360DigitalInfluence

A really interesting example of aggregation launched recently in the academic world. Fururity.org is a no nonsense aggregator, pulling the latest research from North America’s leading research universities, compiling the finding in an easy-to-digest interface complete with a by topic architecture spanning across major research disciplines.

continue reading

We have a burst of growth (gross understatement) and we need new team members now and looking into next year. Most of the positions are some fom of Digital Influence Strategist - all levels, really.

What exactly is a Digital Influence Strategist? We’re social media true-believers + communications experts + disciplined marketers + strategists and practioners + great collaborators + eternally curious.

We need folks in different markets but don’t get too hung up on location.We’re more interested in your talent than your zipcode. Click here to get the skinny on the positions and please tweet to the rooftops. We need the WOM!

Amidst the attention on Twitter and how Pharma brands may be using it, what the FDA is doing with their blog and the rise of internet users finding health information on the web there is one group that has been quietly innovating with using social media without receiving much attention or credit for it.

Today in the US, there are 367 hospitals that are actively using social media. Collectively they are responsible for 186 YouTube Channels which include over 5,000 videos. They have created 267 Twitter accounts and published more than 10,000 tweets. (Stats from Ed Bennett’s great Hospital Social Networking List) In the process, hospitals are creating several interesting case studies of the power of social media:

• A patient who had surgery for a rare carcinoid cancer at the Nebraska Medical Center and shared her cancer experience via YouTube generated so many requests for the surgery that it prompted NMC to open a monthly clinic for the condition. continue reading
  

Last night I returned from a whirlwind trip to Ogilvy in Mexico City, where I was lucky enough to conduct a day long training session for 15 of the office’s most social media savvy staff.  Having the opportunity to broaden my horizons beyond the US, and look at social through a more global lens was invaluable.  Below are FIVE key insights I picked up from my research, and great discussions I had with my Ogilvy team members and Jesus Hoyas (President of the Social Media Club – Mexico City):

continue reading

By now it is certainly not news to note that YouTube is already the largest on-demand broadcast medium for anyone with an internet connection, boasting over 71 million unique users each month and the 6th largest audience on the Internet. 75% of all Americans have watched at least one video clip online in the last month. These staggering numbers coupled with the rise of broadband adoption in the US (over 80% of Internet users in the US have broadband as of March 2009) mean that online video is no longer a niche activity and has squarely hit the mainstream.

When you consider the opportunities from a Pharma marketing point of view, YouTube is certainly tempting. The FDA has yet to create significant regulations governing YouTube and there have been many marketing efforts in the Pharma space over the past several years which have seen fairly good results. Novartis’ FluFlix video contest from 2007, for example, had nearly 800,000 views of the intro video. In 2008, Sanofi-Aventis launched their GoInsulin campaign video channel which now has more than 300,000 views. More recently, earlier this year AstraZeneca saw success with their branded MyAsthmaStory video campaign sharing real stories of Symbicort patients and how the product had transformed their lives.

Concurrently, many pharma brands including Johnson & Johnson, Boehringer Ingelheim and Novartis (to name a few) have launched their own branded official YouTube channels to share a compilation of videos about various products, patient testimonials, research and development highlights and other corporate produced information. These channels represent an ongoing commitment to the YouTube channel and signal an intention to make this a longer term part of their overall corporate communications.
WHY DOES IT MATTER? continue reading

A few months ago the 5th annual Gaming For Health Summit in Boston presented more than 70 sessions on how gaming can be used in all aspects of health, from increasing compliance with medications to physical and visual therapy. The poster child of this growing trend has been the Nintendo WiiFit, which is rapidly becoming an iconic product helping hundreds of thousands of households to increase their activity levels through interactive fitness games (including a high percentage of seniors). In addition, Humana launched an interesting site at the conference all about gaming in health.

Why Does It Matter?
This is a growing trend in the area of healthcare, representing an opportunity for many of our clients in a few key areas:

1. Advergaming - Using games as part of a marketing campaign about a particular drug and how it works can help to simplify its methods for a non-medical audience, as well as providing an engaging interactive asset that can be used as part of an online advertising campaign to vastly increase click rates beyond typical banners. One past example is the Restless Leg Syndrome game created for BI back in 2007. continue reading
   

Every once in a while a new report or news story surfaces about a new social network targeted at doctors and physicians, or a study comes out about the growing use of the web by health care professionals and physicians are mentioned in passing. Aside from a general awareness that Sermo exists and that doctors are using it though, there is little understanding in the healthcare marketing community of how physicians are actually using the web and social media, as well as what opportunities may be present to use these tools to augment marketing and communications efforts.

