will cease to operate as an independent agency, having lost most of its business in the Johnson & Johnson advertising consolidation.

The KPR brand could live on under the umbrella of an Omnicom sibling, said Pat Sloan, SVP and corporate director for Omnicom's Diversified Agency Services group. Some of KPR's core staff of around 40 may be transferred to other Omnicom agencies, including Harrison & Star, while others will be let go.

“It's still an iconic brand,” said Sloan. “The aim is that it could live on under another network. We're looking to redistribute talent wherever possible and minimize layoffs.”

The Omnicom professional shop, once one of the biggest names in medical advertising, had shrunk to a shadow of its former self in recent years. Its largest account was golimumab, a premarket human monoclonal antibody being developed by J&J's Centocor for the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis. WPP's Sudler & Hennessey will take on that business, sources said, and KPR's remaining assignments, including smaller accounts from Schering-Plough and Jazz Pharmaceuticals, could migrate to other Omnicom agencies.  

The agency's much larger Omnicom sibling Cline, Davis & Mann had a lot of J&J business, but boasts a broad client base and is well-equipped to weather the losses. Other big J&J agencies losing business in the consolidation include Razorfish and inVentiv's GSW.

J&J consolidated the advertising business on its prescription drug brands into WPP and Interpublic Group several weeks ago, following a three-month pitch pitting the winning holding companies against Omnicom, Publicis, HAVAS and inVentiv.

KPR was founded in 1962 by John Kallir, Jerry Phillips and MM&M editor-at-large Warren Ross. The shop's early successes included the launches of Haldol and Motrin, as well as a groundbreaking professional campaign that propelled Tylenol from sleepy treatment for pediatric fever to top-selling OTC analgesic. More recent assignments have included Sanofi-Aventis' Ketek and the launch of J&J's Risperdal Consta.

DTC Spending Falls for Second Consecutive Year

Recession, Regulation and Fewer Blockbusters Mean Less Ads

By Rich Thomaselli

Published: November 12, 2008

NEW YORK (AdAge.com) -- Big pharma might not be so recession-proof, after all.

Throughout previous economic downturns in the advertising world, the one bellwether of hope was always the pharmaceutical industry. Even as the dot-com boom went bust in the early part of this decade, and overall ad spending began to drop, direct-to-consumer (DTC) spending by drug companies continued to rise every year.

But not this time.

According to a new study by TNS Media Intelligence, DTC spending is down for the second consecutive year and likely will not reach the $5 billion mark by the end of 2008 that many media companies had counted on.

Total down 6.3%
In "Advertising Investment Trend Report: Direct-to-Consumer Pharmaceutical Industry," TNS reports that in the first eight months of this year, total measured DTC ad spending was down 6.3% to $3.175 billion compared with the same time period last year. That projects to $4.76 billion in total spending through the end of 2008, compared with $5.26 billion in spending in 2007, which would be a drop of more than 9%.

DTC spending trends 1998 $1.2 billion 1999 $1.6 billion 2000 $2.5 billion 2001 $2.7 billion 2002 $2.6 billion 2003 $3.1 billion 2004 $4.4 billion 2005 $4.6 billion 2006 $5.4 billion 2007 $5.2 billion 2008 $4.7 billion* *Projected by year's end Source: PharmaMarketing News and TNS Media Intelligence

This would be the second consecutive year that DTC ad spending fell after reaching a peak of $5.4 billion in 2006.

"The pharmaceutical category is closely watched within the ad industry for indications of the health and direction of marketing budgets," Jon Swallen, senior VP Research for TNS Media Intelligence, says in the report. "When drug-makers sneeze, ad buyers and sellers worry about catching a cold."

They're probably worried about catching the flu right about now.

Non-branded worst off
TNS reports that the cutbacks were most pronounced in non-branded advertising by pharmaceutical houses, including their corporate promotion messages and ads to promote awareness of specific conditions. The annualized rate of spending for this segment has plummeted by 63% since 2006.

