• by John Gaffney , July 5, 2002

As the pharmaceutical industry is bolstered by blockbuster drugs like Botox and buffeted by storms in Washington DC, planners and buyers face a whole new set of challenges in this category. Knowledge has become king for pharmaceutical work, more so than in any other product category. Today’s successful media professional has to be part doctor, part patient, and part pharmaceutical expert in order to master this game. Not only are the products complex, but the information sources available to the consumer are an unwieldy mix of expertise, incompetence, and conflicting interests.

"You absolutely must know everything there is to know," says BBK Healthcare director of creative strategy Matt Kibby. "Account planners especially have to be as facile as some physicians are. Depending on the drug and target audience, you need to know the advocacy groups, newsletters, magazines — everything. If there’s a new psoriasis drug, you need to know where people who have that condition go to get information. Is it the National Psoriasis Foundation? Or is it the network news? This is much more complex than selling sneakers or soda."

And right now the effective approaches are more complex than for sneakers and soda. If you place a 60-second spot about a new allergy drug, Food and Drug Administration regulations state that you have to fully explain the potential side effects. That basically means you get 30 seconds to say what’s great about the product and 30 more to explain how it can hurt someone. Try doing that for sneakers and soda.

"It’s a balancing act," says Reema Vyas, director for account planning at TBWA/Chiat/Day’s health care division. "There are a lot of psychographics involved, and you’re trying to balance the factual and the emotional. You have a limited amount of time to make your claim, and a limited amount of time to communicate the side effects."

Because the situation is so sensitive, many in agency health-care specialist divisions look closely at two strategies. In the first, the advertising is trying to make an audience aware of a "disease state." That’s why many allergy campaigns show sneezing and suffering. By making you understand and connect with symptoms, the brand is confident that it will get its share of business. The other strategy shows relief. The print campaign for the anti-depressant Zoloft shows a dad playing with his son under the tagline "A Zoloft Saturday." The planning strategy for each campaign needs to be specifically tailored to the audience.

"You have to carefully consider the disease state and what it portrays," says Andrew Schirmer, president and executive creative director of Merkley Newman Harty Healthworks. "In general people don’t want to be reminded of bad things. They want to see good things. They want to see something that they would like to be. So much in this business is driven by that."

Schirmer has been involved with health care and the media since 1987. He has no magic recipe for effective media planning in this category. But he does say that he favors advertising in media properties that are perceived to be an authoritative and objective source. Branded health care information works — provided it’s a strong objective brand. He particularly respects Jane Brody’s New York Times column, women’s magazines, AOL Health, and Yahoo! Health.

Perhaps lost in all the controversy and money is the consumer. Most of the research conducted in this area shows that consumers respond positively to pharmaceutical advertising, regardless of its format or message. In January of this year, the National Health Council said that direct-to-consumer ads "outweighed any negative impacts." The NHC research showed that pharmaceutical ads raised consumer awareness about treatment options, alerted them to potentially serious symptoms, and helped them have better discussions with doctors.