Why Addressable Advertising Is a Core Component of Smart Pharma Marketing

Today, people can video-chat their doctor to talk about an ailment, compare and read drug reviews online and use their phone to schedule a same-day appointment for a check-up.

Technology is clearly changing the way people seek health information, from finding doctors to ordering medication. And for a pharmaceutical marketer, the opportunity to connect through an abundance of channels is enormous – and daunting, too.

Marketers are realizing that data can provide valuable insights and the opportunity to engage and connect with people who are more likely to need their product. And television, now targeted and data-driven, is an especially powerful component of fostering the path to purchase. 

Addressable TV helps pharma marketers differentiate

With more than 70 million addressable TV households in the U.S., the need for identifying and targeting consumers with a greater likelihood of being in-market for a specific drug is clear.

Today, many smart brands use addressable TV to their advantage. In one notable Cadent campaign the makers of a medication sought to increase sales and drive brand conversions for a drug. The brand used data to target households that had a higher propensity to have the specific ailment that the drug addresses, resulting in a 2% lift in patients with prior use, an 11% increase in new patients and a 2 to 1 return on ad spend.

To connect with consumers requires an understanding of customer behavior, including web browsing habits and purchasing patterns. Persona mapping can be effective for pharma marketers – using ethnography and other qualitative methods to create a customer portrait that incorporates geographical and demographic data, personal goals and behaviors, pain points, and decision drivers. A marketer can then develop a target customer journey relevant to that persona, potentially boosting loyalty and decreasing consumer churn.

Prioritizing customer experiences over the product might require a shift in mindset, but it’s vital to thriving today; McKinsey found that considering emotional and behavioral needs as well as clinical ones was especially important in the case of new products, since the way a new drug performs during its first six months tends to determine its market share moving forward.   

Part of prioritizing the customer experience means meeting customers wherever they’re looking for information with an understanding of where they are in their journey to purchase. That’s where addressable TV comes in – the medium fosters the customer experience by offering a relevant message to the right person at the right time. Powerful creative and a message that connects with consumers resonates with consumers and can move them from one stage of the journey to the next. 

Pharma marketers can use a variety of health-related and non-health related data to find their target audience, so households who have a higher propensity to need a specific drug can be reached, all in a HIPAA-compliant manner. And because addressable offers precise control over frequency, customers won’t see the same message too many times, which can leave a negative impression and detract from overall experience. 

Another consideration is patent lifetime – some pharma marketers have a limited window to get their message out to the right people quickly, making efficiency more critical than ever. Fortunately, addressable advertising is a medium that offers greater efficiency and fewer wasted impressions because the households reached are all in a marketer’s target audience. For marketers aiming to scale awareness for a product within a patent lifetime, a thoughtfully deployed combination of addressable TV and linear TV offers both the benefits of wide reach and a targeted approach. 

The key to improving a pharma campaign over time is understanding what worked and what didn’t work. Addressable TV advertising offers a clear understanding of business outcomes, such as prescription fills and doctor visits, along with insights to guide future campaign planning.

One important consideration when discussing addressable TV: privacy compliance is a given, addressable TV advertising doesn’t involve personally identifiable information (PII). Smart applications of non-PII data can open unprecedented possibilities for pharma industry marketers, allowing them to find and target precise audiences, with the power and impact that television has always been able to deliver.

Read more about how TV can enable you to connect with households in a more privacy compliant way.