There’s been a good deal of buzz amongst digital marketers about a Morgan Stanley report that was released on Apr 12.  Amongst other predictions in the “Internet Trends” presentation (streamed to the public from Google’s campus), the forecast that “mobile will be bigger than desktop internet in 5 years” caught my attention.  Whether it’s 4, 6 or 8 years, one trend is undisputable: consumers increasingly consume more content on mobile devices.

If you’re a client-side pharma marketer, do you know in detail what experiences and tools your publics (and patients) want to access on devices?  Or would be useful to them?  Have you even asked that question, or mined conversations online to arrive at that understanding?

Some marketers will write-off apps as a fad, but that’s a huge mistake.  Apps – and the smartphones that run them – are here to stay.  Smartphones are palm-sized mobile devices (e.g. BlackBerry, iPhone) that do pretty well anything a standard desktop computer (or laptop) can do; more about them in a little bit.

First, let’s look at a couple of innovative tools and apps in pharma.  They certainly exist!

Niche app/tool combo to solve for children testing blood sugar levels

Parents whose children suffer from juvenile diabetes spend a lot of time (and effort) ensuring their children test blood sugar.  No child can really look forward to a finger prick; the “it’s for your own good” coaching and finagling only goes so far to motivate a child to test regularly.  How does a pharma help solve for that problem?  How does it add value to the lives of parents and children (and possibly gain some social responsibility equity)?

Consider Bayer.

The company is about to launch in the US the first glucose meter that plugs directly into a game console – it’s hard to think of something that could more effectively motivate children to test regularly (you can read more in this BusinessWeek piece).  Bayer didn’t come up with the idea – it saw an opportunity to commercialize a product that somebody else invented.  Bayer will use its marketing and distribution muscle to induct the product into more markets, quicker, than the inventor could dream of.  That’s the opportunity pharma (and other verticals) have – to sponsor and accelerate to market products and solutions that truly enhance people’s lives and tie back to the pharma in a meaningful way (e.g. complement a major therapeutic area or specialization in R&D).

Continue reading ‘The computer in your pocket: How mobile is changing marketing’