Using Geography In Asthma Advertising

by Ron Salmon, May 15, 2012, 3:03 PM

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Asthma is an inflammatory disorder of the airways, which causes attacks of wheezing, shortness of breath, chest tightness and coughing … and some 34 million Americans now suffer from the condition. There are three important steps to combat the attacks, and they include seeking medical attention early when you start developing problems, avoiding triggers (common asthma triggers include animal dander, dust, changes in weather, mold, pollen, stress and tobacco smoke, just to name a few), and taking medication.

There were numerous prescription medical products being marketed to the consumer for asthma treatment in 2011, including Advair from GlaxoSmithKline, Symbicort from Astrazeneca and Dulera from Schering-Plough.  While these national brands are available to everyone in the United States, our mission is to explore whether there are geographic sales anomalies that might present the pharmaceutical marketers with opportunity to optimize their ad spending beyond the national campaign. It’s a logical assumption, since not only are there differences in states’ insurance formularies that control drug reimbursement, but the actual incidence of the medical condition and patients acting to address it varies by geography.  

We used 2011 GfK MRI Market-by-Market data to look at the asthma incidence and its treatment across the country. Overall, 48% of adults who reported having or having had asthma said they used a branded prescription remedy to treat it, while 24% said they used a generic prescription remedy. Eight percent used a non-prescription or a home/herbal remedy, and another 15% have not sought out treatment.  

With those variables, we began to look at the markets where the respondents indexed higher using a branded prescription remedy.  Looking at the top markets, we see the highest indexing markets contain 11% of the households in the U.S., but, more importantly, they contain 14% of the asthma sufferers and 16% of the asthma sufferers who use a branded medication.

Top Asthma Rx Markets	Index to U.S.
Philadelphia, PA	185
Syracuse, NY	152
Rochester, NY	147
Burlington-Plattsburgh, VT-NY	147
Hartford & New Haven, CT	131
Buffalo, NY	131
Albany-Schenectady-Troy, NY	129
Dallas-Ft. Worth, TX	128
Toledo, OH	127
Wilkes Barre-Scranton, PA	125
Portland-Auburn, ME	125
Dayton, OH	123
Boston (Manchester), MA-NH	120

 We also noticed a very similar feature among those markets. Outside of Dallas-Ft. Worth, all the markets were in the Northeastern part of the United States. Is it the pollen, the weather, or maybe even the stress? Who knows, but it stands to reason that the Northeastern markets index high, so what would happen if we added the largest Northeastern market to the mix, New York?

The result: Using just 14 markets, we now reach 18% of the households in the U.S., 22% of the asthma sufferers, and 24% of the asthma sufferers who use a branded medication…one out of every four! This means that our Northeaster market list contains consumers who are 22% more prone to asthma than the total country. Even more important, they use pharmaceutical remedies at a 33% higher rate than the national consumer.

These are by far your best prospects. Consider this: Set aside 10% of your national plan budget and allocate it to Spot TV in your high ROI markets. A dollar spent here will automatically yield more targeted consumers than your national spend and will result in a better media buy and more brands sales.

As an added incentive, this Spot TV supercharging in key markets will actually improve the efficiency of your buy as well as the effectiveness. This is demonstrated in the SQAD research that TVB updates on a quarterly basis, and shows that Spot TV is equal to network scatter on a CPM basis in Primetime, and more efficient in Early Morning, Early News and Late Fringe. Contact me for more details. 

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