From Paul Harrington, SVP, Creative Director, Palio

Why do you look with envy at my Macintosh laptop when I open it in a meeting? Why must that stringy bungee of drool sway from your chin as I effortlessly use all the same MS Office programs you rely on? And why begrudge me a moment of awe as my Mac causes stop-n-stares as it nonchalantly slides along the belt to be x-rayed at the airport?

Chances are, you own an iPod. (Or someone sitting right next to you does.) Over 100 million of them have been sold (and there are just over 300 million people in America as of this blog entry). And we all acknowledge that for the most part, the iPod – and iTunes – revolutionized not only the music industry, but also our very culture as a whole. Everyone loves iPod, because hey, what’s not to love?

So if you follow this logic, the iPod proves that Apple is smart. Cool. User friendly. Fun. Accessible. And revolutionary. Case closed, right?

So why, dear reader, are you still handcuffing your creativity, productivity, and freedom with that bloody awful PC? It’s a throwback to the days of Pong, “The Safety Dance,” and shoulder pads the size of bread loaves.

This really isn’t stop-the-presses news. In fact, it was during the days of Purple Rain that Apple told the world in no uncertain terms that everything was about to change. Were all the PC users watching “Knots Landing” instead??

You could have a Mac too.

Yet you stubbornly continue to pigeonhole Apple and the Macintosh platform as the “snobby, creative types-only” computer. In fact, a quick Google search indicates that 90% of all computer users still suffer at the hands of the geek-peeps in Redmond. Really? 90%?! This, despite the repeated insults that were DOS, Windows, Vista, and now back to Windows again. And let’s not forget the fun of Y2K.

I’m not a PC hater. Sure, I use Microsoft products. I/we/you love many of them. But PCs are just harder to use, and even harder to love. You know it, I know it, Bill Gates knows it.

OK, let’s address the elephant in the room: cost. Yes, Macs cost more. So does a Volvo, but you’d pay that extra amount to protect yourself and your family, right? Hey, it’s as true today as it was when the phrase was coined: you get what you pay for. So spend a little more on a Mac, and be ready to be flabbergasted by the return on your investment.

So, you’ve got a PC. What now?

Junk that piece of crap. Seriously. You’ll be AMAZED at the liberation you’ll experience once you give Apple a try. Compare the labyrinthine structure of Windows to the intuitively designed graphic interface and operating system of Apple. Test-drive a Mac’s wicked-fast speed. Savor Apple’s human, environment, and fashion-friendly designs. Know that all the programs you know, trust, and love, plus some you’ve been afraid to try (PhotoShop, anyone?) work on a Mac. And did I mention, just have a good ol’ fashioned dose of fun, too?

Grab your IT guy, and shake him or her until they put Apple on your company’s list of supported platforms. Go throw that black, fugly, clunky box you have in your home office in the recycling bin at Best Buy and invest in a Mac your whole family will embrace. And slide an oh-so-delicious MacBook Pro into your backpack the next time you travel.

This isn’t a battle. The fight’s already done and won. But like the light from a distant star, it just hasn’t reached a lot of you yet. And just to prove that Apple fans have a sense of humor, here’s an excellent shot at Apple courtesy of the yellow folks of Springfield. But it’s all still true.

Do it. Because once you go Mac, you’ll never go back.

© Nicola Jennings 2008 (Note: this photo has been altered from its original version.)

From Jeremy Lichtenberger, Senior Brand Planner

Let me first say this, James Dyson annoys the hell out of me. His painfully slow British accent and pompous way of explaining how he came up with his brilliant ideas makes me want to smash a Budweiser bottle across his grill. However, in a world where every company claims to provide “innovative solutions,” you have to respect James Dyson for creating a brand that truly delivers on that promise. So as much as the guy annoys me, I listen to his commercials, I respect his opinion, and I believe that as marketers we can learn a lot from the Dyson brand.

The first global product Dyson launched was a vacuum cleaner and it set a new standard for consumers in that market. By capitalizing on the chief complaint of vacuums (losing suction), Dyson was able to demonstrate that he had solved this problem with new and innovative technology and thus reshaped the way we think of vacuums forever. In addition to solving the problem with existing vacuums, he created a new and very timely issue with vacuums. Dyson claimed that because vacuums had bags, they were actually creating dust and allergens rather than taking care of them. Essentially, he differentiated his brand from the entire market in 2 unique ways. Dyson also felt like he needed to display how well his technology worked by using a clear container in the vacuum. A strategy that market research and marketing experts told him was “crazy.” He went with his gut because he believed in his technology and the Dyson was born.

