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A Matter of Trust-Health Information in the Age of Social Media: Who Do Consumers Turn to—and Trust?

March 7, 2025 0

A Shifting Landscape

This morning, you woke up with a mysterious rash. You inspect it, assess your symptoms, ponder it, and then, if you’re like the vast majority of Americans … you Google it. With the internet at your fingertips, information comes at you fast and furious. And with the rise of user-created content on social media platforms served up in bite-sized portions, that information is more accessible—and influential—than ever.

But despite this wellspring of wellness content, many consumers remain wary of misinformation from social influencers. And doctors agree that it’s wise to think twice before you like and subscribe: For example, a 2024 study in Otolaryngology—Head and Neck Surgery found that “most nonmedical influencer-posted TikTok videos about sinusitis are inaccurate, despite being portrayed as medical advice/educational.”

WebMD and The Harris Poll engaged 2,005 U.S. adults in an online survey in April 2024 to learn more about their attitudes toward the health information they get online and via social media platforms. This data can guide best practices for marketers seeking to understand the key question: Who do consumers gravitate toward and hold in high regard for medical advice?

The bottom line: Reliability, transparency, privacy, and trust guide consumers’ clicks when it comes to health content.

1 in 4 Adults Say They Trust Health Information Less Over the Past Year

Searched the Internet for Health-Related Information in the Past 12 Months

88% Total Adults

96% *Pharma Info Seekers

Mean: 11 Times

*Consumers who have sought information on over-the-counter medication, prescription medication, disease symptoms, or immunizations/vaccines on a website.

Trust Trends

Poll data shows that compared to last year, more pharma info seekers frequently rely on health information from health-related and news sites than social media platforms. Overall trust in online health information has dropped, primarily driven by misinformation on social. What specifically is eroding pharma info seekers’ trust?

35% say anyone can post content and claim to be a professional, even if they aren’t.

33% say they don’t know if people are telling the truth or being paid to promote things.

30% say it’s hard to determine what’s true and what’s false.

Privacy concerns are also paramount. As new state privacy regulations continue to take
effect, consumers have increasingly questioned influencers’ and social media platforms’
ability to protect their personal information. For many, opening the door to targeted ads
that concentrate on their chronic condition, for example, is a turnoff.

Privacy Concerns Also Aligned With ​Perceptions Around Ad Targeting

Attitude Among Pharma Info Seekers Toward Health-Related Advertisements​

Top 2 Box % Somewhat/Strongly Agree

75% “When I’m on social media, I don’t want to see ads reminding me of my health conditions.”

68% “I would prefer a random ad not based on my personal or demographic data.”​

Under the Influence

Despite the deluge of health and wellness content, pharma info seekers are much more likely
to follow food, exercise, lifestyle, gaming, and travel accounts than those with a medical focus.
Only 15% of pharma info seekers follow medical professionals, while only 12% follow accounts for special health conditions.

The creators they trust enough to follow attract them with three characteristics:

  • They’re a medical professional.
  • They’re a real expert in the field.
  • They include references and citations.

Clickers are picky for a reason:

68% of pharma info seekers say they often encounter claims that appear to lack medical or scientific review or are from someone with no true credentials.

Most Say Influencers And Creators Are Unreliable Sources of Health-Related Information

Attitude Among Pharma Info Seekers Toward Health-Related Advertisements​

Top 2 Box % Somewhat/Strongly Agree​

85% “Social media influencers/creators are not reliable sources of health-related information.”​

76% “I am skeptical of a brand or product if a social media influencer/creator is endorsing it.”​

Embrace Evolution + Keep Facts at the Forefront

Where We Are:

Social media platforms aren’t going anywhere. Neither are consumers’ desires to seek out advice and education about their chronic conditions. And people want trustworthy, discreet, sound information from experts as they scroll. Despite the rise of health information circulated in social media platforms and from influencers, pharma info seekers are relying more on health websites as a trusted source of health information, with a trust level 3 times higher than social media platforms or influencers. Context is critical for pharma messaging. Pharma info seekers don’t like to be reminded about their conditions when on social media platforms and are averse to being targeted by brands using their personal data.

