Sponsored Content

What’s the best pharma ad you see running on TV right now? I bet you could sing the jingle, but do you remember the specific brand? I’m the odd one that uses my DVR to skip TO the commercials – but you and I are not the average healthcare consumers. That’s why, despite the strength of TV, when it comes to messaging to patients, you have to pull that message through when they are going to be most receptive – in the doctor’s office.

There are a multitude of rationale for your TV-driven media plan to include POC to complement it. Here are a few important points:

• Add POC to the mix, and every other channel benefits. Evidence shows POC can help lift the returns of not only TV, but other media in a plan as well. A recent Crossix study found net conversion rates and new patient starts were significantly higher for those multichannel plans that included POC. (For the full data, check out our white paper mentioned at the end of this piece.)
• Show patients a deeper side. Beyond traditional TV commercials, POC gives brands the ability to showcase longer, in-depth videos that will resonate with a very specific and sought-after audience. Think testimonials, patient savings, and clinical trial recruitment messages.
• Secure more face time with patients and HCPs at the doctor’s office. There is no seasonality when it comes to visiting the doctor; patients will go throughout the entire year. Each $1 million spent on POC affords more months of in-market presence than what it buys in primetime TV.
• Target the right patients in the right locations. Reaching the right audiences based on their viewing, reading, listening, or online habits can be a challenge with other media channels. POC enables you to hyper-target to condition and treatment status while individual office level targeting allows for tailored messaging to these specific audiences.

With media planning, an “either/or” mindset isn’t necessary. Tradeoffs don’t necessarily have to mean excluding an entire medium; you can add POC while not compromising the effectiveness of your TV plan. With a long and proven track record of success, POC has the power to maximize the overall effectiveness of your entire multichannel plan. Even if your plan already generates a high return, it’s worth adding POC to realize even higher ROI and incremental revenue.

Read an industry expert’s point of view on why TV and POC make the perfect pair here: www.patientpoint.com/dtc

Sponsored Content

As patient centricity continues to become the industry priority, the need to get the right information to the right patients at the right time in the right format is more important than ever—especially for pharma.

Our recent white paper touched on the disconnect patients feel with pharma companies. Today, only 9% of patients say pharma does all it can to help.¹ That is, if these patients even know who the pharma companies are: Nearly 40% of patients don’t know any of the companies behind their treatments.²

I’d venture to guess, however, if pharma companies offered these patients the information they needed, in the format they desired, at each point in their healthcare journey, those stats would quickly change. They are for our clients, at least, who are leveraging a variety of our point-of-care solutions.

No marketing campaign is complete today unless it covers a variety of channels – digital, social, mobile and, yes, even print. We know different media will work more effectively for different demographics and different locations and different specialties. That’s why the PatientPoint solution set features the widest range of channels in the POC market; each is meant to maximize the meaningful impact pharma brands can have on patients.

Take, for instance, a 50-year-old man waiting to see his urologist. It’s unlikely he’s willing to grab a brochure on ED in front of others in the waiting room. But he will watch a digital screen displaying a segment on his condition. Once he gets into the exam room, we know he prefers more in-depth printed pieces he can read and refer to later when deciding on treatment.

How to communicate with your target audiences doesn’t need to be an either/or decision between print and digital. Both are perfect complements to each other – and both are necessary to a holistic, satisfactory patient experience.

That’s why I’m always surprised when I read articles declaring print as a communication of the past. It’s certainly not true in our industry – just ask our clients who are using our print program as part of their multi-channel marketing strategy and seeing great results (as in +12.5% incremental NRx).

Print remains a vital part of the patient experience and an important connecting point to both patients and physicians:

• More than half of patients rank printed brochures or booklets that give disease or drug information as the most useful communication method³
• 55% of HCPs say they rely on printed communications when talking with patients over any other form of communication⁴

Having your brand be a part of trusted materials a physician hands to his or her patients offers a unique level of credibility and implied endorsement. It also shows you’re considering many patients’ personal preferences, which will help relieve some of that disconnect patients are feeling, which I mentioned earlier.

In the end, what matters most is the experience created for patients. A communication strategy that combines a variety of media offering highly relevant, personalized content will ultimately power the greatest effectiveness.

References

1. MM&M, “Patient Engagement: All Grown Up—Patient Engagement Comes of Age,” 2015
2. Ed Miseta, “Patient Survey: Tech Use Up, Pharma Disconnect Remains,” Clinical Leader, 2017
3. eyeforpharma/Health Perspectives Group report, 2017
4. Marc Iskowitz, “In health education, providers prefer paper: study,” MM&M