{"id":8052,"date":"2005-07-01T11:11:00","date_gmt":"2005-07-01T11:11:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.pharma-mkting.com\/dtc-best-of-times-worst-of-times\/"},"modified":"2019-02-21T01:28:34","modified_gmt":"2019-02-21T01:28:34","slug":"dtc-best-of-times-worst-of-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/ec2-54-175-84-28.compute-1.amazonaws.com\/pharma-mkting.com\/blog\/dtc-best-of-times-worst-of-times\/","title":{"rendered":"DTC &#8211; Best of Times, Worst of Times"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Chairman Bob (Bob Ehrlich over at DTC Perspectives), in stiff upper-lip fashion, predicts that the &#8220;best is yet to come&#8221; for DTC marketers. Au contraire, I say. Or, to be more precise, it will be the best of times and the worst of times for DTC marketers.<\/p>\n<p>The Worst of Times<br \/>Because I am a glass half-empty guy, let&#8217;s examine how this is the worst of times first.<\/p>\n<p>Pharma companies, like many other advertisers, plan to cut back on TV advertising. See &#8220;<a style=\"font-family: arial;\" href=\"http:\/\/pharma-mkting.com\/blog\/2005\/05\/pull-back-from-dtc-on-tv.html\">Pull Back from DTC on TV?<\/a>&#8220;. I don&#8217;t think this is good for the marketers who specialize in TV advertising.<\/p>\n<p>Regardless of the medium, DTC may become so difficult to do &#8212; from a regulatory and PR perspective &#8212; that pharma will pull back on DTC spending generally and either use the savings to increase shareholder value, spent it on R&#038;D, or use it for other kinds of promotion &#8212; especially the kind that offers better return on investment (see, for example, &#8220;<a style=\"font-family: arial;\" href=\"http:\/\/pharma-mkting.com\/blog\/2005\/06\/edetailing-roi-better-than-dtc.html\">eDetailing ROI Better Than DTC?<\/a>&#8220;).<\/p>\n<p>BMS, taking one small step for a pharmaceutical company, one giant leap for the pharmaceutical industry, has decided to cut out DTC for new drugs altogether &#8212; at least for the first year after launch (see &#8220;<a style=\"font-family: arial;\" href=\"http:\/\/pharma-mkting.com\/blog\/2005\/06\/new-dtc-principles-emerging.html\">New DTC Principles Emerging<\/a>&#8220;).<\/p>\n<p>The Best of Times<br \/>Chairman Bob and others have argued that DTC marketers will have to learn new tricks to survive and prosper (see, for example, &#8220;<a style=\"font-family: arial;\" href=\"http:\/\/pharma-mkting.com\/blog\/2005\/01\/dtc-in-2005-old-dogs-new-tricks.html\">DTC in 2005: Old Dogs, New Tricks?<\/a>&#8220;). One thing they&#8217;ll have to learn for sure is how to convey risk information that is readable and easy to understand (see &#8220;<a style=\"font-family: arial;\" href=\"http:\/\/pharma-mkting.com\/blog\/2005\/06\/future-of-drug-print-ads.html\">Future of Drug Print Ads<\/a>&#8220;). <\/p>\n<p>There may be opportunities in new media such as e-marketing and other patient relationship channels. This is supposedly where DTC marketers will find the best of times in the next few years. I&#8217;m still not convinced (see, for example, &#8220;<a style=\"font-family: arial;\" href=\"http:\/\/pharma-mkting.com\/blog\/2005\/06\/pharma-emarketing-at-tipping-point.html\">Pharma eMarketing at Tipping Point?<\/a>&#8220;).<\/p>\n<p>I don&#8217;t think old dogs can be taught new tricks. So it&#8217;s going to be the worst of times ahead for them. On the other hand, the new dogs of DTC advertising &#8212; e-marketers? &#8212; may have a shot at the best of times.<\/p>\n<p>IMHO      <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Chairman Bob (Bob Ehrlich over at DTC Perspectives), in stiff upper-lip fashion, predicts that the &#8220;best is yet to come&#8221; for DTC marketers. Au contraire, I say. Or, to be more precise, it will be the best of times and the worst of times for DTC marketers. The Worst of TimesBecause I am a glass [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":13101,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[],"topic":[],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v22.0 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>DTC - Best of Times, Worst of Times - Pharma Marketing Network<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"http:\/\/ec2-54-175-84-28.compute-1.amazonaws.com\/pharma-mkting.com\/blog\/dtc-best-of-times-worst-of-times\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"DTC - Best of Times, Worst of Times - Pharma Marketing Network\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Chairman Bob (Bob Ehrlich over at DTC Perspectives), in stiff upper-lip fashion, predicts that the &#8220;best is yet to come&#8221; for DTC marketers. Au contraire, I say. Or, to be more precise, it will be the best of times and the worst of times for DTC marketers. 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