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Healthcare Branding Week: Complexities of Healthcare Advertising Online

Part 4 of 5

Despite a down economy, online advertising in 2009 saw steady growth according to a survey conducted by PricewaterhouseCoopers published in April 2010. “Search revenue accounted for 47 percent of 2009 revenues, up from the 45 percent reported in 2008. Display advertising also showed solid growth, accounting for 35 percent of 2009 revenue up from 33 percent in 2008. Digital video, which is a component of display advertising, increased 38 percent from 2008 to 2009.” (PWC 2010) But along with this phenomenal growth come phenomenal complexities.

Following and targeting consumers online is challenging in the healthcare industry. Consumers commonly search for information on heathcare sites such as WebMD. However, they are also increasingly turning to user-generated health content such as blogs, chat groups and physician and hospital rankings. Many user-generated sites contain health information that is incorrect or misleading.

Behavioral targeting becomes useful to track information about an individual’s web-browsing behavior by identifying pages visited and searches made. Select ads can then be specifically targeted to the individual and placed on reputable sites.

Further, retargeting offers a powerful tool to reach a consumer by displaying multiple impressions of the same ad to the same user, based on behavior. For example: a newly diagnosed patient comes home from the doctor and searches for “diabetes treatments.” After browsing through a few sites, the patient moves on to another site such as the New York Times to read the news. At this point, an ad for the diabetes treatment product (from the previous site visited) will appear.

According to a recent study by the Network Advertising Initiative, conversion rates for retargeted ads are 6.8% compared to 2.8% for non-targeted ads (NAI 2010). However, privacy is an issue.
In a post earlier this week, “Consumers Go Online For Healthcare Answers,” we discussed the growing trend of consumers becoming increasingly proactive online, with some not wishing to publicly identify with certain healthcare brands or social networks. Other consumers may be concerned about privacy online, and choose not to participate in the various health communities available.

While some consumer advocacy groups have expressed concern over behaviorally targeted ads, others point out that it is simply a means of displaying relevant content to users. Users are tracked via cookies on their computers, and no names or other personal information is collected. Additionally, most ad platforms don’t allow users to be targeted based on anything they have read relating to mental or sexual health.

So far, the FDA has been silent on the issue of guidelines for online advertising, referring questions to longstanding policies governing traditional forms of advertising and promotion. Pharmaceutical companies, in particular, are struggling with how to incorporate fair balance information into their online endeavors.

“Consumers’ demand is clear. We want the best health information possible to live healthier lives,” said John Bell, a Word of Mouth Marketing Association board member. “Thirty-six percent of people who gathered information about a health condition online subsequently spoke to their doctors as a result, and 21% made a change to their lifestyle because of the information they found. That information comes from professional health sources, healthcare companies and our peers. We need to protect consumers while making it easier for health care companies to use digital and social media to serve their patients and customers better.”

Sources:
PricewaterhouseCoopers. “IAB Internet Advertising Revenue Report.” Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) April 2010

NAI (Network Advertising Initiative) “Study Finds Behaviorally-Targeted Ads More Than Twice As Valuable, Twice As Effective As Non-Targeted Online Ads.“ 24 March 2010.

Smith, Kristen. “Word of Mouth Marketing Association Urges FDA to Provide Social Media Guidelines for Health Care and Pharma Companies.” Word of Mouth Marketing Association 9 March 2010.

Extend the Power of Your Brand

As new technologies offer exciting ways to influence audiences, it is increasingly important to communicate a consistent brand value across multiple-media platforms.

PeakBiety has been utilizing the power of perception® to maximize brand values for more than 20 years. We work hard to be a business-building partner by bringing ideas to the table that work across whatever channels are right for the brand. In this spirit, we’d like to highlight some of our newer services that can powerfully extend your brand communications.

Eblast Campaigns
Email campaigns are a cost-effective way to keep in touch with customers and prospects. We handle everything from project planning to creative concepts, to design, to copywriting. We’ll even execute delivery working with email marketing software, manage databases, schedule programs and track results.

