Adding the Internet into a media plan
that includes television is a must -- but to be effective, it's more important to target consumers far beyond traditional demographics.
A report from The Nielsen Company on optimizing
advertising/media in using TV and the Internet says the key to efficient planning is "aligning media inventory with precisely defined consumer segments that go beyond demographics to encompass
client-specific profiles and evaluating media from a consumer-centric, holistic fashion, to allow you to optimize your cross-platform plans."
The study, put together by Howard Shimmel, senior
vice president of media product leadership, and Scott McKinley, executive vice president of advertiser solutions for Nielsen, examined direct-to-consumer pharmaceuticals for its analysis.
Putting TV together with online exposure for one product resulted in messaging that was "more than twice as likely to prompt patients to ask their physician about the drug than TV alone."
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The
intent to buy was at a 157 index after seven days of exposure -- a 212 index after 24 hours, versus a 100 index of just being exposed to television.
In looking at a specific group of targeted
consumers for another media buy -- cholesterol sufferers -- Nielsen says the percent of sufferers reached from the cross-platform media synergy on both TV and online more than doubled, from 7.5% of
the patient universe to 18.1%.
In another analysis, Nielsen evaluated another pharmaceutical product looking to target males 50-plus for incontinence. But Nielsen decided to evaluate this
more fully, since not all men 50-plus are sufferers. Nielsen was able to filter that of all males 50-plus, 28% hit the highest levels -- a 115 index, well above the buying target.