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That’s what Hitwise says, according to a recent report on search engine marketing.  Online ad spending by pharma is predicted to be $2.2 billion in 2011, “up from $1.2 billion in 2008. source:  Take advantage of pharma sem: Your Rx for success.  Dan Brough.  Search Engine Marketing: Essential Guide.  DM News. 2009

As we said the other day, we are now covering the online marketing of pharmaceutical and health products. One reason is that we want policymakers to better understand and assess the unique impact of online marketing techniques on the promotion of drugs. Here’s an excerpt from a DTC Perspectives article on the impact [...]

This week CDD expanded its work on public health & digital advertising to include issues related to prescription drug advertising and health marketing online.  It submitted to the FDA, as part of that agency’s proceeding on Internet and social media marketing, comments.  We are speaking on this issue next week in New York.  And we [...]

Loni Ding was a remarkable person.  A highly dedicated award winning independent filmmaker, Loni made a wonderful series of films over the decades.  Her work on the Asian American experience leaves a rich legacy of creative and moving documentaries, including on the immigration of Chinese to America [“Ancestors in the Americas”] and the Japanese Americans [...]

Facebook’s COO Sheryl Sandberg is the industry draw for CDT’s 2010 fundraising event.  “Gold” sponsors of the “host committee” include Facebook, Google, Microsoft and AT&T.  “Silver” sponsors (and there’s a long list) include Adobe, NCTA, eBay, Verizon, Intel, AOL, Time Warner Cable, News Corp., Visa, Yahoo, Comcast and a bevy of law firms that work [...]

In its annual report for 2009, the Interactive Advertising Bureau [IAB] cites as a accomplishment that it “Lobbied extensively and proactively against several proposals— including the FTC Reauthorization Act—that would grant broad newn rulemaking powers to the Federal Trade Commission.“  It also notes that the “IAB PAC had an active year supporting many key Congressional [...]

As we have explained all along, the ability to collect and analyze data about us and our social networks is the “DNA” of contemporary advertising and marketing.  There is a very thoughtful piece in “Metrics Insider,“ and I hope you will look at this excerpt: “The future of advertising is not about social, not about viral [...]

Microsoft “launched an online forum January 6 for the academic community to participate in a dialogue about policy issues relating to the technology industry,” according to PR Week.  The so-called “Technology Academic Policy” [TAP] group “is aimed at journalists, Capitol Hill staffers, think tanks, and other decision makers,” explained Kathryn Neal, academic relations director for [...]

As we explained to reporters, the larger issue to be addressed when discussing Google’s Buzz is the  role of social media marketing and our privacy.  There’s a race to “monetize” our relationships and connections–the so-called social graph.  It wasn’t a coincidence that at the same time Google launched books it acquired social media marketing company [...]

Today’s announcement that Microsoft and Yahoo have received clearance from the DoJ and EU to proceed with its partnership continues the global trend towards online marketing consolidation.  Given Google’s dominance in search, the Microsoft `helps save Yahoo deal’ creates what some hope will be more robust competition in the search market.  But the real issue [...]

Here’s what AOL says it can do for marketers who want to target users [excerpt]: You wouldn’t order pizza from a bank. So why would you try to sell a luxury travel package to a high school student?… Behavioral targeting Target consumers based on what they read – and where they click. Audience behaviors: Hit your audience sweet [...]

At a discussion on social media in London last week on “Understanding Social Graph Optimisation,” [meaning how to better target and monetize users], one of the topics was whether users should be financially compensated when their data is harvested for commercial exploit (such as for marketing).  What did Facebook’s executive on the panel say?  According [...]

In a recent post, Microsoft extolled the virtues of using its behavioral targeting service profiling mobile phone users.  It explained that “campaigns can target individuals based on their online behaviour, including the sites that they visit, the actions they take and the terms they enter into search engines. In the US behavioural targeting on mobiles [...]

Google and other major companies want help from the NSA to help it  better defend against cyberattacks and commercial spying.  But is also illustrates a real problem: companies such as Google that gather extensive information on citizens everywhere, including in the US, are partnering with government agencies that have engaged in domestic spying.  Google really [...]

We believe academics should pursue research that is independent–and not funded by vested interests.  Here are some of the academics that just received “Google Focused Research Awards.“  The check also comes with a further relationship with Google [”These unrestricted grants are for two to three years, and the recipients will have the advantage of access [...]

We asked both Microsoft and Google, which serve on the executive committee of the Interactive Ad Bureau [IAB]  trade lobbying group, whether they supported its recent letter opposing congressional action to strengthen the FTC. The letter was signed by IAB and other marketing and advertising organizations.  Microsoft has just replied.  We are glad they aren’t [...]

The top execs at Facebook claim that the social network giant ad targeting apparatus is well understood by its users, and that they have secured their consent.  But I suggest few users understand the complexities of Facebook’s viral marketing and tracking system, let alone the new Facebook/Nielsen “Brandlift” initiative designed to demonstrate Facebook can deliver [...]

Statement of Jeff Chester, executive director, Center for Digital Democracy, Washington, D.C. www.democraticmedia.org A new self-regulatory scheme designed to head-off meaningful consumer privacy rules by Congress and the Federal Trade Commission is to be released today, according to several reports.  In addition, the Council of Better Business Bureaus has issued a RFP asking for technology solutions [...]

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