Archive for November, 2007
Retrievr
retrievr is an experimental service which lets you search and explore in a selection of Flickr images by drawing a rough sketch.
Currently the index contains many of Flickr’s most interesting images.
Does it actually work?
Yes! That is, it depends. (Mainly on your expectations!)
In my experience, the results are usually fairly good, sometimes even stunning - considering the artistic sophistication most of us are able to come up with (gallery forthcoming); and in the cases they’re not so stellar, they are at least entertaining or inspiring.
One thing to keep in mind is that retrievr doesn’t do object/face/text recognition of any kind, so if you’re drawing an outline sketch of a chair, it almost certainly won’t get you one back (except your index only contains images of chairs). The same holds for corporate logos, icons, etc.
Retrievr is a great “exploration” tool.
A great humourus take on the business of pitches
Pitching is bad. So are RFP’s.
From AdLand
A businessman walks out of his plush suburban home and notices that the neighbours are having their house repainted. “That looks very nice” he shouts over to the paint contractor, who immediately responds “You like it? We can paint your house too. We’ll do it for free, and if you agree to hire us we’ll do it again, in the colour you want.”
-” Don’t be absurd!” says the businessman “that’s no way to do business.”
As the businessman drives to work he notices that his car sounds funny, and decides to stop at a mechanic and have it checked out. “Something sounds wrong, how much will you charge for fixing it?” he asks the mechanic. “We’ll take a look for you, and mend all things the way we think is best and if you like what we’ve done you can come back and have your car fixed the way you want it.” responds the mechanic.
“What are you nuts? You’d give me free parts and hope I come back? That’s no way to do business, and I should know, I’m a businessman!”
In the city the businessman pops into a barber shop to inquire what a cut and shave costs. “We’ll cut and shave you for free, and if you like it you can come back and do it for a small fee.” says the barber. At this point the stumped businessman just shakes his head
“You’ll never earn a living giving cuts and shaves for free.”
As soon as he enters his office, the businessman calls a meeting.
“Listen up everyone, I want all hands on deck and our best talent working overtime. Spend everything from petty cash to our savings stash on creating a great campaign here - there’s a big account out there looking for an agency and by golly, we’re gonna pitch on it with all that we’ve got!”
Marketing to Professionals: Do You Know What Doctors Do Online?
 Mark Bard, president, Manhattan Research |
Physicians are using the Internet for much more than requesting an occasional journal article. But do they visit the brand.com/ sites? Yes, and at predictable times, according to ePharma Physician, a new study from Manhattan Research. Yet not all drug sites cater to docs’ needs. What can pharma marketers learn from the sites that do get docs to log on? Pharm Exec spoke with Mark Bard, president of Manhattan Research, to find out.
Can you give me a little bit of background on the study?
The ePharma Physician is an online study of 1,438 US physicians. We use the term “data set” because we go back to the research and cut from it. For example, we’ll look at how the oncologists answered. We’ll look at what Web sites primary care physicians are visiting. Januvia’s the number-one site?¬¢‚Äö?ᬮ‚Äö?Ñ??what’s the significance of that?
Is this true?: AbelsonTaylor’s “Your Bowel Movements Miss You” Campaign Pitch for Amitiza Fails to Move Takeda
AbselonTaylor (AT), the ad agency responsible for the innovative and multi-award winning “Your Dreams Miss You” Rozerem DTC campaign (see here, here, and here), failed to move Takeda with a similar advertising plan for Amitiza, the Japanese drug company’s anti-constipation medication.
According to an inside source speaking anonymously to this reporter, AT’s failed pitch revolved around the theme “Your Bowel Movement Misses You “Your Dreams Miss You” made famous by the ,” which is reminiscent of the tag lineRozerem campaign that feature dream images of Abe Lincoln, a beaver, a deep sea diver, and a purple pony (not all in the same dream).
This reporter was able to obtain a copy of a print ad storyboard that AT presented during the ill-fated Amitiza pitch (see below).
The concept featured an image of a Bristol Type 2 “sausage” stool — indicative of constipation — with the head of a beaver and surrounded by a halo of Type 1 “hard nuts” stools — also indicative of constipation. The beaver head delivers the strong message that you should talk to your doctor if your stool looks like him (or her; this reporter cannot ascertain the sex of the stool)!
[To learn more about the Bristol Stool Scale, see the Amitiza "Symptom Tracker" or read this wikipedia entry.]
“We’re really disappointed that the Amitiza team could not get beyond the toilet jokes and see the potential of this campaign to capture viewers’ attention and create buzz,” lamented Dale Taylor, president of AT.
In the end, Takeda went with Publicis’ Glow Worm to launch its Amitiza DTC campaign (see “Amitiza DTC seeks to move constipation sufferers“).
