With more consumers going online for healthcare information, and millions of dollars in R&D at stake, it is critical that pharmaceutical companies take the necessary steps to ensure that health information seekers can find their brands online. We wanted to find out who was successful, and who was not.

Last year, we began a methodical analysis (see the process below) of how well the top five brands of the top eleven companies were ranking on Google, Yahoo!, MSN and Ask. Some of these were Catalyst clients, and some were not, and the same is true today. In 2008 we continue to measure how well these pharma companies are doing in the race for the top positions.

Our results:

• The same four companies have kept their top scores since we began this analysis in January 2007: Novartis, Pfizer, GSK, and J&J.
• Novartis continues to lead the rankings with four out of five brands posting strong results on all search engines. Although it has the high score (1.72), there is room for improvement to reach the best-case scenario (7).
• Pfizer (1.02) is second with brands Lipitor, Lyrica and Viagra posting strong results.
• GSK (.89) is third with Advair and Avandia seeing good rankings.
• J&J (.62) has one strong brand, Topamax, that scores well to keep it in the top 4.
• The top three companies continue to break away from the pack with improved scores, while Johnson & Johnson (#4) dropped slightly.
• Merck wins most improved player award. After a year in 10^th place, the company has jumped from #10 to #5 on the strength of one brand’s results.
• Sanofi Aventis (#7) had the exact same score as Q4 ‘07.
• BMS and AstraZeneca improved slightly.
• Eli-Lilly dropped slightly.
• Wyeth continues to trail at #11, with almost no web presence at all for its top five brands. Only one of its top 5 brands appeared on the results pages, and that was with a third page position.

Observations:

The top five companies are investing in organic search and clearly the investment is paying off. It is not by chance they are at the top. They have clearly made a commitment to “closing the loop’ by having a strong online presence that mirrors their offline efforts. This long term marketing strategy will continue to serve them well as they capitalize on consumer interest generated by DTC campaigns.

Methodology:

We developed the methodology below, using data gathered from the most recent publicly available financial information.

· Compiled data between April 1 - 30, 2008

· Determined the top 11 pharmaceutical companies based on revenue

· Examined the top 5 brands based on revenue

· Searched four keyphrases for each brand: “[indication]” and “[indication] treatment” and “[indication] medication” and “[indication] symptoms”

· Recorded each brand’s website rankings for each keyphrase on Google, Yahoo!, MSN and Ask

· Assigned each ranking a point value based on Search Ranking Score: Top 5 Ranking = 15 points;?First Page Ranking = 10?points; Second Page Ranking = 3?points; Third Page Ranking = 1?point; Not Listed on First Three Pages = 0 points

· Identified each search engine’s market share based on comScore March 2008 U.S. Search Engine Rankings

· Calculated each company’s index score using Index = (Search Ranking Score * Search Engine Market Share)/11

· A perfect score = 7.0

I would suggest a three part plan to respond to consumers looking for information and responding to the information in their choice format. 

1. Optimizing your images is a simple task for your SEO shop, start today. 

2. Push to optimize all your digital assets this year. 

3. Create a digital asset strategy.  What should we be creating for our digital constituents?  Who are the partners we need to work with to develop and implement the digital asset strategy?  Of course I am biased, so I will suggest first and foremost that your SEO shop be leveraged here, but I would strongly suggest your PR firm, CPA, iAgency, content providers and beyond.

I can hear you asking me, what is the ROI of DAO?  How I would suggest you think about ROI is we are responding to consumers looking information in a format that they choose.  Thus the response rate will improve driving more traffic to your site for further engagement and influence, search IS a branding medium, and we will develop a deep understanding of what consumers are looking for in terms of format of information. 

Google Health, Microsoft’s HealthVault and Revolution Health (backed by former AOL Chairman Steve Case) are the three big players, the big boys. I do not think this concept or these companies are going away. Therefore, as a pharma marketers let’s think about this new communication channel? distribution channel? and how to message our product’s key benefits.

As we know Google earns almost all its revenue in Web advertising. Google has no plan to sell ads on Google Health. It aims to make money indirectly when users search for other medical information. Today MSN places HealthVault results at the top of their organic search results. Where do you think this is going? Lipitor.com is not going to rank above HealthVault. Try it, “Hypertension treatment” on MSN Live Search.

We need to leverage our assets, what can we offer these companies to improve their service. Eric Schmidt, CEO of Google stated, “We don’t know how to suck it(information) out of the brains of doctors, but we know how to suck it out of the computer systems of doctors.” What will Google want to “suck out” of the pharma industry? We could provide a Google Health PDF with information on the benefits of our product, better yet a Google Health MOA video or even better, access to the medical research faculty that are working hard to discover a cure for MS or Parkinson’s. If we improve their service, we gain access to their customers. What is your plan? It is time to have a brainstorming session!

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!

So now back to reality. Wikia Search launched. We instantly had clients calling about their rankings on Wikia Search. That is 2008 search marketing energy. I love it! The Search Strategists at Catalyst are busy analyzing the new engine. The reviews about Wikia Search have mostly been negative…”not much of a search engine, the technology stinks, there is nothing human about it”, etc.

Jimmy Wales and the folks at Wikia Search are fully aware of their search engine short comings stating, “It’s a project to *build* a search engine, not a search engine.” They even go as far as providing a Wikia Search disclaimer on their site with pleas for mercy like, “So the results are pretty bad. But we expect them to improve rapidly in coming weeks, so please bookmark the site and return often.”

And in all fairness (I do have to represent both sides - I was a girl scout) Jimmy Wales reminds us, “When I launched Wikipedia, I wrote at the top of the first page “Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia”. On that day, anyone reviewing it would have laughed. What’s this? There’s nothing here! This is not an encyclopedia, it is an empty website with some funny editing syntax!”

Wikia Search is trying to build something different and hoping we will come. They use a social networking model and rely heavily on user participation.

So, like so many other overly hyped launches in our search world, time will tell if Wikia Search will be a contender or is simply this month’s flash in the pan. I personally do not believe Wikia Search has the chops to be a meaningful player in 2008 and I’d love to hear what you have to say about it.

As a reminder, Catalyst (that’s us) is a search marketing agency with pharmaceutical clients. You can find more about What We Do and who Our Clients are by reviewing our website. Some of the companies covered in this analysis report are clients of ours and some are not.

We do this analysis because it’s interesting to us. We hope it is interesting to you too. We’re applying basic search marketing analysis to brands that exist in the highly competitive and intensely regulated pharmaceutical industry. If you follow our methodology you just may come up with the exact same results. Then again, because it’s SEO and we’re dealing with the dynamics of search engines, you may produce different results. Welcome to our world. Our goal with this quarterly analysis, as with most SEO campaigns, is to measure which pharma companies obtain valuable marketing real estate and then sustain those rankings over an extended period of time. Here are our Q3-2007 results.

Happy Holidays!

1. Top three categories reached by search: Education: 45% of traffic from search; Health and Medical: 44%; Food and Beverage: 40%. All categories was 25%, up from 20% a year ago. Interesting! This is Hitwise data for four weeks ended 9/29/07. What percent of traffic comes to your site from Search? Do you have a goal?

2. Top sites by share of visits by category: Health: Merck: 3.97%; My Alli (GSK): 2.76%; Viagra (Pfizer): 2.49%; Acuvue (JNJ): 1.88%; Tylenol (McNeil): 1.71%.

3. Just to keep you guys thinking about social media: #1 top search: “Myspace”: 0.86%

Happy Friday!

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!