Online advertising aids brand favorability and awareness

October 16, 2009 – 1:59 pm by Gina Monari

Results from a recent comScore Inc. study finds that exposure to online media, including a brand’s Website and online advertisements, had a significant positive lift on a treatment’s awareness and favorability. In addition, the study called “Online Marketing Effectiveness Benchmarks for the Pharmaceutical Industry,” shows that visitation to a brand’s Website generated significant levels of incremental new patient starts and refills.

According to John Mangano, VP, comScore, the internet continues to be a more important resource each year for healthcare information, and is being used to better understand symptoms before doctor visits and research treatments after those visits. Mr. Mangano believes the study follows the trends of past studies in that the activity shows a lift. He also believes that marketers are getting better at doing this type of marketing and that consumers are reacting more favorably to online marketing.

Performed in conjunction with pharmaceutical marketing consultancy Evolution Road LLC, the study is designed to help pharmaceutical marketers better assess the success of their online marketing activities. The affect of various online marketing activities were evaluated, including banner advertisements, rich media, search marketing and visits to a brand website on a pharmaceutical brand’s awareness, favorability and sales results among patients and prospects. The study was based on comScore’s U.S. panel comprising 1 million people, for which online activity is passively observed, and survey data collected throughout the past several years.

Online advertising and branded Websites were found to have a significant positive affect on awareness and favorability among patients and prospects. For prospects, exposure-only to an ad increased aided and unaided brand awareness. Pharmaceutical websites played the greatest role in increasing awareness and favorability among patients and prospects. Prospects exhibited an 18-percentage point lift in favorability after visiting a branded Website and patients reported a 17.2-percentage point lift.

Branded websites were found to be the most effective form of online pharmaceutical marketing, with existing patients increasing their refill rate about 25 percentage points compared to those who did not visit the site. Patients who were new to a treatment increased an incremental 11.9 percentage points higher than the control. Exposure and interaction with rich media advertisements also improved refill rate among existing patients with a 14-point lift versus the control group.

“A brand’s Website is the most effective online tactic for pharmaceutical marketers,” Mr. Mangano says. “Not only does it provide visitors with critically important information on the condition, treatment options and the drug itself, but it is also one of the few environments where a brand can build a dynamic and recurring relationship with its patients. It is important though to realize that a brand’s Website is only one critical piece of a comprehensive marketing campaign that includes online display ads, search marketing, and offline marketing working in unison to raise awareness, educate consumers and ultimately drive conversion.”