Case Study: Numara
After a complete branding of the Numara Software company, we were asked to help promote their newest version of Track-It,® a help desk and asset management solution. What made Track-It® different? It provided optimal customization for multi-users’ functions within an organization. So, we developed an Eblast campaign highlighting the idea of a personalized solution by contrasting two completely different users with different needs. Our client’s product is the most widely installed help desk and asset management solution in the world.

Interactive Media & Flash
Flash and interactive presentations can help bring your product or service to life with audience involvement as well as animation, motion and sound. We strategize, concept, storyboard and script presentations. We also execute and produce the media using a host of software applications such as Flash, After Effects and Camtasia—all with extendibility in mind to get the most out of your budget.

Case Study: Persystent

Persystent Software, a company making business-level PC recovery software, sought to significantly improve awareness of its unique products. They wanted to communicate how they help PC users remain productive and work ready at all times—whether on or off a network. After alternative creative concepts were developed and tested, a “graphic novel” execution was selected. Among other pieces of a larger campaign, this animated flash banner was developed for Persystent’s homepage to quickly communicate the product benefits in a dramatic and engaging way, and direct viewers to download a demo. Inquiries elevated to record levels.

Online Media Planning & Buying
With limited ad budgets, relevant and targeted advertising is essential. We’ve taken our 20 years of media-buying savvy and adapted to the online world, developing efficient and effective plans utilizing new technologies. Our experience with geotargeting and retargeting has provided proven results.

Case Study: Florida-Friendly Landscaping Program™

The Florida-Friendly Landscaping Program™ educates the public about best practices to conserve and protect water resources. After a season of unprecedented freezes, they wanted to reach homeowners in Hillsborough, Pasco and Pinellas counties with information about cold-tolerant plants and methods of replanting which reduce the need for water, fertilizer and pesticides. We geographically and behaviorally targeted Web banners to reach homeowners in a three-county area, interested in gardening and landscaping. Over a two-month period, the landing page logged almost 3,000 unique hits, with approximately 24% of them resulting from click-throughs on the banner ads.

Search Engine Marketing
Also known as SEM, this form of internet marketing promotes Web sites by increasing visibility within search engine results. The many forms of SEM include paid placement, contextual advertising, paid inclusion and search engine optimization (SEO).

Case Study: TECO

Tampa Electric works hard to balance growing demands for electricity with environmental responsibility. For their new Energy PlannerSM program, we developed a campaign encouraging customers to save energy, lower the cost of electric bills and help the environment. Web banners ran on multiple local sites including TBO.com and TampaBay.com. Geographic targeting was used to reach only those consumers in the Tampa Electric service area. Recently, a search engine marketing component was added to reach consumers expressing an interest in greening their homes or lowering their electric bills. From April through May, 2010, Tampa Electric benefited from an amazing 1.3% clickthrough rate which is well above the accepted national average of 0.02-0.04%.

Social Media Development
A social media campaign, like any medium, needs a clearly defined strategy in sync with the overall brand strategy. What you are trying to accomplish—sales, awareness, discussion or even goodwill—will determine which social networks make sense and how to utilize them. Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, YouTube, and blogs can build consumer dialogue and promote a brand or product message.

Case Study: Cancer Research Alliance

Home to nine Nobel Prize winners, Cancer Research Alliance (CRA) member centers have a long history of groundbreaking achievements in cancer research. PeakBiety developed a cause marketing campaign around the theme, “The infinite power of one.” An integrated campaign involving email marketing, Web banner ads, radio spots and a Web-aired video explained that if everyone gave just one dollar and pasted the message on to their friends, cancer research would be pushed ahead. In addition to giving a dollar, donors were invited to add their photos to a cure mosaic on the site to “change the face of cancer”. Within weeks, the site went viral as word spread through social networks about being part of such a worthy cause.

Web Design
Our strategic process of developing Web sites starts with identifying goals, audiences, and brand considerations. Once objectives are defined, we develop architecture, write copy, design graphics, create layouts and orchestrate programming. Our Web sites come with built-in search engine optimization features.

Case Study: Tampa Bay Water

Tampa Bay Water develops and delivers high-quality drinking water for the region. Having produced several effective annual reports for them, they knew we had a good understanding of their business. They needed a Web site that would allow them to communicate to the public their mission, as well as new projects and developments. The site, TampaBayWater.org, is now ranked in the top 24% of all Web sites for traffic by Alexa (a service that measures traffic for millions of sites on the Internet), and has an excellent score of 91 from grader.com.

