Making Sense of DTC Ad Spending

About this time every year, I get data from Kantar Media and Nielsen regarding how much money the U.S. pharmaceutical industry spends on direct-to-consumer (DTC) advertising.

The data I’m most interested in are the total spend for the year and what portion of that is digital versus TV. But it can be difficult to ferret out that information from the two different sources, which often report different numbers.

Let’s look at the total spend first.

According to Nielsen numbers reported in the March 3 2017 issue of MM&M online, spending on direct-to-consumer pharmaceutical ads rose 9% to $5.6 billion in 2016 (read Direct-to-Consumer #Pharma Drug Ad Spending at an All-Time High).

In the March 29 2017 issue of MM&M, a Nielsen chart showed the 2016 DTC spend to be $5.8 billion (see Will It Be Downhill from Here for DTC Advertising?).

A difference of $200 million is peanuts compared to the whole, but it’s just slightly more than what Pfizer spent promoting Xeljanz to consumers in 2016.

Now these Nielsen numbers apply only to what’s called “measured media,” which includes TV, magazines, newspapers, radio, outdoor, and Internet banner ads. It does NOT include websites, web videos, web audio, sponsored links, social media, mobile applications, and emails. It also does not include search engine marketing, which has been estimated to be 40% of the total pharma digital spend (consumer and physician).

Kantar Media generally reports slightly higher numbers. For 2016, Kantar Media estimates that total DTC spending was about $6.4 billion. But this number includes $515 million of “digital.”

I’m not exactly sure what Kantar considers “digital” versus what Nielsen does. I think it’s pretty obvious, however, that the pharma industry cannot be spending $515 million on banner ads alone. Perhaps Kantar’s number includes search engine marketing targeted to consumers. In any case, if that number is subtracted from the total, you get $5.9 billion, which is close to what Nielsen reported.

$5.8 billion, $5.9 billion, $6.4 billion. Whatever! The number is very high. It’s more important to look at trends and what portion of the total is allocated to different channels.

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