The pharmaceutical industry spends 70 percent of its marketing budget on live broadcasts and TV commercials. This approach can be inefficient because it relies on basic demographics to target its audience.
Despite technological advancements that allow other platforms to have targeted marketing to their audiences, TV marketing is behind in terms of data-driven advertising, which means that much of the money put into TV advertising goes down the drain.
TV Viewership Still High
Despite its downside, it is impossible to ignore TV as a marketing avenue. TV viewership has fallen over the years as other sources of entertainment become increasingly available, such as paid play on-demand video platforms like Netflix, Hulu, and YouTube.
Traditional TV is not about to go away soon. According to a 2020 Statista report, an average American adult will spend at least three hours watching TV every day, which is a huge number to ignore as a marketer.
With data-driven advertising making its way into TV marketing, brand marketers can now access minute details about their target audiences and strategize their ads accordingly.
The Wealth of Data
For the pharmaceutical industry, data-driven advertising allows for more precise targeting with audiences created after real-world data (RWD), which includes patients’ medical history and drug prescriptions based on claims made in their health insurance. While this approach is easily applicable in digital marketing, it also applies to TV, including linear.
Most advertisers achieve their data collection goals by leveraging Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML) to dissect the RWD universe of more than 300 million patients and over 65 billion consumer signals into actionable data. This data is then subdivided into more precise information, such as patients recently diagnosed with a condition, the number of patients suffering from a specific disease, and patients with a history of non-adherence to treatment regimens.
With this information, pharmaceutical advertisers can then plan and target their audience more accurately and track consumer behavior as a result of the marketing. This way, marketers can tell the effect the targeted marketing has on a brand’s reach, which can help in decision-making. For example, marketers can use the data to allocate resources in areas that yield positive results, thereby reducing waste and increasing the efficiency of their marketing efforts.
Nielsen’s Panel
Pharmaceutical industries can leverage several health data providers in the market when seeking to streamline their TV advertising. When selecting a provider, it’s crucial to perform ample research beforehand to ensure they are meeting Nielsen’s Panel viability standards.
Nielsen’s audience measurement and planning tools provide the most comprehensive insights into the audience, such as reach and audience response. By incorporating custom segments of a marketing strategy into Nielsen’s offerings, marketers can do away with the traditional age or gender-based approach to TV marketing to embrace a data-driven approach that guarantees higher quality audiences and, ultimately, excellent results.
Final Words
“Engaging your audience only through the traditional approach means that a considerable percentage of your audience could tune out,” says Bill Fukui of MedShark Digital. “Such a scenario would mean that part of the money you put into your ads goes to waste.”
Data-based marketing may not be something you can accomplish on your own, so you may need to work with organizations with expertise in the field and plenty of experience in the industry. Working with the best partners can help minimize wasting resources by ensuring you spend strategically across TV and other popular mediums.
