By Erika Morphy CRM Buyer Part of the ECT News Network
06/20/08 4:00 AM PT
The Internet may be a vast data repository, but when it comes to smart targeting, there apparently isn't enough of the right kind of content to soak up all the advertising dollars businesses want to spend. The time is ripe for the emergence of vertical ad platforms, and the healthcare industry is a good place to start.
Increase Customer Sales with VerticalResponse Email Marketing! Quickly and easily send email newsletters, coupons & sales announcements to your customers – no technical expertise needed. Sign up for your Free Trial today and send 100 emails on us!
The launch of
Healthline Networks'
HealthSTAT last week is one more indication that the Internet ad platform wars are far from over. To be sure, Google (Nasdaq: GOOG) remains the giant to beat -- and it looks as though it's settling into its role as the long-term dominant player.
However, HealthSTAT may be on the vanguard in the next significant skirmish within this multibillion dollar industry: the vertical front.
Healthline Networks is a medical and healthcare content community. HealthSTAT, or Health Semantic Taxonomy Ad Targeting, is a contextual, ad-matching engine that allows advertisers to post ads next to articles that are relevant to their products.
Its matching capabilities are based on health-related concepts, as opposed to generic or simple keywords. The matching can be general -- for instance, an ad for an antidepressant can be placed next to any article about depression. Conversely, the platform can be configured narrowly -- so that a particular ad will appear only next to articles about new medications for the disease.
"We have extended our health-related core capabilities to unique ad categories that we can use on our site or on third-party sites," John Lane, senior vice president of advertising services at Healthline, told CRM Buyer.
The platform is well suited for products that target a very specific disease, he added.
Tightly Knit Communities
The healthcare industry is one that is particularly amenable to the vertical ad platform concept.
"There is a different level of engagement with the readers at a health site, compared to another vertical -- like automobiles for instance," Jeremy Shane, vice president of business development for
HealthCentral.com, told CRM Buyer.
HealthCentral.com has tailored its platform to take into account the progression of its readers' conditions. Someone who has just been diagnosed with lupus, for example, usually starts out learning as much as possible about the disease. The next step is typically researching available treatements. Ads can be tailored not only to match the disease, Shane said, but also to coincide with the patient's location on the learning curve.
The question is, do Healthline and its counterparts in the medical and healthcare industry represent the next step in online advertising? Or are these developments more illustrative of the peculiar nature of the healthcare industry's relationship with consumers?
Too Few Sites
Considering that five years ago Yahoo (Nasdaq: YHOO) was the giant to beat in the ad space, it might be folly to make long-term predictions. Some observations about the current state of online advertising, though, hint at what's to come.
There are more dollars than content to advertise around now, Carey Ransom, vice president of sales and marketing at
WebVisible, points out. WebVisible markets Geneva, a software program that automates the keyword advertising process. "Companies are finding that there aren't enough sites to spread dollars to, so the addition of sites like Healthline is a welcome development.
Other verticals, such as real estate, and even micro verticals will begin to develop industry-specific ad platforms, he predicts.
Marketers are definitely interested in vertical ad networks right now, said Joelle Kaufman, vice president of media operations at Adify, a vertical ad network management company and subsidiary of Cox Enterprises.
Third-party research shows that people tend to spend the most time away from the top 20 Web sites. The move to vertical content -- on the part of consumers as well as advertisers -- "is an irreversible trend," she told CRM Buyer.
Too Granular
Still, it would be unwise for a company to assume that the move to verticals is stronger than it actually is, Thomas Harpointner, CEO of
AIS Media, told CRM Buyer.
"I do agree that ultimately the Internet is going to break down into smaller and smaller components," he said. Yet basing an advertising strategy around micro verticals may be a losing proposition. "Healthcare? Sure. Real estate? Definitely. But, for example, doll house furniture? Not so much."
Doctors Fail to Cough Up Cash for Electronic Patient Record Systems June 19, 2008
Only 4 percent of U.S. physicians have access to fully functional electronic health records systems, according to a Harvard University-led study recently published in the New England Journal of Medicine. The doctors surveyed cite cost as a major reason for their delay in adoption.
Related Stories
Kaiser Jumps Onto Microsoft's Health Records Cloud June 09, 2008
Kaiser Permanente is planning to partner with Microsoft to put its patients' records online using Microsoft's HealthVault personal health records service. The movement of medical records to the cloud would make up a part of Kaiser's My Health Manager service, which also gives patients new ways to communicate with their doctors and find general health information.
Follow the Money With Marketing Dashboards June 05, 2008
Marketing dashboards are essential for businesses to effectively gauge and improve their return on marketing investment. Dashboards not only put pertinent data at the fingertips of product managers, the systems also allow them to know the impact of key revenue drivers and to drive integrated decision-making and ownership.
HIPAA Revisited, Part 2: Seeking Balance May 31, 2008
If some people think health privacy protections don't go far enough while others think they're too restrictive, does that mean the government got it right? Probably not, but the experts agree they're a step in the right direction. Now it's time for some fine tuning.
Related News Alerts
More by Erika Morphy
Roku Channel Store Hangs Out Shingle November 23, 2009
Roku's new channel store is based on a "one screen in the cloud" business model, said Michael Gartenberg, vice president of strategy and analysis with Interpret. "Essentially, what they are doing is taking the TV set -- whether it is a standard appliance or a high-def monster -- and enhancing it with content the consumer wants to see."
Ballmer Gives Shareholders - and Dell - Cause for Optimism November 20, 2009
Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer was all smiles at the company's shareholders meeting, as he touted the early success of Windows 7. Ballmer's cheer may have been contagious; after posting a massive earnings decline for the third quarter, Dell needed some good news to latch onto, and the prospect of broad enterprise adoption of Windows 7 could spur PC sales.
AA.com Sucks the Fun Out of Trip-Planning November 20, 2009
Using AA.com to book a flight was a painful experience. Densely packed, disorganized information was displayed in an unattractive format. On the plus side, it did seem as though the deals American Airlines advertised were real and not mere bait-and-switch lures. For anyone who wants a travel-planning Web site to inject a little pleasure into the experience, though, I say look elsewhere.
Headline Feeds
Talkback: 
