As we said the other day, we are now covering the online marketing of pharmaceutical and health products. One reason is that we want policymakers to better understand and assess the unique impact of online marketing techniques on the promotion of drugs. Here’s an excerpt from a DTC Perspectives article on the impact of digital media on pharma marketing:
“In video, this means that your target audience will consume three minutes or more of your branded content, and they will do it without being “forced.†Efficiency of the media buy improves, we see brand recall and favorability metrics increase significantly, and this more educated patient is much more likely to ask for a script. In a recent control/test survey conducted by HealthiNation, brand favorability increased by 30 percent over control and intent to ask for a script for the advertised brand doubled…Accurate and true measurement – Digital means you get what you pay for. If you are purchasing media placements to 100,000 viewers who are interested in heart disease, you get exactly that. Each view is counted and reported…”
As CDD explained to the FTC and data protection commissioners, advances in online ad data collection, selling and targeting raise significant privacy concerns. This rapidly evolving infrastructure of user data auctioning requires scrutiny and safeguards. Here are some excerpts from jobs in the sector, which gives one a glimpse of what’s going on.
Director of Agency Development- NYC – eXelate
About eXelate
The eXelate Targeting eXchange is the world’s first and largest open marketplace for behavioral targeting data. Through participation on the eXchange, data buyers build an instant behavioral targeting function and optimize their campaign delivery, while data sellers gain insight on their audience, control over their data distribution, and build a new privacy–friendly income stream. The eXchange includes over 40 top ad network/agency buyers and dozens of leading publishers, who deliver targeting data on more than 170 million unique users each month.
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Account Manager – NYC – Netmining…
Netmining is a global provider of behavioral marketing solutions that are proven to increase conversion rates across websites, online advertising, email programs and offline sales channels. With a real-time profiling engine that understands each individual’s interests and buying propensity, Netmining enables companies to deliver highly relevant and personalized interactions across the entire customer lifecycle.
***** Senior Account Manager – Social Targeting Data – NYC – Media6degrees: About Us
We are the first online advertising firm built from the ground up specifically to leverage “social graph” data. The power of this data is captured by the phrase “birds of a feather flock together.” We have mapped the social graph interactions of nearly 75 million US consumers and are the first company to offer “social targeting” which allows marketers to fully exploit the network value of every individual customer with whom they interact while also significantly improving response rates on new acquisition campaigns.
Our platform employs proprietary cookies to map the social graph. Our core data used to map the social graph has long been part of the standard Internet advertising protocols for trafficking advertisements and has been fully integrated with both Yahoo’s RightMedia platform as well as the DoubleClick Exchange and is accessible to any of the thousands of major marketers who advertise through these vehicles.
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Senior Account Executive (2 Jobs) – NYC, SF – TARGUSinfo:Â
Its unique identification, verification, qualification and location services enable retailers, call-center operators, Web-based marketers, communication service providers and others to dramatically increase the quality of their services and the effectiveness of their marketing. A privately held company, TARGUSinfo is headquartered in Vienna, Va. For more information, visit www.TARGUSinfo.com.
With a focus on delivering measurable, predictable results in a online environment, TARGUSinfo is defining tomorrow’s marketing standards by delivering a display advertising targeting solution to advertising networks, interactive advertising agencies, and publishers. We currently have a large cookie-based audience solution based on verified offline data assets.
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Optimization Consultant, Ad Exchange – NYC – Google
you will be responsible for working with buyers and sellers on the Ad Exchange to optimize their experience (ie. manage yield or drive return on marketing investment). You will be responsible for partnering closely with Product Management, Engineering, Sales, and Services to build models, develop new ones, apply customer specific data, and develop insights.
Facebook’s COO Sheryl Sandberg is the industry draw for CDT’s 2010 fundraising event. “Gold” sponsors of the “host committee” include Facebook, Google, Microsoft and AT&T. “Silver” sponsors (and there’s a long list) include Adobe, NCTA, eBay, Verizon, Intel, AOL, Time Warner Cable, News Corp., Visa, Yahoo, Comcast and a bevy of law firms that work on privacy and related issues. They include Manatt Phelps, Wilmer Cutler, Wilson Sonsoni, and Arnold and Porter.
It’s troubling–to say the least–when any consumer/public interest group takes funding from the industry/industries it is supposed to hold accountable. Conflict of interest questions and concerns need to be posed whenever the group takes a position and has funding from parties connected to the issue (think about Facebook and Google’s recent privacy problems, let alone legislation and policies now before Congress and the FTC). It’s great to have extra money. But we suggest groups “just say no” to such special interest relationships.
