New Media: Drug Industry Dabbling In Online Video Ads

- Jim Edwards

The conservative, red-tape ridden pharmaceutical industry is finally taking the leap into online video as Pfizer experiments with the format for its over-the-counter products.

Though most other industries have already rolled out online video ads, Big Pharma has lagged, thanks to its bureaucratic nature and heavy government regulation of the category.

Leading the charge, Pfizer rolled out streaming video ads for BenGay in January, according to a "start date" list obtained by Brandweek, and has added Sudafed, Pediacare, Listerine, Visine, Zantac, Sudacare, Neosporin, Benadryl and Rolaids to the list.

The ads are designed to play automatically within Web pages where normally a banner or animated box would be. Users see the video without having to press a "play" button. The online effort is being handled by Klipmart, with media buying by Carat Fusion, both New York. The spots are slated to run on AOL, Yahoo!, and MSN, among others, said Chris Wilson, Klipmart's director of marketing.

Klipmart CEO Chris Young declined to comment specifically on Pfizer's effort, but said Big Pharma in general has been a laggard: "The biggest impediment I've seen is the conservative nature of pharmaceutical advertising, and that's a direct result of [Food and Drug Administration] regulations. There's so many regulations and disclosures that it's challenging."

Carat Fusion engagement specialist and media supervisor Christine Peterson said prescription drugs would be the next frontier for streaming video, but before that happens "they want to make sure they deliver on all the regulations. I can't say we're live and it's working fine . . . [but] this year, definitely."

Pfizer confirmed it was looking at video as an option. "For our consumer health products, we recognized it as a new medium a couple of years ago and have found it to be an effective way to reach consumers where they are seeking information. With respect to our prescription medicines, because we know that consumers typically use four to five information sources to understand health conditions, we continue to evaluate emerging opportunities to responsibly reach people with important health information," the company said in a statement on Friday.

Marketers spent $251 million on streaming video marketing last year, per Jupiter Research, New York. Jupiter expects that figure to jump to $943 million by 2010. Among other marketers who've investigated the medium are Novartis, Young said. Novartis did not return a call for comment. Schering-Plough uses streaming video to market some of its veterinary products.

But will Big Pharma's favorite target market—the middle-aged and elderly—feel comfortable in a medium favored by teenage music video downloaders? Users need broadband Internet connections and plenty of processing power to see the campaigns. Even then, video is often jerky or beset with technical problems, sometimes giving viewers the impression that the broadcasts are originating from a satellite phone in Afghanistan rather than a TV studio in Manhattan. As for Mac users—good luck.

But Carat's Peterson noted that those suffering from a disease or condition tend to be very interested in the subject and thus tolerant of technical snafus. "Video consumption in general mirrors the U.S. audience. You're seeing the 15-year-olds downloading but you're also seeing their caretakers wanting to download video content specific to a condition," she said.

"It's easier to do consumer content that they would be reading on WebMD . . . on how to deal with diabetes. It gets very, very niche, which makes it hard to get as mass, but it's extremely targeted."