But DTC prescription ad spending was down 3.6% in the first eight months of the year. The projected $4.76 billion ad spend for this year is $700 million less than the peak of 2006 and is almost back to 2005 levels of $4.6 billion.

The reasons for the decline are many and varied. The economy is certainly one problem, with drug makers among the many companies slashing staff -- including sales reps.

Fewer drugs launched
In addition, pharmaceutical experts and observers have been saying for years that the drug pipeline in virtually every company is dry, which means fewer drugs are being brought to market. Simply put, the blockbusters just aren't there. In 2007, the top three marketing launches of the year -- Veramyst (allergy), Orencia (arthritis) and Vyvanse (ADHD) -- had a combined ad spend of $210 million. Compare that with 2006's top three of Rozerem (insomnia), Gardasil (cervical cancer) and Spiriva (allergies), which spent a combined $400 million. Or 2005's Lunesta (insomnia), AmbienCR (insomnia) and Boniva (osteoporosis), which had a combined ad spend of $594 million.

And, certainly, the continuing debate in Washington, D.C. regarding prescription medication safety, labeling and marketing restrictions remains a thorn in the side of the industry. With the increased Congressional scrutiny of the last three years, TNS found that the lag time between Food and Drug Administration approval of a new drug and its first appearance in a DTC ad campaign has increased dramatically -- from 6.1 months in 2004 to 12.4 months in 2007, and a projected 14.1 months for drugs introduced this year.

 

The identity crisis of today's ad agencies

The identity crisis of today's ad agencies

By Lori Luechtefeld

Industry experts discuss the evolving shape of the modern agency and debate the merits of hiring new digital talent vs. retraining their traditional counterparts.

Once upon a time, the phrase "advertising agency" conjuredup a very definite image -- one of smoked-filled rooms and mile-long conference tables, across which creative geniuses would rapid-fire pitches at one another in hopes of hitting on that one "big idea." It's the nostalgic scotch-soaked notion of the ad agency famously portrayed on the hit show "Mad Men."  

But that's not the modern agency. In fact, most industry participants today would be hard-pressed to define what exactly the phrase "the modern agency" means. However, few would argue that the digital revolution has forever changed the marketing game. And it's little wonder that many of today's advertising agencies are going through an identity crisis.

Large traditional creative shops are rethinking their offerings, expanding into all things digital. Agency holding companies are restructuring to better leverage their digital resources. And all the while, new digitally focused agencies continue to spring onto the scene.

So, during this time when the ad agency model is very much in flux, what is working?

Speaking on a Tuesday panel at ad:tech New York, Nancy Hill, president and CEO of the American Association of Advertising Agencies, outlined three approaches that she's currently seeing marketers take when it comes to their agency relationships. The first model is one in which a client selects one lead entity -- at either the holding company or agency level -- and grants it the power to oversee all marketing efforts and partners. The second model is one in which the client itself assumes that leadership role. And the third model is one in which a client hires a slew of agencies and tells them to go collaborate.

"Two of the models work, and one of them absolutely does not," Hill said. The third model, she said, is destined to fail -- and yet it's the model being used most often. "And that's where the fighting comes in because there is no clear mission," Hill said, noting that it's imperative from a marketer's perspective to have one throat to choke at the end of the day.

Whether it's a specialized digital agency looking to broaden its client base or a traditional agency looking to expand its offerings into the interactive realm, few industry participants dispute that much of the future growth in marketing will come on the interactive side. Thus, panel moderator Suzanne Vranica, an advertising and marketing columnist for The Wall Street Journal, wondered aloud whether the potential growth of advertising agencies would be stifled by the lack of available digital talent in the job pool.

"In spite of the talent issue, everyone I have talked to has an open head count and is hiring," Hill responded. The trick, she added, is making the agency side of the marketing business attractive to candidates with the needed digital expertise.

Sean Finnegan, president and chief digital officer of Starcom MediaVest Group, pointed out that it's not all about recruiting new digital talent to the agency side of marketing. It's also about retraining industry veterans.

