Last Thursday (3/20), I was fortunate enough to have been invited to attend a presentation on the much speculated and recently launched Google TV Ads (beta) at the new Google office in Cambridge, MA (Kendall Square).

I apologize in advance to my extremely gracious Google hosts (Thanks Lori!) for the following whinge, but I’m going to start off with the one thing that really marred my experience at the recent  presentation — however, I  hope I don’t sound too negative as it really was a good event overall (especially the swag and the Google-tinis…mmmm).   

My One Disappointment

So, it looks like even Google is subject to the “lousy sound-system setup” for their live demos. I mean, I wasn’t expecting a TED Talks presentation, but I guess I was hoping for just a little bit more from Google (maybe I’m holding them to too high a standard?)…

To say the least, the sound system was absolutely AWFUL (it sounded like a portable karaoke unit). Also, the presenter was mic’ed up all wrong (the mic was on the side of his jacket that he did NOT turn his head to) and the demonstrator wasn’t even mic’ed up at all! In the end, these “little things” just made for a frustrating experience at an otherwise interesting and enjoyable event.

Back to Regular Programming

With that said, let’s move on to Google TV Ads…

Some of you might not realize that Google has extended their reach beyond the internet alone and into other media properties — they’ve got print (newspapers), radio, and now, of course, TV. And from what I understand, they’re basically trying to apply the very successful (and lucrative) Ad Words model to these traditional media formats for buying and programming ad inventory, thereby giving ad buyers more control, flexibility, and reporting/accountability; not to mention a familiar user-experience for anyone who has used Ad Words.

Here’s what Google states as the benefits for using Google TV Ads:

Better Measurement
Once your ad has aired, use Google’s reporting metrics to immediately understand the effectiveness of your ads. Google is now plugged into millions of set top boxes and we are measuring second-by-second viewership data across all dayparts. This valuable data will enable you to find out which ads are engaging your viewers.

More Accountability
No more make goods! With Google’s auction based pricing system you will only pay for impressions that are actually delivered. When you set up your campaign, you’ll bid the maximum CPM that you are willing to pay. If you are the highest bidder, you pay the next-highest bidder’s offer, so you’re getting the best price possible.

Greater Optimization
Google’s user friendly interface will allow you to launch and manage your TV ad campaigns easily. As you learn more about what ads are more effective with viewers, you can optimize your campaign accordingly with just a few clicks of the mouse.

For those of you familiar with Ad Words, using the Google TV Ads interface will be a cinch. And for those who aren’t as familiar, it’s still pretty intuitive and almost as easy as 1-2-3…

Step 1: Search and select the networks and dayparts (timing) for ads to air
Step 2: Set your budget and bid the max CPM you are willing to pay
Step 3: Track your ad campaigns and optimize accordingly

Seriously, it really is that simple, folks. In fact, you could probably get a TV ad campaign on ESPN, CNN, Discovery or any number of cable channels in less than 3 mins, as demo’ed by the Google folks during the presentation. Of course, you will still have to submit (by mail or by uploading) your 15, 30, 45, or 60 second ads for a 2-step review process, which must adhere to their editorial guidelines.

Google sates that they have access to nearly 100 networks reaching over 13 million households at the moment, including: Fox News, Cartoon Network, Fox Sports Net, Bravo, Fuse, Fine Living, CNN, MTV, DIY Network, NFL Network, A&E, ESPN, and Food Network.

If you want to see some screenshots and read a good beta-tester review, visit Pinny Cohen’s blog or you can also watch Google’s own demo of the system.

My Thoughts: IMHO…

So, what I think is really cool about all this, is not just the fact that you are able to do the ad buying stuff through the Ad Words interface, but that you’re also charged at a CPM (cost per thousand) impressions rate.

Because of Google’s partnership with EchoStar (DISH Network), they are able to provide you with anonymous second-by-second viewership data collected from the set-top-boxes (STBs), meaning that you don’t just pay for EVERYONE that is tuning into that channel for ANY amount of time, but only for those that “qualify” as a real impression/viewer. And, since you can set your CPM budget just like you would for an Ad Word campaign, you can take better control and gain more efficiencies with a limited budget. See an example of what I mean here.

