HealthiNation, a video-on-demand platform founded in 2005, offers a variety of health content for consumers and an advertising opportunity that is especially relevant at a time when pharmaceutical television advertising is being ridiculed from all corners. Pharmaceutical companies, food and dietary product firms and local health institutions are playing traditional TV spots on Healthination’s broadband channel and VOD TV, but there are opportunities for other forms of advertising, which iSPOT discussed with HealthiNation’s CEO Raj Amin.
iSPOT: Can you give us some background about HealthiNation?
Amin: It was started two years ago by me and Tony Estrella, the vice president. The concept was to use videos as a way to get information to people who are concerned about their health. Most of the information that’s out there is very flat. Video is all about emotion, visuals and communicating in a more effective way. Our plan was to produce videos that could give people information and inspiration.
iSPOT: What kind of videos do you run?
Amin: Mostly medically focused around conditions like diabetes, cancer, cancer treatment and other issues people don’t like to talk about, like bladder problems and menopause. We’re giving people the health information they need.
iSPOT: Do you create the videos?
Amin: Yes, we have our own production team led by a senior producer from the Today Show. A lot of our content has a very fast market TV appeal in the way it’s produced. The graphics are high end and we produce our own 3-D animation sequences about the body to make it a really compelling experience for people to learn about their health.
iSPOT: Do you make them locally in New York?
Amin: We primarily shoot studio segments in New York. The true life stories can be shot all over the country.
iSPOT: What kind of syndication deals have you worked out?
Amin: The goal is to get the video out to as many people as possible. We’re not the only health destination, there’s lots of valuable communities. QualityHealth.com and Nubella.com are good examples of sites with great experience, so we’re adding video to that experience. Nubella is focused on food and nutrition so people go there looking for that kind of information, but they’re interested in health information, too.
iSPOT: What kind of TV deals have you worked out?
Amin: We launched first on cable VOD. All of our content is broadcast quality, produced for TV and recut for broadband. It’s more browsable on broadband. People can see us on VOD cable in 22 states and we have agreements with major cable operators including Cox Communication and Bresnan. We’re working to get it deployed in more cities.
iSPOT: How does the content appear on TV?
Amin: For example, Cox Communications has an area called FreeZone with an on demand menu that has a category called Health. You can go to the channel and chose any content you want. It’s not a broadcast channel so it’s available whenever you want. If it’s one in the morning and you want to find out about chemotherapy, you can go right to the channel and learn about it there.
iSPOT: What kind of advertising runs with broadband and TV?
Amin: A lot of the advertising we use is standard TV :30s and :60s. Ads are better if they’re shorter in the broadband world, but if they’re highly targeted we can go with a longer format. It isn’t broadcast TV any more, it’s on demand, so the ads can be two minutes long. We’re working with our ad partners now to come up with a more interesting format that may tell a story over multiple segments, similar to a two-minute interview that exists at the end of a title. For advertising creatives, there’s a lot of opportunity to get out of the constraints of :30s.
iSPOT: Is there a difference between online and VOD ads?
Amin: The biggest difference is online ads have companion inventory with built in interactivity. Banners and companion ads run along the videos as enhancements to give viewers a reason to click to interact with the brand. The video creative is similar or the same. Longer form ads are better on TV, :30s work in both places.
iSPOT: Are major pharmaceutical advertisers using HealthiNation?
Amin: Yes.
iSPOT: There’s a lot of controversy over pharmaceutical TV ads. Do you offer an alternative?
Amin: Absolutely. We’ve seen advertisers ramp up their investment over the more traditional platforms. We’re taking revenue away from traditional TV.
iSPOT: Are pharmaceutical advertisers doing anything other than :30s on HealthiNation?
Amir: Yes they are. There will be some campaigns over the next quarter that include new creatives that don’t fall in the traditional TV format. I can’t say what they’ll be yet but a lot of companies are looking at things like user-generated videos put in the right context or very well produced stories like the ones in our content that are more engaging than quick :30s or :60s. If you can find the right story, why not give them 10 different stories and let them choose what resonates the most.
iSPOT: Why is video such a valuable media for health content and advertising?
Amin: Video communicates emotion, which is a huge part of health topics in terms of the information you get and how you react and feeling you’re not alone. Video communicates emotion and emotion drives people to action. Also, health is very complex and visuals help tell the story. Animation sequences can have an incredible impact in telling the story rather than sifting through pages of text.
iSPOT: How big is your audience?
Amin: We don’t release numbers for our syndication network, but we’re available in 22 states for VOD. We have a national footprint in a variety of cites and we’re expanding to more cities.
