From Todd LaRoche, EVP, Managing Director of Creative, Palio

If you’ve ever wondered how various brands stack up against each other in terms of their market value, you can find an answer here. This is Interbrand’s 2009 ranking of global brands, something they tout as being rated “the third most influential benchmark by CEOs.” It’s something fun to look at, especially if you’re in the marketing or brand-building business.

Ranking the value of brands is obviously a somewhat dicey proposition; there are many ways to determine a brand’s value. Nonetheless, seeing the brands that you know and love (or hate) ordered against any kind of metric is always fascinating. Interbrand’s approach to determining the value of brands is probably just as good as anyone else’s.

Which brand do you think tops the list? Is your company’s brand in the top 100? Take a look and have some fun thinking about what it would mean to see your brand on the list. Maybe 2010 is your year.

From Mike Myers, President, Palio

Earlier today, Palio sent out a tweet on Twitter from @Palio_Saratoga. It said “$5 per new follower through 2/5 to Red Cross for Haiti. At 773. Cap at $10K for donation. Viral mktg at work. #pharma”

We’ve already received calls asking why we did it. So, here’s a reasonably quick answer:

• Since our founding, we’ve focused on giving back. Philanthropy is in our blood.
• This is a good cause and we’ve already raised over $2,000 through a Palio Giving Back Lunch for Haiti.
• Like all agencies worth their stuff in social media, we want to live in social media not just advise clients on it.
• Buying friends and followers? Nope – never thought of that one. More than anything, we wanted to support the Haitian relief effort, have some fun with Twitter, and test out a viral marketing idea. And if we get some people following us a result, that’s a bonus.

We’re up to three new followers. Pass the word. Only 1997 more to hit our target donation of $10,000.

@Palio_Saratoga

From Todd LaRoche, EVP, Managing Director of Creative, Palio

We’ve been hearing a lot lately about the evolving media landscape and the power of digital advertising. Yes, things are changing quickly and the way consumers receive marketing messages is becoming more and more sophisticated every day. Digital media, certainly, is allowing for the fundamental shift from a “push” to “pull” whereby brands are insinuated into a consumer’s day-to-day world. “Targets” are no longer passive objects on the receiving end; they are willing receptors who draw a brand’s message toward them while in the “digital contexts” that are now encompassing our lives.

Barry Wacksman, EVP, Chief Growth Officer at R/GA, suggests that there are at leat 10 digital contexts. It’s a subject that we’ll be writing about often here on this blog because it has huge meaning for marketers and is shaping very definitively the way marketing messages are now being disseminated.

But, for the moment, in this post I wanted simply to refer you to an article written by Philip W. Sawyer, recently published in Advertising Age. Take a look. It’s clear to me that what Mr. Sawyer is saying suggests that there are a lot of creative marketing agencies out there that just don’t get how to use the digital medium effectively. The seven mistakes he cites as being common to many digital ads are, no doubt, a real issue. In general, I think, he’s referring to advertising that is still based on the interruptive model of marketing, whereby content is ‘divided’ by a marketing message as it is pushed into the forefront of the space between the consumer and the medium. Right then and there you have a problem: advertising that is getting in the way of a satisfying user experience.

So, read Mr. Sawyer’s article. It makes sense. And also realize that marketers have yet to start leveraging the digital space, in a fundamental way, to provide an enhanced user experience, not a degraded one. When that really starts to happen, a lot of what Mr. Sawyer is talking about starts to go away. For more about this, check out this post.

From Nanette Foster, VP, Brand Planning Director

It’s staggering to think about the number of apps people can download today. The latest estimate I saw from Apple was that there are over 100,000 iPhone apps. I guess it’s safe to say there are a lot of apps when the new iPhone Arcade on FaceBook is needed to help us navigate the sea of app choices. The information that is now available right at our fingertips when using apps is mind-boggling, for sure, but it’s also so much fun! While there’s no disputing that apps are fun, as brand builders we need to pause and ask whether they are a viable medium that can help build brands.

When I started my little investigation, I really felt the value to be gained with branded apps was suspect. At first glance, to me, they seemed to be the latest “shiny new toy” for us marketing folk to get excited about, lacking any real brand-building value. However, I must admit I’ve changed my tune after my experience with a few branded apps that really know what they’re doing. Creating branded apps can be a great way to extend your brand experience to touch your consumers more frequently and in a 3-dimensional way.

