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The Vaccines of Glaxo

September 10, 2020 0
This is a big year for vaccines. The daily mentions of the progress on Covid-19 vaccine development and the push for increased flu vaccine coverage is raising the awareness of vaccines in general. The push from vaccine makers for their existing vaccines is likely to increase this year.

Certainly flu DTC is going to increase as the opportunity to increase sales is there with only about 50% of the population getting vaccinated. The government is sure to add to the DTC mix as they do not want to see flu cases increase along side of Covid.

Glaxo has two vaccines currently using DTC. Both are unbranded. They also do a corporate spot on the value of vaccines in general. The general campaign is multi-media and focuses on life’s moments worth protecting. It explains how vaccines have allowed us to have these moments of enjoying life because vaccines prevent disease. Both TV and print use vignettes of family moments like birthday parties, outdoor hiking, fishing with grandkids, and beach scenes. The one page ad in print has the headline saying Brought to You by Vaccines referring to the moments in the picture below.



Glaxo has two specific disease education campaigns. Shingles vaccine Shingrix, approved in 2017 is used to help prevent the approximately 1 million new cases diagnosed in the US annually. The campaign is multi-media using the line “Shingles can be Whaaat? Prevented.” Both TV and print use the theme. They show people being told about Shingles and responding surprised that this painful condition can be prevented. The campaign is targeted 50+. It is a very simple but effective campaign. Basically, Shingles is painful, is lurking in anyone who had chicken pox but can be prevented. 

The next campaign is for Meningitis B. Again a multi-media campaign is used. The target is parents with teens heading off to college. The latest TV campaign shows teens at prom, on the soccer field, and entering their freshman dorm. The message is that a rare but serious disease, Meningitis B, is possible in affecting teens. It kills 1 in 10 of those afflicted and causes lifelong problems in many who recover. This campaign is emotional and plays on the parental desire to do all they can to protect their kids.

The print campaign is similar to the TV spot. It uses the name of the teen as a headline supered over a picture of the teen. Inside the name is the letter B, highlighted to reinforce the Meningitis B. In print, the Robert execution is used; in TV we see Sabrina, Kimberly, and Robert with the highlighted B.

It is likely that all the Covid and Flu vaccine discussion will lead to general physician patient discussions on what other vaccines are available. The drug makers will be doing ads on the long history of vaccines and how safe they have been. This is needed to encourage the large skeptical population afraid to take vaccines for Covid, Flu, and other diseases. This has been caused by the anti-vaxxer movement and political issues surrounding the Covid warp speed project. 

Expect that once a Covid vaccine has been clinically shown safe and effective, HHS and drug makers will spend lots on DTC convincing us vaccines are safe and effective. All vaccines could benefit from the halo effect of Covid vaccine ads. Given the attention on vaccines, expect all vaccine makers will join the DTC push in late 2020 and 2021. This Covid year has been awful for most Americans, but the silver lining is the expected major investment in vaccine development as Covid will not be the last pandemic threat.
Bob Ehrlich
Chairman
DTC Perspectives, Inc.
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AbbVie’s Ubrelvy Adds Serena

September 2, 2020 0
In my June 24th column I discussed the Ubrelvy campaign. They had a pool of everyday situations at home or work at all times of the day. The “Anytime Anywhere” medicine is the positioning. Coinciding with the start of the US Open tennis tournament, Ubrelvy has engaged Serena Williams to be a spokesperson.

Debuting a television ad with scenes of Serena on the tennis court and working out, Ubrelvy has stayed with the basic theme in the creative. They kept the largely black and white scheme with large headlines in blue. Serena becomes the narrator for the selling message which is the first 22 seconds of the 45-second spot. She comes back to close for the final 8 seconds.

What I like is that the use of Serena does not change the campaign. She is seamlessly inserted without altering the look and feel of the vignette campaign. Of course Serena is the star of this execution, but is shown like the others in past executions struggling to deal with migraines. The illness is what is highlighted not Serena’s tennis accomplishments. This understated use of celebrity is what makes the spot so good. Serena is just like everyone else who struggles with unpredictable migraines.

AbbVie also has a 7-minute interview with Serena on their website detailing her struggle with migraines and her experience with Ubrelvy. The interview is conducted by a physician who makes sure Serena’s comments are on label and are supported by clinical studies. Celebrities have been an issue for some drug companies when they made claims in interviews or PR events without providing fair balance. Here, the physician modifies any statement made by Serena to add fair balance.

