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The Prescription for Podcasting Revenue: Medical Podcasts

Aug 19th, 2006 | By | Category: Corporate Podcasts, Making Money with Podcasts

Pharmaceutical companies are rushing to increase their spending on Internet advertising.

According to an eMarketer report, drug companies’ Internet spending will increase by about 25% in this year alone, to $780 million, as marketers shift from consumer mass marketing to more targeted opportunities on the Internet. By 2008, online spending is expected rise to $1.3 billion.

Drugs Internet advertising
The spending increase is spurred by federal regulatory crackdowns on pharmaceutical advertising, and the fact that 31.6 million Americans turn to the Internet first for health care information.

“The result is a shift in focus from direct-to-consumer to direct-to-patient, from mass marketing to relationship marketing,” says Lisa Phillips, senior analyst at eMarketer and author of the report. Instead of advertising particular medications, marketers are focusing more on providing information and a place for communities to gather on Web sites geared to specific conditions and questions about treatment.

This spike in spending is particularly dramatic because Internet advertising declined in 2005. But for the first quarter of 2006, online display advertising by the top 12 pharmaceutical companies rose 11.2% to $39.6 million, according to TNS Media Intelligence, which doesn’t measure search advertising. The second quarter will probably follow suit, according to a survey by another company.

Source: eMarketer

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