The Super Bowl of Life Science Marketing

I’ve definitely got a lot more to say about Web 2.0 and social networking for scientists but for now I think I’ll return to the stated mission of this blog – our understanding of the buyers and sellers in the life science market. In my last related post I wrote about the need to use segmentaation techniques to maximize the effectiveness of your marketing. Earlier this year we uncovered a new way of segmenting scientists that goes way beyond the academic/industry and North America/Europe/RoW demographics that have limited utility. It’s called Media Engagement. To understand the general concept of Media Engagement, let’s first examine a scenario from general consumer marketing in which the interested group of consumers is the majority, rather than the minority as is usually the case.

On Super Bowl Sunday, almost everyone is a willing consumer of marketing information. It is the one day of the year that Tivo users fast-forward through the game in order to catch real action. Millions of dollars are spent in a single day to ensure that you are having the right conversation at the watercooler on Monday. It’s safe to say that Super Bowl Sunday provides an excellent case study for media consumption and consumer behavior.

What makes the Super Bowl such a magnet for advertising? Is it the captive audience? The sheer volume of people watching? Or is it, at least now, the expectation that the ads will be worth seeing? In truth, it is probably a combination of the three. In any case, on Super Bowl Sunday, living rooms throughout the country are filled with eager consumers of marketing information—a marketers dream.

And then reality sets in, and its back to the everyday marketing grind. But what if you could not only run one Super Bowl ad, but turn all of your ads into conversations at the watercooler, or the lab bench, as the case may be?

Understanding the concept of media engagement helps make this possible. Certain consumers treat marketing information like everyday is Super Bowl Sunday. They wait for the information to arrive, review it thoroughly, and react appropriately. This is a life science marketers dream—and it’s a reality.