tlaubacher

Innovation is cool

Published by Tim Laubacher on August 31, 2010.

This morning, I was thinking about some of today’s most innovative companies and wondering how they are perceived. I wanted to know what they have in common, at least in the public’s eye.

So I started by choosing a few companies, based on Bloomberg Businessweek’s “The 50 Most Innovative Companies 2010,” and I decided to look into Apple, Google, Amazon, LG, and Sony. To get an idea of how each company is perceived, I used Brandtags.net. When looking at approximately the top 20 tags for each company, a few tags were repeated across multiple of the innovators.

  • Innovative
  • Cool
  • Everywhere/everything
  • Reliable
  • Quality
  • Useful
  • Simple

Aside from the words more related to each company’s industry, such as “phones” and “televisions,” these descriptor tags show us how we view companies who are excelling through innovation. We, as consumers and possibly advocates, believe Apple to be innovative, cool, simple, and of quality. Amazon is everything, cool, useful, and reliable.

These may not be the exact attributes each company is attempting to stand for, but their reliable, quality, useful, and simple innovations are everywhere, and that’s cool.

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squillin

How we use digital now: Remote observers

Published by Seth Quillin on August 26, 2010.

You remember the headlines about Dr Google. About 50 year olds on Facebook. About laptop TV. Each of those media moments reflected a critical shift in how we use digital – a moment in time where we reached critical mass for some new online behavior.

Spotting these shifts can be difficult because our options for digital experiences and services change almost constantly and our collective attention is divided, fragmented and nuanced. But, I think we’re at the start of another major trend: Remote observers (or virtual attendance)

You may have seen this on the menu at your local kennel – for a $5 up charge you can check in on your pet’s cottage (i.e. cage) at any time using a web browser and the kennel’s built in webcam network. This week, that remote watching moved from the kennel to the baseball diamond. Youth Sports Live made big news at the Little League World Series by broadcasting the game to thousands of computers. It was part of the global launch of an incredibly local initiative: Youth Sports Live is striking deals with local leagues around the country to maintain webcams at their community baseball and softball fields. Games can be replayed on demand on laptops, smartphones, etc. Subscribers to the site are charged $14.95 per month or can buy access for an entire season.

It’s micro TV – a reality show of our own lives (at least the part of them we’re not quite able to schedule face time with.)

While the real-life applications might seems a little extravagant, the healthcare ones are much more intriguing.

For physicians, we’re watching breakthrough apps that let them monitor their patients from anywhere – often much faster and more efficiently than the on-site medical staff can. For example, AirStrip OB lets OB/GYNs view the “strip” showing fluctuations in fetal heartbeat, contractions, oxygen levels in the mother’s blood and nurses’ notes recording cervical dilation. That means docs are using smartphones, primary data, and their own judgment to make critical medical decisions. No longer are they waiting for a nurse to fax a strip or counting on a tech to communicate test results. Doctors have called for emergency cesarean sections after looking at the graphs on their smartphones, asking the hospital to prep for surgery as they drive over.

For caregivers, the options are just as groundbreaking. One of our favorites is the Granny Hut – it’s a tangible microcosm of many of the discreet tools hitting the market. The idea is twofold – keep patients close to their families (instead of in nursing homes) and make caregiving easier for families. The granny pod’s real name is the MEDCottage, and it’s basically a mini mobile home that rents for about $2,000 a month. You park one in the backyard, hook it up to your water and electricity, and it becomes a free-standing spare room for your loved one who needs extra care.

The inside of the cottage looks a lot like a nice hotel suite. But, people don’t choose it for the sweet homey interior. It’s the technology that’s game changing. A floor-mounted camera monitors only about 12 inches off the floor, or high enough to see a person’s feet — but if that person fell, you’d see them lying on the floor. A lift can carry an immobile resident to the bathroom, monitoring systems let you check on the resident’s temperature, heart rate and whether she’s taken her medicine. It’s all remote. The resident feels independent; the caregiver feels connected.

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cpatton

Building brand relationship through SMS

Published by Chelsea Patton on August 24, 2010.