Now, I don’t claim to know much about TV ad buying, but I believe this is probably one of the first platforms that charges on an impressions-only basis and that also tracks these “tune ins” and “tune outs” to provide more accurate metrics and reports that can help you determine your ROI.

Furthermore, with the additional ability to search for programming just like you would using an internet search engine, it also opens the door for people on a smaller budget to target more niche audiences with a tighter focus. And we all know that lots of niche audiences can sometimes contribute to a Long Tail effect (a la Amazon.com).

And to bring it a full-circle, back to the medium that made Google famous, they presented an interesting statistic from an iProspect study on Offline Channel Influence on Online Serach Behavior which showed that the TV is the most influential medium in driving a a viewer to perform an online search (i.e. people search for something after seeing it on TV); even more so than word-of-mouth (by 1%).

 
Chart from iProspect Offline Channel Influence on Online Search Behavior Study (August 2007)

To sum it all up, I’m going to steal what Pinny Cohen summarized in his blog…

What is incredibly useful so far, is Google’s measurement tools, which help you reveal the behavior of your consumers. Google will:

• show you how many impressions were shown (1 impression here means 1 view per screen).
• let you choose a CPM rate to bid against other ads in that slot.
• let you run national, local, or demographic based TV campaigns.
• schedule ads based on day, time, and network.
• estimate how many people tuned in to the ad.
• tell you how long viewers watched the ad for on average
• show you what point in your ad you lost most viewers.

The last part is incredibly useful, because you can now test TV ads (or even video ads that would normally run online) to see if there is a “disconnect”, or a moment in your ad that was either offensive, irrelevant, or extraneous, and should be modified or deleted.

And when it comes to DTC advertising in Pharma, we know all too well that getting the right message across is even more important than in other industries.

So, I can see Google TV Ads as a very useful tool not only for (1) maximizing your budget, (2) market research/testing, and (3) getting excellent metrics to measure impact, but also (4) as a means to target the appropriate audience for your specific drug indication. And, of course, (5) not forgeting that all this probably holds even more true for smaller, startup companies that cannot afford a full-out DTC campaign to compete with the big boys.

For those of you interested in consumer engagement, you might be interested in this upcoming webcast by MM&M…

How to Engage Online Consumers in Daily Health Management

Thursday, April 10, 2008
2pm EST/11am PST

CLICK HERE FOR FREE REGISTRATION

This event will offer expert insights on the importance of engaging consumers in regular healthcare management, and how marketers can achieve this. Topics will include the characteristics and behavior of the online audience, the role of women as family healthcare managers, overcoming hurdles that prevent consumer action and tools for daily healthcare management. There will also be an interactive Q and A session.

Featured speakers
Meryl Weinreb, director of patient programs, oncology, AstraZeneca
Meredith Abreu Ressi, VP, research, Manhattan Research
Benjamin Wolin, co-founder and CEO, Waterfront Media

Moderator
James Chase, editor-in-chief, Medical Marketing & Media

Sponsored by

CLICK HERE FOR FREE REGISTRATION

One of the things I learned last year at the Digital Pharma conference, is that I was not alone in my frustrations and impatience with the pharma industry to adopt Web 2.0 platforms, such as blogging, podcasts, etc.

Some of the biggest barriers holding the industry back are the regulatory and legal implications of having “open conversations” with consumer/professional audiences — the very thing that empowers other industries that are not held to the same regulations.

Blogging-specific issues include: libelous content, privacy issues, IP, fair balanced statements, editorial control, and of course the biggest one on the list, adverse event reporting.

So, when Johnson & Johnson (J&J) first launched their corporate blog — JNJBTW.com — in June 2007, it was heralded as “pioneering” and created a buzz as an industry-first foray into the Web 2.0 world of blogging, even though blogs have been around for a long time.

As shared by Marc Monseau (blog editor, JNJBTW.com) at the Digital Pharma conference, part of the success/benefits they found with starting the blog included the ability to tell their own story, to join-in the “real conversation” that their audiences were having, and even to help them navigate through tough situations.

