Pharmaceutical Marketers Directory's Newsletter

High Climber

Frank Mazzola, EVP, group creative director
McCann HumanCare

Photo credit: Katie Henry

Frank Mazzola says healthcare advertising is currently having a watershed moment—and its time playing second fiddle to "real" advertising has ended.

"It used to be that people cringed at the thought of healthcare advertising," he says. "It was the stepchild of 'real' advertising. But now, I think we're in the midst of a renaissance where people are finally seeing what the rest of us loved about it all along. Healthcare is the best opportunity to do life-changing creative.

"Look at some of the most striking ideas that won at Cannes this year," Mazzola says, "These are ideas that are bigger than advertising...Creative problem-solving at its finest, affecting people's lives in profound ways. This is healthcare. It's fertile ground, you just have to know what to do with it."

To that end, Mazzola says that McCann HumanCare is poised to take advantage of healthcare's lush palette. "There is an ambition and a hunger here, to not only do great work but to innovate [the] healthcare industry," he says. "And my ability to help shape that, in this role, is an extremely exciting challenge."

Mazzola will be aided in that challenge by Auge Reichenberg, McCann's executive creative director, along with Jeremy Perrott, chief creative officer, and Rob Reilly, global creative chairman of McCann Worldgroup. "My work has to live up to their standards, so I can't think of a better place to learn and evolve as a creative," he says.

Mazzola joined McCann from another healthcare agency, GSW, where he held the same role.

Mazzola found his own way into healthcare advertising while carrying the bag in medical sales, after he graduated from college. "Over time, I realized that I could get more business creating ads and sending them out to my territory than knocking on doors," he says. "Eventually, I created a spec portfolio, went on an interview with FCB and the rest is history."

For those looking for their own entry point into what they love, Mazzola advises: "Only do the kind of work you're proud of—creating something you love is always worth it," and, "no matter what you do, care more and work harder than everyone else and it will be impossible not to succeed."

Workspace

Joe Acee, creative lead
Fingerpaint

What was your biggest break?

Professionally, I would say my very first job out of college. I was so excited to move to New York City and start my career as a designer.

What's the best and/or worst part of your job?

The best, I am always learning something new every day. The worst, not learning something new everyday.

Who is the person you admire most in your area of work?

The grace under pressure type of person.

What's the view like from your office/work area?

It's an open work space here at FP, so all I see is people.

How long is a typical meeting with clients?

52 minutes.

Does your office have a favorite lunch and/or after-hours place?

Roma's seems to be the once a week favorite. They make a great Italian salad.

Where did you go to college? Did it help you prepare for your career?

Syracuse University. I was a Communication Design major at the School of Visual Arts. It was a great experience.

What books are you reading?

Deep Survival; Who Lives, Who Dies and Why, by Laurence Gonzales. It relates very well to the world of advertising.

What was your greatest professional challenge?

A global launch of a type-2 diabetes drug. It was a four-year trail of cheers and tears.

Where will you be in five years?

Where ever the work is.

What are your favorite industry-related Web sites? Non-industry?

Lately, I have my browser open to Muzli. It's a portal for all things design/art related. Non-industry related, I love Lumosity. It's a brain game site.

If you were to write a book, what would the title be?

I Scratch My Mind and Think About Life.

PMD Insider

Medical publishers eye new ad viewability rules

A group of medical publishers will attempt to develop a new industry standard for digital advertising viewability, a much debated topic that has vexed the broader advertising industry.

Viewability—how long is long enough for a user to have viewed a digital ad successfully—has cropped up in recent years as one of the more challenging media issues, and one that needs to be addressed as the business of digital advertising matures. In healthcare, experts say, it's no different.

"There's more pressure to account for dollars," said Dori Cappola, VP of media at Klick Health, who adds that clients now ask: "'Why is my dollar not being spent wisely?" when they read references to fraud and viewability.

This is why the Association of Medical Media plans to hold a meeting Feb. 4 with healthcare publishers, agencies and their clients, with an aim of establishing an industrywide viewability standard. The organization—members of which include the< American Medical Association, the New England Journal of Medicine and Kantar Media—is also advocating to postpone tying viewability of ads to payments until such a standard is established. (Haymarket Media, which publishes MM&M and a portfolio of HCP-focused digital properties and imprints, is a member of the association.)

The group's perspective is that professional medical content differs from other online advertisers, such as the consumer packaged goods and automotive sectors. "It is distinguished from general web content in many ways, including in its scarcity and its value to the end reader," the AMM said in a statement.

There is already a viewability standard in place. In 2015 the Interactive Advertising Bureau and the Media Rating Council said that if 50% of users view a digital ad for one second, that ad is considered viewed. These organizations also developed a standard for video viewability, and one for mobile is expected to be announced this year, according to Peter Kosmala, SVP of government relations for the 4A's—the American Association of Advertising Agencies, a national trade association. Healthcare stakeholders, including drugmakers and device makers, were involved in establishing those standards, he adds.

But RJ Lewis, the AMM's viewability task force chairman, described the 50% viewability standard as "arbitrary.

"More and more agencies charge or only pay on viewable impressions or insist on a minimum threshold of viewability," said Lewis, who is president and CEO of eHealthcare Solutions.

A number of factors have contributed to making viewability one of the most talked-about topics in the general digital advertising sector.

Not only is the technology improving and digital spending increasing, more websites are taking ads, which means there are greater placements to be had. But in response, more users are downloading ad-blocking software, which affects viewability. In addition, agencies are increasingly demanding higher rates of viewability, and some large publishers have allowed significantly higher viewability standards, such as Conde Nast last year agreeing to 100% viewability with GroupM, the world's largest media company.

How agencies measure viewability varies, as do the viewability requirements for different brands, despite the 50% standard established by the advertising trade groups. There is still lingering confusion among agencies and publishers, said Aryeh Lebeau, EVP of client operations at Remedy Health Media.

"There's a lot of variability in what those standards are," Lebeau said. And now "at the beginning of last year and seriously this year, agencies are starting to contract on viewability."

If an ad is 100% viewable on a less-read blog but there is zero conversion, the campaign is useless, noted Klick's Cappola. But if an ad is 50% viewable on The Wall Street Journal's site, but every user converts, that would be considered a much more successful campaign.

"Viewability is one piece in a puzzle," Cappola said. "Until there's a solution, it's hard to know."

Where does this leave medical advertisers?

Well, industry experts have been saying that drugmakers will likely put more emphasis on digital advertising as brand marketing becomes more targeted to certain patient populations and manufacturers lose direct access to physicians and other prescribers. That could expose more advertisers to the vagueness of viewability and highlight the need to find a solution that makes sense given the nuances of medical advertising, notably content aimed at healthcare providers.—Jaimy Lee