Healthcare and pharmaceutical online advertising spending has traditionally accounted for a small portion of online ad spending, never breaching the 4% mark. That, though, may well change if a new forecast from eMarketer comes to fruition. The firm predicts online ad spending in these sectors will hit $1 billion this year - a 10.6% increase from 2009.
By 2014, it finds, it will have reached $1.52 billion. eMarketer acknowledges the hurdles facing marketers in this space: namely the confusing and occasionally conflicting thicket of regulations. "Clearer guidelines from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and new technology and measurement tools will move more spending online, but online tactics must also be able to prove their worth," says Victoria Petrock, author of the new report "DTC Pharmaceutical Marketing Online: A Slow Shift to Digital."
Mixed Signals
While the FDA has said it is working to simplify online ad regulations, so far, the guidelines the agency have provided have been mixed at best, despite the three-day conference it held on the subject earlier this year.
Recently, for instance, the FDA told Novartis Pharmaceuticals that a Facebook Share button it used to promote a cancer-fighting drug violated its requirements to disclose side effects or risks about such medications. The letter only partly clarified the FDA's current thinking on social media, according to health-care marketing agency Digitas Health. (via the Wall Street Journal).
For instance, it said in a client note, it appears that FDA was targeting the Novartis' content - and not the user-generated comments.
Past Attempts
The Facebook widget is one of a handful of cautious attempts on the part of pharma companies to advertise their products online again after last year when FDA's Division of Drug Marketing, Advertising and Communications sent notices to 14 major pharmaceutical manufacturers informing them that their sponsored link ads were misleading because they did not adequately inform consumers about the drugs' associated risks. The result was a significant decrease in the use of sponsored ads by pharma companies.
Google, for example, created a "FDA-Friendly" online pharma ad format, which Bayer used to market the birth-control pill Yaz. Also Tremor Media launched a video ad-banner format called Rx In-Stream, that uses a shorter-form, pre-roll video in place of the long-form video ads that typically convey safety information. An accompanying banner ad, instead, provides the data about the risks and side effects of the drug in question.
Even as pharma marketers cautiously roll out new campaigns, consumer safety advocates are still taking issue with some of their techniques.
Jeff Chester with the Center for Digital Democracy, points to such initiative as support-group websites, such as ShareYourPain.com for people with chronic pain from cancer - a site that is sponsored drugmaker Cephalon. (via NPR).
Funny videos, such as the ones created for the impotence drug Levitra are also suspect, at least in Chester's eyes. He says the drug company marketers are counting on people to forward it - which is fine for such consumer products as sneakers, for instance, but not for pharmaceuticals. "The key to viral, peer-to-peer marketing is to in fact send a message to your friends, that I like this drug," he tells NPR. "It's not Novartis sending you this widget. I'm sending you this information. I've endorsed it."
Some Guideposts…Eventually?
The FDA is not deaf to pharmaceutical companies' requests for stronger guidelines. NPR reports that the agency is hopeful it will have rules on the so-called "one-click" question by the end of the year. One-click refers to making disclosure about a drug's side-effects available one-click away.
Maybe it will, maybe it won't. FDA Week recently noted that 15 years ago, FDA promised rules for Internet communications were "imminent," for which we are still waiting.