Health websites have a trust level 3 times higher than social media platforms or influencers.

Where We Go From Here:

Leverage the platforms in use in the language of the user without compromising sound science, says WebMD Chief Medical Officer John Whyte, MD, MPH.

“Less is more. Too often, content providers overwhelm patients with too much information. Instead, they need to focus on nuggets of information. The most successful influencers often create content that is brief in nature, given the attention span of users in those platforms. They then build a following, where people come back to learn more.”

The research was conducted online in the U.S. by The Harris Poll on behalf of WebMD Corporation among 2,005 adults ages 18 and over who reside in the U.S. The survey was conducted April 11–22, 2024.

Data are weighted where necessary by age by gender, race/ethnicity, region, education, marital status, household size, employment, household income, and political party affiliation to bring them in line with their actual proportions in the population. Respondents for this survey were selected from among those who have agreed to participate in our surveys. The sampling precision of Harris online polls is measured by using a Bayesian credible interval. For this study, the sample data is accurate to within ± 2.6 percentage points using a 95% confidence level. This credible interval will be wider among subsets of the surveyed population of interest.

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DTC-In-Perspective by Bob Ehrlich

Congress Acts on Telemedicine Drug Advertising Regulation

March 4, 2025 0

The unbalanced playing field between pharmaceutical manufacturers and telemedicine sites selling versions of approved drugs is finally being addressed in Congress. Congress acts on telemedicine drug advertising as senators push for FDA oversight. A number of large telemedicine direct sell sites have emerged in recent years. These sites diagnose, prescribe, and ship versions of popular drugs. When they advertise, they are not currently held to the same regulation as pharmaceutical companies.

Sites like Hims & Hers advertise compounded drugs or the forms of drugs without fair balance requirements. Frequently prescribed categories are weight loss, antidepressants, insomnia, and erectile dysfunction. They are not currently regulated by FDA even though they are manufacturing drugs and advertising them.

Senators Durbin (D-IL) and Marshall (R-KS) are co-sponsoring a bill to require FDA regulation of advertising from these telemedicine sellers.  Pharmaceutical companies have been at a competitive disadvantage because these sites often use compounded versions or created combinations of drugs. Drug companies lose sales because these telemedicine drugs often are priced lower.

Telemedicine sites have made diagnosis, prescription, and fulfillment easy for consumers. The problem is they can make efficacy claims without risk and warning information. Drug makers are held to a much higher standard and therefore have an unfair competitive landscape. These direct sale companies are offering a great perceived benefit for consumers. Answer a few medical questions, get prescribed, and receive the drug by mail. I imagine few consumers are turned down from getting prescriptions under the telemedicine process.

Telemedicine sites have made diagnosis, prescription, and fulfillment easy—but without the same regulatory standards as pharmaceutical companies, is it fair competition?

Congress is worried about inappropriate prescribing and the overpromise of efficacy without fair balance, prompting action on telemedicine drug advertising. Drug makers are concerned that compounders are violating patents and creating versions of their drugs which are not going through rigorous quality controls.

While DTC drug advertising receives lots of criticism, it is the most heavily regulated advertising category. Hopefully, that rigorous regulation will now apply to the burgeoning telemedicine industry.

Bob Ehrlich

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Navigating a Cookieless Future: What Pharma Marketers Need to Know

February 28, 2025 0

Although Google delayed the full phase-out of third-party cookies in Chrome, the digital marketing landscape is still evolving toward a cookieless future. Pharma marketers should utilize this time to refocus on first-party data activation as third-party cookies become less relevant and less reliable.

The 2024 Adobe Cookieless Research Report found that nearly half of the potential market already resides in cookieless environments. However, many marketers remain unprepared.