SMS is nothing new. But what about location-based mobile ads? The North Face recently became the first retailer to utilize the newly formed partnership between Placecast and Location Labs. According to a recent post, The North Face can now reach 60% of all U.S. consumers with opt-in location-based marketing test messages.

So what? Now I can opt-in to receive more clutter on my phone when I’m near a North Face store?

There’s more to the story.

North Face has created a more engaging use for the application; sending texts to customers based on their lifestyle interests. They’ve setup geo-fences around locations that are popular with their customers and those who opt-in to receive messages customized to their position and predetermined interests. Say you’re a mountian biker and traveling out west, now North Face can send you a branded text telling you about a great biking trail you’re near. Or you’re hiking and North Face can sends you updated weather conditions…

Any brand can offer incentives and send coupons, but North Face is building a relationship with its customers by offering a service.

So what can pharma brands learn from The North Face? Building brand relationship. Breaking past the sterile, cold name that pharma brands sometimes get and becoming an advocate among patients.

Location based SMS is only one tactic in the larger digital strategy; what can your brand offer to build a relationship with patients?

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lhouseholder

The myth of the short online attention span

Published by Leigh Householder on August 18, 2010.

I’m reading this novel called Super Sad True Love Story by Gary Shteyngart, the author of The Russian Debutante’s Handbook and Absurdistan. It takes place a decade or so from now in tech-mad America. Everywhere in the ruined urban landscape, people are connected to constant data streams via their äppäräti – devices they use to scan content, quickly getting just the gist of everything from the latest news to the desirability scores of the people around them. Reading is mocked as antiquated. Beautiful is the new smart.

It’s an exaggerated satire, to be sure. But, it’s rooted in a core belief that many of us share – the internet is killing our attention spans. People consume just enough. They scan and sample, bouncing from one thing to the next.

That belief leads us to write ever-shorter web pages, dice content down to tweet length, and generally shortcut our best ideas for easier consumption.

But, here’s the thing: It’s a myth.

People are willing to spend time online with content they find valuable. Concentrated time that follows a traditional narrative.

In text:

The Poytner Institute recently released an eyetracking study that looked at how we read newspaper content online vs. in print:

  • Online readers read an average of 77% of each story they choose to read
    • Broadsheet readers finished 62%
    • Tabloid readers, only 57%
  • Online readers read 63% of stories from start to finish
    • Broadsheet readers finished 40% of stories
    • Tabloid readers, 36%
  • These findings held true for both long- and short-form stories

On video:

Sure, the Internet started out as something you’d read. Now, increasingly, it’s something you watch. The latest Comscore data finds Americans watching nearly 200 videos a month – that’s 6 every day.

But, here’s the big number: The average length of video views was 4.3 minutes in March. Those aren’t quick scans. 4.3 minutes is an online commitment.

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tlaubacher

Conversation on forums alive and well

Published by Tim Laubacher on August 16, 2010.

Odds are good that at some point in time, you’ve gone online for medical purposes. And more than likely, you’ve participated in some level of health conversation on the social web. But in case you don’t have time to read about multiple medical topics from multiple sources on multiple social platforms, I’ve got you covered.

I’m going to share some of the ways patients, caregivers, and physicians are using forums to gather useful information and build meaningful relationships. Yes, there are also blogs, Twitter, and a number of other ways the social web is connecting the health industry, but let’s focus on one thing at a time— the forum.

Patients & caregivers

  • Patients and caregivers often turn to forums regarding acute conditions, whereas chronic conditions lend themselves to long term commitments such as blogs.
  • Some patients join the forum conversation  before seeing a physician, coming to the social web with only symptoms and fears. Others have seen physicians and may even have a formal diagnosis for a condition before turning to forums for further explanation.
  • Patients often ask others if they have experienced a specific symptom, condition, or medication. People want to know what to expect, what will come next.
  • Often, patients and caregivers ask for hope, looking for others to identify with and provide inspiration.
  • Patients share their stories with each other to help answer questions and also build relationships.
  • They share advice on how to lessen or adapt to the symptoms so that they can live more normal or satisfying lives.
  • Patients keep each other up to date on clinical trials that might soon provide new treatment options.

