Canada’s Pharma Digital Awards 2010 Winners (Eye for Pharma)

Eye for Pharma organized the 1st eMarketing Canada conference, which was held in Toronto, on November 1-2 2010.  As part of the conference, marketers from both agency and client sides were asked to submit their e-tactics as nominations for the very 1st Canada’s Pharma Digital Awards.  A panel of judges was selected based on experience with digital pharma marketing and knowledge of the Canadian regulations.  Dr. John Reeves of Kyp Inc. led the award process.

There were 6 winners:

Healthcare professional sites:

1. Canadian Healthcare Network (Rogers Publishing Healthcare Group)
2. Advisory Space (Agency: Impetus Healthcare, Client: Nycomed)

Consumer sites:

1. More Than Medication (Agency: Klick Pharma, Client: Pfizer)
2. Contour USB Program (Agency: Brightworks, Client: Bayer)
3. Smidge (Agency: Klick Pharma, Client: Pfizer)
4. iMD Health

The judging panel consisted of the following members:

• Neil Follett, Bightworks
• Annemarie Edwards, CPC Healthcare Communications
• Ian Ross, Merge Inc.
• Laurie Demille, GlaxoSmithKline
• Murray Forrestall, Bmod Group
• David Pattenden, Microsoft Canada, Healthcare
• Paul Kostoff, Mediresource
• Glen Webster, Klick
• and me, Natalie Bourre, Marketing 4 Health Inc.

Over the next few weeks, an article highlighting the features of each of the winners will be published on my blog.  Since the healthcare professional sites are gated, I may be limited in what I can show of these, but I will do my best to share as much information as possible.

Stay in touch,
Natalie

Connect with me on the following networks:
FaceBook, Twitter, LinkedIn

eMarketing Canada – Twitter Transcript

Eye for Pharma organized the 1st eMarketing Canada conference, which was held in Toronto, on November 1-2 2010.  The Twitter hashtag used was #efp.

Here is a transcript of the online Twitter posts and discussion which used the #efp hashtagh :  Down #efp transcript pdf file.

For those of you keen on stats, here are some data from the tweets that took place on November 1st and 2nd, using the hashtag #efp (via What the Hashtag):

• 673 tweets
• 61 contributors
• 96.1 tweets per day
• 75.6% come from “The Top 10″
• 24.4% are retweets
• 30.6% are mentions
• 2.8% have multiple hashtags

Not sure what is meant by Twitter hashtags? Then view this video by Mari Smith to learn about hashtags.

Just curious – do you find the information in this post useful? Please leave me a comment below.

Stay in touch,
Natalie

Connect with me on the following networks:
FaceBook, Twitter, LinkedIn

PAAB Offers Guidance on Regulatory Social Media Thought Process

Eye for Pharma organized the 1st eMarketing Canada conference, which was held in Toronto, on November 1-2 2010.

Patrick Massad (Chief Review Officer at the PAAB, Pharmaceutical Advertising Advisory Board) presented an algorithm to facilitate the regulatory thought process when planning a social media promotional activity.  Here is the suggested algorithm:

1) Is this advertising?

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2) Who is the intended audience?

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3) What restrictions should I consider for this audience with respect to disease and product schedules?

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4) What mechanism will I use to limit access to that audience?

↓

5) What is the sponsor’s tolerance for uncertainty & risk?

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6) How will I align the site with this tolerance level?

↓

7) What are the regulatory consequences of adding and/or linking other tools/content to my site?

 

Here are some highlights of Patrick’s presentation with regards to the very 1st step to detemine if tactic in mind is advertising or not:

Health Canada’s definition of advertising is as follows:  “any representation by any means whatever for the purpose of promoting directly or indirectly the sale or disposal of any food, drug, cosmetic or device” (as per section 2 of Food Drugs Act).

If this does not help to answer the question about whether the promotion is advertising or not, you can then refer to Health Canada’s policy document “The Distinction Between Advertising and Other Activities”, which lists the following 7 questions:

•What is the context in which the message is disseminated?

•Who are the primary and secondary audiences?

•Who delivers the message (the provider)?

•Who sponsors the message and how?

•What influence does the drug manufacturer have on the message content?

•What is the content of the message?

•With what frequency is the message delivered?

By answering these questions, the intent of the promotion becomes clearer as to whether the tactic is advertising or informational.

The intented audience and type of drug will determine which regulatory body needs to be consulted.  See this article here if you need assistance to determine which Canadian regulatory body to consult for your promotional campaign.

For more information about PAAB guidelines regarding social media, see Highlights from “Social Media Marketing in Pharma: What Works in Canada”

What do you think of this algorithm?  Would you add, delete or change any of the suggested steps?  Please leave a comment below.

Stay in touch,
Natalie

Connect with me on the following networks:
FaceBook, Twitter, LinkedIn

Nominate the Best Canadian eHealth Initiative

As part of the Canadian Eye for Pharma eMarketing conference taking place in Toronto on November 1st and 2nd 2010, Eye for Pharma is launching a new awards program recognizing and rewarding the best eHealth initiatives created for the Canadian market. If you know of a great eHealth initiative, go ahead and nominate it. Details can be found here.  I’m sure there are a lot of hidden treasures out there that we should be recognizing and rewarding for their valuable contributions.

Deadling for nominations:  Thursday October 14th 2010

Pharma / Healthcare eMarketing Survey: Results Will be Shared

Please help Essential Research with their Healthcare eMarketing survey.

The survey is focused on Pharma, Biotech and Medical Device companies and their eMarketing to healthcare professionals.  The study seeks to get a high level view of overall resource allocation, dimensions of spending as well as adoption attitudes.

The objective of this survey is to generate a baseline understanding of Pharmaceutical Manufacturer and Agency perceptions and attitudes towards eMarketing to physicians and other healthcare professionals within the Canadian Pharmaceutical industry. Individuals with an interest in this industry are encouraged to participate. Full results will be available at the Eye for Pharma Conference – eMarketing Canada November 1st and 2nd in Toronto - and will be posted online at www.essentialresearch.ca.

Results will be reported in aggregate for analysis purposes. These results will be based on healthcare industry sector (e.g. Pharmaceutical manufacturer or agency). Given this, no one individual or company can or will be identified as an outcome of the analysis.

As a thank you for participating in this survey, Essential Research will be having a draw for five $25 gift cards from Starbucks .  It is your choice to opt-in or out of this draw. The survey takes no longer than 10 minutes.

The survey will be active until approximately the 3^rd week of October.

Pharma eMarketing Canada – Your Chance to Provide Input

I am very honoured and humbled to have been asked to present at the upcoming Pharma eMarketing Canada conference.  I have been tasked with highlighting various healthcare and pharma social media examples, particularly Canadian ones.  As such, I will be contacting healthcare organizations and agencies to see if they would be willing to share insights on their social media programs.  If your organization hosts or has created a healthcare social media campaign that you think should be part of my presentation, please let me know.  You can send me an e-mail at marketing4health@yahoo.ca .

Interested in joining us at this conference?  See the details here.  Hope that we’ll see you at the conference

Stay in touch,
Natalie

Connect with me on the following networks:
FaceBook, Twitter, LinkedIn

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