So, building on the success of the their first blog, Centocor — a J&J subsidiary — has now launched their own corporate blog, called CNTO411.com. Here’s what they say about their blog:

Welcome to CNTO411, the Centocor corporate blog.

We have started this blog because there are so many interesting things happening at our company, in our industry, and around immunology. Although you can read about these things in the news or on other blogs, we want to join the conversation because we have much to say on the matter.

On this blog there will be discussion about Centocor - what we are doing, how we are doing it, and why. There will be comments on the news about our company and the industry - we may need to correct mistakes or put news into context. We will try to talk about these things as they relate to Centocor business. But bear in mind, the comments will be based on my and other guest authors’ personal opinions and points of view, not necessarily that of the entire company.

Because our industry is highly regulated, there are many things we won’t be able to talk about, but we will try to tell you what those are and why we can’t comment. We will not comment on Centocor product-specific news or issues. Nor will we comment on information that is not consistent with the FDA approval for our products. If company news is not yet public or falls within confidentiality obligations, we won’t discuss it. Neither competitor products nor issues will be discussed.

The references and links we post will be those that the editor and authors select, and do not imply any endorsement. We will include links and references to our postings to help bring in the various viewpoints and voices to add to our own.

This blog will be professional, it will be fair, and above all else, it will engage us in conversations about what’s important in our business of healthcare, biotechnology, and immunology.

PharmExec.com has a pretty good write up about the blog and here’s some comments from their article:

“This is not going to be a marketing blog,” [Michael Parks, vice president of corporate communications at Centocor] said. “This is not going to be a site where we predominantly talk about our products. It’s something we want to use to talk about Centocor, but really to talk about the company in the context of the industry that we find ourselves in.”

That conversation is going to be a two-way one thanks to the inclusion of a comments section—a feature that can cause more harm than good if a conversation turns heated. Or even worse—off-label.

“That is the biggest challenge for us,” Parks said. “I really do not want to censor. This blog really should be the voice and personality of Centocor. To that end, we want to make sure that we are posting and voicing the opinions of the people who have an interest in the industry and Centocor. Whether it’s good or bad, we are going to post it.”

Or maybe not. The blog’s comments policy states that comments relating to Centocor products will not be posted. Neither will comments on topics other than those originally posted about, comments about legal and regulatory matters, nor anything that falls outside of mainstream science.

On the design side, the team found an interesting way of incorporating fair balance into the site. In the inaugural post, a mention of Remicade—the companies top biologics drug—features a pop-up Web component. Hover over the name of the drug for a second and a tiny window featuring the drug’s fair balance information appears.

“We don’t want to overburden the blog, aesthetically, with all of the safety information, but we make sure that it meets all the appropriate legal and regulatory rules that we have,” Parks said.

I hope to cover this blog in more detail soon, but in the mean time, feel free to visit CNTO411.com or subscribe to their RSS Feed.

Having played with the iPhone and iPod Touch at the Apple Store and with early-adopting friends over the last 9 months or so, I have always thought that the technology platform could be developed into a really amazing tool for a variety of business related uses and, of course, for Med 2.0 applications.

Now that Apple has released their Software Development Kit (SDK) on MAR 6th 2008, it appears that the development of more of these business and Med 2.0 tools could be a very likely possibility.

So what’s new? Well, while the original iPhone captured the hearts of many a consumer, it looks like Apple is now poised to also make this an indispensable enterprise tool as well (can you say “bye, bye, blackberry”?). 

Here are some interesting snippets from the CNET Live Blog of the SDK launch:

10:07 a.m.: So, what do businesses want? “Great e-mail integration,” says Schiller. That also extends to calendars, contacts, and the global address lists of corporations–having that technology instantly accessible and pushed to the device. They also want security policies, like VPNs and remote wiping of a stolen iPhone, and configuration help. “I’m really excited to be the one to tell you today that we’re doing all these things in the next release of the iPhone software.”

