By Sven Larsen (@svenplarsen)

Watching the big game last night,  I was struck by the diversity of products being advertised. Domain name registration and e-trading as well as the old reliables like packaged goods and automobiles. But one category was conspicuous by it’s absence. Where were the Pharma Superbowl ads?

It’s not like big Pharma companies don’t have the marketing budget for a Superbowl spot. And Pharma agencies certainly have the talent to pull off something as compelling as bungee jumping cars or Danica Patrick in a jumpsuit. So why no creative or splashy spot advertising a big name OTC or prescription product?

I can understand not wanting to spend the money on giving over half an uber expensive Superbowl spot to Fair Balance. But I also think it’s indicative of the way we sometimes approach Pharma marketing.

Pharma agencies have struggled for years with the perception that healthcare marketing is a “creative ghetto”, a place where fresh and original ideas are smothered by regulatory review and conservative clients. Of course, anyone who has been to the Mannys or spent any time in the industry knows this isn’t true. But, at times, I think we do suffer from an inferiority complex. A belief that spots like “1984″ are for cool, hip brands like Apple and not for boring old Pharma.

It’s an attitude we need to shake off. Whether it’s digital media, social marketing or more traditional outlets like television and print, Pharma needs to stand toe to toe with any other type of product and service and we need to use all the weapons in the marketing arsenal. Because, at the end of the day, our message is just as (if not more) important than Coke or Toyota’s. What car you drive or what soda you drink may enhance your life. But what drug you take or what healthcare behavior you modify may save it.

And if the message is that important, isn’t it time we got as creative as possible when it comes to spreading it?

R.J. Lewis, President & CEO of eHealthcare Solutions, discusses how his company’s approach benefits both publishers and marketers, and talks about how the healthcare advertising landscape has changed.

By Krissy Goelz (@krisgoelz)

Twenty years ago, a Robitussin commercial called “Dr. Mom” was a sexist, ham-handed parody of family division of labor. It’s even a bit worse for wear when you watch it now – really, what ad exec ever thought it was funny? But in addition to giving us a view into the differences in acceptable humor in advertising in the past two decades – there are fewer incompetent dads in commercials now, thank goodness – it also helps us look at how family health management has changed.

Because, while maybe the tone of the ad is a bit dated, the facts are probably broadly true. In the nuclear family of 1990, Mom dosed the family with an OTC medicine, and if it didn’t work, she took the kids, or herself, to the doctor, or suggested to her husband that he go.

Today, there’s an awful lot more going on within that same process. It’s not that moms aren’t still the primary purchasers of medications and the primary motivators to get their family members to see a physician. But just think of how digital has changed that simple process.

1. The internet. What illness doesn’t get diagnosed via WebMD before being seen by the doctor? What kid hasn’t Googled the symptoms of whatever sickness they want to use to excuse tomorrow’s absence? What condition doesn’t have an online support group? And, of course: what medication doesn’t have a branded website, as well as several generic database entries, telling you all about it?
2. Mobile. Parents get a call or text when Junior goes to the nurse ill; Grandma’s activities in the assisted-living facility can be checked; chronic conditions and weight management can be tracked throughout the day with mobile apps.
3. Electronic health records. Your exam room will have a laptop in it, not a manila folder of your records, and into it will be entered your weight, blood pressure, temperature, symptoms, diagnosis, and prescription, which will be sent to the pharmacy electronically before you even hop off the exam table.

Simultaneously, digital offers promise to adapt to the changing times. While some diseases, like chicken pox, have become less common since 1990 due to improvements and advances in health care, rates of asthma, allergies, ADHD, autism, and other childhood conditions have risen. The reasons for these rises are hotly debated, but new types of technology may help us screen for genetic causes, monitor the environment for triggers, and help track the progress of a condition once it is present. Digital is helping genetic screening, environmental reports and programs for lifestyle modification and prescription adherence to be more available and accessible, faster, and cheaper.