With Safari and Firefox blocking cookies, pharma marketers must adapt. Here are a few ideas on how:

  • Implement Server-Side Tracking Workarounds
    • Use server-side tracking methods, such as Meta’s first-party server-side solution, to bypass cookie-blocking and directly collect and share data.
  • Double Down on First-Party and Zero-Party Data
    • Leverage zero- and first-party data from sources like patient portals, surveys, and HCP platforms (e.g., Doximity and VuMedi). This data is opt-in and more reliable for personalized marketing efforts.
  • Leverage Google’s Cookieless Tools
    • Take advantage of Google Analytics 4 (GA4), Privacy Sandbox, and Tracking Protection to gather insights and serve relevant, privacy-compliant ads.
  • Push Vendors for Cookieless Solutions
    • Ensure third-party vendors, such as ad tech providers, offer privacy-compliant solutions like Unified ID 2.0 and consent management platforms (CMPs) for collecting and storing consent.
  • Shift to Contextual Targeting
    • Adopt contextual targeting to serve ads based on content relevance, bypassing cookies and addressing privacy concerns. It’s more cost-effective and less intrusive.
  • Test and Optimize New Tools
    • Use the remaining months with cookies to experiment with alternative methods like contextual targeting and emerging tools from Google. Optimize for interoperability across platforms.
  • Utilize AI and Cross-Platform Data Modeling
    • Use AI to improve cross-platform data modeling and real-time adjustments, even without cookies. This will help pharma marketers track engagement and make better decisions faster.
  • Prepare for Attribution Changes
    • Explore incrementality testing and multi-touch attribution models to understand the full impact of your campaigns on long patient or HCP journeys.
  • Build Trust and Focus on Privacy
    • Emphasize privacy transparency in your marketing efforts. With health-related data being extremely sensitive, building trust with patients and healthcare professionals through responsible data handling is key.
  • Leverage Real-World Evidence (RWE)
    • As third-party data becomes harder to collect, turn to real-world evidence (RWE)—patient and provider data that offer actionable insights into patient behavior, treatment patterns, and outcomes.

As the digital landscape shifts, pharma marketers must use this time to adapt. This is the time to embrace change, build trust, and continue delivering targeted, compliant healthcare marketing.

 

Mike D’Orazio

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DTC-In-Perspective by Bob Ehrlich

Exploring the Possible

February 20, 2025 0

One of the things we do at DTC Perspectives is speculate on the future of DTC. No time in DTC history has been as uncertain as now with the Kennedy confirmation. One thing we have learned about the second Trump term is nothing can be ruled out.  The idea of incrementalism in policy adjustments is not how he operates.

In past new administrations, we would have been contemplating some possible new DTC guidance tweaking requirements for fair balance. I am afraid we may face a lot more than that under the Kennedy HHS.

Let’s contemplate alternate futures for DTC and the odds of them happening:

  1. Total DTC advertising ban

This would include no promotion of prescription drugs to consumers in any medium. Websites for drugs might be allowed but no promotion, just label information. Of course, this raises constitutional issues, but we have seen the Trump playbook is to act and let the courts rule later. One thing we need to understand is the drug industry could “voluntarily” accept a ban because of other business considerations. Price and drug approval can be used by HHS as pressure points to get drug makers to curtail DTC. The total spending for DTC is low in proportion to total drug sales so how far will drug makers go to protect that minor spending.

No time in DTC history has been as uncertain as now with the Kennedy confirmation.

  1. Partial ban: no branded television

This is what Kennedy would probably be content doing. Many in Congress, insurance payers, and most medical associations would like to see TV banned. I can see DTC television limited to disease education with no brand mention. Again, this is limiting speech, but would drug companies really fight to keep it? Television is about $5 billion in ad spending or only about 1% of drug sales. Drug companies want their drugs approved and not price-controlled, and that is a big stick HHS wields. DTC expenditures would likely be reallocated to other media such as digital, print, point of care, disease education, and PR programs. There are no shortages of companies who are ready to sell non-TV media.

  1. Status quo

The media, ad agencies, and drug companies have lots of influence. They are surely lobbying Congress and The White House not to ban DTC. They can make a strong case that DTC does not cause any public harm and in fact Rx drugs lead to cheaper solutions in disease management. Status quo means there is still a good chance of increased HHS demands for more fair balance and stricter enforcement.

