Last year, ten percent of doctors opted for electronic detailing instead of in-person sales calls with pharmaceutical reps, according to 

Ten percent might not seem like a large number, but when you factor in the number of doctors refusing to see reps and the amount of sales jobs being slashed by companies, e-promotion might not be a bad alternative.

The rest of the numbers are even harder to ignore:


47 percent of doctors feel that e-promotion is the same as face-to-face detailing

21 percent feel that feel that e-detailing is superior to live detailing

50 percent said that they would be somewhat likely to prescribe a drug they learned about through e-detail

44 percent expect to boost their e-promotion involvement in the coming year


"In the past three years, pharma companies have really turned towards this channel and e-promotion has really grown in spending," said Heather Alba, associate product manager at Verispan. "Physicians prefer this form of detailing because they can do the activities on their own and with the Internet in their offices, they can learn about the drugs without disrupting patient time with reps in the office."

Of the 1,000 doctors interviewed across 14 specialties, Merck received the most kudos for its e-promotion campaigns, which cost the company $83 million in 2007. The company, which markets at least six drugs through electronic promotions (Januvia, Vytorin, and Gardasil to name a few), accounted for 20 percent of industry spend in e-promotion in 2007.

That said, in comparison to overall marketing, electronic channels account for only a fraction of total media spend. While the actual percentage of advertising cost aimed towards electronic activities has yet to be determined, the number bandied about is close to 2 percent, Alba said.

According to Verispan e-promotion is considered to be any campaign involving online events, virtual (guided tours), and video (live) details. Doctors can also be steered towards a WebMD portal or a site that features a particular activity. Physicians said that they preferred virtual details the most, followed by online events.

Verispan also reported a correlation between the age of physicians and their preference for e-promotion. More experienced doctors are less likely to switch to online detailing than those in their first few years in the field.

"Given the regulatory conditions concerning reps having access to docs, e-promotion is a good alternative to promoting towards physicians," Alba said. "If they can't be there in person, reps can still invite physicians to engage in an activity online. This is just another way to reach out to physicians that pharma does not have access to."

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News Analysis

GSK and Merck won high marks from physicians for their electronic promotions, according to a new study. But do docs really want to skip the live sales calls and go online for info?

Docs Give A’s for E-promos

Integrated ad campaigns usually lead consumers to either the Web or a phone number, but a growing (albeit slowly) trend in pharma marketing involves motivating consumers to send a text message to a company for health information.

 released last week by new-media research group ePharm5, the pharmaceutical industry is making headway into the mobile-marketing space. In the past year, Merck, GlaxoSmithKline, and Pfizer have launched unbranded campaigns using consumers' cellular phones as the medium of choice.

Merck, in particular, received a lot of recognition for its use of the technology in its "Tell Someone" campaign for HPV. Ads encouraged patients to send a short text message to opt into an educational service about HPV and cervical cancer.

Another campaign by GSK asked travelers to text their location to a phone number in exchange for malaria risk information in that vicinity.

So if it worked for Merck and GSK, why aren't all pharma companies pushing for text? According to Alexandra Wilson, managing editor of ePharm5, that's easier said than done.


"People call mobile the wild west, because there aren't even any guidelines," Wilson said. "Mobile now is like the Internet 10 years ago."

Where other industries have more freedom to leverage electronic marketing tools such as banner ads, pharma companies are tied down by fair-balance regulations. "I don't think pharma will ever be able to do the kind of display advertising other companies are doing in mobile media," said Wilson. "It's not like there is a two-page banner ad that can show fair balance on the other side."

Instead, pharma is circumventing FDA rules by sending health information via short messaging services (SMS). Some other uses for mobile marketing reported by ePharma5 include:

The report also runs through a litany of tips that companies should consider when engaging in mobile marketing tactics.


A point the report hammers home is that young people are not the only ones using SMS. Sixteen percent of young baby boomers text daily, as do 10 percent of people aged 55 to 64.

For example, Pfizer placed 20,000 posters in doctors' offices to promote Lipitor to boomers and seniors. Consumers were encouraged to dial a toll-free number to request mobile coupons that could then be redeemed at the pharmacy. The program had a 55 percent coupon redemption rate, according to the report.

So is mobile the wave of the marketing future? Wilson wouldn't go that far, but she insisted that the few companies spearheading the charge are sparking interest among their peers. With more than 230 million wireless phone users in the United States alone, it's hard to argue that mobile has arrived.

GSK, Pfizer, and Merck have jumped on the cell-phone marketing bandwagon, but most of pharma is still tiptoeing around the technology. A new report details how pharma can get consumers to text for health info.

Pharmaceutical Executive-04-09-2008

Docs Give A’s for E-promos

Pharma to Consumers: "Text Us"