Hello, Bidtellectuals!

Today is September 11th. We remember the men, women, firefighters, and rescue workers who lost their lives on this day in 2001. Tell someone how much you love them today.

Congratulations to Bidtellectual TEAM of the Week Kendra, Ashley, Kevin and Shannon! The client wrote an unprompted note praising the team for their personal attention to the campaigns along with withBidtellect’s platform technology. If this doesn’t make your heart glow…

​Pharma’s COVID Recovery (And Then Some)

Health, healthcare, medicine: nothing like a global pandemic to revamp a vertical’s popularity. SO we dove into COVID-19’s impact on the health and pharma industry. While there was a brief dip in ad spend in March, by May medical and pharma ad spending was up 56% year over year. Trends to note: higher adoptions of telehealth, filling prescriptions from home, and a shift in spend to programmatic –especially video.

For this week’s Bidtellect Beat: Digital Edition, I spoke with Bidtellect Director of Sales Phil Marth on the unique challenges pharma marketers face, trends in the industry, and how native programmatic can deliver on the shift to more conscious, hopeful and helpful messaging. Give it a watch here.

PHARMA Marketing Challenges & Industry Changes Since COVID

Google States Obvious: Keyword Blocking of ‘Coronavirus’ Was Too Broad

Nice, Google. If you’ll recall, the industry made a major effort (see IAB) to call out the harm of such broad block brush strokes to news and publishers. Google’s marketing team conceded that it had been “too conservative” in including “coronavirus” on its list of blocked terms earlier this year, and pledged to spend $100 million in advertising to support news organizations this year. Feels a little late to me? Adweek interviewed VP of Marketing Joshua Spanier. Read it here.

eMarketer: CPG Crushing It

eMarketer’s latest report: Thanks to a boost in digital sales of essential goods and personal care products (purchased more frequently online during the pandemic) digital ad spending in the US consumer packaged goods (CPG) industry will increase 5.2% to $19.40 billion this year, making it the third-largest spender behind retail and financial services. Mobile spending will grow 11.4% and account for 73.2% of all CPGdigital ad spend – WOW. Competition with direct-to-consumer (D2C) brands, along with an uptick in ecommerce sales, has led to a higher focus on performance marketing. Hit us up.

Good News, Maybe: Pro Sports Are Coming Back

Tennis is underway at the U.S. Open sans fans. Serena Williams, Victoria Azarenka and Tsvetana Pironkova made history on Labor Day at the USTA Billie Jean KingNational Tennis Center by becoming the first trio of mothers to reach the quarter finals of the same Grand Slam. Go Moms! One of them will face 2018 U.S.Open winner Naomi Osaka who reached the nal with her win over Jennifer Brady yesterday. The N.F.L. opened its season Thursday night with a game between the Super Bowl champion Kansas City Chiefs and the Houston Texans.

Stay safe, friends,

Charlotte

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Charlotte Otremba is Sr. Manager of Communications and Marketing at Bidtellect.