My odds? Total advertising ban: 10%; TV ban: 40%; and status quo: 50%. Why is status quo my highest odds? Kennedy has a lot on his plate to Make America Healthy Again (MAHA). He will need to pick his battles and fighting free speech might be just too much to take on. The $10 billion in DTC is a pittance in America’s $1.4 trillion healthcare system. I think status quo with modifications to make DTC harder to execute is still the most likely approach. The next few months will tell the direction we are heading and make interesting times for all of us DTC practitioners.

Bob Ehrlich

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DTC-In-Perspective by Bob Ehrlich

Super Ads?

February 14, 2025 0

Pharmaceuticals joined the big advertising game in New Orleans, running two :60 spots. They were not ads for a particular brand but were corporate type messaging. Novartis focused on breast cancer in what was a unique creative montage of showing breasts in a myriad of situations both real life and in art. This ad was certainly 180 degrees different from what would be expected in a drug company breast cancer awareness ad. For about 40 of the 60 seconds the theme was just look at the breasts with a musical background saying “I know you are looking.” Actress Hailee Steinfeld was part of the montage.

Then, in the last 20 seconds, a more conventional looking appeal started for diagnosing breast cancer with comedian Wanda Sykes. She encouraged patients to get early detection and treatment. Clearly Novartis wanted to break the mold of the standard disease education ads. They did.

You can’t be boring, and Novartis and Pfizer certainly met that requirement.

Pfizer was also up to the creative task with its highly engaging cancer research ad. Showing a child in a hospital bed who then gets up and parades through the streets in a Rocky-like scene with boxing attire. A super appears saying to cancer that we are going to knock you out. Singer LL Cool J provides the background song. Then the ad closes with a super saying Pfizer is working on drugs for eight different cancer breakthroughs by 2030.

Both ads are excellent in getting the stopping power needed for a Super Bowl entry. You can’t be boring, and Novartis and Pfizer certainly met that requirement. Each ad left you guessing what the ad was for until its last third. This is in keeping with Super Bowl ads in general trying to hook you on a story before revealing the sponsoring brand or company.

Branded drug ads are just not going to work on the Super Bowl. Spending millions on an ad with half devoted to risks and side effects does not make sense. That brings us to a third drug ad, but not from a drug company. Hims & Hers, a direct seller in many drug categories, ran a provocative ad critical of the cost of drugs and saying the health care system is not working for us. The first part of the ad was on obesity disease education; fairly standard stuff. Then the ad tore into the weight loss industry for failed approaches and pharma for high prices. Then it turned to how Hims & Hers has affordable meds made in the USA.

Congress is concerned that companies like Hims & Hers are advertising drugs with no fair balance. Proposed legislation would treat these drug sellers similarly to pharmaceutical companies. After all, they are making drugs through compounding and are trying to diagnose and sell directly. Sounds like a drug maker. Why are they able to compete with drug companies but allowed to eschew fair balance? These compounded drugs carry risks and side effects similar to Wegovy or Zepbound. Hopefully Congress will impose reasonable requirements to add fair balance as these types of direct sellers are booming. The Hims & Hers ad was attention getting and tapped into the concerns consumers have about GLP prices. That said, it is ironic the only Super Bowl drug ad was not from a drug company.

 

Bob Ehrlich

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DTC-In-Perspective by Bob Ehrlich

Kennedy Will Be Confirmed.

February 11, 2025 0

Robert Kennedy Jr. was favorably voted out of the Senate committee 14-13 on 2/4 and will now go before the full Senate for confirmation. This was the key hurdle passing a divided committee where Sen. Cassidy was the Republican who was the swing vote. Cassidy is a physician who was troubled deeply by Kennedy’s vaccine stance. Yet he voted yes as he was assured that Kennedy will not ban any approved vaccines. Kennedy will almost certainly be confirmed, albeit it narrowly, in the full Senate.