There’s a lot more to manage in family health today than where the bottle of Robitussin is and whether Dad knows how to iron a blouse. It’s a good thing TV dads have gotten smarter since 1990, so now parents can work together to manage their family’s health – and it’s a good thing that we have digital technology on our side in a way that, even two decades ago, we couldn’t have imagined.

By Jeremy Lichtenberger (@Air_Master_J)

Without being able to see it, I knew there was someone nearby holding a Dunkin’ Donuts coffee. The familiar aromatic scent of their particular brew tickled my nose before I could pinpoint its location. While I’m familiar with their pink and orange logo, it was the olfactory tease that connected me with their brand identify that morning. It got me thinking that while much of marketing focuses on defining the right words and creating the right copy, are marketers – outside of the food, beverage and perfume markets — putting enough thought behind other opportunities to create a sensory experience to promote their brands?

Brand loyalty is characterized by an emotional and behavioral response. Using all the senses available is extremely important for brands to develop emotional bonds and relationships with consumers. The key is to build positive sensory experiences and lodge those experiences in long-term memory.

Pharma marketers are no stranger to employing sensory marketing strategies. That’s because most marketers realize that the use of color triggers subtle psychological cues. Who doesn’t think of Viagra when they hear the words “little blue pill? A majority of people list blue as their favorite color. It’s a masculine color that has been known to have a calming effect. It symbolizes trust, confidence and other powerful attributes. While Viagra is the little blue pill, AstraZeneca’s Nexium has invested significant branding dollars in promoting its image as the purple pill.

Color is a powerful psychological tool and has been shown to increase brand identity, assist in memory, increase a reader’s participation in ads, and improve readership, learning, and comprehension. However, it’s important to get good grounding in how people react emotionally to different colors or color combinations. Also it’s important to recognize that different cultures have different views on the meaning of color. This is important to keep in mind as companies create materials for a variety of countries or for their global presence, both on and offline.

The auditory system also provides powerful stimulus for connecting consumers with brands. I can still sing the 70’s Alka Seltzer jingle and I know I’ve caught myself humming the “viva Viagra” theme song on more than one occasion. However, audio is not limited to catchy jingles or theme songs. Consider using podcasts, YouTube, audio commercials, video voiceovers and other sound stimulation to deliver key brand messages and strengthen the emotional connection consumers have with your brand.

As more products enter the market and technology advances such as social media make it harder to stand out, it’s important to think of ways to create connections with consumers beyond visuals. Whether it’s the color of your webpage or product or hiring a well-known celebrity voice to deliver brand messages, consider opportunities to build relationships using emotional, rational and sensual elements and create brand loyalty with customers in a more intimate and personal way than ever before.

By Krissy Goelz (@krisgoelz)

Are your kids asking for a new kitten or puppy for Christmas? If so, they’re not alone.

According to the Humane Society, 39% of US households own at least one of the 77.5 million dogs in the country, and 33% of US households own at least one of the 93.6 million cats. So it’s likely that you, dear reader, are reading this with a furry member of your household on your lap or at your feet.

That small housemate is an important part of the family, and you take care of them that way – making sure they have the proper food, games and exercise, as well as health care. Americans spend $41 billion a year on their pets, and as much as $8 to $9 billion a year of that goes directly toward their pets’ health care.

In October, at Eye for Pharma 2010, we interviewed Rick Stoner from Bader Rutter, Pfizer Animal Health’s ad agency. He talked about their work (including the creation of a Facebook page), the similarities and differences with human-health pharma marketing.

From what we learned from Rick, it seems as if animal health is learning from the pharmaceutical industry, in terms of interaction with consumers through social media.

We see some more opportunities for animal health, though. So, as we do here at Pixels & Pills, here are a couple of free brainstorm ideas. These are projects we’d love to work on to help promote great animal health care.

1. Reminders. It’s all we can do to take our own daily pills. How much harder is it to remember a heartworm pill, insulin shot or flea dip for someone else, or when to make a vet appointment? It’d help if we had the options of getting Facebook, Twitter or text message reminders to know when to give Fluffy and Fido their meds.