The concern with celebrity use is how genuine they appear. Are they just promoting a product for a paycheck or do they have a credible story on why this drug helped them? Serena is used by a number of companies to promote products such snack bars and energy drinks. She also runs a fashion line which she promotes on shopping channels.

In this Ubrelvy ad, she does pass the credibility test. Clearly Serena has a high stress job, and can not afford to let migraines ruin her practice schedule or, worse, come up during a match. The interview on their site adds to the credibility as this is a problem she has had for more than a decade. Since most viewers will only see the television ad, Serena still achieves the sincerity threshold in the 45 seconds.

There are several campaigns that have integrated a celebrity into their standard campaign theme. Cosentyx with Cyndi Lauper and Enbrel with Phil Mickelson have been successful using celebrities as part of but not dominating the campaign. Mixing real patients with a celebrity who also has the disease helps add to the believability of the core message. Serena, Cyndi, and Phil are just like the rest of us and have the same problems. Well, not like the rest of us most of the time, but they can have migraines, psoriasis, or psoriatic arthritis. In a way, it is reassuring that these stars are not exempt from nagging conditions no matter how much they have in money or prestige.

Ubrelvy has taken the opportunity to enlist Serena Williams in their campaign at a time tennis gets center stage. Is this a one shot celebrity use? We shall see but clearly it can work with others if AbbVie chooses to look for more celebrities who are sufferers.
Bob Ehrlich
Chairman
DTC Perspectives, Inc.
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Multiple Sclerosis – A Competitive DTC Category

August 26, 2020 0
The multiple sclerosis (MS) category is increasing its DTC use. Historically, low incidence diseases have used print and digital targeted efforts rather than mass. That has changed over the last few years as drugs for Hep C, HIV, lung cancer, and other lower incidence categories have gone mass media including television.

Approximately 1 million Americans have MS with 12,000 newly diagnosed cases each year. This is more prevalent in women. New treatments have been making this a more competitive marketplace. Novartis’ Mayzent and EMD Serono’s Mavenclad joined the mix in 2019. Genentech’s Ocrevus was approved in 2017. Genzyme’s Aubagio has been around since 2012.

The big spender is Ocrevus at about $100 million over the past 12 months. While MS has been advertised using limited print historically, Ocrevus has gone full multimedia, including a huge television investment. Ocrevus started its campaign in late 2019. They use print, TV, and display ads along the theme “Dear MS.” This is an MS patient telling the MS disease they found a new treatment to help them take back control.

Using a vignette approach, each patient profiled tells MS that they used to be controlled and defined by the disease. Now, they found Ocrevus and have more space to live their lives. The ad is impactful, using real sufferers and an arresting first visual. The 60-second ad is nicely balanced with 25 seconds of benefits, 25 seconds of fair balance, and 10 second wrap up stating MS does not get to control the sufferer, with the end line “MS can’t own us.” The print ad is themed the same as television with the “Dear MS” headline. It states Ocrevus is a 2x a year treatment in the headline.

Aubagio has done a good job with their print based campaign. With a lower budget than Ocrevus of about $18 million, they used a headline in a two-page spread that reads, “To Find A Way to Keep Moving Forward.” Above the headline is an explanatory smaller type saying “With Relapsing MS Your Goal Is.” I am a big fan of eye catching headlines in an easy to read font, on a background that makes the headline stand out. Using white lettering on blue background accomplishes that. Aubagio, also in a sub headline, states it is a once a day pill.That is important since some MS drugs require infusion.

What I also like about the Aubagio campaign is its consistency. They have used the same headline for the past two years. The only change has been the color of the background which seems to be rotating with the blue version. Both versions show a 30-something female jogging along which goes with the moving forward headline.

Mayzent has just started its consumer print campaign with a two-page spread. They are going for an emotional approach of a woman with a cane, pictured with her child. Their indication is for secondary progressive MS where there is a worsening condition.

Zeposia, an oral pill from Bristol Myers Squibb, was approved March 2020 so we can expect that to be added to the DTC mix likely in 2021. Numerous drugs in oral and infusion doses are in phase 3 trials so this category will remain active for DTC. What is increasingly clear is that most new brands believe DTC is an important part of their marketing strategy.
Bob Ehrlich, Chairman
DTC Perspectives, Inc.
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Bob Ehrlich

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Disease Education- Neurocrine Biosciences

August 19, 2020 0

There are a number of drug makers that do disease education ads. Those companies have a drug that treats the disease or have one about to be approved. Disease education ads make financial sense when a drug company has the only drug to treat the disease or are the dominant competitor. Most disease education ads are followed with a branded campaign when competition emerges or when the addition of a branded campaign can help increase patient requests.


