Treato Finds DTC Pharma TV Advertisements Have Little Influence

NEW YORK, Apr. 18, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Timed to the DTC Perspectives conference kicking off this week, Treato, the single largest source of online consumer insights on healthcare, released their annual survey on consumers' opinions of DTC advertisements. The survey of more than 500 Treato.com users found that consumers are rarely motivated to take action after seeing an advertisement for a drug on TV. Only seven percent of respondents said they have asked a doctor about a drug after seeing an advertisement about it on TV. This is significantly down from last year's survey in which 21 percent of respondents said that they had asked a doctor about a drug they saw on TV.

According to Medical Marketing & Media (MM&M), money spent on DTC advertising this past year totaled more than $5.2 billion. This is significantly up from the $4.3 billion spent in the previous year. While consumers aren't motivated by these advertisements, they are highly aware that pharma is investing more in DTC advertisements, as 64 percent said they felt like they were seeing more drug advertisements on TV over the past year. In this past year DTC advertising on TV has increased by 26 percent when compared to the previous year. 

The Treato.com survey also revealed that consumers aren't easily influenced by celebrities in DTC advertisements as 76 percent of respondents said they are no more inclined to pay attention to a drug advertisement even if it features a celebrity. In addition, animated characters seem to have little influence on consumers as 80 percent of respondents said they are no more inclined to pay attention to a drug advertisement if it features an animated character.

Consumers did have strong opinions about what time of day and type of TV events during which drug ads should be allowed to be shown. Seventy-five percent of respondents said advertisements for erectile dysfunction and low libido should be shown after 9pm or not at all. Consumers also didn't want drug advertisements to be played during family-friendly sporting events, as 46 percent of respondents thought drug advertisements should be banned from the Super Bowl.

"Pharma marketers need to think of more innovative ways to engage directly with health consumers," says Ido Hadari, CEO of Treato. "It's clear that consumers are rarely responsive to the one way communication of TV advertisements."

To read more on Treato's DTC Advertising survey.

Methodology:

For this data analysis Treato surveyed 529 of its users from April 12^th- 15^th.

About Treato:

Treato™, the leading source of health insights from millions of real health consumers, uses patented analytics and big data technology to turn billions of disparate online conversations into meaningful social intelligence. With more than two billion posts analyzed and continuously expanding, Treato has partnered with 9 out of the world's top 10 pharma companies as well as numerous other multi-national pharmaceutical companies and healthcare organizations. Treato.com, its consumer website, helps millions of visitors each month. Treato is privately held with offices in Israel, New York and Princeton, NJ. Investors include Reed Elsevier Ventures, OrbiMed Partners and New Leaf Venture Partners, among others. For more information please visit https://treato.com/ 

Photo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20160418/356264

SOURCE Treato

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