Dive Brief:
- According to FiercePharma Marketing, the pharma industry's spending on direct-to-consumer television ads hit $231 million in September. AbbVie, Merck, and Johnson & Johnson (J&J) led DTC-TV spending last month, promoting Humira (adalimumab), Belsomra (suvorexant), and Invokana (cangliflozin), respectively.
- The number four and number five spots were dominated by Pfizer and Bristol-Myers Squibb with their jointly marketed anticoagulant Eliquis (apixiban), and Sunovian with its antipsychotic Latuda (lurasidone).
- Data analysis was provided by iSpot.tv, which tracks and measures advertising in real-time. It also measures viewer actions on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and various search engines.
Dive Insight:
Arithmetically speaking, all of the factors that go into determining pharma DTC-TV spending comprise a very complicated algorithm, especially when the impact that TV advertising has not only on consumer response, but also on social media activity.
Various factors, such as how much to spend at what time (primetime versus non-primetime), the demographics of the targeted audience based on disease state, and the relationship of the target audience with social media, all play a role. The overall premise that DTC-TV advertising still plays an important role in the marketing mix is being proven correct.