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Digital Insights: Novartis Overtakes Pfizer in 2011 Good Web Buzz Rankings

Zeta Interactive has published its annual end-of-year Buzz Report, recapping the most buzzworthy pharmaceutical brands’ trends and stories from 2011.

By Michele V. Wagner, Senior Digital Editor

Zeta Interactive, a digital marketing agency, has published its annual end-of-year Buzz Report, recapping the most buzzworthy pharmaceutical brands’ trends and stories from 2011. Zeta uses its Buzz technology and algorithm, which scans more than 200 million blogs and online sites in real-time, and assigns a buzz ranking to each company, factoring in both volume and tone of posts each brand receives. From that, it determines digital winners and losers.

The most noteworthy finding was Novartis overcoming Pfizer, who previously held the best buzzed pharma brand in 2010, for the most positively tonal web buzz score (6.46). Novartis was not without its fair share of job cut news this year, but perhaps it was Pfizer appearing in the news for thousands of job cuts, claims of advertisements that objectify women, or shake-ups in top management that allowed Novartis to slide into the top position.

Johnson & Johnson, which finished as the #1 best buzzed pharma brand in 2008 and 2009 before dropping out of the top ten completely last year due to its recall crisis, managed to make it back on this year’s list, finishing at #6 overall. However, at just 61% positive, J&J’s tonal buzz ranking was lower than any other brand on this year’s pharma buzz list. And as expected, the product recalls of last year still continue to be featured prominently in J&J’s cluster analysis, with the word “recall” appearing among the most popular words used to describe the brand online in 2011.

Surprisingly, Bayer climbed up four spots to the #2 spot overall on this year’s list after finishing in 6th place in 2010. Additionally, at 88% positive tone, Bayer’s tonal buzz ranking was higher than any other pharma brand on the list. Other interesting Buzz Rankings to note:

• Pfizer’s buzz was closely associated with Advil, as was Bayer’s with aspirin
• Eli Lilly was viewed as a beacon of employment and growth
• Along with J&J at #6, Teva entered the top ten at #9 
• Watson and Roche dropped out of the top ten

Do you think these rankings are accurate and meaningful? Let me know: mvaccarello@putman.net.

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