Neurocrine Biosciences is a a San Diego based company that currently gets 97% of its revenue from one product called Ingrezza, a pill that helps reduce uncontrolled eye, mouth, and body movements in people taking medications for schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, and depression. Tardive Dyskinesia (TD) is the name of this disease. Ingrezza was approved in 2017.


Neurocrine decided in early 2019 to do a disease education campaign on television and digitally. The current campaign rotates three executions. The 60-second spots do a very good job introducing the disease with an actor stating the problem and an animation that explains where on the body the symptoms might occur. The campaign is called “Talk about TD.” The campaign has the difficult job of educating patients, families, and caregivers to understand Tardive Dyskinesia. I never heard of it until I saw the campaign.


TD is a disease that affects about 500,000 people. About 58% of patients taking anti-psychotic drugs were unaware those treatments can cause TD. Thus, the need for patient education. Ingrezza is a premium priced drug at about $300 a pill retail. The dose is once a day so the revenue potential for Neurocrine is up to around $9,000 a month per patient. Of course, they get less from payers who negotiate the formulary position. Neurocrine reports revenue of about $5,700 per month per patient.


The educational challenge here is threefold. First is to identify the symptoms of TD which can affect any part of the body, and a second is to get patients to understand that these movement symptoms are something you can treat. Third is to explain how to get more information on treatments. Each of these challenges is dealt with well in the campaign. The ads are visually interesting in how the scenes shift from actor to animation of the symptoms.


Disease education on heart disease, diabetes, or cancer is common place. The TD campaign spending is relatively high for a small company. MediaRadar reports the television spending at around $19 million since the launch. An additional $2 million was spent on digital. Based on reported sales, Ingrezza has done very well. In 2019, it did about $750 million. In 2020, it looks like the drug could top $1 billion. The ad campaign seems to generate a very good ROI given the growth in 2019 and anticipated growth in 2020.


The trend towards doing DTC for limited size categories continues with Ingrezza. In the past, categories of this size would have used highly targeted patient marketing programs. What makes DTC enticing is the revenue per patient, as a $21 million disease education investment would require only a few hundred new patients to be successful. Without having any inside Ingrezza data, I think this campaign exceeded that break-even level.

Bob Ehrlich, Chairman
DTC Perspectives, Inc.

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It’s On-Amgen on Health Disparities

August 13, 2020 0
Covid-19 has raised a major societal issue on health disparities in America. In many diseases, minority populations suffer more and get less treatment. This is not a new finding, but Covid-19 along with the Black Lives Matter protests on discrimination have given rise to new possibilities of addressing health disparities.

Is this the time that health disparities will be taken on? Most drug companies have some efforts related to minorities. The reality, however, is that DTC budgets do not usually allocate significant spending towards these communities. This is interesting given that traditional DTC efforts under reach these audiences, and most minority groups over index in digital, social, and mobile. I expect that will change as big Pharma realizes they are missing an opportunity to contribute to the disparities solution. It will be good business to devote more resources to minority health. A Biden victory would add to the impetus to deal with health disparities through both disease education and special branded efforts towards minority communities.

As I searched for those doing minority efforts now, I was impressed by a campaign on Multiple Myeloma done by Amgen. This digital campaign targets African-Americans with unique creative. Amgen has a drug, Kyprolis, and decided to do a separate education effort to African-American patients leveraging both disease education and branded content. This is not just showing African-Americans as part of a general vignette ad. Instead they created, along with their agency EMCAY, a dedicated branded campaign to address key needs of this important segment. The site www.multiplemyelomaitson.com is rich in African-American focused content and a dedicated place for consumers to share their stories. They also use quotes around the photos of patients, from leading African-American historical figures and authors to inspire the fight against the disease.

The campaign, “Its On”, highlights the treatments available to fight Multiple Myeloma, which includes Kyprolis. The educational component is excellent as to risk factors, an explanation of how the disease affects blood cells, discussion guides with your doctor, and patient trackers for labs and doctor visits. The “It’s On” theme covers patient (It’s on You) and drug company/caregiver (It’s on Us). Clearly the site was well-developed with relevant language that emphasizes spirituality and community. That is not something you see on general sites.