Since the launch of his vacuum, Dyson has put out a bladeless fan that blows filtered, clean air; and most recently, a hand dryer for restrooms. All of his products maintain their position throughout their marketing campaigns – Dyson’s brands provide a new way of thinking about their respective categories. I had the pleasure of using one of the hand dryers recently and it is awesome! But he still annoys me.

So here are 3 things we can learn from Dyson:

1. Think differently. If you continue to challenge the status quo, you just may come up with something brilliant.

2. Go with your gut. Market research is helpful and should be applied whenever possible but don’t allow market research to make every decision for your product or service.

3. Stay true to your brand. Establish a position and maintain that position throughout your marketing campaign.

And by the way, I own a Dyson.

From Geoff Sheldon, VP, Brand Planning Director, Palio

After reviewing the Marketing Executives Networking Group‘s 2010 Marketing Trends Report, conducted by Anderson Analytics, where “social media” obtained the dubious honor of the buzzword that marketers are most tired of hearing, I started thinking about the anxiety and irrationality that I have observed as marketers and advertisers continue to grapple with the concept of social media.

From personal experience, I have lost count of the number of meetings that I have been involved in whereafter the subject of social media was raised, there was a deathly silence, followed by some uncomfortable conversation, before the subject was changed and everyone moved on as if the whole conversation never took place.

Then on the flipside, I have also had the pleasure of being exposed to a number of ill-conceived client requests along the lines of “I don’t care what you do, just get me some of that social media stuff, and quickly!” (These kind of requests typically come out of left field, and seem to driven more of a client’s desire to be seen as cool, cutting edge, or keeping up with the Joneses, rather than being aligned to a particular marketing or communication strategy.)

I guess what has, and continues to surprise me, is the fact that both of these situations are driven by panic; manifested as either fatigue or avoidance or a desire to just do something/anything…

In many ways it is very obvious to see where this panic is coming from. As a new frontier, social media to the uninitiated appears to be overwhelming and uncontrollable (all things that tend to create anxiety), but with a little bit of knowledge and understanding it is easy to put social media into perspective as nothing more than just another communication touchpoint that can be leveraged as part of an integrated marketing plan.

What the advent of social media, and other channels (online/mobile etc.) has necessitated, however, is for marketers and advertisers to up our game in terms of media planning. In today’s media fragmented world, the way consumers are receiving their information is ever changing (social sites are here today and gone tomorrow), which requires us to have a deeper understanding of our consumers’ media consumption and to be a lot more nimble in the way we execute our tactics.

To me, having to stay relevant and one step ahead of our consumers is exciting and one of the main reasons I enjoy this business; it’s certainly not something to panic about.

From Ian DeMeritt, PhD, Senior Medical Writer

As printed promotional materials are continually being replaced by flashier electronic detail aids and on-line content, it is not surprising that DDMAC continues to cast a regulatory eye on digital presentations of pharmaceutical advertisements. Last April, DDMAC fired a resounding shot across the bow of the pharma world that sent a clear message that it was well aware of the goings-on in the digital realm and that it meant to enforce on-line media as diligently as that in print form. The more recent FDA hearings on social media, the FDA’s new “transparency blog,” and the recently-launched “FDA basics” Web site demonstrate a growing commitment to their online presence.

The watchful on-line eye of the FDA was again demonstrated just recently when DDMAC warned 2 pharmaceutical Web sites for making false and misleading claims. While these new letters do not contain any new or groundbreaking information regarding DDMAC’s interpretation of the advertising laws as they apply to Web-based content, they do serve as a useful reminder of some pitfalls to avoid when designing Web sites for a pharmaceutical product. In addition to the familiar “Unsubstantiated Claims” castigations, warnings related to speciously presentated risk information were a key component of each letter.

Both products cited (Isovue and Visipaque) are intravascularly administered contrast media indicated for imaging of the cardiovascular system. Both product labels contain boxed and bolded warnings cautioning against a laundry list of severe and frightening risks including death, convulsions, cerebral hemorrhage, coma, paralysis, and brain edema, among others.