"We have people with 15 to 25 years in the business, and they are making a choice to change and adapt into this digital culture," he said. "Smart digital agencies are the ones that are embracing these people, involving them in the process, and training and educating them. They have a lot of intangible assets, and they bring a level of talent that some of the new digital folks just aren't going to pick up on the fly."

To this point, Tom Bedecarre, CEO of AKQA, disagreed with Finnegan. According to Bedecarre, hope for the future of digital marketing lies largely with the youth. "Young people who are coming up in the industry are so naturally cross-platform savvy," he said. "All this digital technology is human nature to young people. So I think we'll have more luck training new people than retraining old people."

Richard Guest, managing director, New York, at Tribal DDB Worldwide, sided with Finnegan on the issue of digital hires. "I think we have to separate technical expertise and knowledge from marketing expertise and knowledge," he said, noting that his agency has opted to retrain many marketers from the traditional agency side.

Beyond staffing for the digital future, Guest also noted that agencies must also find a way to clearly convey their value in an increasingly cluttered marketplace. When it comes to agencies, he said, clients are getting tired of having to listen to so many voices. "In a modern era, where consumers are increasingly skeptical, I think the best voices will rise to the top," he said.

But the shape that those "best voices" will take remains to be seen. To some extent, the continued evolution of the advertising agency is all about money, Bedecarre said.

"Traditional agencies see the handwriting on the wall -- that they're going to be out of business if they don't jump over to digital media and digital technology," he said. Marketers today are less likely to simply hire a traditional agency and a digital agency and then tell them to play nice together. The lines are blurring, and so are agency distinctions.

"It is about money and being relevant and not losing a seat at the table," Bedecarre said.

source: http://www.imediaconnection.com/content/21060.asp

As the Lines Blur, Digital Agencies Are Taking Lead

As the Lines Blur, Digital Agencies Are Taking Lead

Agency-of-Record Status Can Go to Anyone;  Just Ask Tribal or TequilaBy Rupal Parekh and Abbey Klaassen Published:

October 27, 2008  NEW YORK (AdAge.com) --
Digital agencies are not only being invited to pitch brands as agencies of record -- increasingly, they're winning.

Just last month, Tribal DDB was selected to lead global brand advertising for web security firm McAfee. Said the company's CMO, David Milam, at the time: "McAfee evaluated a number of agencies, and the team at Tribal DDB demonstrated strength in every aspect of their business. Not only did Tribal DDB have a number of great creative directions but, more importantly, they backed them up with strong strategic insights."

Liz Ross, president-Americas and global CMO, Tribal DDB Worldwide While most clients still seek best-in-class specialists for every discipline, more are showing interest in digital agencies to serve as the lead on integrated communications efforts, consultants said.

The uptick is particularly visible among marketers in the retail sector and other product categories where there is opportunity for e-commerce. What's more, clients are becoming less and less fixated on the type of agency handling their ad accounts and more on the individual brains behind the marketing campaigns.

On their own merits

Omnicom Group's Tequila, New York, this year was appointed the U.S. agency for VisitBritain, the national tourist office for England, Scotland and Wales; last spring IMC2 was tapped to handle all creative, media and strategy for Mars Direct, which makes personalized M&M's and Dove chocolates; and AKQA is getting ready to roll out TV and web campaigns for Flip, the sub-$100 digital video camera that has created amateur cinematographers out of the YouTube masses, as part of its agency-of-record duties.

Clients "don't care as much as we care about what kind of agency they are working with," said Liz Ross, president-Americas and global CMO, Tribal DDB Worldwide, which was invited to pitch Jose Cuervo tequila alongside traditional shops including Publicis Groupe's Bartle Bogle Hegarty and WPP Group's JWT.

"They are looking for a marketing partner and group of people that understand their business and their brand. A lot of the old, bigger agencies are trapped in their old structures, so it's really about who has the best talent."