As you consider to “app in” or “app out” for your brands, here are a few helpful things I learned from the new Kate Spade app to help guide effective branded app development:

1. Practicality wins. What are you giving your consumers that will help them in their everyday lives? The Kate Spade app provides its followers with a calendar that provides real daily functionality.
2. Provide a brand experience. The Kate Spade app provides its user the thrill of fashion in the city. Visually and verbally, this app pays off the designer’s vision and mission for her brand. It extends the brand message and entrenches the brand within the lives of its customers.
3. Lead with a real consumer need. The user has access to a calendar that not only does the expected calendar stuff, but also feeds the user’s need to be “in the know” regarding all things fashion. The calendar flags fashion events, sample sales, and New York City scene activity, furthering the brand’s position as their resource for all things fashion.

From Tiffany Ryan, VP, Account Services, Palio

It’s no secret here at the Agency that I love working in HIV. Prior to working at Palio I had no experience in HIV. To say that working with the HIV community ignites a passion that you never knew existed within you would be an understatement. Working with the HIV community was eye-opening, personally fulfilling, and completely rewarding.

We’ve come a long way – both medically and socially. As a pointed reminder of how things have changed, I watched the movie Philadelphia last night. It wasn’t my first time watching the movie, but it still moved me. If you want to understand just how far we’ve come, check out the Kaiser Family Foundation Web site, which includes reports and timelines on every aspect of HIV/AIDS, including media coverage, disease state information, and events that have occurred since the start of the epidemic in 1981.

I go there frequently, and find much of the information to be heartbreaking and much of it to be awe-inspiring. That’s the thing about this disease state. It’s charged with emotion and wrought with stigma, but on the flip side, has created a community that is awe-inspiring.  We participated as a team in the local AIDSWalk for a few consecutive years. We worked with AIDS Service Organizations and HIV positive patients for photoshoots and educational initiatives. And the experience as a whole was incredible.

From a clinical standpoint, we are far from solving this issue. I was disappointed this week with the announcement of the failure of viciviroc to meet its primary efficacy endpoints in two pivotal phase III trials in treatment-experienced patients.

I had been extremely excited about the development of CCR5 inhibitors. Blocking entry of the virus into a human cell seemed to have great potential and was a great differentiator from the current products, who worked once the virus was in the cell replicating. If I was in a room and someone mentioned CCR5 vs. CXCR4 tropism, I could feel my hands begin to sweat. The science was that exciting. The possibilities seemed endless. And every breakthrough in this category seems to lead to another. While the drug will continue to be studied in treatment naïve patients, not being able to offer it as an option for those patients who really need it – patients for whom treatment options are limited due to resistant virus – is disappointing.

This is not the first CCR5 inhibitor to disappoint. GlaxoSmithKline had a CCR5 in development, aplaviroc, that looked promising due to limited toxicities and viral load reductions in short-term monotherapy studies. In the phase 2b studies, however, severe hepatotoxicity was identified. In the end, the drug never made it to market.

The CCR5 class is not completely lost. Pfizer’s CCR5 product, Selzentry, is on the market and in clinical use. Coreceptor tropism assays allow physicians to prescreen patients for CCR5 tropism, ensuring the right patients get the drug. And as the clinical usage increases, we’ll begin to truly understand the utility of this class. Current DHHS guidelines classify CCR5-Antagonist-based regimens as “may be acceptable but more definitive data are needed.” I would agree with their evaluation, and can’t wait for the “definitive data” to help us better understand this product.

2009 was not a banner year for HIV drug development. From mixed reviews on the HIV vaccine trial results, to products not making it to market, to limited HIV product pipelines, we are far from a cure. On the flip side, we have to count the little victories, and remember that with each new product that becomes available, we are advancing the science of HIV medicine and getting one step closer.

From Todd LaRoche, EVP, Managing Director of Creative

This is something everyone in the advertising industry should take a moment to read (http://www.alchemysite.com/9_ways_to_improve_an_ad.pdf). Whether you work in an agency on the account, creative or brand planning team, or on the client side, this piece is a great reminder of how great ideas, especially simply great ideas, need to be understood and respected for the power they can bestow upon a brand… even if they’re in violation of the “traditional tenants” of marketing communications. This classic article remains a sound lesson in how “comments, adds and builds“ can destroy great work.

