COVID-19: Patient Communication Continues to be Priority
* Edits made June 2, 2020 to reflect updates to telehealth and HCP visit metrics.
It’s been over two months since COVID-19 changed the lives of millions of people. However, infection rates have started to subside, and many places are beginning to slowly lift their restrictions. While we are on the road to recovery, there continues to be lasting changes to both patient behavior and pharma marketing. However, one thing that hasn’t changed is the importance of keeping patients informed.
In order to help pharmaceutical companies assess their marketing strategies, Crossix has continued to monitor country-wide health behaviors and media trends through the Crossix Data Network. Here’s what we’ve found.
Media Impact
TV has stayed strong. Nearly 90% of branded pharmaceutical TV campaigns have remained on-air through the COVID-19 crisis, and total impressions increased across all dayparts in the second week of April.1 With many people spending more time at home, there is more opportunity for brands to communicate with their audiences effectively. Instead of going dark, the vast majority of brands seem to recognize that patients’ health needs are still the priority and that in-person doctor office visits will bounce back.
Despite the upside of more eyes on the screen, it is hard to ignore the biggest blow to traditional TV advertising–most of the TV upfronts have been canceled. According to eMarketer, TV ad spending is predicted to decline by between 22.3% and 29.3% in the first half of 2020 compared to previous forecasts, at a loss of between $10 billion and $12 billion in revenue.2 Although this loss is jarring, the TV industry now has a chance to rebuild the ad buying process to adopt practices that have made digital media so appealing for marketers, including timely insights and the ability to quickly adjust campaigns based on performance.
Digital media took a hit at the height of the COVID-19 crisis. Overall daily impressions for pharma campaigns fell 25% compared to pre-COVID daily averages. This decrease is attributed to lifestyle and mass media sites and programmatic impressions, where there were clear drop-offs starting at the end of March. However, impressions on endemic sites remained static over the past two months. While pharma marketers saw decreases across their digital efforts, the health industry has fared well compared to others. The overall digital media ecosystem has seen around a 40% decrease in spend compared to pre-COVID-19 averages.3
Patient Behavior
As the wave of coronavirus patients seems to be settling, medical offices have been able to catch up with paperwork and file medical claims from the past few months. Our initial data showed that there was a dramatic decrease in doctor visitations in mid-March, but we saw an uptick in visits in April. However, now that more claims data has been processed, we have a more complete picture. The doctor visitation rate remains ~45% lower than doctor visits in February 2020 (see Figure 1).4 This decline in HCP visitation continues to have an impact on prescription volumes. As of May 4, the total number of prescriptions is 85% of February average fills, and new-to-brand prescriptions are 79% of February average fills.5
Figure 1.
As in-person visits remain fairly stagnant, both the number and share of telehealth visits have started to decrease. After peaking at nearly 31.5% of all HCP visits in mid-April, telehealth visits made up 26% of visits in early May.6 Although patients are increasingly opting for in-person visits, telehealth is likely here to stay as people become accustomed to new ways of care delivery.
While COVID-19 has disrupted the country in countless ways, it has also created opportunities to improve communication between healthcare companies, providers, and patients. Crossix can help you leverage these opportunities to reach your target audiences more effectively.
Contact me to learn more about how the shifting landscape is impacting pharmaceutical marketing.
1 Crossix TV Panel, 2020.
2 https://www.adweek.com/tv-video/tv-ad-sales-execs-worry-the-biggest-covid-19-revenue-losses-are-still-to-come/
3 https://www.searchenginewatch.com/2020/04/16/covid-19-and-its-impact-on-ad-spend/
4 Crossix Patient, May 10, 2020.
5 Crossix Patient, May 10, 2020.
6 Crossix Patient, May 10, 2020.