Pharma & Healthcare Marketing: How Cross-Channel TV Delivers Strong Medicine

As the darkest days of the COVID-19 pandemic recede, healthcare and pharmaceutical marketers find themselves facing a new industry reality after two years of exponential demand, expanding categories of services and products, and fierce competition in an increasingly innovative market. Now, as these trends hold up, it is key to develop a TV advertising strategy that focuses on reach, granular audience targeting, and nimble solutions that can adapt to changes in consumer needs as well as macroeconomic factors impacting supply and pricing.

Health-related trends and behaviors that emerged during the pandemic are here for the long term. Remote and isolated living during the height of COVID’s spread led the way for the development of new, virtual and online services. The changes were widespread: check-ups over zoom with a GP became the norm; wellness products went viral to meet an uptick in interest; digital marketplaces cropped up, replacing in-person pharmacy visits; and the FDA lowered requirements for approval of new treatments that brought increased medicinal access to the masses. All of these reflected an overarching trend in increased participation, personalization, and access to healthcare products and services, fueled by newfound healthy anxiety.

Massive industry-wide shifts, alongside increased consumer participation and engagement, has created an unprecedented opportunity for advertisers to innovate and compete more fiercely than ever before. In 2020 alone, U.S. healthcare digital ad spend made up 7.1% of all U.S. digital ad dollars, surpassing the media (4.7%) and travel (2.4%) industry ad spends, according to eMarketer. In large part due to these successful marketing efforts, consumers have developed deep lines of loyalty. M Booth Health refers to this as the ‘Pharma Brandemic’ – and it’s not an exaggeration. In M Booth Health’s studies, 61% of Americans say that pandemic has made them more aware of pharmaceutical brands overall. As of January 2022, 62% of respondents said they have a positive view of the pharmaceutical industry – nearly double the percentage back in January 2020.

In order to stay ahead of the competition and execute strategically nimble, cross-channel TV campaigns, we’ve created this guide to ensure you make the most of your ad budgets in this unprecedented era for the healthcare and pharmaceutical industries.

What This Playbook Will Cover:

1. How to adopt a flexible advertising solution to stay competitive in a highly concentrated market that faces continually shifting supply chain challenges
2. How to capitalize on the consumer brand loyalty towards pharmaceutical and healthcare companies that is stronger than ever
3. How advertisers can tailor their ad campaigns to unique consumer needs, meeting newfound demand for personalization in healthcare services
4. Why the shift to virtual and digitized healthcare services and pharmaceutical products is charting new KPI’s for ad campaign success, and how to track those markers.