“The 9 Ways to Improve an Ad” article first appeared in Communication Arts magazine forty-seven years ago. Fred Manley and Hal Riney first exposed it at a San Francisco Ad Club meeting. It was delivered by Fred very straight and seemed perfectly serious. They didn’t use just any ad. They set out to apply “rules” to the 1960 classic “Think Small” Volkswagen ad, which Advertising Age has called the best ad of the 20th century. This tongue-in-cheek article was the most reprinted CA article in the magazine’s history.

It’s a quick read, short and sweet. But a very powerful piece nonetheless. Keep it mind when you’re trying to develop arresting communications for your brand.

From Tiffany Ryan, VP, Account Services

Today was one of my favorite days at Palio, and it’s a day that occurs quite frequently in our building. Giving day. OK, I admit, I made that name up. A long time ago, we learned early that the spirit of giving was an important part of our culture. Whether it was the dozens of children who we (corporately and individually) “adopted” and bought Christmas gifts for, individual charities that we gain support for, pro bono projects, or our organized events mobilizing teams and staff for a common cause, we as a company do giving well.

Sound boastful? It should. I have worked at several companies that sponsor local little league teams, have United Way giving programs, and volunteer in the community. Yes, we do all of that. But where we really excel – where our employee passion, commitment, and spirit really comes together is when we band together in a unified cause.

I doubt there is anyone reading this who hasn’t been impacted by the horrifying images being broadcast from Haiti. And just when we thought it couldn’t get worse for the poor people trying to survive each day there, an ‘aftershock’ literally rocked their world again today.  I spent hours last week researching causes that were providing relief to the people of Haiti. I donated online, donated through texting, generated as many check-ins as I could through Cause World (a really cool iPhone app that allows you to donate karma points which translate into cash from the sponsors), and donated loose change in the collection bins that were being placed at many local retailers. I still felt like I hadn’t done enough.

I wasn’t the least bit surprised to see the announcement come out from our Environment Team, promoting a day at Palio that would be dedicated to raising funds for the Haiti relief efforts. It would be easy to pass a hat and ask for spare change. But at Palio, our greatest fundraising successes are tied to collaborative, team events. Events that foster a sense of ownership and provide a forum for us to congregate and reflect on the cause.  Today consisted of lunch served to the staff (for a nominal fee, of course), and a raffle where multiple Palio employees had donated their talents and time to come up with unique prizes. Whether it was a dinner cooked by an employee who claims fruit loops are his specialty, a customized piece of artwork from our Chief Creative Officer, or appetizers and drinks with our President, it was evident that people cared, that people believed in this cause. And the best part? The corporate commitment was there as usual – matching funds, funding the lunch, and utilizing internal resources to coordinate efforts and raise awareness for the cause.

Fundraising can be challenging. And, in the true spirit of giving, you are not supposed to get ‘anything’ back. I try to teach that to my kids, but find that each time I ask them to give, they do in fact get something back. Donate a dollar to a Salvation Army bell ringer? They get to ring the bell. Donate a toy to the Toys for Tots train? A hug from Santa.  While these may not be tangible items that they bring home and play with, they do leave an impression. Much like I believe our events at Palio do for our staff.

We’ve done fundraisers, bake sales, and raffles before. What we really get from all of this is something much less tangible and much more important than the prizes you may win or the food you may eat. We get to unite as a single team. We see that coming together as a group yields greater results than individual efforts. And most important, we take pride in our company, our employees, and maybe even ourselves, for participating in something that is genuine and good.

We all know the agency stereotypes – a bunch of headstrong creatives vs. headstrong account people, red-faced and stubborn as they debate the finer merits of the work being produced. And while to some degree that stereotype gets fulfilled from time to time, on giving days it’s not about the egos, it’s not about the work, it’s not about who is right and who is wrong. It’s about coming together for a greater cause.

Today we raised a fair amount of money. I tend to think we got as much out of it as we gave. And in the end, we all hope and pray, that we’ve made a difference for the people of Haiti.

From Guy Mastrion, Chief Global Creative Officer

It’s a shame that I.D. Magazine will be no more. It was, and remains to me, a great publication for the simple reason that it was dedicated to design thinking. Design thinking and its subsequent solutions are having a profound and positive effect around the world today. From helping to solve the challenges of clean and portable drinking water to the next great chair, design thinking needs to be celebrated and shared.

So what happened? I still love magazine; to me, they are still a very relevant form of media, maybe not enough. Maybe the pub simply never really caught on with enough people for it to sustain itself; maybe the advertisers stopped spending, maybe all of the above.

I will covet every saved issue.

