Hopefully as you are reading this, you are enjoying the holiday season and getting ready for 2014. It's been a chaotic, uneven 2013, and my wish is to see it over with as soon as possible and make a fresh start.
Not all of 2013 has been entirely bad; midway through the year, I managed to get myself re-enrolled at the local gym and between watching what I ate and exercise, have lost almost 30 pounds since the beginning of July. This time I am determined to not lose heart and to continue beyond that. It is interesting, however, to see how many targeted weight-loss ads I've been encountering across the Internet, especially on Facebook. Consumer marketers are working some sophisticated algorithms to bring my attention to cereal, workout gear, and amazing "tips" from Dr. Oz to lose body fat.
Nowhere, however, have I found any nonbranded wellness love from pharma. But that may be changing, as pharma is following the trend to direct wellness advertising to consumers (see story on page 14). The pharmaceutical industry is starting to wake up to the possibilities of using wellness topics to establish their brands in the hearts and minds of consumers. Perhaps 2014 will be a turnaround year in that regard.
Also looking ahead to 2014, executives from agencies that won or were nominated for Agency of the Year and various other Manny Awards have given their opinions on which trends are affecting them and their clients (see cover story). The impact of the Affordable Care Act, agency consolidation, and mobile marketing are among the topics of consideration. Overall, executives seem to be hopeful that the year ahead will treat the industry better than the year behind, but they know change is always around the next corner.
In the area of diabetes, we hopefully can look forward to the progress of Novo Nordisk's IDegLira and Tresiba as well as Sanofi's Lyxumia among others in eventually reaching the U.S. marketplace (please see story on page 18).
Another thing to look forward to in 2014? Cegedim Relationship Management will be launching its own social network for physicians, Docnet, in the United States in the first quarter of the year (see story on page 24). In other things to look forward to in the new year, perhaps we'll see more economic recovery; sweeping changes in the way healthcare is administered in the United States; and less political bickering and no government shutdowns. Heck, if you have to makes wishes for the new year, make them big, I say.
Personally, in 2014, I want to do more traveling; talk with more people; take up playing the guitar again; create a groundhog-proof garden; become more adept at social media technology; laugh more; and spend more time with family and friends.
Things I would like to do less of in 2014: stress out over things I can't change and can't affect; worry in general; see friends and loved ones hospitalized on major and minor holidays; and see far fewer groundhogs in my back yard.
Here's wishing that all of your wishes come true in 2014.