Despite these warnings, the GE Healthcare Web site describing Visipaque boasted an “excellent safety profile” and declared that it was “designed for patient safety and comfort.” The only risks listed on the Visapaque Web site were general cautions against blood clotting, thromboembolic events, and use in certain patients. While the Isovue Website (which presents the results of a head-to-head clinical study against Visipaque) did mention the possibility of severe reactions, the potential for fatal adverse events was not disclosed. This stark omission of important risk information did not escape the notice of DDMAC reviewers and these letters serve as a reminder that all relevant risk information, regardless of the implications to the brand, must be presented to balance promotional claims.

Furthermore, these letters reiterate that the placement and presentation of risk information is just as important in electronic format as it is in a printed piece. The Visipaque risk information was located at the very bottom of a long page of text, hidden below the references. Despite headlines heralding “Product Highlights” and “Product Description,” the risk information was not marked in any way to indicate to the reader that it was either present or important. Similarly, the risk information on the Isovue Web site was portrayed in a smaller font size than the promotional copy and without any headers to indicate its importance or presence.

It should be noted that both Web sites contained a link to the full prescribing information. However, as previous Warning letters have demonstrated, DDMAC is no fan of the so-called “one-click rule.”

While these new letters reveal no momentous changes in DDMAC policy concerning Web-based content, they do reinforce several lessons to keep in mind when creating, designing, reviewing, or reading pharmaceutical-based Web content:

Lesson 1. Safety Information must be clearly labeled as such and be given prominent placement on a Web page

Lesson 2. Risk information must be presented in a similar font size and appearance as promotional messages

Lesson 3. The FDA does not consider any pharmaceutical product with a boxed or bolded warning to be “safe” and any promotional messages to this effect are at risk

Lesson 4. All relevant risk information must be presented, regardless of how scary it might sound or the potential implications for the brand

Lesson 5. A “Please see…” line and/or a link to the PI is not sufficient to replace missing risk information

Lesson 6. The “one-click rule” is still dead

From Mike Myers, President, Palio

Information overload is the norm these days. There never seems to be enough time to read all of the publications and newsletters that I receive in the mail or via e-mail. Add in Twitter updates, Facebook posts, LinkedIn notices, news sites, sports sites, blogs, and the information on the Internet in general, and it’s easy to feel overwhelmed.

Never fear, I’ll manage. One of the things that I do to keep up is to try to focus on a few key sources in all areas of information need. This is the first in a like minded series of things that I peruse regularly.

Listed below are 10 blogs that I find interesting, insightful, and/or generally good food for thought. Let me know what you think and what’s on your list.

• Dose of Digital – Jonathan Richman’s blog on e-marketing and social media in healthcare. Some of the most thorough analysis on social media in healthcare accompanies posts with solid insight.
• Chris Brogan – He wrote Social Media 101 and Trust Agents. One of the gurus in the social media space. While I don’t like the video blogs as much as his other approaches, the messages are always resonating.
• Notes from the Back of the Book – Ellen Hoenig Carlson’s blog on e-marketing, healthcare and social media. She doesn’t post every day which makes keeping up easy. Posts are always amusing at some level.
• Make the Logo Bigger – In their words, make the logo bigger is advertising and a bunch of other stuff. The irreverence coupled with their view on advertising is refreshing.
• Pharmalot – I missed Ed Silverman and am glad he’s back. He often has leading edge news information and provides a nice voice through his blog.
• Eye on FDA – FDA happenings and their impact on pharma with thoughts on the great social media pharma debate.
• Mashable – The self proclaimed social media guide provides a good dose of just that, but also has solid information on technology innovations and happenings that will impact marketers and consumers in general.
• Fuel Lines – The goal of this site is to fuel “ad agency new business through social media.” Frequent updates and good information. Heck, I got the idea for this post from one on this site.
• How to Change the World – Guy Kawasaki’s blog. The blog is good. Following him on Twitter is even better. Hey – Guy – we need an updated post…
• DTC In Perspective – A post a week. Always focused on DTC. Good content and not too overwhelming.

If you’re not on this list, relax…this is just 10 of the many that I peruse. For an exhaustive review of my broader list, see my personal blog IdeaPharmer. Anyone have something that I’m missing that I should be reading? Please share. In an effort to find the best and lower my reading volume, I tend to make the “electronic pile” bigger and bigger…

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

In the March issue of Pharmaceutical Executive, you’ll find this article, which highlights the “trend setters, the image makers, the creative geniuses” who have architected some of this year’s most memorable and innovative pharmaceutical ads. It’s a great display of work, completely worth looking through.