The need for special outreach is because health discussions within communities can vary greatly by race, ethnicity, and economic status. The clinical journey is at times widely different. African-Americans frequently consume health information differently and have unique health issues, such as higher prevalence of co-morbidities like diabetes and hypertension. The site encourages African-Americans to be part of the treatment process and reduce some of the gaps.

The “It’s On” campaign tries to understand and talk to these unique needs. Amgen and EMCAY recognized that special efforts are going to get better results among African-Americans than just assuming the general effort is sufficient.
Bob Ehrlich, Chairman
DTC Perspectives, Inc.
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Bob Ehrlich

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My Favorite Fowl

August 6, 2020 0
Hmm, Aflac or Chantix. Duck or Turkey. What a feast! I have written about the Chantix Turkey when it launched. I liked it then and like it now. I said then that I did not see the use of the turkey as a long term campaign. Apologies to Pfizer and their agency VMLY&R. They have extended the campaign with numerous new executions.

Starting with Turkey by the pool in early 2019, Chantix has added Turkey camping, sightseeing, ice skating, snowball fighting, lounging at home, at a local carnival, and at the beach. The theme has stayed the same. The Turkey represents not having to quit smoking cold turkey. 

This campaign is quite interesting and innovative for DTC. It is a far cry from patient testimonials and actor Ray Liotta, which were done earlier and also well done. I have no data on its success versus the earlier approaches. I can say with certainty that Chantix ads are memorable, likable, and unique.

“Once you land on a great strategy, you can’t shy away from it. We were certain that offering smokers a gentle alternative to cold turkey would motivate them to try quitting again. The Slow Turkey character is really just the most natural expression of that idea,” John Bollinger, Executive Creative Director at VMLY&R, told DTC Perspectives.

Use of a cute character has its limits. It really depends on the therapeutic category. It is hard to imagine using a Turkey for cancer ads. No, the cute character needs to stay within categories we do not consider immediately life threatening. Of course smoking can lead to heart disease and death, but not imminently like stage four cancer. Cute characters have worked for toe fungus, urinary incontinence, gastrointestinal ailments, and dry eye. Lamisil (Digger), Myrbetriq (walking bladder) and Xiidra (eye critter) are examples where levity was considered useful.

Chantix apparently decided that a cute character would help break through the DTC clutter of testimonial, lifestyle, vignette type ads that dominate drug advertising. I think it certainly does that well. Whether the Turkey can endure much longer is up for debate. Chantix has proven me wrong that the Turkey can be extended to numerous situations. Clearly in other categories, characters have lasted for years and have not shown any viewer fatigue. The Geico Gecko and Aflac Duck have had staying power.

Chantix has the benefit of a relatively simple selling message. You can stop smoking over time with Chantix. No need to go through the withdrawal going cold turkey. With that simple message, Chantix can focus on a memorable creative device. Many drug ads have so much information to convey that they need to be more straightforward in their presentation and use real patients or doctors, or actor portrayed patients or doctors, to recite multiple points. Chantix had the luxury of being able to focus on stopping power since the message can be nicely conveyed through the voice over.

What is very interesting about the campaign is the lack of print ads. The campaign is over 90% television with the rest digital. I would think the Turkey would make a nice visual in full page ads. That said, Chantix knows what works and has their reasons to eschew print for television. Good job Pfizer and VMLY&R for trying something very unique among DTC ads that have a tendency to look the same.
Bob Ehrlich, Chairman
DTC Perspectives, Inc.
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Xiidra and Their Critter

July 29, 2020 0
Sometimes an Rx Drug is also competing with many OTC alternatives. In that case, their DTC ad frequently is more OTC-like than most typical DTC ads. Xiidra is a perfect example of the near OTC ad. It treats dry eye and is the only FDA approved treatment specifically indicated for the signs and symptoms of dry eye disease. Other approved drugs are indicated to increase tear production which I assume may also have the effect of reducing dry eye signs and symptoms. Restasis is the most well known of those.

Xiidra is now part of Novartis, after its deal to buy the brand from Takeda in June 2019. Takeda acquired Shire which owned Xiidra in January 2019 but quickly divested it. Novartis decided to create a new campaign for its newly acquired brand and thus a new creative approach was born.
Their new creative uses a little devilish critter to represent the symptoms of dry eye. He sits at a console where there are controls to cause ache, grit, itch, and burn levels. He is sinister but in a humorous way. Reminiscent of the “Digger” toe fungus character which represented the disease, the Xiidra controller is meant to be memorable without overpowering the core message. 