1. Education. We know to take our medicine because the health of ourselves and our human loved ones has immediate repercussions, and we’re selfish: we feel lousy, we put up with our spouse or child’s whining, we get lectured about antibiotic resistance, etc. Pet health is a harder to wrap your head around. It’s a whole different anatomy to understand, and they can’t explain when they’re feeling a little under the weather. Wet nose? Dry nose? Cold nose? Hot nose? How can we really tell what’s important to do for our pets, and who can tell us what to do about it?

1. Charity Support. Just as human-health companies often support charitable organizations that address their patient populations, many animal-health organizations do the same with animal charities. How much fun would it be to work on a project for an animal-health organization where pet lovers can come together and decide which charity they’ll support, and how? You could do YouTube challenges, Facebook votes… it could be a great time.

Maybe Spike and Shadow don’t have their own profile pics up yet (although… you are gone all day… how do you know what they’re doing while you’re at work?) but social media can still be helping animals, and animal-health companies too!

By Sven Larsen (@zemoga)

…Because it does a “world” of good to look beyond our own borders for a little inspiration

BRASIL: Sanofi-Aventis Teardrops Mobile Application

FRANCE: Asonor Anti-Snore Remedy “Give Back His Dreams” Print Advertisement

SOUTH AFRICA: Esentiale Hangover Remedy “Don’t Bring Last Night Home With You” TV Commercial

INDIA: Ozorie Migraine Relief “Don’t Lose Your Head” Print Advertisement

INDONESIA: Dumin Headache Relief Ririn Dumin Viral Campaign (also accompanied by “It’s Your Turn to be Famous like Ririn social media campaign)

By Jason Brandt (@Jasondmg3)

In this recent Ad Age article, author and editor-at-large Jack Neff discusses new reseach showing that 30-second television commercials are declining in popularity in favor of half-sized 15-second increments. He goes on to specify that while there was a small increase in all national 15-second TV spots – so overall, short ads are getting more common – the increase for those advertising over-the-counter drugs was huge.

Fifteen-second commercials now make up the majority of all OTC TV ads. What this means for our attention spans, I shudder to think, but I’m sure there are studies underway right now. More immediately, you need to think about these type of ads and what they constitute for you as an advertising option.

What can you do with 15 seconds?

Not keep your market share, apparently.

OTC products are giving up share to store brands like never before, and while of course there are recessions and recalls contributing to this, the ads certainly don’t seem to be helping.

The Ad Age article points out that ad effectiveness is shown to be much lower for the half-sized commercials in general – and the loss of effectiveness is even worse for OTC than for other categories.

And of course it is. Half as much time to get a viewer accustomed to the brand, to communicate its benefits: how could it be as effective? As one quote says, “If it devolves simply into reminder advertising, you’re not building brands.”

Most office telephones have timers on them. Have you ever noticed how long your average voicemail message is? It’s a lot longer than 15 seconds, I’m willing to bet. It just takes time to convincingly communicate what you’d like someone to do and why they should do it.

The cost of television advertising is, of course, the main reason that the commercial sizes are shrinking. Television’s reach is undeniable, so many people think “better a little than nothing at all.”

But you have to think of your ROI equations like see-saws, comparing different options on each side. It can’t just be reach that defines how heavy you expect the impact of each side to be. It’s reach plus retention plus motivation.

And when TV can get you all that in your budget, it can be a wonderful thing. But are your audiences online? Are they gathering together in focused areas? Are they networking and sharing information? More often than not, the answer to all those questions is “yes”. You have more alternatives than you think.

So, what can you do with 15 seconds?

Well, here’s one idea. You can pick up the phone and talk to experts like us about what compelling digital offerings you could be coming up with, instead of forgettable TV snippets.

By Andy Smith

Social media has changed many facets of business from how we interact, exchange ideas and information, and generate innovation. Even traditional media is going social to engage audiences. However, it’s important to remember that networking, educating and raising awareness among your target audience needs to happen beyond the digital frontier. While everyone seems captivated by the social media phenomenon, pharmaceutical companies and other health care organizations need to remain diligent in creating multiple touch points to reach buyers to generate business outcomes. Ever hear of the adage don’t put all your eggs in one basket?