In its annual report for 2009, the Interactive Advertising Bureau [IAB] cites as a accomplishment that it “Lobbied extensively and proactively against several proposals— including the FTC Reauthorization Act—that would grant broad newn rulemaking powers to the Federal Trade Commission.“ It also notes that the “IAB PAC had an active year supporting many key Congressional champions of the interactive advertising industry and was able to host the first ever IAB fundraiser. The PAC begins 2010 with a healthy balance of over $55,000 cash on hand.“
As we have explained all along, the ability to collect and analyze data about us and our social networks is the “DNA” of contemporary advertising and marketing. There is a very thoughtful piece in “Metrics Insider,“ and I hope you will look at this excerpt:
“The future of advertising is not about social, not about viral videos, not about mobile, not about any new medium or any new ad unit — but about data. Those who know what to do with this will be the new kingmakers, the new rulers of Madison Avenue — or the creators of a new Avenue of media…The critical component that makes this new world work is data — not simply general research data, but data about you. This goes far beyond just behavioral targeting, to your preferences, your interests, your actions — all of the signals you send as you move through the grand stage of life. The revelation is that this new world is no longer the far-off land on the horizon — we’ve hit the beach.”
 from: Death Of The Impression/Rise Of The Data Economy. Michael D. Andrews. Mediapost. February 18, 2010.
Microsoft “launched an online forum January 6 for the academic community to participate in a dialogue about policy issues relating to the technology industry,” according to PR Week. The so-called “Technology Academic Policy” [TAP] group “is aimed at journalists, Capitol Hill staffers, think tanks, and other decision makers,” explained Kathryn Neal, academic relations director for Microsoft. Academic institutions that are participating include UC Berkeley, Harvard University, Northwestern University, and Stanford Law School. Microsoft, which hired Adfero Group in summer 2009 to support the program, also created a presence for TAP on Twitter, YouTube, LinkedIn, Digg, and Facebook. Academic participants can engage in each medium, including posting videos to YouTube, noted Neal.” Adfero Group says that it helps clients “persuade the powerful.”
Microsoft is playing a game of academic catch-up to Google, which funds scholars and research to help advance it’s own interests. But there should be real independence between the academy and powerful special interests. One will have to examine closely Microsoft’s relationship with the following academic institutions aligned with the new TAP program:
“TAP Centers – The following institutions currently contribute to TAP:
The Berkeley Center for Law & Technology at UC Berkeley
The Berkman Center for Internet & Society at Harvard University
The George Washington University Law School
The John M. Olin Program in Law and Economics at the University of Chicago Law School
The Program in the Law & Economics of Intellectual Property and Antitrust at Stanford Law School
The Searle Center on Law, Regulation, and Economic Growth at Northwestern University
Silicon Flatirons — A Center for Law, Technology, and Entrepreneurship at the University of Colorado
The Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research (SIEPR)
The Toulouse Network for Information Technology, hosted by the Institut d’Economie Industrielle at Toulouse University
The Center for Technology, Innovation & Competition at The University of Pennsylvania Law School (CTIC)”
As we explained to reporters, the larger issue to be addressed when discussing Google’s Buzz is the role of social media marketing and our privacy. There’s a race to “monetize” our relationships and connections–the so-called social graph. It wasn’t a coincidence that at the same time Google launched books it acquired social media marketing company Aardvark.   Here is an insightful excerpt from this week’s Search Insider:
” …by building its own social tools into the growing user base for Gmail, Apps and iGoogle, Google’s algorithms will be able to see what sorts of conversations, questions or responses you offer not only through email correspondence or in a collaborative exchange on Wave, but also via Aardvark and, by extension, Facebook and Twitter. Which represents an opportunity to serve highly targeted, extremely relevant ads in ways that go well beyond the keyword search.”
Today’s announcement that Microsoft and Yahoo have received clearance from the DoJ and EU to proceed with its partnership continues the global trend towards online marketing consolidation. Given Google’s dominance in search, the Microsoft `helps save Yahoo deal’ creates what some hope will be more robust competition in the search market. But the real issue with the deal is data privacy. That’s why the Federal Trade Commission needs to dig into this new partnership and ensure consumer privacy is protected.
Here’s what AOL says it can do for marketers who want to target users [excerpt]:
You wouldn’t order pizza from a bank. So why would you try to sell a luxury travel package to a high school student?…
Behavioral targeting
Target consumers based on what they read – and where they click.
Audience behaviors:Hit your audience sweet spot. AOL Advertising observes consumer behavior (anonymously) across thousands of websites, then organizes people into groups based on their interests. Choose from over 350 pre-packaged audiences…With our LeadBack suite, you can retarget consumers who have… – Visited your website (Advertiser LeadBack)
– Seen or clicked on your ad creative (Creative LeadBack)
– Visited a webpage that you’re sponsoring (Sponsorship LeadBack)
– NOT visited your website – a great way to reach more unique visitors (Reverse LeadBack)…Demographic/Household:Target individuals, households or sites based on user registration data.
– Survey-Based: Target users based on their responses to consumer survey questions (e.g., MRI).
– Purchase-Based:Target users based on products they’ve purchased…Look-Alike Modeling: Target users who exhibit similar characteristics to your customers (or other valuable audiences).
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and AOL Advertising also says that “we live and breathe data…AOL’s new content management system, Seed, uses advanced algorithms to measure consumer demand and determine the next hot topics.”
In a recent post, Microsoft extolled the virtues of using its behavioral targeting service profiling mobile phone users. It explained that “campaigns can target individuals based on their online behaviour, including the sites that they visit, the actions they take and the terms they enter into search engines. In the US behavioural targeting on mobiles has already delivered increases in click-through rate of 215% for the fashion and beauty sector, 97% for airlines and 76% for auto advertisers.”