Direct-to-consumer Advertising - Digital and The Evolution of Direct-to-consumer Advertising

Digital and The Evolution of Direct-to-consumer Advertising

Emerging media channels are causing the consumer channel mix to become increasingly fragmented. Individuals are no longer limited to just the television or newspaper to obtain their entertainment, news, and information, but can access content via websites, online video, social networks, mobile devices, and a variety of other ways. Consumers are especially shifting to new media sources for health and pharmaceutical information – over 145 million U.S. adults looked up health information online in 2008.

The pharmaceutical industry as a whole has not been as quick as other sectors to jump on the digital marketing bandwagon, in part due to unclear guidelines from the FDA. Nonetheless, many direct-to-consumer (DTC) marketers are beginning to recognize the opportunities that new media offers for reaching consumers. Though the vast majority of DTC budgets are still allocated to traditional offline media such as television, newspaper, magazine and radio, marketers are beginning to shift some of their spending to digital activities such as product websites, online display advertising, search engine marketing, social media campaigns, and mobile advertising. Regardless of the advertising channel, pharmaceutical drug advertisers are continuing to increase the amount of money spent on DTC advertising with an increase of 330% from 1996 to 2005.