Digital channels are finally starting to overtake traditional channels in their share of pharmaceutical product teams’ overall media mix.
According to a study by consulting firm Cutting Edge Information called Pharmaceutical Digital Marketing and Social Media: Managing Growth, Mitigating Risk and Mastering Strategy, digital channels formed 54.7% of drug companies’ media mix this year, compared with traditional media’s share of 42.1%.
While the use of all three main digital marketing channels (mobile media, social media and websites) increased throughout 2011, mobile led the way. Use of mobile grew from 5.6% in 2010 to 15.5% in 2011 – a nearly threefold increase.
Casey Ferrell, research analyst at Cutting Edge Information, led the study. He said: “It’s particularly interesting that digital media growth has accelerated in 2011, especially for small and mid-sized pharma companies.”
In 2010, digital marketing channels increased to a combined 40.6% of the average media mix, while traditional marketing channels went down to 55.0% compared to 2009.
Social media made the largest gain as a percentage change in the media marketing mix in 2010, rising 53.9% from 6.3 % of the mix to 9.7%. Traditional digital marketing such as websites and mobile marketing also increased slightly during this time, while print media and television/radio slipped by 5% and 2% respectively. However, those numbers rose significantly in 2011.
The full report can be found at www.cuttingedgeinfo.com/research/marketing/pharmaceutical-digital-marketing-social-media.