Why Does This Matter?
By any estimation, the population of physicians online is growing rapidly.  Manhattan Research estimated last year (2008) that 88% of all physicians use the Internet to access pharmaceutical, biotech and medical device information. The same report noted that 41% of all the research physicians do takes place online, and that the majority of physicians expect that ratio to double in the coming year. Meanwhile, Forrester Research points to physician social networks as one of the biggest opportunities for Pharma marketers to engage and generate valuable learnings through active listening and other strategies.

In terms of the size of this population online, Sermo currently has over 100,000 members - and most popular and growing social networks for physicians such as Ozmosis, SocialMD, and DoctorNetworking report memberships between 3,000 and 10,000 physicians each. As a percentage of overall physicians in the US, this is rapidly increasing. Sermo even recently released an interesting survey of their members noting that 89% of physicians felt that the AMA does not speak for them, and less than 20% of practicing physicians are members of the AMA.

Insight & Analysis: 5 Trends In Physicians Use Of Web & Social Media

1. Rise Of Physician-only Social Networking. There are a number of sites such as Sermo, Ozmosis and SocialMD that offer physicians the chance to connect with others in their profession for knowledge sharing, networking and support. These sites do tend to have some overlap, but present walled (and safe) communities for physicians to share opinions and interact in a guarded environment. continue reading
   

This week we’ll be taking an in depth look at social media in the world of pharma and healthcare - a big topic for our team and overall healthcare practice.  Each day we’ll be sharing a different post about everything from tactical advice on using YouTube and Twitter - to discussing trends such as the rising use of gaming in healthcare or importance of esubscribing. Moving forward, we’ll have an archive of all these posts categorized and tagged for each access at http://blog.ogilvypr.com/tag/pharma or http://blog.ogilvypr.com/tag/healthcare.

Summary
Perhaps no other form of social media right now is as universally and simultaneously sought after and misunderstood in the Pharma industry as the corporate Twitter feed. If blogs were the big social media story several years ago, few would argue that Twitter has taken over that mantle today. Yet for all the stories of brands using Twitter for everything from averting a crisis to selling product (not in Pharma, obviously) - the only thing that is clear is that Pharma brands are joining the Twitter bandwagon with a speed and volume that social media has not yet seen in the industry.

While only a handful of the biggest Pharma brands have corporate blogs, 8 OF THE TOP 10 pharma brands (by revenue) have sort sort of corporate Twitter account (see list of links below for full details). As time goes on, more and more corporations are creating their “official” Twitter accounts and starting to uncover potential uses for the now ubiquitous microblogging platform.
continue reading

Upfront Disclosure: John Bell is the President of WOMMA and Managing Director of 360 Digital Influence, which means I work for him and he controls my livelihood.

Sometimes I read a blog post and feel cheated. It happens when I run into references to a product or service that seems out of place or just unnecessary. I figure the blogger is paid for the reference, but I’m never sure. Maybe they just enjoy the product. Who knows? Well, knowing is important - important enough to feel a little off-put and a little wary of both the blogger and the brand.

WOMMA targeted this lose-lose result Monday in a live webinar discussing what exactly constitutes “disclosure” regarding relationships between brands and influencers. The diverse panel agreed on a lot. If a blogger/influencer has a relationship with a brand and writes about the brand they need to disclose that relationship clearly, candidly and upfront. To put it simply, there must be no ambiguity from a reader’s perspective that a relationship exists. Suggestions on how to eliminate ambiguity varied from having two separate blogs – one personal and one for reviews (which didn’t work for one blogger) - to disclosing relationships early and often in a post - even linking to a “Terms of Engagement” document that outlines the relationship. Ultimately, having set guidelines will benefit everyone and the discussion on best practices will continue up to and through the FTC releases their updated guidelines (likely October 2009).

What struck me as most interesting was the overwhelming sentiment that those who fail to provide full and clear disclosure will be “called out” and punished by the marketplace. The correlating result is a rational and utopic conclusion – the good people win. Unfortunately, the marketplace isn’t rational. It does self-police, but not that well. With a who’s who of WOM practitioners and an active Twitter stream, it was difficult to come up with one good example of a company or influencer being punished by the marketplace for failing to disclose a relationship. continue reading

This past week I had the pleasure of attending a few of the NY400 events in New York City, including the H209 Water Forum. The H209 conference was dedicated to bringing Dutch and American environmental and engineering experts and policy makers together to explore ways to tackle 21st century water-related challenges, and develop solutions for a sustainable future. A mouthful I know – and definitely not the sexiest topic – but I learned some interesting facts on water-management that made me take a second look at the relevancy of the issue and ways to use my DI skills to bring awareness of it online.

continue reading