"We've been the lead agency on a lot of projects, from small start-ups to very, very large companies," said Rick Webb, partner-chief operating officer, Barbarian Group. "The trend is definitely going on." Technology companies are another hot space for digital agencies to forge agency-of-record relationships, Mr. Webb said, citing his agency's AOR relationship with Adobe for its Photoshop Express product as an example. In addition to online duties, Barbarian Group also handles outdoor, guerrilla and word-of-mouth marketing efforts for the brand. "Digital shops are also shining through in those pitches because they get their products and their business.

A common brief is to drive traffic ... if they are talking to us or an AKQA vs. the Kaplan Thaler Group, [digital agencies] are going to have this natural advantage."

Shifting priorities

The choice to tap AKQA as agency of record last spring wasn't a knock on DDB, the agency it worked with to launch the brand in 2007, said Scott Kabat, director-marketing at Flip marketer Pure Digital. Instead it was a realization that the company's 2008 plans were going to be heavily focused on digital.

"We learned a lot through the process, and it made us really confident that AKQA, either in-house or working with partners, could deliver an integrated plan," he said. "We were impressed with their strategic insight and their ideas around a campaign platform."

The agency's first work was both digital and promotional, tying the Flip Mino to the Vans Warped concert tour. Upcoming holiday work will be a "combination of online, events and some TV presence -- but different than traditional TV advertising," said Mr. Kabat. Late last year, Forrester completed a study of several interactive agencies.

The report's author, Brian Haven, argued that interactive shops are closer to the consumer, in a better place to mine the rich insights and data available via the web, and in the right place at the right time to capture consumer behavior changes. Because of those things, interactive shops are poised to be the "foundation for all marketing efforts within the next five to 10 years," he wrote. But, he added, agencies have not yet reached the level of leadership they need.

Another difficulty: sibling rivalry. It may be easier for shops such as independent IMC2 or AKQA (owned by General Atlantic) to take on AOR duties since they don't have holding-company politics to contend with. And at least one top digital-agency executive said he thinks the movement toward digital-agency-as-full-agency-of-record has yet to take hold. "It's way too early to call it a trend," said Clark Kokich, CEO of Razorfish (formerly known as Avenue A/Razorfish). "But you are seeing certain select opportunities where it's becoming a real alternative for clients."

Laying groundwork

According to him, the move toward becoming a full agency of record is not an explicit strategy for the agency but an opportunity that can't be ignored. Razorfish does not have any full agency-of-record relationships but has poached a creative director and a planner from the likes of McCann Worldgroup and SS&K. Ultimately, whether or not to assign an interactive shop full agency-of-record duties is highly dependent on the client and its goals. A big offline product that's focused on brand messaging? You'll want to have a traditional agency of record. But, Mr. Kokich said, if the brand's identity and proposition live in the digital space, if a product involves a complex sale where online research is a big component, or if it's a very youth-focused marketer going after a demographic that lives largely in the digital space, it's not out of line to consider a digital shop as agency of record.

"Ten years from now, all agencies will be digital agencies," Mr. Kokich said. "The question is just what process people take to get there. We're both starting from different places, but we'll end up in the same place."

Why Pharma Fears Social Networking

Why Pharma Fears Social Networking

Oct 19, 2008

By Jim Edwards (Brand Week)

Although a majority of marketers have embraced online social media and user-generated content efforts, one industry is conspicuously not taking advantage of the gold rush: pharmaceuticals.

Drug brand Web sites almost never carry the features that marketers usually are desperate to give their customers: bulletin boards, chat rooms, blogs and Web-page hosting.

The reason: Marketers fear that user-generated content will include complaints about injuries caused by their drugs' side effects. The law requires these "adverse events" to be reported to the FDA. The FDA's adverse-event databases are regularly combed by lawyers looking for potential class-action suits.

Thus, drug marketers have stuck with a decidedly Web 1.0 model, in which customer interaction is kept to an absolute minimum.

This head-in-the-sand approach may be about to change. A debate is raging in the drug business as to whether companies should   adopt a Web 2.0 strategy. On one side are digital agencies telling companies that online customers generate far fewer adverse event reports than drug companies might expect.

