Inspirational Video - The Future?

This is one of those videos that I love and feel really inspired just letting it play through. It takes you on a journey into the future and makes it all so real. Watch "A Day Made of Glass" which captures one companys vision for the future with specialty glass at the heart of it. I can see the Apple iPhone v7 or v9 tapping into this dream. Maybe even Microsoft tweaking the Surface to incorporate some of these themes. Watch and Enjoy.

Advertising That Saves Lives

Great example of using the power of interactive billboards to trigger an emotional response from the end user. This display is aimed at attracting people to jobs in public health. As you sit at the bus stop you hear a beeping sound (scarily familiar to almost everyone) that indicates someone has flatlined or died. The billboard invites you to put your hands on the patients chest and bring tham back to life creating the feeling you can save lives. Powerful. View the video here.

Interactive Billboards Wows Consumers

This is truely magic. A billboard detects if you are closeby and invites you to particpate in a game that you control directly from your phone. (No app download needed). Players interact live with the massive billboard and if you have a high score, you win a voucher for free food at the restaurant. The voucher is sent to your phone for redeeming at the restaurant. Nice. Take a look here.

Tracking Pharma's Digital Efforts

Found two interesting websites that attempt to follow and document the efforts of various pharma companies as they implement social media and digital marketing activities.

The Doseofdigital Pharma and Healthcare Social Media Wiki is a huge understaking to map out the digital pharma landscape. Entries are logged in various catogories such as Healthcare Professional Communities, Patient Comunities, Blogs, Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube, etc. 

The second resource is the Digital Pharma Blog which offers a massive listing of pharma activities across Twitter, Facebook, Video, Blogs, and Mobile, etc.

Social Media meets CRM

Social CRM got a boost recently when salesforce.com announced the purchase of Radian6. Interesting space to watch as CRM systems start to get feeds from this social media monitoring tool. Radian6 uses technology to monitor hundreds of millions of conversations every day across Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, blogs and online communities, to deliver insights in real-time.

Social Media and Digital Marketing Trends

A look at some of this years trends in social media (including healthcare) and digital marketing. Click to download reports:

Social Media Marketing Industry Report (Social Media Examiner)

2011 Trends Report - Social Media Marketing (Focus Trends Report)

The Social Life of Healthcare Information 2011 (Pew Research Centre)
Tapping into the Power by Getting Personal (PharmaVoice)

2011 Digital Marketing Reports

A quick roundup of some of the more interesting 2011 Digital Marketing Reports worth a scan to understand trends and movements in the digital landscape. Click to download reports.
Digital IQ Index - Pharma and healthcare Providers (L2 ThinkTank)
Digital Marketing in the Next Decade (Adobe)
The 2011 Digital Marketer - Benchmark and Trend Report (Experian)
Are you ready for the Digital Revolution (Accenture)
2011 Digital Marketing Outlook (SoDa Intl. Assoc. of Digital Marketers)

Where's the Company App Store?

With the rapid growth of custom-built and off-the-shelf mobile applications, many Enterprises are starting to explore Mobile Application Management (MAM) to improve security, streamline deployment and distribution, and manage the lifecycle of mobile applications. Unlike typical web-based applications, mobile applications can see new versions and releases every three to six months - which requires a strategy and approach that addresses both agility and flexibility in a fast-paced dynamic market.

There needs to be 3 components of any solution. 
1. The Enterprise App Store, 2. The apps, and 3. Security.

The Enterprise App Store can be Software-as-a-Service or living within the firewall depending on a thorough security assessment. The apps should be device agnostic allowing IT the ability to distribute apps to iOS, Android, Windows or Blackberry platforms. Thirdly, there needs to be a security layer built in to support app versioning, updating and wiping of applications by administrators.

A number of companies already offer Enterprise-wide solution such as Apperian, AppCentral and MobileIron.

How could such a system work?

The IT team manages all content through the Enterprise App Store as well as authenticating and adding users, setting permissions, and uploading in-house custom-built apps and linking 3^rd party content.

Users would download the Enterprise Store app to their devices and browse approved apps as required. Employees then simply download their apps safely to their devices. Updates are automatically controlled and new applications are communicated as they become available (after IT screening).

Pharma virtual meetings

How virtual meetings and 3D environments are changing how pharma companies communicate and collaborate. See article. According to SDI Health, use of virtual meetings in pharma alone has grown 63% in the past 4 years.

Digital Pharma

Nice roundup of news and commentary on the Digital Pharma May 2011 online magazine. Published by InPharma.com, some interesting articles on how Pharma are dipping their toes in the social media water. See also their report from Insight Research Group on how Physicians in Europe are using social media.