10:07 a.m.: What do they really want? Microsoft Exchange. And they’re getting it: Schiller announces that Apple has licensed the Microsoft ActiveSync protocol, which will make it much easier to do push e-mail and contacts with Exchange servers.

10:10 a.m.: You’ll soon get push e-mail, calendaring, contacts, and a global contacts list, as well as the remote-wipe security feature. The iPhone’s Mail application will have this functionality; you won’t have to have a new user interface for e-mail and calendars. This will ship with every iPhone.

10:13 a.m.: Schiller starts demoing the new features. He’s using a virgin iPhone, demonstrating how you would activate the functionality with Exchange. You can do the whole thing over the air, which is very helpful for IT administrators: you won’t have to go collect every iPhone that needs that feature. E-mail, contacts, and calendar are automatically pushed from your desktop to your iPhone upon setup. As far as I understand, many devices, such as my Treo and BlackBerrys, also offer over-the-air setup; it’s almost a requirement in the IT world.

You may ask: So that’s interesting, but how does it apply to Med 2.0?

Well, one of the first things they announced on stage was a handful of businesses that were interested in working with the iPhone:

10:04 a.m.: Schiller starts talking about the companies that have inquired about working with the iPhone, mentioning Genentech, where Apple board member Art Levinson is CEO. It’s also been a university play, according to Schiller, bringing up Stanford University’s deployment of the iPhone. He avoids mentioning Duke, which initially blamed the iPhone for a widespread network outage last year.

So, Genentech wants to work with the iPhone, eh? It certainly would take a forward thinking and innovative biotech company to want to try this. And as a matter of fact, I personally recommended (but wasn’t approved) a pilot program for pharma reps to use an iPhones or iTouch as device for detailing and learning, so if I could see such great potential for it in the pharma/biotech space, I’m sure the Genentech folks could to.

And another thing that I was thinking would be such a great idea for the iPhone/iTouch interface, is to have a Physicians Desk Reference (PDR) for doctors and other medical professionals. 

So, ePocrates (probably the most popular mobile PDR currently) initially launched an iPhone friendly web page of their web-based drug reference in DEC 2007. Well lo and behold, at the iPhone SDK launch presentation, they presented an actual working version of their iPhone application and here’s a brief quote on it from the CNET Live Blog:

10:59 a.m.: Epocrates is the next showcase developer, making software for medical professionals. Glenn Keighley shows off what it’s created. Keighley’s been a mobile developer for a while, but he says the iPhone development was almost like developing for a desktop. The company was able to build a native application that can access an SQL database for accessing medical information, pictures of pills, and checking whether a new prescription will have an adverse effect on a patient who is already taking a bunch of other drugs.

So, as you can see, this could just be the beginning for many a good Med 2.0 applications to come, particularly with the growing number of EMR/EHR (electronic medical/health records) companies out there.

Just take a look at this cool video which I came across on DoctorsGadgets.com, showing the use of the iPhone with an EMR called Life Record…

Oh, and one more thing (as Steve Jobs would say), Apple didn’t just stop at releasing their SDK, but they have also brought on Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers (of Amazon, Genentech, and Google investments fame) and announced a $100 million iFund to promote development on the iPhone platform:

KPCB’s iFund is a $100M investment initiative that will fund market-changing ideas and products that extend the revolutionary new iPhone and iPod touch platform. The iFund is agnostic to size and stage of investment and will invest in companies building applications, services and components. Focus areas include location based services, social networking, mCommerce (including advertising and payments), communication, and entertainment. The iFund will back innovators pursuing transformative, high-impact ideas with an eye towards building independent durable companies atop the iPhone / iPod touch platform.