Not only is Amitiza Takeda’s #2 drug in terms of indication, it is #2 in terms of sales as well (IMS data not available; but you can look it up on Cafe Pharma if you don’t believe this reporter.).
“We think the sales numbers speak volumes in support of our decision to go with Publicis’ Glow Worm vs. AbelsonTaylor,” noted Aimee Berner, marketing director, gastroenterology at Takeda, which co-markets the drug with Sucampo Pharmaceuticals. “We certainly didn’t want another constipated — ROI-wise — campaign on our hands like the one for Rozerem.”
“Our creative for the Amitiza campaign may not win us awards,” said Amy GoodTurd, senior account rep for Glow Worm, “but it sure caused movement in the market!”
What’s the trend in print?
As reported by AdsOfTheWorld.com
Illustration is back in print advertising, and back with a vengeance. It is breaking free from the visual clutter of popular highly polished advertising photography. Even New York City chose to represent itself with funky happy doodles. There is a big range of highly diverse styles. Here are a few trends from last month:
Naive nodles
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Children?¬¢‚Äö?ᬮ‚Äö?묢s book
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Playful typography
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Diagrams
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Central symmetry
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3D modelling
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Repeating elements
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What’s happening in film?
Sony Bravia’s much-hyped film, Bunnies was finally released this month. Few days later, with no warning whatsoever another Bravia film is out too, titled Pyramid. Guess which one was watched by more people? Pyramid outscored Bunnies 2:1 on AotW. One thing is certain - on the web - you can’t predict anything.
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Going viral is in the focus nowadays. You can target different layers of the YouTube generation. Go artsy, do something weird, attack taboos, use sex or fake real footage. All of these strategies can work. Here are few in this order from last month:
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eboy
Anatomy of a Balloon Animal
This wonderfully creative poster is the work of digital artist, Jason Freeny. Who would have thought that a balloon animal would have such intricate anatomy? I especially like the mini tutorial at the bottom of the poster that shows how to make a balloon animal of your own. It?¬¢‚Äö?ᬮ‚Äö?묢s also quite a well designed anatomical chart.
Be sure to check out the rest of the quirky things on Jason?¬¢‚Äö?ᬮ‚Äö?묢s site, moistproduction.com.
Related:
Pacman?¬¢‚Äö?ᬮ‚Äö?묢s Skull
Maker of Lipitor Fight Generic Rival
Initially published in the New York Times
By STEPHANIE SAUL and ALEX BERENSON
Published: November 3, 2007
It is shaping up to be the biggest shift yet to a generic drug, potentially saving the nation $2 billion a year or more in prescription costs.
And scientists and doctors say that for most of the 16 million people in America who take drugs to reduce cholesterol, the low-priced alternative will work as well as the name-brand medicine ?¬¢‚Äö?ᬮ‚Äö?Ñ?? Lipitor, which is made by Pfizer and is the nation?¬¢‚Äö?ᬮ‚Äö?묢s most widely prescribed drug.
While Lipitor itself is not available as a generic, a very similar drug made by Merck, Zocor, lost its patent protection last year. The generic version of Zocor, simvastatin, is now much cheaper than Lipitor, leading insurers to press doctors and patients to switch.
But Pfizer is not letting its flagship drug go down without a fight.
The company has mounted a campaign that includes advertisements, lobbying efforts and a paid speaking tour by a former secretary of the federal Department of Health and Human Services. Pfizer is also promoting a study ?¬¢‚Äö?ᬮ‚Äö?Ñ?? whose findings many experts are questioning ?¬¢‚Äö?ᬮ‚Äö?Ñ?? that concluded that British patients who switched to simvastatin had more heart attacks and deaths than those who remained on Lipitor.
The Lipitor battle has become a test of the pharmaceutical industry?¬¢‚Äö?ᬮ‚Äö?묢s ability to defend name brands, even as insurers, patients and doctors seek to whittle the nation?¬¢‚Äö?ᬮ‚Äö?묢s $270 billion annual prescription drug bill by using generic alternatives whenever possible.
Lipitor and other cholesterol-lowering drugs, sometimes called statins, are the largest drug class, with spending of $22 billion last year in the United States alone. And they have been researched more thoroughly than any other group of drugs, making head-to-head comparisons easier.
Heal
The Health Education Assets Library (HEAL) is a digital library that provides free accessible digital teaching resources of the highest quality that meet the needs of health sciences educators and learners.
Truly an invaluable visual reference website: http://www.healcentral.org
The 8th Wonder of the World
Aspirin the 8th wonder of the World? It’s been around for so long that maybe it is… Bayer has created a website to commemorate Aspirin’s accomplishments throughout it’s 110 years on the market.