Web Banners & Videos
Banner ads are the most common form of Web advertising and can be very effective when targeted appropriately. Video content enhances Web banners with more graphic content and special effects. And once produced, video content can be cost-effectively repurposed for a multitude of uses.

Case Study: Florida-Friendly Landscaping Program™

To educate homeowners on how to manage landscape recovery efforts after extreme cold weather, the Florida-Friendly Landscaping Program™ needed a turn-key communication program. In response, we developed an integrated marketing campaign including direct mail, newspaper, Web banners and a landing page, RightPlant.org. The theme, “Rethink before you replant” carried throughout. Utilizing video in the banners helped capture viewer attention and drive traffic to the landing page for more information. Over a two-month period, the landing page logged almost 3,000 unique hits, with approximately 24% of them resulting from click-throughs on the banner ads.

Is your online budget going to waste?

By Donette Arcos, Media Director

With limited ad budgets, relevant and targeted advertising becomes essential.

Geotargeting
Geographic and demographic targeting on the internet serves web ads based on location, age, sex, income, education level, etc. This allows any size company to target a message to a tighter geography surrounding its location. It can also allow a company with an erratic footprint or service area to focus on sending a message to specific areas/zip codes it services. This affords an advertiser the luxury of building some frequency of message to a specific target audience, delivering a better ROI. An important note to remember is that many people work at a different location than they live and the bulk of internet traffic happens during the work day.

Retargeting
Retargeting is a form of internet targeted advertising by which online advertising is delivered to consumers based on their prior internet actions which did not result in a sale or conversion.

Retargeting is based on where the user “was.” Ads then follow users to subsequent sites to reinforce message, bring a user back or make a new offer.

Example: Kathy recently visited the Walmart website. With retargeting, Walmart ads follow Kathy to increase her likelihood of purchasing from Walmart.

Most likely, a company has spent marketing dollars to get a customer to their site in the first place, so the term retargeting is derived from the concept of marketing to them again.

Some studies suggest that a company needs to have seven different “contacts” with a customer (on average) before they make a purchase. Retargeting allows a company to continue its marketing conversation with a customer after leaving the website.

For more details, contact Donette Arcos, Media Director, at info@peakbiety.com.

The Power of Frequency

When advertising legend Leo Burnett died in 1971, a book simply titled, Leo, was privately printed and distributed by his associates. Those lucky enough to have worked with the man received a coveted copy. Glen Peak was among the fortunate few.

Leo BurnettIn Leo, a compilation of famous speeches, we find timeless words of wisdom, amazingly relevant today.  In about 1950, Burnett wrote about “the brand” in a speech called, “The power of frequency.” He almost sounds like a modern branding guru when he explains, “Whether it is an impulse purchase like a candy bar or a package of cigarettes or an infrequent and highly deliberated purchase like a washing machine, a refrigerator, a vacuum cleaner or a mattress, the biggest single thing that advertising can contribute is a friendly predisposition toward the brand—a whole complex of thoughts and emotions which give the purchaser peace of mind in the choice he [or she] makes. We shun the unknown. We are naturally drawn to the familiar. You might call this simply ‘friendship for the product.’ Your best friends are people whose qualities you like and admire and whom you enjoy being with—but they are usually people you see frequently. The principle of frequency in advertising has long been recognized. Several great brands have been built around rigid adherence to this principle rather than through the content or power of any single advertisement.”

The idea of a “whole complex of thoughts and emotions” about a brand sounds like modern branding building, doesn’t it? And, Burnett’s emphasis on the power of “friends” seems almost prophetic in this era of social networking.

Although the concept of brand friendship and loyalty hasn’t changed much over the past 60 years, media choices dramatically have. As marketing experts today, we ask ourselves. how much advertising is too much? How much is too little? The battle between reach and frequency is going through seismic shifts in perspective and is altering everything we do.

In light of the changes occurring almost daily, it is beneficial to review some basic concepts in media strategy and examine how those concepts are evolving. To read more about our perspectives on media planning, click here to request our White Paper 3.