As the introduction asserts, “The pharmaceutical industry spends billions of dollars every year marketing treatments that they spent billions to create, but more often than not, no one knows who the ads’ creators are. Much like the Wizard of Oz, drug ads are heard and seen, but the teams get little credit for their ingenuity. For years, pharma companies have kept the agencies behind their products a secret, and few of their stories have ever been told.”

So take a look at the article to see some great examples of compelling creative and to find out a little about the people behind the work… “the unsung heroes behind a large portion of the advertising you see every single day on television, on the radio and Web, and in magazines and journals.”

And when you do, let’s not forget about the unsung heroes behind the unsung heroes. No article such as this can truly recognize all of the people that it takes to create Great Work. Sure, the creative leads are the “front men” of the band when it comes to recognizing creativity. But Great Work, creative work that achieves its purpose, takes Brand Planners who capture the insight that drives the strategy behind the work, it takes dedicated Editors who make sure every detail is correct in the presentation, it takes Designers (at Palio we engage our Design Lab on most every creative project) to bring the work to a finer finish, it takes skilled Production folks who ensure the work will appear right in the various media being employed, it takes Medical Writers and Strategists who keep the work credible, it takes dedicated Project Managers who keep the development of the work moving ahead on schedule, and it takes talented Account people who are adept at keeping relationships strong and the business on course. In fact, it takes a whole lot more people than those I just mentioned — it takes an entire agency.

So here’s to the cast of 2010 All Star creatives behind the work, and also to the people behind them who had major roles in making the work Great!

From Steve Dubansky, MD, SVP, Medical Director, Palio

I read with interest Sven Larsen’s Pixels & Pills blog post praising Dr. Parkinson’s no-office-all-house-call medical practice. Dr. Oz agrees, calling Dr. Parkinson’s idea “slick and smart.” But is it really? And do I want my doctor’s practice to be slick and smart?

As much as we rue the disappearance of the good old days when all doctors were Marcus Welby, when all took time with their patients, and all practiced medicine with the same idealism that they felt (or confabulated) when they wrote their med school admission essays, house calls aren’t the answer.

How many patients can Dr. Parkinson see in one day? I imagine that number to be far fewer than he could see in his office even if he took as much time as needed with his office patients. How much does he have to charge for each visit in order to make enough money to make a comfortable living? I’m sure it’s far more than he would need to charge in order to earn a decent living from an office practice. Is this model more like a boutique practice? Who’s going to see all the patients who can’t afford house call charges? Who will see all those whom a very well meaning Dr. Parkinson can’t quite get to each day?

Dr. Parkinson says this about his business model: “It’s paying attention to what’s awesome about Flick’r and then doing it.” I would prefer that my office model be nothing like Flick’r. At the risk of seeming to be a Luddite, I’d much prefer it be more like a newspaper, the old fashioned kind that you hold in your hands, taking all the time you need to understand each article and to draw a well thought out conclusion.

Sadly, not all well-meaning efforts to improve the quality of medical care result in meaningful improvements. Electronic health records (EHR) have a lot to commend them, but they are no guarantee of better care. During my last two office visits to a dermatologist and rheumatologist, I had the great displeasure of realizing that neither of them, while furiously typing away on their EHR tablets, made more than momentary eye contact with me during my brief (aren’t they always?) visits.

The answer to humane, compassionate, medical care isn’t a boutique practice, house calls, or EHRs. It’s simply competence, a keen mind, and a caring attitude that is unfailingly empathic, communicating understanding, patience, and respect for those the doctor is privileged to call “patients.” And an office works just fine.

From Bob Mason, EVP, Managing Director of Brand Strategy, Palio

The advertising industry, as much as any industry, often struggles to “keep it simple.” It’s fair to say that a lot of people who work in the business get all lathered up over new terms, processes and flavors of the month. Couple that with the complex and jargon-happy pharmaceutical industry and you can easily have a recipe for marketing communication initiatives that fall completely flat and short of achieving their ultimate goal.

Jon Steel is recognized as one of the wisest practitioners the advertising industry has seen in the last 25 years. Though this one-page article (from ADMAP, the best marketing/advertising/research periodical in the universe) is, in title, about “planning” (e.g. “brand planning”), it’s about far more than that.

It’s a great reminder that, regardless of how complex the product you are advertising, the best agencies and advertising practitioners continuously strive to simplify things and distill down insights and messaging to something usable for the creative teams.