From Mike Myers, President

The Weatherproof Garment Company decided to use the wrong celebrity for endorsement this week. As reported in the NY Times, “the Weatherproof Garment Company installed a billboard in Times Square on Wednesday showing President Obama wearing what appears to be one of its coats.”

Photo credit - Fred R. Conrad/The New York Times

“This ad is clearly misleading because the company suggests the approval or endorsement of the President or the White House that it does not have,” said a White House aide.

Whether it was a good or bad move, it definitely garnered publicity.

In an ironic twist considering recent news happenings, we now have a company embarrassing (or in this case misusing) an endorser.This morning while using my wife’s new erg, I was informed by Headline News that Charlie Sheen was being dropped from Fruit of the Loom ads for allegations of recent knife wielding domestic abuse. Add him to a list led by Tiger Woods and others, and having a celebrity sponsor is clearly a gamble.

So that’s my point – advertiser beware. What looks good today may attack, sleep with about 17 people they’re not married too, or generally embarrass themselves and you in the process tomorrow.

It’s clearly a difficult decision. Prinivil used Cal Ripken Jr. to endorse their anti-hypertensive and it surely helped the brand. It helped the brand less, however, when it was found that Ripken never took Prinivil and the FDA let them and others know it.

Magic Johnson was used in a campaign that we worked on with GSK for Combivir. The brand, patients and GSK benefitted from Magic’s association. Yet when Magic moved on from GSK, off of Combivir, and into the hands of a competitive product what was the real cost of working with him?

Some simple and seemingly obvious points on celebrity endorsements include:

1) Do your homework. Do it again. And, only then approach the potential celebrity.

2) Make sure the celebrity is credible and uses your product.

3) A morals clause in a contract is standard. Add a refund or damage clause for actions outlined in the morals clause.

4) As celebrities are alluring and exciting to work with, ask some people who don’t like, know or care about the celebrity in question and see what they think.

Now, I’m off to explain to my kids why that guy on Two and a Half Men who was actually cool enough to be in an ad with Michael Jordan is now not so cool.

From Steve Dubansky, MD, SVP, Medical Director

Irish playwright Brendan Behan authored the quote, “There is no such thing as bad publicity except your own obituary.” Perhaps there’s a modicum of truth to that aphorism, but there is also plenty of room for doubt.

Sadly, there are pharmaceutical marketers who might suggest, “there’s no such thing as a bad ad.” While we know that many consumer advertisers hold this belief, as manifested by too numerous to count advertisements of rather poor taste, I have clung to the belief that the pharmaceutical industry might avoid the “lowest” common denominator approach to ads. Can drug ads be boring? Often. Redundant? Of course. Derivative? Frequently. Hyperbolic? Let me count the ways. Banal? Trite? Lifeless? Guilty on all counts.

But I never thought I’d see the language in a recent TV spot for a smoking-cessation product. Believe me, I’m not a prude; I’m a pediatrician who practiced for 25 years and who knows how impressionable young children can be. And, in my mind, this ad goes just a little too far.

For this advertisement, its marketers decided to reach into the grab bag of poor taste and pull out the word “suck”  — now there’s a word you could proudly build your campaign around. Not only is the word repeated multiple times in the ad, but to be sure to get the point across that smoking cessation has varying degrees of difficulty, the ad presents a “suckometer.” Here’s hoping our youngsters can quickly adopt the word “suck” as part of their vernacular. “This third grade roller skating party really sucks, Mrs. Smith!” Better yet, “Kindergarten really sucks, Mom!”

The advertiser says, “Nicotine withdrawal itself can be very difficult for people to endure.” Really? Who’d a thunk it? The ad’s creators said, “The campaign is designed to engage smokers in an honest way by reaching them with a message that shows the brand understands what they are going through…” I get it, and it recalls the old axiom: “When the going gets tough, the tough reach for the word ‘suck.’”

Perhaps this kind of approach to drug advertising shouldn’t be limited to smoking cessation alone. Surprisingly, there are other medical conditions that are also “very difficult for people to endure”; other conditions where it’s important for the brand to empathize with the patient. How about: “Diabetes is really sh**ty.” “COPD is such crap.” “When my MS relapses, it knocks me on my ass.” “Chemotherapy really blows.”

Will their ad work? It certainly got my attention, but then again so do traffic accidents. I’m sure it will be discussed in other venues. In other words, it’s engendered the publicity it sought. Me? I’ve always preferred the Abraham Lincoln dictum, “What kills a skunk is the publicity it gives itself.”