Pharma marketers, like marketers in just about every industry, are pouring more and more of their dollars into digital channels.
A small but growing number are even eyeing new technologies like AR and VR to engage consumers, but according to a new report by CMI/Compas, marketers might not want to ditch traditional channels when it comes to physician engagement.
Despite all of the headlines and the immense scrutiny Facebook has faced in the wake of the Cambridge Analytica scandal, the social network seems to have escaped its biggest PR challenge to date largely unscathed.
But is that really the case?
The US Senate recently passed an amendment that would require pharmaceutical companies to list prices of their prescription drugs in direct-to-consumer (DTC) ads.
If the Durbin-Grassley amendment makes it through the Congressional reconciliation process intact, it could present some big new complications for pharma marketers in the US.
2018 is proving to be the year that influencer marketing is forced to go through a necessary but somewhat painful maturation phase.
Regulators are eyeing action to enforce rules that require influencers to disclose when they are being compensated by brands to promote their wares. And brands themselves are grappling with fake followers and brand safety concerns.
While marketers in many industries are now routinely allocating more than half their digital advertising budgets to programmatic advertising, by one estimate, pharma marketers are only dedicating up to 5% of their budgets to programmatic.
There are numerous reasons for this.
Social media is proving to be a double-edged sword for fashion retailers.
While content posted by consumers and influencers to popular social platforms like Instagram, Snapchat and YouTube has been proven to drive sales, a “snap and send back” trend driven by social media could be costing retailers in the UK billions of pounds in sales annually.
Amazon might be the master of ecommerce and, increasingly, just about everything else. But following the discovery that the company is employing workers to defend it on social media, it is clear that Amazon has yet to master the art of reputation management on social media.
The past several years have been especially prosperous for Amazon, and 2018 has seen the company’s fortunes – as well as that of its founder and CEO, Jeff Bezos – rise to new heights.
Campbell Soup Company, colloquially referred to as Campbell’s, has achieved a notable first in its nearly 150 year history: it launched a new product exclusively through online retail channels.
V8+Hydrate, which won’t be available in-store until November, aims to quench consumer thirst with a low-calorie, vegan-friendly, non-GMO and gluten-free hydration beverage. It incorporates the storied V8 brand name, which has been a staple in Campbell’s lineup since 1948, and given this, it would appear that Campbell’s first-ever ecommerce-first product launch is associated with a product it has high hopes for.
It has been said that data is the lifeblood of digital advertising and if that’s true, there could soon be a lot of life in the market for marketing to consumers through their vehicles.
As the Wall Street Journal explained, “With millions of cars rolling off dealer lots with built-in connectivity, auto companies are gaining access to unprecedented amounts of real-time data that allow them to track everything from where a car is located to how hard it is braking and whether or not the windshield wipers are on.”
Last week, the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) announced that it has launched an investigation into influencers who fail to disclose that they were compensated to post content on behalf of brands.
“Social media stars can have a big influence on what their followers do and buy. If people see clothes, cosmetics, a car, or a holiday being plugged by someone they admire, they might be swayed into buying it,” George Lusty, the CMA’s Senior Director for Consumer Protection, stated. “So, it’s really important they are clearly told whether a celebrity is promoting a product because they have bought it themselves, or because they have been paid or thanked in some way by the brand.”
After years of speculation and predictions about Amazon’s ability to become a digital advertising powerhouse, it’s happening.
The online retail giant now has annual ad sales exceeding $2bn, and advertising is its fastest-growing segment. With over half of consumers starting their product searches on Amazon, there’s every reason to believe that Amazon’s ad revenue will continue to grow.
Ad fraud, in all of its many forms, is one of the biggest threats to the digital ad industry – and perhaps its biggest.
By the most pessimistic of estimates, advertisers are losing upwards of a third of their digital ad spend to fraud despite the fact that all the major players in the industry have been trying to stamp it out for years.