Physicians

  • The forums physicians are posting on are often private, password-protected communities.
  • Doctors share symptoms and test results, asking others for diagnosis advice. And accordingly, other physicians give their most educated guesses at the diagnosis for patients they only know through detailed descriptions.
  • Often, a physician is confident in a patient’s diagnosis but utilizes forums to get treatment advice from colleagues. When a series of medications are not improving the patient’s condition, other physicians may have better ideas.
  • They discuss whether or not to prescribe the newly approved pharmaceutical products in the marketplace. The clinical trials and initial patient feedback are talked about.
  • Physicians ask each other questions about dealing with pharmaceutical sales reps.

And yes, sometimes the patients, caregivers, and physicians even interact with each other. On WebMD, for example, many forums feature expert physicians who can plug insights into patient conversations, where appropriate.

On forums, the health conversations are alive and well.

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lhouseholder

Everything’s bigger in Texas: Vote for our big, BIG SxSW ideas

Published by Leigh Householder on August 11, 2010.

Great news: Three panels we’re involved with have made it to the live vote at SxSW Interactive.

That means we need your help. The votes of people like you account for 30% of the total judging criteria.

Here’s how it works -

Thousands of people and companies submit panel and presentation ideas for SxSW, the annual interactive summit that CNN calls “one of the most important events in the international new media landscape.”

The team at SxSW reviews the proposals and sends some of them to the live vote.

Then, you weigh in. Just go to the site, login and start reviewing proposals. We hope you’ll comment on and vote on these three:

  1. Agency Be Nimble: Why We Need Innovation Labs
    Awesome panel about the competitive advantage that can be gained by dedicating resources to innovation. Jude (Innovation Engineer) and Sean Cowan (Digital CD) from our team will be joined by Leah McDougald, an amazing consumer insight miner at Lextant, and John Boese from Ogilvy’s global innovation lab + there are two unannounced guests that I look forward to telling you about soon.
  2. “Turn Your Head and Click”: Practicing Digital Medicine
    Kathryn Bernish-Fisher and I are teaming up to look at how technology is changing the way physicians make decisions. Kind of a peek behind the exam room curtain at what digital resources docs turn to and how those choices impact diagnosing, prescribing and patient care.
  3. Explosive Discharge: Digital Advertising for Big Pharma Clients
    You know you love that title, right? This panel – conceived by our very own David Sonderman (EVP/Creative Director) – is all about what it’s like to advertise for the prescription drug industry. It’s $3.2 billion ad spend is second only to automotive’s – so, very desirable for any client roster. These guys are going to look at what it takes to succeed in this highly regulated industry and just how good creative still gets done. We’re still recruiting for this panel, but already we’ve got leaders from the healthcare marketing industry as well as some great client-side thought leaders.

After the vote, SxSW and its advisers make a final decision on the agenda.

So, as they say: PLEASE GO VOTE!

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mwallinger

Social: a simple Causium model

Published by Mark Wallinger on August 11, 2010.

Full disclosure: we’re capitalists here at iQ.

Yes, we follow social, and, yes, we are all for the betterment of the world, but here is a story that caught our eye because it both did good and showed real results.

Fast Company has a great story about Causium and a business model that might make sense in a very practical way.

It raised $500,000 for the Room to Read charity (on its way now to $1m), but it’s the model that’s noteworthy.  Because it raises the question, especially for pharma’s mega-brands:  What if every customer had the opportunity to make a micro-donation to a cause that was specific to the therepautic category, or disease state?

So, cancer patients might support the American Cancer Society. Or diabetes patients might support American Diabetes Association (you get the idea).

Simply by the power of suggestion.

The Causium model in the article shows that software company Atlassian put together a micropayment for one of its products that needed marketshare and notoriety … and the company was willing to give away product to get it.

The program caused ”20 times the normal purchase event volume going through the company’s servers, frenzied tweeting about the experiment, and even some people purchasing the package just to aid the charity …”

While it wouldn’t make sense to give away big pharma products in the same manner, it is worth thinking about building community with those in the arena where your company is doing such good work.

If a company with 220 employees and $44m in revenue can do it, imagine what your brand could do?

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squillin

App-based vs. SMS QR codes – which is right for your campaign?

Published by Seth Quillin on August 5, 2010.

