• by Les Luchter , December 28, 2024

 In a year when GLP-1 drugs were a best-selling, buzzy phenomenon, Novo Nordisk’s ad spend for Ozempic in streaming TV has been paying off.

The brand’s ads were 57% more effective in driving consumer engagement -- including brand searches and site visits -- on streaming TV than on linear TV during Q3, according to a report from research firm EDO.

Overall, combining both streaming and linear TV, Ozempic and its infectious “O-O-O Ozempic” jingle, also led all other diabetes brands in “share of voice,” with nearly a third (32%) of  total ad exposures. (Despite being widely taken for weight loss by non-diabetics , the GLP-1 injection brand is still officially designated to treat diabetes, with Wegovy as Novo Nordisk’s weight loss version).

During Q3, Ozempic unveiled a new spot during the quarter promoting its “Tri-Zone” of lowering A1C, cardiovascular risk and weight.   

Jardiance, the Eli Lilly/ Boehringer Ingelheim pill with its own catchy jingle (“It's a little pill with a big story to tell…I have type 2 diabetes, but I manage it well”) placed second in diabetes ad share of voice with 28% of the total.

The rest of the TV exposure pie was divided among Astra-Zeneca/Bristol-Myers Squibb’s new Farxiga pill (21%), Dexcom’s continuous glucose monitors (11%), Eli Lilly’s Mounjaro GLP-1 injection (3%), Averitas Pharma’s Qutenza pain patch (2%), Insulet’s Omnipod insulin pump system (2%) and Novo Nordisk’s Rybelsus pill (1%). 

During the quarter, EDO found that streaming ads were 6% more effective than linear ads in driving consumer engagement, which includes brand searches and site visits.

While Ozempic’s 57% higher effectiveness in streaming over linear was impressive, it proved no match for Dexcom’s 84% better rate.

But Dexcom’s commercials – including its latest spot touting easier product features -- led the charge here, extremely effective no matter how delivered. The brand saw a whopping 208% higher effectiveness vis a vis the entire diabetes category across all of convergent TV (streaming + linear).

Following Dexcom and Ozempic in EDO’s list of diabetes brands outperforming the category across all convergent TV  were Omnipod, Mounjaro and Jardiance.

Focusing on YouTube ads in particular, Dexcom and Ozempic also led in outperforming the category’s convergent TV average, at 98% and 73% respectively.

Mounjaro and Jardiance led in linear TV performance, outperforming the convergent TV average by 6% and 5% respectively.

EDO found a “meaningful correlation” between “cities with high incidence rates of diabetes and obesity” to people who were likeliest to engage with ads in the category.  This measure found Parkersburg, W. Va. (+11%), and El Paso (+8%) the most engaged and Seattle (-14%) and Boston (-10%) as the least.