Apply this same concept to pharma or any industry.  A drive to search campaign (tracks the efficacy of the TV campaign via query volume and click behavior) with choices for the consumer.  “Learn about Lipitor” possible links: understanding cholesterol, cholesterol treatment, find a doc, Lipitor vs Zocor. 

For the times they are a-changin’  

I will share two stories that occurred in our first year, 1998. We rented a room in a house that had been converted to an office building located in Brookline Village, MA. We were directly behind the famous Village SmokeHouse www.villagesmokehouse.com. Each morning Beth and I would enter our office to waffs of barbecued meat. I am not a vegetarian but that was rough at 7am. Alan the owner (and alleged mobster) would occasionally cook in our parking lot if he had a big catering event. A women named Nancy also rented an office in the building. She did not like Alan nor did she approve of him using our parking lot as a kitchen, in fact she called the fire department frequently. Nancy was an angry woman. One day Beth and I hear this “pssssss” sound coming from the parking lot. We look outside, Nancy had poured some fluid all over a rack of ribs that could have fed fifty. Alan must have heard the same sound. He came outside and witnessed what Nancy had just destroyed. He was irrate AND he had a 10 inch butcher knife in his hand (presumably to cut the meat). Nancy saw the anger in his eyes and took off running. Alan ran after her, knife in hand, as she screamed bloody murder.  I am not making this up!

A second story I shared yesterday was a trip to NYC. Beth and I were intent on winning Pfizer’s business ASAP. We convinced one of the Internet marketing managers, Fred, to meet us for drinks. We jumped in the car and drove to NYC (at the time we did not have the luxury to pay for two plane or even train tickets). We parked the car around the corner from the restaurant. We had a great time with Fred (and eventually won some business).  As we got up to leave we told Fred we were going to the airport to jump on the next shuttle to Boston (portraying that we were an established agency). Fred, being the gentleman that he is, told us he would hail us a cab. We told him we were all set, but he insisted. Beth and I walked to the corner, I see Beth’s car in the corner of my eye and smile at Beth. Fred opens the cab door and we jump in. The cab driver barks, “Where you going?” We ignore him and continue to smile and wave to Fred. He barks again, “Where are you going?” Fred turns the corner, we jump out of the cab and run as fast as we can to Beth’s car. We sit for ten minutes…waiting for the coast to be clear. We drive back to Boston laughing at ourselves and praying this Catalyst thing will be worth it.

I am proud to say ten years later it was and still is a great experience. Catalyst went from a two person shop surrounded by raw meat and crazy people to today announcing our integration into WPP/GroupM search enterprise, the largest search enterprise in the world, http://www.catalystsearchmarketing.com/resource-center/pdfs/GroupM%20-%20Catalyst%20Announcement.pdf. Yesterday was a good day for Catalyst, for me, for Beth, for our employees, for our clients and for WPP www.wpp.com. There are a couple people (first clients, now friends) who have provided longstanding support, Rick (our first meeting with him was at the Village SmokeHouse), Sue, and Kate. We thank you for your support and vision that search marketing was (ten years ago) and will continue to be a viable communication channel. We also thank our employees who have been with us for many years, Rich, Lee and Tim. I will sign off before I get too sentimental, thanks for listening. I hope you enjoyed the stories. I am happy to report we are still having a good time!

I am not sure where this is going but we absolutely need to monitor and report on user interaction with these evolving communication models. Happy Friday!

Therefore, the orchestration of the various aspects of your communications must be in concert. Did I tell you I played “thirds” clarinet in junior high school? The best performances in this arena are by those who include search marketing in their communication tactics with these often disparate entities. Call your search vendor!

That is the good news, so my advice, get in the game.

However, there are still obstacles, two reported by the IAB.

First, how do we measure audience. Further, I am asked weekly by at least one client or prospect how do we measure our success? our ROI? Measurement is a challenge. Television has been around for 50+ years and there are still consistent measurement standards. The Internet? No standards. Standard measurement will come,  so get in the game.

Second, interactive advertising is still expensive to manage. For years Catalyst survived because the big shops did not want to spend the time on a small budget, expensive to manage, medium. The big shops are now participating but inefficiencies in the interactive advertising supply chain still exist. The communication community is working hard on this issue, and with the big boys in the game now, it will be resolved soon.

Don’t be discouraged! Search marketing and auction-based media buying have arrived and will eventually transform communication planning and tactics.

…”found powerful allies among media and advertising firms who were determine to protect one of their biggest and fastest growing advertising category.”

I am happy to participate, once again helping out our clients. As you may know Catalyst online is owned by WPP, the worlds largest (debatable) advertising and marketing company. I know, I know, of course we helped you out, it was also a success for the advertising community. In the US, pharmaceutical companies were the tenth biggest advertiser in 2006, spending $5.3 billion, or 3.5% of the total $149.6 billion US ad market (source: TNS Media Intelligence).

However, there are still many people that were not happy with the changes. There are many out there that believe a moratorium on consumer ads is imperative, especially for a drug that raises ’safety issues.’ I am not sure how the term safety issues is being defined - we all know every drug has some safety issues.

So what is my point you ask? Search marketing, of course. A consumer looking for information on a drug or condition, is that advertising? Yes… maybe, no. Search finds people when they are looking for a particular item at the Moment of Relevance (MOR). As always, I am on my soap box about search marketing. There are so many reasons to invest in search marketing, even political.

“Despite accounting for an ever-increasing spend of online ad spending, the pharmaceutical industry is still failing to embrace the Web 2.0 strategies that could help it better engage consumers looking for health care assistance, according to eMarketer research.”

The industry is tracking to spend $975 million online in 2007, 4.5% of total Web spend, and is predicted to spend $2.2 billion by 2011, 5% of total Web spend.

The article goes on to say, the pharma industry is not exploring with blogs, social networks, etc. Well we all know why. Interestingly, the article highlights the Rozerem website and the video aspect of the site. I think the idea is good, the site continues the DTC experience with the three characters in the TV ads. This example of Web 2.0 is safe, it is in video form, so the content is controlled. This site is a very basic example of the use of Web 2.0. The bar is low.

We as an industry can do some exploratory work without ruffling the regulatory committee’s feathers. I also noticed they are doing a pretty good job with their search marketing efforts relative to their competitors. Rozerem could further leverage their video assets by optimizing the videos and other digital assets for GUS, Google Universal Search.