DTC gets smart...

Anyone who works in DTC understands that it is more challenging than most advertising categories. The regulations and restrictions can be truly crushing to a creative idea when it gets to the executional stage. Of course, everyone on the team—at the agency and the brand—experiences the debilitating atmosphere and often has to work hard to maintain positive momentum through to approval and campaign deployment. 

 

...data from Nielsen shows that pharmaceutical companies were happy to dig into their pockets during 2013. DTC spend across all media, excluding the Internet, rose 10%, from $3.4 billion in 2012 to just under $3.8 billion in 2013. Companies spent more in television ($2.48 billion, up 12.7% over the year-ago period), magazines ($1.09 billion, up 6.6%) and radio ($24.3 million, up 4.9%) than they did during 2012. The only declines were seen by newspapers ($149.2 million, down 28.9%) and the Internet ($59.8 million, down 14.4%).

As for companies, Pfizer once again topped the list of spenders, with a DTC outlay of $872.2 million during 2013. It was trailed by last year’s runner-up Eli Lilly ($454.6 million), Abbott pharma arm AbbVie ($399.6 million), AstraZeneca ($287.6 million) and Merck ($276.7 million).

Not surprisingly, the list of highest-spending brands correlates with the parent company list. Lilly’s ED drug Cialis topped the list ($221.9 million), followed by Pfizer’s ED staple Viagra ($161.4 million), Pfizer’s arthritis mainstay Celebrex ($155.9 million), AbbVie’s arthritis drug Humira ($132.4 million) and Otsuka’s antidepressant Abilify ($121.4 million)

Ver