Study Shows Direct-to-Consumer Ad Growth
Direct-to-consumer (DTC) promotional spending by pharmaceutical companies, mostly in the form of direct response ads, grew by 16% to $631 million in the United States through the first half of the year, according to pharmaceutical research firm IMS Health. Manufacturers of the top 10 DTC-advertised products invested $362 million on branded and non-branded DTC ads. This exceeds the $258 million spent by manufacturers to promote those brands to physicians. Claritin received the largest direct-to-consumer support during the period, with a brand-franchise investment of more than $67 million. TV received the lion’s share of DTC budgets, with $306 million invested during the first six months of the year (48.3% of the total). Advertising in magazines followed at $277 million spent (43.7% of the total). The bulk of the remaining $50.7 million investment went for newspaper advertisements. “Compared with 1997 full-year figures, this represents a major shift in media use,” said Kelly Peters, senior product manager, direct-to-consumer, at IMS.
