Marketing Sherpa

Pharmaceutical Marketing Executives

Pharma Marketing Blog

MediaPost

Google Trends

Pew Internet

iHealthBeat

PharmaLive

Digital Healthcare & Productivity

JMIR

An article in today's Wall St. Journal identifies trends in health-related tools and technologies available to consumers online, focusing on the impact of social networking. For instance, the article states that both the CDC and the American Cancer Society are testing out virtual health fairs on the popular virtual world SecondLife.com, to promote such issues as nutrition awareness and cancer screening. As the popularity of social networks continues to climb, pharma companies need to ensure that they are not left behind. Perhaps in the future in more regulated environments, one can imagine disease education seminars, patient support communities or professional conferences hosted in virtual worlds by pharma companies. In the meantime, experimentation should be taking place in various forms of emerging media that are increasingly personal in nature - such as podcasting, blogging, and mobile applications. Similar to social network venues, these types of tactics offer greater involvement between the marketer and end user, and are best delivered in a one-to-one voice that is more personal - and less corporate - in tone.

Article from WSJ (subscription required)

Sermo.com, which was launched earlier this year and describes itself as the biggest online physicians' community, provides doctors with a venue to pose questions to colleagues, test theories, and sometimes identify trends and public health issues ahead of the game. The site has thus far decided not to accept money from pharma companies, but this could change. What remains to be seen is what type of opportunities the site will allow health advertisers to leverage; they must tread carefully while being mindful of user backlash to overtly promotional displays. At the very least, however, this site could provide pharma companies with valuable insight into the buzz that is circulating within the professional community, before it becomes common knowledge.

Article from CNNMoney.com

In a recent speech, Google VP Adam Bosworth sketched out an plan to create a comprehensive system that both centralizes all of a patient's health and medical information, and provides a meeting place for caregivers, patients, and treatment teams to share and analyze information. This is an ambitious vision that is not exactly a new idea; however, one should not underestimate Google's influence and initiative to get the ball rolling. The company will face scores of challenges including consumer privacy concerns, state and federal regulations, as well as competitive upstarts that have already invested money and research time in the idea. But the fact that Google is taking this on is an indication of the company's commitment to digital healthcare and its importance as the future gatekeeper of all health information.

Article from Google

Finally, a study showing the universal impact of pharmaceutical online advertising on web traffic. A new comScore Pharmaceutical Solutions study indicates that 31% of visitors first become aware of the site or product through an online marketing program - a highly important statistic for promoters of web marketing. In total, 33 million Internet users visited a prescription medication site in Q3 2006, an increase of 13% over Q3 2005.

Article from Yahoo! Finance

As part of a revamp of marketing strategies, Merck has announced cut backs on TV advertising in favor of more targeted venues such as online. The company will be testing pilot programs with new drugs such as Januvia, for diabetes, and Gardasil, a cervical cancer vaccine. While TV will always have a key place in the media mix, moves like this from Fortune 100 advertisers show that marketers are more than ever starting to recognize the importance of shifting ad dollars to more closely match the way their audiences are consuming media.

Article from BizReport.com