Direct-to-consumer
drug ads tend to strike a dissonant chord. However, fan and foe can count on
one thing: Prescription DTC advertising is here to stay. The evidence?
Surviving more than 20 years of numerous legal, regulatory and perception
challenges on its way to becoming a $6 billion-plus annual industry.
That’s mostly
because DTC works. Study after study finds that patients follow the well-worn
DTC advice and actually “ask your doctor” about a condition or a specific
medicine after they’ve seen ads for a prescription drug on TV or online. A
DRG study found that among patients who saw digital ads for drugs,
42% requested a specific prescription from their doctors, while 22% of people
who saw TV ads did the same. Another study, by Wharton and University of
Southern California professors, estimated that for every 10% increase in
advertising exposure, there was a corresponding increase in the number of
prescriptions purchased by about 5%.
“Despite the
complaints from consumers, government, physicians, and insurers, it is clear
drug companies see the increase in demand from DTC advertising. Drug companies
know that consumers are now a key element in creating demand even though they
still saturate the physicians with detailing and journal ads,” said Bob
Ehrlich, CEO of consulting firm DTC Perspectives.
While Kantar
Media is still working on a final pharma DTC total for 2019, spending through
the first three quarters is roughly on track with 2018: $4.54 billion through
nine months 2019 versus $4.79 billion the previous year. That's tracking down
almost 4% from last year, when the final tally was
$6.46 billion. However, while the pace may have slowed a bit, pharma ads
are still plentiful. The average American sees nine drug ads on TV every day,
while tens of millions of digital ads populate email, banners, video rolls and
social media posts every year.
Digital pharma
advertising, in fact, may be increasing DTC drug reach even though bottom-line
media spending is not growing exponentially. As Steven Woloshin, M.D., a
professor at Dartmouth Medical School, explained, as pharma advertising shifts
from TV to digital, media budgets might actually drop—TV commercials are much more
expensive than digital ad placements—as reach expands because consumers are
exposed to more mobile and digital messages.
“The focus on
DTC is increasing, while medical advertising is flat over time, but the DTC
dollar figures are a little deceptive because of the shift toward these
cheaper, low-unit mobile electronic formats that aren’t accurately reflected in
the total cost because they’re so inexpensive, but may have more reach,”
Woloshin said. He added that he doesn’t know how effective digital is, “but
just the sheer volume of advertising they get from digital sources dwarfs
what they get from TV.”
Besides expense,
another reason pharma advertisers are moving to digital is for better targeting
and measurement. Wendy Blackburn, executive VP of marketing and communication
at Intouch Group, pointed to the ever-growing and evolving options today:
addressable TV, on-demand services like Hulu, YouTube and Roku, programmatic
purchasing, mobile, video search, social media and point of care.
“TV isn’t going
away. But digital DTC continues to be on the rise, and a heavy digital DTC play
can be an attractive option for small to medium brands seeking highly targeted
(and highly measurable) methods, and for categories with younger patient
populations,” she said.
Here are the top
10 pharma spenders as tabulated by Kantar for 2019. The total includes all U.S.
media spending except social media. The figures cover TV, digital, radio, print
and out of home.
The top 10 ad spenders in Big Pharma for 2019
