QDIS Blog

I am convinced that most major companies don’t understand podcasting. It’s a new hip term and some groups are trying to capitalize on. As an example, take the website for the new prescription sleep aid Rozerem made by Takeda.

If you look at the home page for Rozerem they list a “listen to podcast” on the main page.

However, you can’t even click on this. That itself is pretty poor but even worse, once you do get to their so called podcast page, it is just a link to a TV commercial!?

Podcasts are regularly updated audio and/or video enclosures within an RSS feed. You can subscribe to that field in a podcatcher such as iTunes. There is no feed anywhere on this site as far as I can tell. You have to go to the website and watch the mp3 or m4v files or download them. This is NOT a podcast. This is merely making your commercials and some music available on a website which has been going on for years now.

I think it is possible to make podcasting work commercially. However, too many large companies just look at it as another method to force their advertising on consumers. This will not work. If it had some advice about sleeping problems and what to do about them or maybe had some easy listening music each week to help you fall asleep, then it might be worthwhile.

As another example, Disney had a podcast about Walt Disney World called “Walt Disney World® Resort: Plugged In“. The feed still exists but it hasn’t had any new content since April; over four months ago! I did listen to a couple of these and they ended up being hour long commercials for the Disney resort. Now, I understand the desire to use this new content distribution as a means for advertising, but I think that misses the point of offering something worthwhile to the listener. If they had information on using the fastpass system, or maybe tips and hints on dealing with crowds at the parks, etc. then it might be worth it. There are many very popular podcasts regarding Disney and I regularly listen to several of those, but the Disney company itself isn’t one of them. On of my favorites is Ricky Brigante’s “Inside the Magic” podcast.

Bottom-line, if your company looks at podcasts as a means to distribute your advertising without offering anything worthwhile to your listeners, I think you will be sorely disappointed. However, if you offer something interesting and exciting, you can fit in your ads without turning off your listeners.

Technorati Tags: Disney, podcast, Walt Disney World, rameltreon, Rozerem, sleeping pill, Takeda

Email Ed Vawter

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A recent eMarketer report states that spending on pharmaceuticals online will increase to over 1.3 billion by 2008, just over two years from now.

eMarketer.com - Pharmaceutical Spending Expected to Reach $1.3 Billion:

This is interesting since overall Internet advertising actually dropped in 2005. This is supposedly a move from direct to consumers television and radio ads to a so called “direct to patient” ads. Now, I’ve not come across this terms before and I’m not sure I agree with it. It really doesn’t differentiate from direct-to-consumer advertising.

I really wonder if this is a true trend and if so, what does it mean. I also wonder what this will mean for trying to enforce pharmaceutical advertising rules in the FDA. How do you track down these ads online to make sure they are not misleading. Is this really a way to try to make an end run around the scrutiny that comes with print, radio or TV ads? It will be interesting to keep an eye out for future developments and to see if these predictions come true.

Technorati Tags: pharma stats, pharma ads

Email Ed Vawter

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