By Kathleen Ramirez, Fahlgren EVP and Corporate Media Director

Online advertising spending still slated to increase in 2009.

The past few days, weeks and months have been filled with news that has been less than uplifting. Discussions surrounding the Credit Crunch, Unemployment Rates and Foreclosures and the Stock Market have quickly made way from the boardroom to the water-cooler.

Consumers will continue to worry about how they are going to fill up their gas tanks, pay their mortgage and keep their job. And until there are clear signs of an economic recovery, business optimism will not improve.
So what’s the bright side?

Leading media forecasters are predicting that 2009 will truly be a Buyer’s Market.

Unit costs should come down without the pressures of the Olympics and Political activity. CPMs will remain flat as audience erosion is expected to continue in traditional broadcast outlets.

Internet ad spending is expected to remain strong. According to ZenithOptmedia, internet ad spending will account for 13.8 percent of all world ad spend in 2010. In the U.S., the current forecast is that Internet ad spending will grow 21 percent this year and 19 percent in 2009. This growth continues to be fueled by the evolution of technology and how people are using it. Our challenge is to try and keep up.

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By Amy Dawson, Senior Vice President/Healthcare Account Director

Finding a good doctor is a chore, isn’t it?

You can ask friends, family members or co-workers for recommendations - they’re usually reliable sources. The problem comes when you go to learn more about a doctor online. Many primary care doctors (family practice, internal medicine and pediatrics) have no Web presence. And if they do, the site is often hard to navigate and usually lacks substance. Typically a doctor’s site lists just office hours, location and maybe - if you’re lucky - a really bad, outdated head shot.

Finding a doctor online is incredibly frustrating - it shouldn’t be.

I can prepare my will and invest my life savings online but I can’t learn much about a doctor to whom I will trust my health and maybe even my life. This really amazes me, given that so many people are going online for health information. And, they’re looking to their doctors as for help.

People Look to Their Doctor First

As ringmaster of the three-ring circus I call my family, I must make the best use of my limited free time, so I tend to do as much as possible online. It’s so convenient. People want to be able find information about a doctor online. Not just where they went to medical school. I want to know their hours, how to make an appointment, insurances accepted.

I’d like to know if a pediatrician is married and has kids - I’d probably relate more to a physician who is a parent more so than one who isn’t. Does that doctor have a special skill or interest? For parents with special needs children, does the pediatrician have a comfort level with Down syndrome, ADHD or cerebral palsy? Does a neurosurgeon I’m considering specialize in spinal surgery, or does he do everything? Can you show me an animation or video of the procedure you’ll be doing on me so I am less anxious about it and my family knows what’s happening, too?

As more and more consumers take an active role in healthcare decisions, they’re spending time researching information online. I talked to some friends whose son really needed back surgery and they had researched a lumbar disc replacement procedure recently approved by the FDA.

In an effort to help them, I researched three different hospital systems and several physician practices online to see if anyone locally performed the procedure. Nowhere could I find any information except on the site of one multi-specialty group practice. So where did my friend’s son go? Yes, to that practice and with an excellent result after surgery. A good online experience led to a good offline experience.

Why can’t they all be that way?

My dentist offers a secure site where I can look up all of my family’s upcoming appointments, confirm them online, see my benefits and financial information, pay my bill, provide feedback and refer a friend. They, too, offer a great experience both online and off, so that tells me they care not only for my health, but they make it easy by respecting my time and valuing me as a patient. I’m theirs for life.

By Kathleen Ramirez, Fahlgren EVP and Corporate Media Director

“Mommy’s alright, Daddy’s alright, they just seem a little weird”

We’ve started a new system in our house to keep the kids in order and they must think my husband and I have lost it. For doing the everyday things they are supposed to (like make the bed, set the table, etc.) they get a ticket.

One ticket = 10 minutes of TV, Computer or Wii

We have three kids. They are 7, 6 and almost two. And it has been fascinating to see the media choices they’re making when it actually cost them something. The older two kids are the ones really participating. The baby gets a ticket for just sleeping through the night…

Interesting Differences

Our 7 year-old daughter is a saver. She uses as few tickets as possible. When she does, it is typically for TV time. She’s in an interesting place between Wonder Pets and Hannah Montana. Hopefully, she’ll stay in the Wonder Pets camp for another year or so!

Our 6 year-old son is completely different. He burns through his tickets as fast as he earns them. His choice? CartoonNetwork.com. Every time. All of the time.

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By Jenny Fuerst, Director, Corporate Communications

Now that our creative group and interior designers have agreed on the color palette, furniture and accessories that best reflect the Fahlgren brand (nothing short of a miracle!), and now that most of us have figured out our new phone system and conference room technologies (another miracle), we thought it was time to officially break in the place with more than 500 of our closest friends. So, we did — in true Fahlgren style.

On October 1, we hosted our open house in our new headquarters at Easton Town Center. If you were able to join us, hopefully you enjoyed a tour of our new 30,000 square feet of space, learned about all of our environmentally friendly design initiatives and got your fill of appetizers and refreshments complete with sushi, a dessert bar and a full offering of beverages. And, if you weren’t able to attend, we hope you can come see us soon. Either way, take a peek at the pics from our special event.

We moved to our new office space at Easton this July, and we were able to combine our more than 120 employees who were in two Columbus offices (Fahlgren Mortine Public Relations and Fahlgren Advertising) under one roof in the heart of this retail Mecca. The location makes sense considering that much of our business is about engaging consumers and helping our clients sell goods and services.

You don’t have to take it from me what a great new space we have. Check out what Advergirl had to say about our new digs and our open house festivities, and feel free to let us know what you thought of the party and new HQs.

By Alaina Sheer,

You Tube unveiled its long awaited Hot Spot viewer tracking this week. An addition to You Tube’s Insight analytics, Hot Spot displays when viewers actually drop off of a video, stop, rewind or fast forward.

The tool compares a video’s hot and cold spots to You Tube videos of similar length. Bearing in mind that a majority of You Tube videos are still entertainment based, the Hot Spot analytic still give marketers a good gauge of when viewers leave or lose interest. Marketers can then use this information to go back and tweak the video or edit accordingly.

Hot Spot is just another tool in the YouTube Insight analytics arsenal. Insight also breaks down a video’s audience by gender, age and location and tell us how viewers found the video; from Google searches, YouTube searches or embedded players to name a few.

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By Ann Oliver, Account Director

Even if they’re out of sight, for mothers, the kids are never really out of mind.

On Saturday mornings, I often wake up before everyone else to quietly sneak-out the door. Not for a solitary morning run or a clandestine affair, but to simply grocery shop in peace. Instead of the running through the aisles at break neck speed, with the kids at home, I can take my time. I leisurely stroll down through the store, read nutritional facts, compare prices per ounce and mentally create a menu for the week.

But even though they’re far out of sight, my children are still influencing nearly every purchase I make, in the grocery store and in every store. It’s not because of the nag factor-”Can I have it? Please Mom, can I? Pretty please?” It’s because, I - and many other moms - actually value the input kids provide about certain purchases.

According to the WonderGroup Influence Study of 700 moms, price was statistically even with a child’s request as a factor that influenced food purchases.

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