I don’t care what level you’re at in a company or what department to which you belong, this one-pager is worth reading and worth thinking about. If we could all get better at distilling down complexities, we’d increase the likelihood of creating impactful communications by tenfold.

I’m curious to hear what others think.

From Tiffany Ryan, VP, Account Services, Palio

Today was a great day with women all over the US rocking the red pumps. While I love red pumps, I especially loved them on this day: they served as a symbol for HIV education and awareness through social media. You couldn’t miss it – between the Rock the Red Pump^TM widgets on blogs, to the #rocktheredpump hash tag, to the retweets and news releases, people were talking about HIV today – specifically its impact on women and girls.

Did you know?

-       Every 35 minutes, a woman tests positive for HIV in the United States

-       Every 9 ½ minutes, someone in the US is infected with HIV

Shocking statistics? I hope so. Because as newer meds become available, and people are living healthier, longer lives with HIV, apathy is growing. HIV has become a disease you live with, not a death sentence.  People think “It won’t happen to me,” yet HIV does not discriminate.

When you look at the impact of HIV/AIDS today, the challenge feels insurmountable:

-       1 million people in the US are living with HIV

-       1 out of every 5 people living with HIV do not know they are HIV positive

-       More than 14,000 people with AIDS die every year

So, what do we do? We prevent HIV. We spread the word. We develop advocates, arm ambassadors with information, we educate and drive awareness.

The two campaigns below are utilizing social media to drive the conversation about HIV and AIDS and create a tribe of people who are willing to carry the educational messages.

The Red Pump Project

iKnow

Check them out! And, if you believe in the cause, become an ambassador and retweet!

Courtesy of graur razvan ionut

From Bob Mason, EVP, Managing Director of Brand Strategy, Palio

Back around 2004, I had the good fortune of participating in some meetings with a company called Jump Associates, a San Mateo-based growth strategy/innovation leader that had worked with the likes of Nike, Target, and Hewlett-Packard to better institutionalize innovation within the organizations.

So I thought it was ironic when an essay caught my eye – because as I began reading it, I realized it was written by Dev Patnaik, Jump’s founder and principal, and one of the folks with whom I met.

The essay (which was in a book Palio received through our relationship with TED, a small non-profit conference organizer extraordinaire, devoted to “ideas worth sharing”) grabbed my attention simply from the title and subtitle – “Innovation Starts with Empathy: The Importance of Developing Deep Connections with the People You Serve.” The tenet of “connecting with” customers is one that I believe many marketers pay lip service to, but don’t really deliver upon. So I was drawn in to see what, if anything, the essay had to say on that theory.

In his precise observation, Patnaik acknowledged that this isn’t just “…about market research. It’s not about the Voice of the Customer. It’s about strategy and culture.” What he advocated, and I wholeheartedly agree with, is that companies need to foster a sense of “widespread empathy” among everyone (across all disciplines) within their organization to be able to truly make those customer connections.

Almost all of us have seen instances where bad market research derails good ideas and progress; or instances, in Patnaik’s words, when “stupid or irrelevant questions…tied the team up in a state of analysis paralysis.”

Data can often be used as a crutch and, in many instances, doesn’t really provide the true or entire story of a situation, marketplace, or customer. But it serves as “impartial fact” that can be referenced to (“But the data says…”).  As Patnaik points out, though, we need to go beyond the data to having everyone in an organization – not just marketing folks – be attuned to customers’ real lives and needs (which, by the way, aren’t often overtly stated in traditional market research). He encapsulated his points in this great quote:

“All business is personal. People, not machines, steer the engine of capitalism. And people, not machines, actually buy and use products and services. It doesn’t matter whether you’re selling teddy bears or aircraft engines, your company could benefit from a deep intuition of customers that transcends explicit data.”

Facilitating this within an organization, of course, is far from easy. It requires complete and total immersion into your customers’ lives. This could entail, but isn’t limited to, extensive in-home ethnographic immersions with customers, or shop-along trips with them. Or, perhaps, in the case of marketers in the healthcare and wellness field, in-office visits and discussions with healthcare practitioners. Either way, it involves time outside of the proverbial ivory tower (including the traditional market research facility) – time with our sleeves rolled up and having heart to hearts with customers. And that means time spent not just by marketers and market research people, but by people from every walk of the organization. That’s the first step to the kind of widespread empathy that allows a company to have the pulse of its customers – and to be able to provide the innovative solutions that will measurably affect its bottom line.