DTC’s Effectiveness In Driving Awareness.

DTC awareness is at an all-time high, with 81% of sufferers recalling seeing DTC ads for their conditions, according to Market Measures/Cozint’s just-released 2003 DTC MonitorM). This widespread awareness holds true across all 25 disease states that DTC Monitor tracks — and represents a significant increase over last year’s 75% awareness level.

Growing ad awareness is having an impact at the brand level. In 2003, 12 brands reached or exceeded 60% awareness, a distinction achieved by just 5 brands in 2002.

Even more importantly, consumers are not only aware of DTC ads, they are acting on them. Doctor contact rates — the percent of consumers who call or visit their physicians as a result of seeing a DTC ad-have increased for the second year in a row, reaching 23%.

Of patients who do contact their doctors, 47% specifically request the brand they see advertised (up from 41%) — and physicians comply with 74% of those requests (up from 71%). In fact, 58% of DTC-driven discussions lead to physicians writing a prescription or providing a sample for the advertised brand — whether or not the patient ever directly asks for the product.

“Clearly, DTC is a powerful tool, for driving both awareness and action,” says Sue Ramspacher, Senior Vice President of Consumer Services at Market Measures/Cozint. “This is particularly true for magazine campaigns, which generate both higher doctor contact rates and higher prescribing rates than TV ads. In spite of magazines’ superior performance, TV continues to be the medium of choice for DTC advertisers, due mostly to its broader reach. The gap is narrowing, however, as marketers experience the impressive results that print can deliver.”

Increased Spending Supports Increased Effectiveness

DTC spending is accelerating to support its increased effectiveness. The upward turn in DTC spending follows a two-year period of slow growth that saw DTC investment plummet from a 44% increase in 2000 to a mere 8% rise in 2001 to a leveling off in 2002. In the first six months of 2003, DTC spending reached $1.6 billion, an increase of 22% versus the same period in 2002 ($1.3 billion). For the 12-month period ending June 2003-the most recent time period analyzed in this year’s DTC Monitor — DTC expenditures reached $2.8 billion, a 22% increase over the prior 12-month period ($2.3 billion).

Although DTC spend is increasing, it is concentrated in specific categories, with the top-3 classes accounting for 40% of DTC dollars. For the 12-month period from July 2002 to June 2003, allergy far exceeded any other category, with an impressive $549 million in DTC expenditures.

Gastrointestinal disorders generated $360 million in DTC investment, followed by asthma with $234 million.

A small number of brands are particularly aggressive DTC advertisers.

Nexium is spending $207 million on DTC, passing the $200 million mark for the second year in a row. Nexium’s competitor, Prevacid, is the second highest spender, investing $153 million in DTC. Five other brands also have DTC budgets that exceed $100 million, including Allegra ($146 million), Clarinex ($123 million), Singulair ($121 million), Advair Diskus ($113 million) and Paxil CR ($100 million).

DTC Continues to Miss the Mark with Undiagnosed Sufferers

In spite of its growing success, DTC continues to be unable to drive undiagnosed sufferers into doctors’ offices. The vast majority of DTC responders — 85% — have been previously diagnosed. More than a third of these, however, are not treating their current conditions with a prescription medication.

“DTC marketers could improve their ROI dramatically, if they could motivate the undiagnosed and self-diagnosed to seek treatment,” says Ramspacher. “When you consider that, in many major categories, more than 50% of sufferers are not diagnosed, you can see the tremendous potential not being tapped.

“Although this challenge extends beyond DTC, DTC marketers are in a unique position to develop the targeting and message strategies that will mobilize the undiagnosed audience. At Market Measures/Cozint, we are doing therapeutic class research across the healthcare continuum — from undiagnosed to diagnosed but untreated to new and continuing patients — to understand both the motivators and the barriers behind treatment behavior. With this information, we can help DTC marketers craft message and media strategies tailored to specific audiences — and effective in driving targeted segments
to seek treatment.”

Patients Base Health Behavior on Multiple Information Sources

With health information seeking frequent and widespread, most consumers base their healthcare decisions on a combination of information sources, including DTC. A multi-media mix of promotional and educational messages is most effective in shaping consumer decisions.

“All messages targeted to consumers should stress the importance of open communication with their physicians,” according to Ramspacher. “Patients who are more communicative with their doctors are the ones most likely to initiate DTC discussions — and, as DTC Monitor shows, those discussions turn into prescriptions in the majority of cases.”

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