You would not ever use these characters for life saving or life altering drugs, such as cancer, as even a little humor would not be appropriate. In cases where the conditions are annoying but not life threatening however, the use of disease representative characters is fine. People with toe fungus and dry eye are not laughing about their conditions, but can still accept ads that are lighter in tone. 

The Shire launch campaign for Xiidra was very different from the latest Novartis execution. It was an animation of two balls representing the eyes on a track and a play on the double “i” letter in the name. A voice over announcer described the symptoms and Xiidra treatment. The branded campaign was launched after the much publicized Jennifer Aniston eye-love disease education campaign.

I assume Xiidra under new ownership decided that to compete with all the OTCs, they needed to get a more attention getting device and the critter was born. Their web site also features the critter on the landing page. I also like the use of the critter in print where so many DTC ads are similar with headshots of patients. The critter in the print ad is an attention grabbing visual enhancement. It looks like it is being used only for physician publications to date but I am sure it will appear in consumer publications soon.

Does the use of critter diminish the efficacy message or create negative reactions from potential users? That is unlikely given the nature of the disease being annoying but not life threatening. Patients have a sense of humor, too, and creating a memorable character helps Xiidra get attention in a category that is underdeveloped in the Rx arena.
Bob Ehrlich, Chairman
DTC Perspectives, Inc.
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Flu Season

July 23, 2020 0
One of the most timely and fascinating areas of DTC will be for flu this year. Usually flu advertising is limited in timing and spending. This upcoming season, when America will be dealing with Covid-19 and the flu concurrently, flu advertising has some new opportunities and challenges.

As we hear regularly from Dr. Fauci, the combination of flu and Covid-19 poses diagnostic confusion for doctors. Therefore the CDC and other health care agencies will be pushing widespread flu vaccination this year to reduce the number of cases of seasonal flu so our hospitals and testing centers are not overwhelmed.

There are only a few flu vaccine and treatment makers in the United States. Sanofi Pasteur (Fluzone) vaccine and Genentech (Xofluza) for treatment are the companies who advertised in 2019. The flu market is large with 45% of adults getting vaccinated. We can suspect this percentage will rise in 2020 as receptivity should grow as no one wants to risk both the flu and Covid-19. Therefore we should expect significant DTC for both flu vaccines and treatment this season, perhaps at higher spending levels.

Unfortunately, the percent of population vaccinated has been only between 40-45% for the past decade. CDC estimates that a 5-percentage point increase would reduce hospitalizations by up to 11,000. This year, when ICU bed utilization may be at or over capacity with Covid-19 patients, any reduction would be critical. We also see clear evidence of health disparities as 49% whites are vaccinated, while only 39% of African-Americans and 37% of Hispanics get the flu shot. This may be the year for a special DTC effort to narrow the gap.

Fluzone will need to add to their normal messaging given the Covid-19 situation. They will have to motivate people to get the flu vaccine at a time patients may still be reluctant to see a health care provider out of Covid-19 contagion fear. It will be interesting to see if masks are added to the actor patients.

Vaccines are going to be a major area of ongoing government focus as the world needs to prevent another pandemic. We will always be at risk for the unknown pathogen but given the massive cost in lives and destruction of national economies, it is reasonable to see increased investment. Pharma companies will also ramp up R&D recognizing the enormous potential of new vaccines. All the basic work being done on Covid-19 will lead to possible vaccines for other similar viruses.

What will Covid-19 vaccine makers do with DTC if they get approval this fall? That depends how many vaccines are available. Clearly if we have only one approved vaccine, then government and the media will give that drug massive free publicity. On the other hand, the first approved vaccine will benefit from building up brand identification to prepare for multiple competitors. A non-branded campaign would make sense to sell the public on safety and efficacy as that will be a strong concern given the speed of approval.

An approved Covid-19 vaccine will be seen as the biggest medical news in years. I will be thrilled to review that DTC campaign.
Bob Ehrlich, Chairman
DTC Perspectives, Inc.
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HIV – The Fight Continues – Descovy

July 15, 2020 0
Those of us who remember the emergence of HIV in the early 1980s are awed by the progress in fighting the disease. There have been many drugs to treat HIV, but recently the category introduced prophylactic drugs to be taken if there is risk of exposure. Gilead has been a leader in HIV treatments and added to their mix with Descovy. 