Wow! I think we’re into something good, folks…

In case you can’t get enough, here are some more links on the topic:

- Watch the March 6th SDK Launch
- iPhone Enterprise Beta Program
- CNET Live Blog Coverage
- CrunchGear Live Blog Coverage
- TechCrunch post-presentation summary
- CNETs iPhone Reports
- TechCrunch thoughts on the iFund

It’s been a crazy busy week for me, so I’m only now getting a chance to write about so many interesting things that are going on…

For example, in the midst of all the Google PHR (G’PHR) hype, Google also released the long awaited Googlized version of the wiki formerly known as JotSpot (see my blog post and my podcast with Joe Kraus) — they’ve called it Google Sites and incorporated it as part of the Google Apps collection. I’ve been wondering what happened to JotSpot since the acquisition in OCT 2006 and it looks like it’s finally come to fruition. Here are some highlights and an intro video from their “official announcement” on the Google Blog:

Many of you have been waiting for JotSpot to re-emerge, integrated into Google — and now it’s happening…

We are shifting our focus from personal to team productivity. It’s less about “you” and more about “us.”…But with this explosion in collaboration, how do you bring together everything your team needs to work? How do you take information, whether it is on your desktop or online, and share it with specific groups of people — your team, the company, the public?

Meet Google Sites, the newest addition to the Google Apps product suite. It was designed to allow you to easily create a network of sites and share them with whomever you choose. Google Sites lets you pull together information from across Google Apps by embedding documents, spreadsheets, presentations, videos, and calendars in your sites. Of course, we also harness the power of Google search technology so your search results are always fast and relevant.

What does it take to start using Google Sites? Just a click of a button — that’s it. Here’s an overview with more detail:

URL: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X_KnC2EIS5w
So, what’s different? Well…A LOT! I haven’t personally tried it yet, but according to TechCrunch, “Google Sites looks absolutely nothing like Jotspot, other than the fact that both are hosted wikis. All of the structured data templates launched by Jotspot in July 2006 have been stripped out. Users now have a choice between just five basic templates - a standard wiki, a dashboard where google gadgets can be embedded, a blog-like template for announcements, a file cabinet for file uploads, and a page for lists of items. Instead of creating structured templates, users will now simply embed spreadsheets, presentations and word documents from Google Docs, as well as Google Calendars, YouTube Videos and Picasa Albums…”

On the positive side, I think it’s pretty cool that they have integrated the ability for Google apps (i.e. word processor, spreadsheet, and presentations) and other cool new elements to be embeded within the wiki interface, allowing the creation of sort of a “dashboard” view. However, according to Rafe Needleman on CNET’s WebWare blog, things are not looking so pretty with this Googlized incarnation of JotSpot:

There’s only one thing about this product that really bugs me, but it’s annoying enough that I would throw the thing out the window if only it came in a box I could pick up. It’s this: The integration with Google’s productivity applications (word processor, spreadsheet, and presentations) is awful. To me, that’s the one thing I want most from a wiki, especially one from Google, which historically has put great collaboration features into its otherwise lightweight productivity applications. I want to be able to easily create a wiki and then embed a productivity document in it, so I can share the whole package with my co-workers.

Try this with Sites, though, and you’ll feel jilted. First you have to create your spreadsheet outside of the wiki, which is just weird. The real killer, though, is that your spreadsheet will only show up in your wiki if you “publish” it in Docs, making it viewable to anyone who gets its URL. It doesn’t matter if you have carefully controlled the access to the wiki itself. If you want people to be able to edit your embedded spreadsheet, you’ve got to give them permission to do so from Google’s separate spreadsheet application, even if you’ve already given the people who you’re collaborating with on your wiki permission to edit the page that’s hosting the embedded sheet.

Confused? Common-looking toolbars notwithstanding, Google Sites is clearly not integrated into Google’s other productivity applications. It feels like Sites and the other productivity applications are from two different evolutionary branches. They have similarly-colored fur, but they do not interbreed.

My biggest worry when Jot got acquired was that they would stop supporting their enterprise customers (which I am) and it looks like they do have a “Premiere Edition” for corporations, but it’s nothing like the dedicated server deal that I had with Jot. I wonder how us legacy customers will get transitioned into the G-Sites?

So, I’m really going to have to try this out for myself some time soon before I make my own final judgements about it. I had high hopes for what Google would do with what I considered to be the best wiki platform at the time (and I still do now, if it still existed as JotSpot), so I’m a little disappointed to hear what Rafe had to say.

Whatever the case, I’m just glad to see that something has finally come out of the wiki formerly know as Jot.