The breeze is blowing by...
According to an article in today's New York Times;
Big brand advertisers like Procter & Gamble and Johnson & Johnson are increasingly shifting their advertising budgets away from traditional media like television and newspapers to digital advertising on the Internet. As that money moves online, the WPP Group and other traditional advertising companies are at risk of losing their grip over the creation and sales of ads.
“This really heightens the tension between ad agencies and technology companies as they both try to go after the ad dollars that are migrating online,” said Youssef Squali, the Internet analyst at Jefferies & Company.
Well it seems once again as the environment is changing pharma is on the trailing edge. At a time when they are trying to build consumer marketing competencies eMarketing is really starting to grow in both people and investments. TV is a has been who never was, expect maybe before the age of empowered consumers. Yet I am sure that marketers will continue to pour millions of dollars into TV because they don't understand the Web and the power that consumers now have. Data will be manipulated to show outrageous ROI's on TV while ignoring the fact that the Web actually drives conversion.
This is just the start of the paradigm shift from traditional marketing channels to the new media of consumer engagement with brands. Pharma marketers are caught like a deer in the headlights and don't know what to do. Product websites will continue to "push" information to consumers and they will largely ignore Web 2.0 until Web 3.0 starts to take off. Too bad....maybe somewhere pharma will wake up and realize that IT people do not make good eMarketing people and that TV is a waste of ad dollars.