I watched the two days of Kennedy hearings last week. Nothing he said allayed my fears about his feelings toward the pharmaceutical industry. The problem with Mr. Kennedy is his skepticism about many drug treatments. His public attacks mostly have been focused on vaccines but clearly his testimony was anti-prescription drugs.

His most alarming comment was to say prescription drugs are the third leading cause of death in the United States. I will not spend much time refuting this incendiary comment except to say it is grossly misleading. All drug treatment is a benefit / risk assessment and while true serious adverse events can kill people, the overwhelming evidence is benefits far outweighs risks.

He is right that diseases among children have increased the past few decades. No one in public health has objections to his goal of determining why autism, diabetes, food allergies, and ADHD have increased. Perhaps there is an explanation related to diet, food ingredients, pollution, or increased diagnoses. By all means we should allocate public funds to finding out. The problem with Mr. Kennedy is he seems to have already figured it out and his numerous books, speeches, and policy statements say things that are untrue, exaggerated, or based on scant evidence.

His most alarming comment was to say prescription drugs are the third leading cause of death in the United States.

After seeing the speed the Trump team is acting on many policy issues, would a Kennedy HHS be given the go ahead to remake our health care system at warp speed? Would DTC be a casualty of that tear it down approach from Kennedy? While I know we have constitutional protection for business free speech, will Kennedy act anyway to ban DTC and await court challenges?

We can only hope our industry lobbyists can make the case that banning or severely restricting DTC is a bad idea. There are many steps HHS can take short of a total ban including making television harder to execute through new guidances, finding more violative ads, slowing down pre-clearance reviews, and leveraging price negotiations to get companies to “voluntarily” restrict DTC.

I am not expecting Armageddon, but this time the threats feel different. I would be surprised if DTC is not affected in some negative way under the new Kennedy-led HHS.

Bob Ehrlich

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Why Growth with Nimble is Built on Retention

January 31, 2025 0

In the ever-evolving healthcare landscape, Nimble has emerged as a pivotal solution for pharmacies and Life Science companies aiming to achieve sustained growth through enhanced retention.

With its integrated technology platform, Nimble not only streamlines pharmacy operations but also unlocks significant revenue opportunities for Life Science companies by reaching millions of high-intent patients.

How Nimble Streamlines the Pharmacy Experience

At its core, Nimble simplifies the pharmacy experience for both pharmacies and their patients. By integrating directly with pharmacy systems, Nimble ensures optimized efficiency, convenience, and conversion for every transaction. This seamless integration leads to improved patient health outcomes and enables pharmacies to operate more effectively.

Beyond enhancing pharmacy workflows, Nimble’s approach opens new avenues for Life Science companies. By addressing challenges such as patient adherence, awareness, and abandonment, Nimble provides access to millions of patients actively managing their health, offering a unique opportunity to generate new revenue streams.

The Challenge: Lack of Access to High-Intent Audiences

Current industry solutions often fail to connect with high-intent audiences, resulting in poor engagement, lack of retention, and negative health outcomes. The financial implications of this gap are staggering, with $77 billion lost annually in pharmaceutical revenue.

Beyond stagnating engagement, adherence is also a key struggle for today’s Life Science companies. 50% of new prescriptions are never filled, and 25% of medications are not taken as prescribed. This non-adherence contributes to chronic disease treatment failures, unnecessary hospitalizations, and billions in lost revenue for the pharmaceutical industry.

Nimble’s Three-Pronged Solution: Adherence, Abandonment, and Awareness

Adherence: Keeping Patients on Track

Adherence is a cornerstone of Nimble’s solution. By identifying potential drop-off points in real time, Nimble offers timely interventions to improve adherence rates, leading to better health outcomes and increased revenue.

By processing the entire transaction, we pinpoint exact drop-off points, enabling timely interventions that keep patients on track, resulting in better health outcomes and increased revenue.