On the other side are brand managers, whose every published word must survive a thicket of in-house lawyers, some of whom aren't Internet savvy.

Dori Stowe, chief digital strategist at Grey Healthcare Group, New York, recalls speaking with a pharma company's legal team about a campaign, "and somebody raised their hand and asked, 'What's Google?'" Stowe, whose clients include Boehringer Ingelheim, said that once brand managers are shown the full extent of what patients are doing online, they're keen to learn more.

When told that companies should embrace such activity, adverse event reporting becomes their immediate worry. "The legal departments will say it's just not an area we can play in," said Jason Rogers, vp/account services at Catapult Marketing, Westport Conn. His clients include Novartis and Pfizer.

Bill Drummy, CEO at Heartbeat Digital, New York, agreed: "We've talked about this with our clients for literally five years and in every case that has been shot down by regulatory and legal folks." His clients have included Abbott Labs and GlaxoSmithKline.

In many cases, clients agree with their agencies but nix projects anyway. "Part of this is understanding the brand manager caught in the middle, with agencies saying you have to do it and the regulatory group not understanding it," said James Pietz, vp/group director at MicroMass, Cary, N.C. His clients include Merck and Shire.

The pressure for drug companies to evolve is growing. "Drug companies need to begin embracing ways to look for adverse events instead of hoping they don't stumble across them," said Peter Pitts, an svp at Manning, Selvage & Lee, New York, who keeps a blog that champions the industry. "I think the attitude of 'there's safety in ignorance,' or active ignorance, is no longer actionable or responsible."

Bruce Grant, svp/business strategy at Digitas Health, Philadelphia, which has worked for Wyeth and Pfizer, thinks there may be a legal advantage in giving consumers more input into drug marketing. "Early warning signals that there may be a safety issue really puts the company in a stronger position in terms of potential exposure to product liability suits," he said.

Grant cites a survey from Nielsen BuzzMetrics, New York, of 500 messages on health-related Google and Yahoo! sites. Only one reportable adverse event was found, suggesting a "volume that is entirely manageable within companies' broader [adverse events] monitoring programs." (BuzzMetrics and Brandweek are divisions of Nielsen Co.) That is disputed by some, who believe the volume will be much higher and therefore more onerous and expensive.

One company is attempting to prove it either way: Johnson & Johnson, which in March acquired Childrenwithdiabetes.com, a community site for parents of kids with diabetes. The site has open bulletin boards and even takes ads from competing companies.

Joe Natale, vp-new media, said J&J monitors the site for adverse events and people who give incorrect medical advice, but aside from that anyone can post whatever they want. "The best way to destroy that community would be to in any way hamper or infringe upon the way they create content or share information. If [a company thinks] that every post for every user has to be reviewed and copy-cleared in advance, I will tell you not to waste your time."

Natale said the site gets 10,000 unique visitors a day, and the expense of monitoring for adverse events runs from $100,000 to $1 million, depending on the size of the site. So far he has encountered fewer adverse events than he expected. "There are enormous risks. I don't want to send the wrong message. It's extremely intimidating," he said. "Some companies will say, 'It will cost us money, cost us some investments.' But I think it will be worth it."

FDA Warning to Diovan on Banner Ad ... will there be more?

FDA Issues Warning Letter to Novartis for Diovan Banner Ad

 

I am sure this is not the first time the FDA issues a warning letter to a pharmaceutical company regarding a banner ad for a prescription product (http://www.fda.gov/CDER/warn/2008/Diovan_Letter.pdf), but what I find particularly interesting in this letter is that the FDA explicitly states that despite the links to the PI and PPI in the banner they feel the banners "fail to communicate any risk information".  As far as I can recall, this is the first time I have seen the agency take a specific stance on the use of a link to the safety info VS actually including the extensive (and often difficult to comprehend) verbiage in the content of the banner (oftetimes we see companies address this in the way of adding additional frames to a banner or include the copy in a scrolling text box).  Upon careful review of the words in the FDA's letter, it appears they are insisting on the inclusion of risk information, warnings, precautions, and the most frequently reported adverse events INSIDE the actual banner -- at least in this particular case (which will probably set a precedent).  I think publishers might need to rethink their banners specs if they expect pharma to stay in compliance.  Fortunately, adding an additional :15 seconds in the online channel doesn't have the same cost implications as :15 seconds on TV.  On the other hand, it means less rotations which reduces impressions (aka "ad inventory").  So perhaps pharma banner ads cost will end up costing more in the long run.  We probably won't see the impact of this much in the next 6-12 months as the general state of the economy is affecting media spends across the board (the first time we have actually seen an overall decline in several years).  This would probably not be a good time to hike prices.