The category of drug is called PrEP (pre-exposure prophylaxis) and Descovy got this indication late 2019. There are about 40,000 new HIV cases annually. Descovy is the second drug in the category after Truvada. The FDA says Descovy was similar to Truvada in effectiveness. Both are from Gilead and Descovy uses the same combination but at lower concentrations which could improve its side effects profile. 

The Descovy campaign is basically using television with limited consumer print. The ad is lively and upbeat using the theme “Step Up, Prep Up.” We are exposed to vignettes of singles and couples telling viewers to step up and prevent HIV. The selling copy runs about 35 seconds of the 90-second ad. Fair balance is then run for about 40 seconds, with a return to the reminder of “Step Up, Prep Up” lines in the remaining 15 seconds.

The background music is a drum mix, with one of the vignettes showing five drummers. It has a nice contemporary feel and the beat adds to the positive outlook of using a drug to prevent HIV. Gilead has switched advertising from Truvada to Descovy for a solid business reason. Truvada will go generic as early as late 2020.

The limited print campaign ties well to the television using the headline “Step Up, Prep Up” and shows scenes of the actors featured in the television ad. The digital also integrates well using these themes.We have come a long way from the heartbreaking days of HIV/AIDS of the early 80s. It is gratifying to see HIV presented first as treatable and lately preventable with drug treatment. 

Earlier HIV ads were largely print. Like many other limited incidence categories, television seems to be accepted as a worthwhile investment. Clearly the emotional element can be best used on television. The DTC payback comes from the fact that Descovy is priced at about $2,000 a month. Getting a few thousand new patients means potentially tens of millions in sales. These sales are also recurring since this is used to prevent the disease and will be taken indefinitely.

It has been a remarkable 40-year journey from almost certain death to a manageable or preventable condition. 
Bob Ehrlich, Chairman
DTC Perspectives, Inc.
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DTC without TV? – Saxenda

July 8, 2020 0
It is rare to find a big budget DTC campaign that does not use TV as a part of the total plan. Saxenda, a weight loss drug from Novo Nordisk is one brand that excludes TV. There are several interesting things about this campaign.

First is the amount spent on print with no TV. According to MediaRadar, Saxenda spent an estimated $89 million on print in the latest 12 months. Given typical discounts big companies get, this might be a high estimate. That budget, even if less, is certainly large enough to do TV. The obesity category has high incidence and that is where TV is largely used. Yet Saxenda sticks with print. They have been advertising to consumers since April 2017 so after three years they must be satisfied print is effective. They clearly target women given the magazine title selection led by Better Homes and Gardens, Good Housekeeping, Women’s Day, and People, among other popular female-targeted books.

The second thing that is notable is the creative consistency. Most Saxenda ads are headline oriented and have been that way throughout. Currently they use “Losing Weight and Keeping it Off” as the headline in a 2-page spread. The earlier ads have the words “Will” and “Way” boldly featured and also have small type to fill out the expression: where there is a will there’s a way. I like creative consistency and Saxenda has been very patient running basically the same style of ad.

Thirdly, we see creative that equally pictures both sexes. This is interesting given the majority of titles are women’s publications, although there is Men’s Health and Golf magazine among the media titles used. That said, women are the primary target. I assume Saxenda believes that women who show interest will tell husbands and other males who are overweight about Saxenda.

I do not know why Saxenda avoided television. Obviously, they probably concluded that print alone got them the awareness they wanted at the budget they had. Their choice of print could have to do with the fair balance. There is a fairly lengthy list of risks and side effects in the print ad. This is not unusual for DTC, but it may have required a 75 second television ad, and that length may have convinced Saxenda that print more efficiently communicated benefits and risks.

There are currently very few big spending campaigns that avoid television completely. There are some that spend in the $10-30 million range that only use print / digital; Aubagio (MS), Imvexxy (Menopause), Imfinzi (Lung Cancer), and Steglatro (Diabetes) are among the few.

Of 28 DTC campaigns that spent over $10 million on print in the past year, only five did exclusively print. The trend has been to use television as part of the media plan even for highly targeted drug categories. What matters most, however, is achieving the brand media objectives. Most DTC studies show combined print and broadcast optimize a plan, but each brand is unique. Saxenda has chosen what it believes works best. In a DTC world where television reigns, it is interesting to see some brands go a different direction.
Bob Ehrlich, Chairman
DTC Perspectives, Inc.
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