Social media is an integral part of a coordinated and integrated marketing campaign, but participation should complement your other marketing initiatives – not replace them. It’s imperative to have a strategy that allows you to share more depth of detail than a 140-character tweet when communicating with doctors and others. How can you influence and inform a widespread audience beyond your Facebook page, LinkedIn profile and Twitter account? Consider the following:

Strengthen your presence at industry conferences:  Whether you speak or exhibit, the conference circuit is a great venue for face time and putting personality behind your brand. Want to establish credibility in your field, speak to a room full of prospects, and get some recognition for your company? Answer a “call for papers” and prepare a proposal to speak at an event.

Connect with media and other industry influencers:  Email is a great conversation starter and makes it easy to present information without interruption. However, it shouldn’t be your only foray into a physician’s world. In-person office calls and dinner programs can strengthen connections and are conducive to sharing ideas.

Develop compelling collateral:  Our knowledge-based society craves information but the chaos of conferences and dizzying array of information presented makes it hard to recall new drug developments or treatment therapies. The power of the written word – whether through brochures, websites or other collateral – allows you to fine tune your message while enabling the reader to learn more at their own convenience.

Social media networking:  There’s a world beyond Facebook and Twitter for online socializing. New communities are created all the time. Brand sponsored communities, patient communities and other interest-specific communities can be useful to develop clinical trial awareness and find patients for enrollment. Prior to jumping in, have a social media policy that addresses how individuals participate on the company’s behalf, and stress transparency in all communications. On the Internet, you can run, but you can’t –and shouldn’t – hide.

Tactics such as content creation or community relations, while necessary, should support the overall strategy – not define it. Understand your business goals and create an integrated campaign with consistent messaging across all platforms. Effective communication that builds relationships, brand equity, and customer loyalty happens online and off.

How are you reaching your customer?

Photo courtesy of Social Media SEO

By Dan Licht (@thedvl)

In a few weeks, I’ll be writing about my thoughts on Flash and its capabilities and limitations. Today we’ll look at what might be the technology to supplant it: HTML5.

A new version of HTML? What’s the big deal about that? Can that really make a dynamic, visually engaging offering like Flash unnecessary?

Well, yes. In fact, that’s kind of the whole point. HTML5 may take the place of technologies like Flash, because it looks like it will make HTML not need those technologies anymore.

HTML stands for hypertext markup language. It’s what exists behind the words of the Web to make them appear the way they do. It, more than anything, is the structural skeleton of the design of the Internet.

That may be well and good, but there have been new versions of HTML coming out since it was invented in 1990. Why is this latest update so groundbreaking?  Is it that big of a deal to not need new “plugins” like Flash anymore?

Well, to begin with, if you’re interested in making money, it matters quite a lot. Charles Arthur put it very succinctly on the Guardian Blog recently, when he said: “If designers can do things with HTML5/CSS3 that they used to need Flash for, then blocking out the messages that help to pay for some ads becomes much more difficult because it’s all just HTML.”

Also relevant for monetization is the fact that text in HTML5 remains readable by search engines, unlike (as you’ll remember we discussed) Flash text. HTML5 = better SEO = more $.

Moreover, it’s a dream come true for mobile use. HTML5 enables a richer mobile web experience for the user – and across platforms, without requiring new versions for each type of mobile platform – and it does all that with a much cleaner cross-platform back end for the developer.

Finally, tacking on to that cleanliness thought – it makes things possible that used to involve hard downloads. Provided that your computer or mobile device is new enough to know how to read HTML5, there is none of the downloading required with Flash or mobile apps in order to make pretty things possible. It just works.

Again, it comes down to the fact that HTML, although it was evolving, was joined along the way by add-ons like Flash that could plug into it, and that could then do things that it couldn’t. This system of improving web experiences did work, but it was rather like the Weasley family’s home, The Burrow, in the Harry Potter books – there were odd new bits added on and stuck there, structurally implausibly, as the needs arose over the years.