  • Subscription Offerings: Patients are offered options to subscribe to automated refills several times throughout their journey, with optimized time between refills
  • Enhanced Refill Reminders: Patients who do not select a subscription are offered enhanced refill reminders to improve adherence
  • Patient Education: Customized patient education materials can be co-created to drive engagement and adherence

The Nimble Adherence Advantage

Unlike traditional adherence campaigns, Nimble’s full transaction visibility enables precise identification of drop-off points, ensuring timely interventions and driving improved adherence.

In fact, by month 12 in a NimbleRx Adherence Program, refills typically increase by a ~2-3x baseline.

Abandonment: Reducing Abandonment with Precision Targeting

Increase first-fill conversion with custom, integrated programs that leverage full transaction data and first-party data to ensure messages are delivered at the right moment to impact first-fill conversion.

  • Increased Messaging: Omnichannel messaging to reach patients in the right place at the right time.
  • Custom Emails: Using our deep integration with pharmacy systems we craft custom emails tailored to each patient’s unique journey.
  • In-App Ads: Precisely targeted in-app ads that are seamlessly integrated into the patient experience.

The Nimble Abandonment Advantage

Today’s patients often face confusion about their medications, leading to abandonment. With Nimble, personalized, real-time content delivery ensures higher engagement, improved adherence, and reduced healthcare costs.

Combined, Nimble’s abandonment programs can lead to increases of 3-5% in New to Brand Prescriptions

Awareness: Elevating Patient Education

Nimble’s awareness solutions can help your brand become a performance marketing powerhouse. Our data-driven approach reduces wasted ad spend and increases marketing effectiveness by ensuring better-informed patients, leading to higher engagement and more effective treatment adherence.

  • Checkout Ads: Checkout ads are strategically placed at the point of purchase, ensuring your brand captures patient attention when they’re most engaged.
  • Custom Emails: Using our deep integration with pharmacy systems we craft custom emails tailored to each patient’s unique journey.
  • In-App Ads: Precisely targeted in-app ads that are seamlessly integrated into the patient experience.
  • Enhanced Targeting: By analyzing patient behavior, preferences, and health needs, we deliver personalized content and ads that resonate with each individual.

The Nimble Awareness Advantage

Broad targeting in pharmaceutical ads often results in missed opportunities and wasted ad spend. Conversely with Nimble, data-driven, real-time education reduces wasted ad spend, increases marketing effectiveness, and ensures better-informed patients, enhancing engagement and adherence.

An investment in Nimble’s Ad campaigns consistently outperforms other options. Our clients see strong open and click-through rates, ~2x industry averages.

Nimble’s platform provides real-time, scalable insights into patient behavior and engagement, enabling precise and timely interventions. With the ability to scale as needed, Nimble delivers immediate, impactful results for both pharmacies and Life Science companies.

If you’d like to learn more about our offerings and how to partner with us, contact bd@nimblerx.com or call 201.349.4102 to book a meeting.

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DTC-In-Perspective by Bob Ehrlich

Congress and DTC Price Disclosure

January 30, 2025 0

The idea of mandating drug price disclosure in DTC ads is here again. A bi-partisan Senate bill was just introduced by Senators Durbin, Grassley, and six others calling for mandatory listing of the wholesale acquisition cost in ads. It is called The Drug-Price Transparency for Consumers Act of 2025.

As with prior attempts, this is bad policy. List prices are not what consumers pay. They are nowhere near what the overwhelming proportion of patients will eventually pay if insured. This bill is meant to discourage DTC advertising by creating a false belief that many drugs are “outrageously” expensive. Their rationale is consumers deserve to know the price of drugs being advertised. They say many other products list their price in ads so why not list them for drugs.

The problem is consumers only care what the final out of pocket cost is to them. Drug pricing is overly complex and that is a legitimate policy issue. Telling consumers a cancer drug is $5,000 a month in a DTC ad is not at all helpful to them if they actually pay $50 with insurance. All that faux disclosure might do is scare them into thinking they cannot afford it.

The bill sponsors’ logic is faulty that listing price creates transparency and price competition. There is no evidence that listing drug prices creates competition given the list price is nowhere near actual patient price. Yes, it may work for automobiles, but not for prescription drugs.

