WebMD Plots Pharma Ad Sales Win: Google Health Beware
Google Health at Risk: Healthline Medical Search Snags Power Partners, and Money I underscored earlier this month.
WebMD is also a powerful contender in the health information services and advertising sector. CEO Wayne Gattinella’s Q2 2007 report to Wall Street yesterday announced:
Advertising and sponsorship revenues during the quarter increased 45% versus a year ago, as we continue to expand our business with biopharmaceutical and consumer products companies.
Gattinella sees an even brighter future for health advertising online:
The cost cutting that’s just going on at pharma and that began at least on the commercial side with their sales force. It began several quarters ago. What we are really seeing is they are shifting, so whether they are cutting or not the fact is they are beginning of shift the budgets more too online.
J&J spent more than $1 billion last year in pure advertising and we know that even if they cut those numbers by some percentage point, we stand to pick up an increasingly piece of that. But candidly there is still a lot of room to go up there as large pharmas still spend, the vast majority 96% -97% of its advertising and marketing dollars in traditional offline channels.
So our focus is to able to continue to gain as the shift-off of these less efficient and in some cases deteriorating channels, demonstrate themselves for the people that have a accountability for building an efficient brand presence in the marketplace. We are gaining strength every quarter. Our numbers reflect that but we still don’t think we are that big inflection point where the major shift has yet begun and obviously therefore we continue to build our core assets to be able to support because that time will come soon.
Sounds very Googley!
Where does Google itself stand on health advertising? Google AdWords are good!
As WebMD was touting its healthy medical ad sales, Google asserted at its blog: “people seeking health information show no bias against sponsored results (versus natural results).”
No Google surprise. After all: Google’s Opinion: Medical Advertising Fuels Democracy
Nevertheless, Google is facing healthcare competiton on many fronts. Read my Insider Chatter exclusive interview of Healthline CEO West Shell: Google Health at Risk: Healthline Medical Search Snags Power Partners, and Money.
AND THE REAL SCOOP ON WHAT ADAM BOSWORTH IS ARCHITECTING FOR GOOGLE HEALTH: Google Health: Lambast Doctors, Sell Medical Ads and Google Sicko Timeline: Attack, Retract, Pander
PLUS: Google Smackdown: Susan Wojcicki vs. Eric Schmidt Boomerangs