Healthy Skepticism Library item: 17072

Warning: This library includes all items relevant to health product marketing that we are aware of regardless of quality. Often we do not agree with all or part of the contents.

Publication type: news

Staton T
Which DTC ads drive the most web traffic?
Fierce Pharma 2010 Jan 22
http://www.fiercepharma.com/story/which-dtc-ads-drive-most-web-traffic/2010-01-22

Full text:

There’s always a lot of talk about just how effective DTC advertising is—or isn’t. Well, Manhattan Research has released a report examining one variable in the effectiveness equation: How many people check out a product website on the prompting of a DTC ad? The report ranks the top 10 brands for the percentage of website traffic that’s DTC-driven.
As Pharmalot notes, however, the report doesn’t look at just how much ad spending was necessary to drive that traffic. Nor does it compare these 10 brands with the 10 biggest drug websites, or specify how large traffic to these brands’ websites were overall. But despite those limitations, it’s still interesting to see which DTC campaigns actually send consumers to their computers. Here they are:
NuvaRing, Merck’s contraceptive product
Latisse, Allergan’s new eyelash growth stimulator
Cialis, Eli Lilly’s ED remedy
Boniva, Roche’s osteoporosis treatment
Abilify, Bristol-Myers Squibb and Otsuka’s atypical antipsychotic
Gardasil, Merck’s human papillomavirus vaccine
Yaz, Bayer’s contraceptive pill
Viagra, Pfizer’s ED med
Levitra, Bayer’s ED drug
Lunesta, Sepracor’s sleep drug
You’ll instantly remember the ad campaigns for some of these drugs, such as Merck’s “One Less” drive for Gardasil; Sepracor’s Lunesta moth; Roche’s spokeswoman Sally Field for Boniva; and Allergan’s Brooke Shields-for-Latisse commercials. Any ideas on why these ads were so succesful at driving web traffic? Let us know. – see the release from Manhattan Research – read the Pharmalot post – get more from Medical Marketing & Media