FDA Writes: "... The banners, however, entirely omit all risk information, including the warnings, precautions,and the most frequently reported adverse events from the PI. We note that a link to the PI and Patient Product Information (PPI) is included at the bottom of the banners. However, this does not mitigate the misleading omission of risk information from the banners. For promotional materials to be truthful and non-misleading, they must contain risk information in each part as necessary to qualify any effectiveness or safety claims made in that part. By omitting the most serious and frequently occurring risks associated with the drug, the banners misleadingly suggest that Diovan is safer than has been demonstrated."

This letter came in late August 2008.  More recently, we recently have seen a warning letter on Shire's Adderral video on YouTube. Is this going to be a growing pattern?  It will be interesting to see if the FDA begins to more actively monitor the Internet (beyond Web sites).  How will the agency review more complex platforms like social networks, widgets, and other Web 2.0/syndicated technologies?  Will someone at the FDA function in this dedicated role?

This is definately worth keeping an eye on.

Fabio Gratton
Chief Innovation Officer
Ignite Health

DDMAC warns Bayer on YAZ TV ads

DDMAC warns Bayer on YAZ TV ads

by Matthew Arnold (Medical Marketing & Media, Oct 7 2008)

The FDA slapped Bayer HealthCare Pharmaceuticals with a warning letter on two 60-second TV ads for its YAZ contraceptive.

The agency's Division of Drug Marketing, Advertising and Communications (DDMAC) said the spots, “Not Gonna Take It” and “Balloons,” “are misleading because they broaden the drug's indication, overstate the efficacy of YAZand minimize serious risks associated with the use of the drug.”

In particular, the agency said the ads exploit overlapping symptoms to “misleadingly suggest that YAZ is appropriate for treating women with PMS,” for which it is not indicated. YAZ is indicated for treatment of premenstrual dysphoric disorder (PMDD), a more severe mood disorder related to the menstrual cycle, as well as birth control. Both ads show women kicking, punching or puncturing symptoms common to PMS and PMDD.

Moreover, the agency said distracting visuals, scene changes, background music and other “competing modalities” threaten to distract viewers from serious risk disclosures during the major statement.

DDMAC is currently evaluating the impact of distracting visuals on comprehension and retention of risk information in TV ads.

Bayer told MM&M the "Balloon" ads ran in 2007 and are not currently airing. The company will pull “Not Gonna Take It” and vowed to work with the agency on other promotions for the brand.

DDMAC has been on a tear of late, issuing five warning and untitled letters on promotions for ADHD drugs last month, along with an untitled letter on consumer-directed materials promoting Boehringer-Ingelheim's Mirapex's restless leg syndrome drug. In August, the agency issued a warning letter on a journal ad for Forest's Bystolic and an untitled letter on banner ads for Novartis' Diovan.

 

Cephalon Webcast aims to educate about opioid abuse

Cephalon Webcast aims to educate about opioid abuse

Biopharma company Cephalon is launching a national educational program about the importance of appropriate and responsible use of prescription opioid medications. The initiative, When Good Medicines Become Bad Drugs, will include a series of free educational programs, including a Webcast moderated the former director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy. According to the company, 71% of people who abuse prescription pain medicines received them from a friend or family member, not through a doctor's prescription. Earlier this month, Cephalon agreed to pay $425 million and enter a plea to resolve allegations of off-label marketing of the opioid Actiq and other drugs.