Am I implying that HTML5 is magic? Not if you liked ad blockers. Not if you’re nearing the end of a giant and expensive project that uses XHTML or HTML 4 or Flash. But yes, it has potential.

For more on HTML5, check these two links out:

• Mark Pilgrim’s free e-book Dive Into HTML5
• Gerry Samuel’sTen Things You Should Know About HTML5

Image courtesy of Present Diabetes

By Russ Ward (@russcward)

Over the last couple of weeks, if you haven’t heard people talking about Avandia, GlaxoSmithKline’s diabetes drug, you must have been on that mythical desert island that people always talk about.

The FDA convened a hearing to discuss the drug – and specifically, to discuss the heart attacks that patients who were taking it kept experiencing. After the discussion, the committee’s decision was to recommend keeping the drug on the market, but with the addition of a host of rigorous restrictions to its prescription.

The hearings themselves were very interesting, but just as interesting was watching how different media outlets handled it and reacted to it.

Just in the one week surrounding the hearing, it was possible to see a fascinating cross-section of media approaches, as the hearing drew Twitterers’ and bloggers’ attention, as well as that of patient communities, traditional journalists, and competing advertisers. In this post, we’ll take a short look at a cross-section of that news.

We’ll start with the most time-sensitive – Twitterers. There were several journalists livetweeting the events from the hearing itself – in particular, Forbes’ Matt Herper (@matthewherper), NPR’s Scott Hensley (@scotthensley), TheHeart.org’s Shelley Wood (@theheartorg) and CardioBrief’s Larry Husten (@cardiobrief).

All of these journalists have many years not only covering healthcare, but specifically covering cardiology, and so their familiarity with the issues that that drug was facing, and with which the committee was wrestling, made them particularly well able to livetweet the most relevant quotes as they happened, from “We’ve seen enough ambiguity to last a lifetime” to “This drug may not be for everybody, but that doesn’t mean it’s not for anybody.”

Tweets of quotes as soon as they were out of a committee member’s mouth, along with counts of each vote as soon as the members cast it – these were details that only live journalists within the room of the meeting itself could provide. Even participating by webcast would have lost some of the commentary and tone palpable in the room itself.

In addition, other top pharma Twitterers were covering, retweeting and posting links to coverage, among them Pharma Marketing News’ John Mack (@pharmaguy), as well as @fiercepharma and – not surprisingly – a tweetstream called @avandialawsuits.

Bloggers were in hot pursuit of the live Twitter coverage, with coverage like Elsevier Global Medical News (@aliciaault) riffing on “A Few Good Men” with “The Truth About Avandia? You Can’t Handle the Truth”. (Many of the previously-mentioned reporters, also, bylined coverage in blogs before or in addition to filing their stories.)

Because the diabetes community is so large and deeply involved in their care, the concept of communities took a large role in the communication of this. dLife, the premier diabetes community, was buzzing with news, questions, rumors and responses…Here’s a sample.

And of course, the traditional media did not hesitate to cover the news, from USA Today’s Rita Rubin (@ritarubin) and her coverage, to @matthewherper’s “Death of Avandia” on the Forbes blog, and Deborah Kotz’s (@debkotz2) US News story on “what now” for Avandia.

On a traditional paid media front, the competition wasted no time. The morning after, Takeda launched ads that touted their drug, Actos, and its differences from Avandia. This action is almost exactly the same – down to the wording of the ads – that they undertook three years prior after a similar situation with Avandia.

Lots of news, lots of people talking. What’s it all mean for you?

Well, the next time there’s a competitive event in pharma, do a quick overview like this. Keep abreast of the news in the industry, of course – but more than that, watch the media. See who’s covering it, and how. See what the different time frames are. See who’s focusing on which angles. It can tell you a very great deal about who gets their news from whom and, therefore, which people really are your “key opinion leaders”. Know whose voices are heard and repeated and whose opinions matter most.