The highly competitive – and strictly regulated – area of prescription drug advertising has a new medium in which to do battle.
Healthtouch is a network of interactive touchscreen kiosks that are currently being installed in pharmacies across Canada. The kiosks, created by CF&V Marketing of Etobicoke, Ont., are a virtual library of information on health care and disease, sourced from non-profit associations and government agencies – such as the Canadian Cancer Society, the Canadian Diabetes Association and Health Canada – that deal with health issues. They also carry advertising and advertorials, and can dispense coupons.
As such, they represent one more way prescription drug manufacturers can reach consumers – albeit indirectly – with their advertising messages.
‘Rx manufacturers have always had a problem advertising,’ says Emilio Tacconelli, cf&v president.
Federal regulations currently prohibit direct-to-consumer advertising that conveys information other than name, price and quantity of a prescription drug. As such, the restrictions have forced pharmaceutical manufacturers to communicate their advertising messages in a roundabout way.
Most run ads that focus on a specific medical condition – baldness, high blood pressure, migraine, incontinence, depression, and so on – and suggest that consumers ask their doctors about possible treatments. Although the ads may carry the company’s name, the manufacturer is prohibited from tying a brand name to a particular condition. The same rules apply to advertising on the Healthtouch kiosks.
Users may choose from a menu of topics, including cancer, high blood pressure, nutrition and heart disease. Once in the topic area, users are presented with a sub-set of choices that may include advice on how to identify a condition, how to cope with that condition or the results of the latest clinical trials.
While editorially neutral selections are coded orange, advertorial selections are coded blue and appear on the bottom-right-hand corner of the screen. Should the user select an advertising feature, the copy is identified as being supplied by the sponsoring company.
Bristol-Myers Squibb, manufacturer of hypertensive drug Monopril and anti-depressive drug Serzone, and the first prescription drug maker to sign on to the Healthtouch network, according to Tacconelli, has supplied advertorial segments on high blood pressure and depression.
Through Healthtouch, which Tacconelli describes as a marriage between the Internet and point-of-sale advertising, consumers can watch videos, print out material (including coupons) and even answer questions posed by sponsoring companies. That feature will allow advertisers to determine the demographic characteristics of consumers interested in a specific condition – potentially an important tool for building their own databases.
Tacconelli says the kiosks, which are to be installed in 300 of Canada’s largest pharmacies (including those found in grocery chains) by April of 1998, offer prescription drug companies – and otc health-care companies – the opportunity to target health-conscious consumers at a time when they’re waiting for their prescriptions or shopping for related heath-care items.
otc advertisers to come on board so far are Schering Canada, with its otc antihistamine Claritin and Bristol-Myers Squibb with skin care product Keri Lotion. Tacconelli says he expects the bulk of the Healthtouch advertising will come from otc manufacturers, because they are free to advertise their brands.
The kiosks were tested in Shoppers Drug Mart and Loblaws branches across Ontario earlier this year, says Tacconelli. Other chains that have signed on include Save-On Foods, Overwaitea Foods, London Drugs and Safeway out in all Western Canada, and PharmaPlus in Ontario and Quebec. Quebec will have a French version of the kiosk.
Advertising rates vary depending on the complexity of the buy, says Tacconelli, but run approximately $15 per kiosk per month, with the promise of category exclusivity.
Sidebar: Health & Lifestyle net reaches patients on-site
The Healthtouch kiosk network is just the latest healthcare initiative for cf&v. For the past three years, the company has been producing a series of 30-minute programs under its Health & Lifestyle Network banner. The programs are shown in 320 doctor’s office waiting rooms, representing close to 1,000 doctors, across Ontario. The company is planning to set up the network in Western Canada this year.
The half-hour shows, which change every two months, contain about six minutes of advertising and 12 minutes of sponsored advertorial. ‘When you see (advertising) in doctor’s offices, there’s a very strong implied medical endorsement,’ says cf&v president Emilio Tacconelli, adding they allow advertisers a legitimate entryway to an environment that was formerly off-limits to advertisers.
A recent Health & Lifestyle Network program featured a bedwetting segment sponsored by Kimberley-Clark, makers of Good Nites pull-up diapers. The informational segment was immediately followed by a 30-second spot for the product, says Tacconelli.
