A study published last week in the Journal of Medical Internet Research (JMIR) surveyed 418 German patients, 297 online and 121 using a paper-based form. The study found that over the previous six months 54.2% of the respondents had used the internet regarding psoriasis regularly (with the rest "irregular use" which included "not at all").

Finally, we have found an information source that comes before "Dr. Google." Specialty sites are a favorite of psoriasis patients. Search is a close second (and is likely how patients initially found those specialty sites) with Facebook a distant third.

Note that the researchers split Facebook out from "social media." In the paper they highlight that they tested the survey and edited some questions. We wonder if this split came from that test with respondents not clear on the definition of "social media."

When asked about the patient-physician relationship vis-a-vis online research, patients highlighted the desire for a more robust conversation.

Two-thirds of respondents said that their physician does not recommend websites. Pharma marketers can help with this by highlighting relevant materials to physicians and even promoting the benefits of engaged and informed patients.

On the positive side, 68% of patients get informed because they want to be more involved in the discussion with their doctor. This is a tremendously good thing.

Pharma marketers already knew this, but disease state and therapy information are the top two reasons patients look up websites. When asked how they use digital media, specifically websites and search engines, patients were clear.

Traditionally we have seen Germany to be more reserved in social media use when it comes to health but they certainly are embracing digital similarly to the rest of the world. Keep in mind, all of the above numbers are the 54% who use the internet for their condition "regularly." As always your mileage may vary (YMMV). 

A new report from LG looks at CTV viewers and their plans for the 2024 holiday shopping season. This report is based on a survey of 1,139 US CTV viewers and has a couple of nuggets of interest to pharma marketers.

Shoppers, especially early shoppers, expect to spend a bit more this year over last. Most also expect to start their shopping early, time will tell if that pans out for them.

When asked where they go when their interest is piqued by a CTV ad, most say search with social in second position.

Likewise, the devices used are the ones on the couch in the moment... smartphone followed by laptop.

Back in the 2010's we made fun of brands that wanted users to scan barcodes, but that was because the functionality wasn't built in. In fact it wasn't until iOS 11 and Android Oreo (8.0), both in 2017, that enabled QR codes "out of the box." 

Now, the functionality is commonplace. This, and some other stats from the LG report.

For pharma marketers looking at the targetability of CTV this report, while biased, is a good resource.

CreatorIQ put out a report that looks at the top brands leveraging creators on TikTok. It highlights a calculated score CreatorIQ developed called Earned Media Value (EMV) which is a bit "arm-wavey" for our tastes.

The categories of brands in the top 100 reflect the interests of the younger audience found on the platform.

And the top brands reflect the market size and investment those brands make in the platform.

The "view more" button contains metrics for each brand, and because we crave hard, "non-arm-wavey" data (that's not a thing -Ed.), we charted out the metrics for the top 10 brands.

Here, we see Amazon's weight. It's affiliates program that gives creators a cut of the profits means they can scale up for essentially no up-front investment.

Each creator puts up a number of posts which means volume follows volume with Amazon at the top. The others change a bit though with Sephora getting more posts per creator than its immediate competition, but it still can't compete with Amazon.

Here we see the dominance of the sports fans. The NBA topped one billion engagements during the measurement period.

Impressions is verging on "arm-wavey" territory as we are not convinced that it truly means images on screen, we suspect it's data loaded to app (but we're willing to be convinced). Here, we see the gigantic numbers TikTok is known for (note the heading, these are billions).

To put this into perspective, of the one billion TikTok users, each one would have seen Amazon influencers twenty-one times during the measurement period. Maybe. Anyway, big numbers are fun so there you have it.

July 29th was the day. Did you feel it? Was there a chilling in the air that wasn't the A/C on full blast?

No, it was the date that the Health Breach Notification Rule came into effect. This rule, if you missed it the first time around, holds all firms responsible for personal health records (PHRs) and mandates reporting "breaches" of this data.

On the surface it doesn't seem too onerous. Just make sure your systems don't get hacked (sure, easy -Ed.), and if they do then report immediately. Unfortunately, the FTC has taken the position that third party web trackers such as used by Google, Meta, TikTok, and others can be health data breaches.

They provide an example of how they want companies to present this information to site visitors who have been affected:

The advertising group called the Global Alliance for Responsible Media (GARM) has discontinued operations rather than spend millions to fight Elon Musk's X in court. X has filed an antitrust lawsuit filed against it that essentially says that the group's mandate caused it to "conspire" to withhold billions in spend that would have gone to the platform.

The group's goal was to force social companies to create safe places for advertising by boycotting platforms that don't meet its safety standards. Musk is notorious for his reactions when told what to do by others.

This presents a bit of a conundrum for pharma advertisers. The platform isn't safe, at this point that is essentially by design. But that doesn't keep HCPs from using it at conferences. Here are post volumes for ASCO 2023 and 2024.

Should you invest in X/Twitter in specific instances? Only your Klick Social Strategist knows for sure (opportunistic, I like it -Ed.).

Technically, this story is about X/Twitter's lawsuit against GARM, but we cover that above. Instead, we want to focus on this chart included in the story. Facebook and Instagram, both Meta properties, sweep the field when it comes to advertisers' preferences.

ZoomRx has put out a report on the oncology pipeline based on input from 65 oncologists with familiarity with upcoming treatments. The products were all for solid tumors (sorry HemOncs).

Because the Wire doesn't talk about brands or companies directly we'll leave it to interested readers to jump over to ZoomRx for the results. We charted the deciles of "awareness" and "excitement" and reinforced what we already knew: oncologists are hard to impress.

Here we see that, because of specialization, no oncologists were aware of all pipeline products. In fact few products were above 30% awareness. 

However, when it comes to excitement the numbers skew low... very low. Of the 30 products in the rankings more than half were in the lowest decile for excitement. To see the companies and therapies, head over to the ZoomRx source.

The FDA had a meeting on AI in biotech R&D last week. The agency is looking to provide an industry guidance later in the year.

Dentsu put out its July American Consumer Navigator report. It shows much of the same trends that it has all year but one finding may be interesting for health marketers.

Fitness and wellness is one of the more resilient categories for personal spending. This may not be surprising, and serious health spending would be even more resilient, but it's worth remembering.

Advertisers on the Meta platform continue to be alerted that URLs containing "restricted data" are not supported. This seems to be in response to the FTC and HHS issues with personal health information being used for targeting.

Highlight is ours. The side effect here may be that we can use Meta pixels as long as we avoid health data which would ensure that healthcare entities could continue using Meta and stay onside with the FTC and HHS. This is timely with the FTC's deadline for Health Breach Notification Rule coming into effect last week.

It's well known that the automobile is the number one place Americans listen to the radio. Most of the rest of the sources are also ad-supported.

The dip in driving during the pandemic had a measurable effect on the share of audio that happens in the car. The numbers are returning but haven't reached pre-pandemic levels.

Here's a story for the "yeah, what's new" file. Wearables skew younger. When Rock Health looked at who uses wearables the 25-34 and 35-44 demographics were top of the chart.

But that's just of users. The Rock Health Digital Health Consumer Adoption Survey collected data from 23,974 US participants. Turns out 55% do not use wearables.

Still, 45% of the population isn't a number to ignore. If you have a mHealth strategy make sure it accounts for who uses these devices.