This bill is a blatant attempt to discourage drug ads because payers would prefer consumers not request information on high-priced drugs. Government, insurers, and other payers want to be the sole deciders on what drugs patients can get. DTC is inconvenient for them if a doctor prescribes a high-priced therapy. Does Congress think doctors are prescribing a $100,000 drug for cancer just because a consumer saw an ad?

If this bill passes, drug makers will have to add another useless super in the ad. They can do it if required but will not be intimidated into dropping their DTC ads. Clearly this bill is something the courts might weigh in on as the forced price disclosure inhibits commercial free speech.

Telling consumers a cancer drug is $5,000 a month in a DTC ad is not at all helpful if they actually pay $50 with insurance.

Unfortunately, this bill may just be one of many tactics Congress or HHS will use to try to discourage DTC ads. Robert Kennedy, Jr. wants to ban DTC TV ads outright, but that is unconstitutional so expect approaches that make it harder to do DTC. That could be through tax policy on deductibility of advertising costs, increased OPDP interpretations of violative language, more requirements for fair balance, and lobbying pressure by insurers and payers to limit DTC.

I get the frustration that Americans pay more for prescription drugs than other developed countries. This is a highly charged issue and deserves policy debate. Limiting DTC advertising for lawful products will not affect prices. That $8-10 billion being spent on DTC annually is not significantly driving up costs given our drug spending is over $500 billion annually. Of course, I admit drug companies advertise to increase demand. Given an average ROI of 2 to 1, advertising likely adds $16-20 billion to sales or about 2%. Would drug companies cut prices if they did not spend on DTC? No, they would reallocate to other promotional techniques or other investments.

It is time for Congress to stop trying to ban or restrict DTC. They are grandstanding to the American people with full knowledge their bill is not a real solution to reducing drug costs.

Bob Ehrlich

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DTC-In-Perspective by Bob Ehrlich

Harnessing the Power of Artificial Intelligence

January 14, 2025 0

I’ve been pondering what the revolution in artificial intelligence (AI) truly means for DTC marketing. Can my aging brain grasp how AI works? Does it mean DTC advertising could be developed without engaging real patients, or even without agencies crafting the ads? Could we one day see virtual pharma marketers? Imagine our annual Top DTC Marketers list featuring artificial entities — what a surreal awards dinner that would be!

After speaking with experts, it’s clear that AI offers DTC marketers a vast ocean of opportunities. The potential benefits span the entire spectrum, from concept testing to producing polished ads. Faster copy development, reduced costs, and more options to present to real patients could redefine the process. Envision a world where virtual focus groups test ad concepts in mere seconds. Every target group could evaluate countless concepts, with AI instantly refining them until the ideal message emerges.

AI offers DTC marketers a vast ocean of opportunities, from faster concept testing to personalized ad creation.

Imagine media teams using AI to virtually identify the optimal omnichannel mix, tailored to every patient target group. The current array of media choices is already overwhelming. AI could enable us to explore every option at a micro level, creating unparalleled precision.

We’ve already seen digital advertising move in this direction. However, DTC remains television-centric, with about 60% of spending focused there. Most consumers are exposed to just a few ad executions per brand. AI could change that dramatically, enabling instant variations that adapt to the viewer. Those three standard ads could become 300, each optimized for the audience in real-time.

Of course, significant challenges lie ahead. The steep learning curve of adopting AI will inevitably slow its widespread use. Internal legal and regulatory reviews remain essential. The OPDP may also struggle to oversee a world of hundreds of promotional variations.

The advice from AI experts is clear: experiment with the tools available now. Adoption will take time, but starting small is the first step for pharma marketers. Ultimately, AI is a tool for human marketers to create more personalized and effective ads. My hope is that AI will lead to more creative, distinctive ads that cut through the clutter of DTC advertising.

Every pharma marketer should challenge themselves, their agencies, and their research partners to integrate AI into their processes. Start small, experiment, and see where AI can lead you. The journey will undoubtedly be challenging, but the potential rewards make it a path worth exploring.

Bob Ehrlich

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