The big news in my inbox this week is New York City garbage trucks. No fewer than seven people have sent me B.L. Ochman’s article about the codes appearing on the sides of 2,200 New York City Department of Sanitation trucks. When good citizens snap a picture of the little 2-dimensional codes with their cell phones, they’re taken to a video from the NYC Media show “The Green Apple: Recycling.”

Clever, sure. But people are talking about the article because of its controversial subhead: “a Betamax vs. VHS Format War Awaits.” Ochman pits traditional QR codes against upstart SMS versions – claiming the two will compete in an all out war for our clicks.

This is a case of hiding a challenging user experience in a friendly technology guise. SMS doesn’t have a chance.

First, a primer: What is a QR tag? It’s a two-dimensional bar code created by Japanese corporation Denso-Wave in 1994. QR stands for Quick Response because the code’s contents can be decoded at high speed.

Traditionally, free tag readers let people with smartphones snap a picture of the codes. That scan will get them a destination or content. Usually they load a web page or video, but a code can also take you to a contact card, a picture or other information.

Now onto the debate:

Ochman positions the upstart SMS tag as a competitor to the traditional app-base codes. With SMS, people take a picture of a tag and – depending on your provider – either text it to a 6-10 digit code or email it to a typical email address.

For advertising applications, that’s pretty unmanageable. You’re asking people to take a photo. Then providing a number for AT&T and Verizon customers and an email address for customers of another provider. That’s a lot to convey quickly (on the back of a garbage truck, for example).

I think the app-based QR tag will win for three reasons:

  1. Lower barrier to use: The SMS codes seem inclusive but they actually create a much higher, multi-step barrier to involvement. Users have to take a picture of the tag and then text it to a 6- to 10-digit number. The app/reader is a one time download and then instant gratification for users.
  2. Industry is betting on it: The app-based tag is being picked up by some important industries – for example, airlines are using it for mobile checkin, warehouses are using it for tracking, and publishers are using it in print. Those industry-wide adoptions suggest that we’re going to see growth there. Not so for the SMS codes.
  3. Fits the adoption curve: In countries that are much more mobile-ly advanced than ours, the app-based codes have held sway. The trends that fueled that are happening here too – mass adoption of smarter phones, majority of people using their cell phones to access the internet, etc.

Next, we’re going to get Jude to clear up the Microsoft tag vs. traditional QR code…

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mwallinger

Going grassroots: what pharma can learn from Pepsi

Published by Mark Wallinger on August 3, 2010.

In this video, Pepsi SVP, Chief Consumer Engagement Officer, Frank Cooper,  gives a brief description of how Pepsi used the $20m from the Super Bowl ad they didn’t run to start a grassroots effort. The concept can be found here on the Refresh Everything site.

Sure, the site has 5 million unique views and 20 million hits, but as he starts to talk about brand behavior, etc., he mentions all the items a marketing person would want to discuss — traffic, votes, reach, frequency, etc., — but listen for Pepsi’s goal: culture.

Whenever brands ask about how to “connect the dots” on “new marketing” this example is easy to use. Plug in your company’s name every time Frank mentions Pepsi and think about how the bring brand story is about “becoming part of the culture,” not shouting from the mountaintop.

Watch live streaming video from disrupt at livestream.com
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lhouseholder

Better online advertising: what we can learn from GE’s ecoimagination campaign

Published by Leigh Householder on August 2, 2010.

Most of the ads on Wired.com are just that – ads. Clever headlines, great photography, and a simple call to action: buy me.

GE’s new campaign takes another strategy entirely. Their ad is a mass invitation to get involved in the GE Ecomagination challenge.

The ad is interactive from the first rollover, a webpage inside an ad. Importantly, the content isn’t all about GE. Instead, it highlights key energy articles from around Wired.com – a collection curated to help inspire you to submit your own idea for how to power the future energy grid.

Click thru and you’re taken to a custom Ecomagination landing page. There, you can submit your idea. GE and its partners are funding $200,000,000 of grants to fund the best submissions. How many TV spots could they have bought with that $200 million? A lot. But, what breaks out today isn’t a brand’s brilliant new ads, it’s a brand’s simple actions. In Ecomagination, GE delivers a smart balance of both.

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